About

My name is Prune, and I am a (very) independent reporter and novelist. Born in France in 1981, I have lived in the U.K., Spain, Budapest, Brussels, Paris, and Nicosia before settling in Berlin in 2008. I graduated with a Master’s degree in International Law, and I write about women, post-soviet world, Europe and politics.

I have worked for Le Nouvel Observateur, Médiapart, Reportagen, Die Zeit, Geo, Vice, The Guardian, Arte, France Télévisions…My stories have won -or been nominated for- the European Press Prize, the True Story Award, the French-German Journalism Prize, the Prix Louise Weiss, and the Prix Philippe Chaffanjon.

Among other topics, I have investigated the remilitarization of Kaliningrad and the rhetoric of the « New Cold War » in Europe, organ trafficking scandals in Kosovo and the failures of international justice, the impunity of sexual violence during Bosnia’s war, and environmental damages resulting from conflicts, such as underwater munitions – for example, the tons of chemical and conventional weapons dumped in the Baltic Sea after 1945.

My first non-fiction book, « La Fille & Le Moudjahidine » (Carnets Nord, Paris, 2015), describes my friendship with a Dagestani MMA fighter, a refugee in Germany who flirted with the idea of jihad in Syria, while Europe trembled in fear of islamic terrorism. My second book, « L’Heure d’été » (Anne Carrière, Paris, 2019; reissued by Points, 2020), depicts the hopes and disillusionments of a Millennial couple in Berlin, struggling with precarity, gentrification, and free love in a Europe on the verge of a nervous breakdown. It was a finalist for the Prix Goncourt of the first novel.

More recently, I conducted research on Germany’s tolerance of the far-right, immersing myself for months in a radical neo-nazi group called Der Dritte Weg. My latest story about the Christiane K. infanticide case is an in-depth investigation into motherhood and gender bias within criminal justice system. It will be published as a non-fiction book in 2024 by Denoël.

In 2023, I am a Milena Jesenská Fellow at the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen in Vienna to explore psychiatry and women. I am represented by Laurence Laluyaux at RCW, London.