French novelist Jerome Ferrari was crowned Wednesday the prestigious literary award the Prix Goncourt for his novel, The Sermon on the Fall of Rome.

"I doubt it achieved so perfectly..., it is a great, great...joy," the laureate told BFM TV channel in an interview.

Born in France's mainland in 1968 from a family of Corsica-origin, Ferrari used to be a teacher of philosophy in a Corsican high school, but now a professor and teaching consultant in Abu Dhabi.

In his book published by Actes Sud, Ferrari tells a story of a young man who quit his study in philosophy and joined by a friend to run a small bar in a village on the Corsica Island where the young man found life was quite different from what he had been dreaming of, but instead full of nightmare and hopelessness.

The work is seen as a Corsican epic which is written in poetic and graceful language and has been sold 85,000 copies since its release.

Named after the successful French author, critic and publisher Edmond de Goncourt, the annual prize was first awarded in 1903. Notable winners of the prize include Marcel Proust, Jean Fayard, Simone de Beauvoir, Georges Duhamel, Alphonse de Chateaubriant, and Antonine Maillet. Endi

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