Romain Gary / Émile Ajar - le double Goncourt

1975

Gary won the Prix Goncourt in 1956 for Les Racines du ciel, then again in 1975 for La Vie devant soi under the name Émile Ajar, a prize awarded to an author only once. His cousin's son Paul Pavlowitch impersonated Ajar publicly for years. Gary shot himself on 2 December 1980, naming himself as Ajar in his suicide note; the posthumous Vie et mort d'Émile Ajar confirmed the deception.