Published at 12:01 am. Updated at 8:00 a.m.
Take care of her, Jean-Baptiste Andrea
This year's Goncourt Prize is a magnificent novel about impossible love, the fragility of art and second chances, through the story of a sculptor and his friendship with the heiress of a wealthy family from northern Italy, against the backdrop of the rise of fascism in the interwar period. A work of poetic musicality with undeniable charm that knows how to seduce on more than 500 pages.
take care of her
The iconoclast
580 pages
The Disunited Kingdom, Jonathan Coe
Of all the novels by this English writer, this is undoubtedly the most ambitious. He tells the story of a family of “ordinary people” he inspired over a period of 75 years through the prism of the events that shaped British history. A touching novel between humor and tenderness in which politics, patriotism and family disputes mix.
The disunited kingdom
Gallimard
496 pages
Sad Tiger, Snow Sinno
This book, which won the Femina Prize among others, is neither a novel nor a factual essay, but a personal story and a mixture of reflections peppered with literary references. It arose from the incest to which the author fell victim during part of her childhood. We read it for the subtlety of her questions as she wonders about that thin line that separates good from evil and tries to make sense of the horror she has experienced.
sad tiger
POLE
288 pages
Migratory birds, Fernando Aramburu
Deliberately cynical and ironically biting, this novel is written in the form of a diary in which a fifty-year-old Spaniard confides in his life, his disappointed ambitions, his failed marriage and his contradictory relationships with his family for a year before he makes the decision to leave his to end existence. A story full of irresistible black humor that takes us to post-Franco Spain.
migratory birds
Southern Laws
624 pages
The madman, Sorj Chalandon
Undoubtedly one of our favorite titles this year, this gripping novel is told from the mouth of an orphan who is imprisoned in a penal colony off the coast of Brittany, where he is beaten and humiliated. , crushed, until the day when, against all expectations, the possibility of escape presents itself. A read that will appeal to those who loved Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead.
The Mad
Grasset
416 pages
Two Innocents, Alice Ferney
Where is the line between innocence and guilt? And most importantly: How can you prove your innocence when everyone has already decided that you are guilty? These are some of the questions the author asks herself as she tells the poignant – and true – story of a teacher who is reproached for her kindness to a student, at a time when any gesture of affection can become suspect, she writes .
Two innocent people
Southern Laws
320 pages
Eden, Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
Each book by the Icelandic writer is a collector's item in itself, one that we want to dive back into at any time to find a little light, poetry and solace. In it, the heroine sets out to save her little corner of the planet and its language, one tree and one word at a time.
Eden
Zulma
256 pages
Mungo, Douglas Stuart
The Scottish-born author, discovered with Shuggie Bain, continues to immerse us in the Glasgow where he grew up with this impossible love story between two teenagers, one Protestant and one Catholic. An author whose next titles we are eagerly awaiting, who knows how to describe the violence of the time and the slums of his hometown with stories that go straight to the heart.
Mongoose
World
480 pages
The Silence, Dennis Lehane
Written as a thriller, this latest novel by the American author is much more than a thriller with a backdrop of murder and revenge. It's a foray into the history of Boston and the American Northeast amid social upheaval, back in the 1970s, when desegregation measures transformed the city and its old Irish neighborhoods.
The silence
Gallmeister
448 pages
Anger, SA Cosby
In Virginia, the land of the Confederate flag, a gay and interracial couple are murdered in cold blood. The fathers of the young men, with whom they had conflicting relationships, decide to conduct their own investigation when the police's investigation stalls. A story of redemption, fatherhood and forgiveness that we read for the atmosphere, for the characters and for that side of the United States that we don't hear enough about. A great find and an African American author to follow.
Fury
Sonatina
368 pages