Updated yesterday at 11:00 am.
The madman, Sorj Chalandon
The Mad
Grasset
416 pages
Sorj Chalandon rarely disappoints and we are promised “a very great Chalandon”. Our expectations of this novel, which was born out of historical fact, are therefore quite high. In 1934, children escaped from a kind of recovery camp on a Breton island. Only one of them will ever be found, and it is his fate that the French writer imagines in what he himself describes as “the metamorphosis of a wild animal born without love.”
In the bookstore
The big help, Thomas B. Reverdy
The big help
Flammarion
320 pages
His novels “Once Upon a Town” and “Les Évaporés” made such a strong impression that his new title is one of our back-to-school must-haves. The action of the story takes place here over the course of one fateful day, which begins with an altercation near a school in the Paris region and will have serious consequences for two students and their teacher. Fascinating.
In the bookstore
Western, Maria Pourchet
Western film
share
304 pages
Review our time as if we were in a cowboy movie? This seems very interesting. Especially since the Frenchwoman Maria Pourchet explores strong themes such as male dominance, the role of justice, and the position of the individual in her new novel, using the mysterious escape of a man and his encounter with a woman as food for his thoughts. A text that might be worth the detour.
In the bookstore
Brothers, Alexandre Jardin
brothers
Albin Michel
176 pages
According to Alexandre Jardin, this book holds the darkest secret of his life. A torrid story in which he faces the specter of his younger brother Emmanuel, who ended his life 30 years ago and left him confronted with a host of heartbreaking emotions. Reckoning with the past or a new chapter in rewriting your own family history? In any case, there is a risk that we will get stuck.
Release: September
City of Victory, Salman Rushdie
The city of victory
Southern Laws
356 pages
With growing interest we will want to read this novel by Salman Rushdie, completed shortly before the attack that left him with significant repercussions and, moreover, prevented him from writing for nine long months. The heroine of this historical epic, set in 14th-century southern India, is a prophetess of sorts, an orphan who, through the powers of a goddess, strives to create a city that would serve as a wonder of the world by overthrowing the established order in one patriarchal world.
Release: September
Sarah, Susanne and the writer Éric Reinhardt
Sarah, Susanne and the author
Gallimard
432 pages
The French writer, who wrote “Love and the Woods” and “The Spouses’ Bedroom,” is known for his elegant and highly sensitive pen. And from what we’re told, the story of Sarah telling her life story to a writer and becoming a character named Susanne is a brilliantly constructed exchange that’s hard to put down. A captivating novel about a woman who meets us at a crucial moment in her life.
Release: September
The Justice of Men, Santiago H. Amigorena
The justice of men
POLE
320 pages
Here, the French-Argentinian writer and filmmaker moves away from the theme of exile that served as the backdrop for his most recent novels and delves deeper into the story of a couple. A young couple who love and hate each other face a crisis whose first victims will be their children. And as always with Amigorena, existential questions arise as a family’s grief serves as an excuse to explore the limits of humanity.
Release: September
Eden, Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
Eden
Zulma
256 pages
We’ve been waiting for this new novel by the Icelandic writer since last fall, which she told us about during her last visit to Montreal. It tells the story of a linguist who decides to plant trees in her garden, in the middle of a lava field where nothing grows. The power of words, the relationships we have with others and the paradoxes of existence are at the heart of this title, which will undoubtedly be one of the most luminous of the season.
Release: October
Poor idiot, Chloé Delaume
Poor fool
threshold
240 pages
“In all love stories, the wounds of childhood are repeated. » This is how Chloé Delaume’s new novel (Medici Prize 2020 for The Synthetic Heart) presents itself, in which she once again uses her experiences – starting with the femicide of her mother – as the motivation for her work. This love story is Clothide’s obsession with Guillaume, which she reflects on during a train ride while tracing the thread of her existence. A book that is likely to attract renewed attention.
Release: October
Trust, Hernan Diaz
Trust
Editions of Olivier
400 pages
This novel won the Pulitzer Prize earlier this year and appeared on several best titles of 2022 lists, including the New York Times. We are on Wall Street in the 1930s, in the middle of the Great Depression. A financial tycoon and his wife have all the makings of a couple that everyone will envy as the country’s great fortunes collapse. But behind this perfect picture there is a shadow. Now it’s our turn to find out what made it a favorite of American readers.
Release: October