all titles - Anastasia Lester Literary Agency

ALL TITLES
FICTION BACK-LIST ......................................................................................................... 1
BEST-SELLERS .................................................................................................................. 1
LITERARY FICTION .......................................................................................................... 1
de Vigan, Delphine: RIEN NE S’OPPOSE A LA NUIT.......................................................... 1
Darrieussecq, Marie: CLEVES .............................................................................................. 2
Arditi, Metin: LE TURQUETTO ........................................................................................... 2
Sportès, Morgan: TOUT, TOUT DE SUITE .......................................................................... 3
Fargues, Nicolas: LA LIGNE DE COURTOISIE.................................................................... 3
Fottorino, Eric: LE DOS CRAWLÉ........................................................................................ 4
Castillon, Claire: LES MERVEILLES .................................................................................... 4
Ruiz, Agnes: MA VIE ASSASSINÉE...................................................................................... 5
Khadra, Yasmina: L’EQUATION AFRICAINE ..................................................................... 5
Gaudé, Laurent: OURAGAN ................................................................................................. 5
Binet, Laurent: HHhH........................................................................................................... 6
Rufin, Jean-Christophe: KATIBA .......................................................................................... 6
Dai Sijie: TROIS VIES CHINOISES...................................................................................... 7
Malzieu, Mathias: METAMORPHOSE EN BORD DE CIEL ................................................. 7
Teulé, Jean: CHARLY 9 ........................................................................................................ 8
Malka, Francis: LA NOYADE DU MARCHAND DE PARAPLUIE ........................................ 8
Greggio, Simonetta: L’ODEUR DU FIGUIER ...................................................................... 8
Chevillard, Eric: DINO EGGER............................................................................................ 9
Quint, Michel: THE LOVERS OF FRANKFURT................................................................... 9
Chevallier, Gabriel: MASCARADE...................................................................................... 10
Leroy, Gilles: ZOLA JACKSON .......................................................................................... 10
Castillon, Claire: LES BULLES........................................................................................... 11
Szalowski, Pierre: LE FROID MODIFIE LA TRAJECTOIRE DES POISSONS ................... 11
Fermine, Maxime: LE PAPILLON DE SIAM ...................................................................... 11
Bauchau, Henry: DÉLUGE ................................................................................................. 12
Ferney, Alice: PASSÉ SOUS SILENCE............................................................................... 12
Vasseur, Flore: COMMENT J’AI LIQUIDÉ LE MONDE .................................................... 13
Orsenna, Erik: PRINCESSE HISTAMINE ........................................................................... 13
Kim Thúy: RU .................................................................................................................... 14
Khadra,Yasmine: L’OLYMPE DES INFORTUNES............................................................. 14
Shan Sa: LA CITHARE NUE............................................................................................... 15
COMMERCIAL FICTION ................................................................................................. 16
Delalande, Arnaud: LE JARDIN DES LARMES .................................................................. 16
Orban, Christine: LE PAYS DE L’ABSENCE ...................................................................... 16
Brussolo, Serge: LE VESTIAIRE DE LA REINE MORTE.................................................... 16
d’Aillon, Jean: LE SECRET DE L’ENCLOS DU TEMPLE.................................................. 17
Graham, Patrick: RETOUR À REDEMPTION..................................................................... 17
Depotte, Jean-Philippe: LES DÉMONS DE PARIS.............................................................. 17
Pevel, Pierre: L’ALCHIMIE DES OMBRES (Les Lames du Cardinal, vol. 2) ...................... 18
Sire Cédric: DECHIRURES ................................................................................................ 18
Sire Cédric: DE FIÈVRE ET DE SANG............................................................................... 18
Sire Cédric: DREAMWORLD.............................................................................................. 19
Vanoyeke, Violaine: LE PILLEUR DE TOMBES................................................................ 19
Vanoyeke, Violaine: A ROMANTIC HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT................................ 19
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Sire Cédric: DREAMWORLD
(Le Pré aux Clercs, November 2009, 288 pages)
A selection of nine short stories in which Sire Cédric explores the world of dreams and nightmares.
Sire Cédric is a figure in the French Goth world. He is the singer in a rock band, a translator and a novelist.
He has already published four novels, DÉCHIRURES, ANGEMORT, L’ENFANT DES CIMETIÈRES (2009) and
DREAMWORLD (2009) by Le Pré aux Clercs.
Vanoyeke, Violaine: LE PILLEUR DE TOMBES
(Le Rocher, January 2011, 256 pages)
The author, who has traveled extensively in Egypt, leads us into the mysterious world of grave-robbing in a
fast-paced thriller. Robbers have plundered the grave of Amenophis II in the Valley of the Kings. When they get
together to divvy up the stolen treasure, they realize that one of them is missing. He fell into a well in the royal tomb.
But was it an accident? Or murder? The gardener is accused, which forces him to make his own investigation. A
breathtaking new thriller from a very popular writer!
Violaine Vanoyeke is a writer, poet, novelist and historian. The author of 76 historical novels, her work is
sold in more than 20 countries. She is also a virtuoso pianist. Her books have been published in book club and in
paperback editions. Professor of literature and ancient civilizations in France and abroad, she now focuses her work
and research in Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, Italy, Spain, France, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus, Israel and Morocco.
Vanoyeke, Violaine: A ROMANTIC HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT
(Grancher, October, 2010, 250 pages)
The fascinating account of the great love stories of ancient Egypt.
Ramses II, desired by hundreds of women, will nevertheless lose Nefertari, the only woman he ever loved...
Ramses III's harem favorite, the scheming Tiye, will resort to magic to conspire against the Pharaoh, and put her son
on Egypt's throne... Cleopatra, ambitious, impulsive and sensual, will conquer Caesar only to fall in love with
Anthony...
Antiquity specialist Violaine Vanoyeke is the author of over 80 works translated in fifty countries. A
Romantic History of Ancient Egypt gives the reader an inside look at the private lives of the Egyptian kings during
the days of the Pharaohs. A highly-detailed and surprising tour of ancient Egypt's royal chambers and harems - lovephilters and all!
Classicist, Egyptologist, linguist and professor of ancient civilizations and literature, Violaine Vanoyeke is
also a television and radio producer and consultant.
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the world of men. Joseph will embark for a risky journey in search for the truth that will have him deal with a bunch
of Russian spies, meet an exile willing to fight the Russian autocrat named Lenin, get acquainted with the dreaded
Montreuil Mob or famous occultist Papus. Joseph will have to face up to powerful evil forces unleashed by mighty
demon Baphomet, who especially came from hell for that purpose.
Written in a superb style combining sharpness and understatement, this novel mixes up fictitious and real-life
characters, such as Fulgance Bienvenüe, the “ father”of the parisian métro, Czar Nicolas II or Lenin. An instant
classic.
Jean-Philippe Depotte makes a roaring literary debut with this first novel tipped for success.
“Jean-Philippe Depotte maîtrise bien son projet, servi par une belle écriture.” Livres Hebdo
“L’auteur fait montre d’une grande habilité à entremêler l’authentique et le fictif. En somme, il capte l’esprit
d’une époque, l’art de conter des faiseurs de romans populaires, sans pour autant abandonner complètement les
procédés d’une narration moins rétro. (…) A cheval entre l’uchronie et le fantastique LES DÉMONS DE PARIS se lit
comme un thriller où l’auteur ne laisse rien au hasard.” Le Cafard Cosmique
“Un formidable thriller occulte dans le Paris de 1912.” Ici Paris
Pevel, Pierre: L’ALCHIMIE DES OMBRES (Les Lames du Cardinal, vol. 2)
(Bragelonne, June 2009, 304 pages)
Continuation of the first book LES LAMES DU CARDINAL:
David Gemmell Legend Award 2010 !!!
The book got a Starred Review in Publishers Weekly for its US publication in September 2010: “[A]
breathless, swashbuckling tale of intrigue, spying, and swordfights. (…) A mostly straightforward adventure plot
leaves plenty of room for character development, drama, and excitement.” Publishers Weekly
A great historical adventure of fantasy, full of suspense and new developments.
Paris, 1633. In the one hand, dragons under a human appearance are using witchcraft in order to reign
supreme over Europe. In the other hand, Cardinal Richelieu who created a unit of elites with the bravest, the strongest
and the cleverest men he could find. Six men and one woman who are ready to risk their own lives for the King: they
are the Cardinal’s Blades. They just cannot imagine the dangers that are awaiting them and that will force them to
fight their most dangerous enemy: the Alchemist in the Shadows…
Pierre Pevel, born in 1968, is one of the foremost writers of French fantasy today. The author of seven
novels, he was awarded the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire in 2002 and the Prix Imaginales in 2005, both for best novel.
He is the French translator for the James Bond series and an expert on TV series scriptwriting.
Foreign rights for the first volume sold to: World English rights (Orion Gollancz), Germany (Heyne),
Netherlands (Mynx), Spain (Edhasa), Czech Republic (Albatros), Russia (Geleos), Estonian (Varrak) and Finland
(Gummerus).
Sire Cédric: DECHIRURES
(Le Pré aux Clercs, November 2010, 252 pages)
Nine short stories that artfully blend fantasy and horror. This collection is full of evil twin sisters, romantic
ghosts, demons and strange hybrid creatures on deserted highways…
Sire Cédric mixes beauty and horror, fears and dreams in these mesmerizing and chilling tales. Sire Cédric
has written two collection of short stories and two novels for Le Pré aux Clercs.
Sire Cédric: DE FIÈVRE ET DE SANG
(Le Pré aux Clercs, March 2010, 456 pages)
A race against time to defeat a deadly force in this fast paced supernatural thriller. At the term of an
investigation led by inspector Vauvert and Svärta, an albino profiler, the Salaville brothers are killed. The twosome
had perpetrated sadistic ritual murders on young women. One year later however, the killings start again, but in Paris
this time. All forensic evidence point to the brothers, but how can that be? Their investigation leads Svärta and
Vauvert to Judith Saint-Clair, the deathly ill patient of a mental institution that also housed the Salavilles. They
discover the incredible truth: Saint-Clair had manipulated the Salavilles into killing young women in order for her to
accomplish magic rituals to stave off death. Nothing and no one will stop her from reaching her goal…
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Marion is twelve. She spends every summer vacation at Bregannog, an isolated Breton village where a good
part of the population is still mindful of the ancient Druid beliefs and follows them to the letter. Bregannog is a
strange village, once populated only by pirates, brigands, and ship wreckers who lured vessels on to the rocks. This
complicity in crime holds sway over the local people like the bond of a chivalric oath: he who has never shed blood
has no place in Bregannog! Marion is a curious—too curious--child who has little to do. She discovers secrets whose
implications are beyond her grasp, casting suspicion on her own family and transforming her into the object of all
hatreds
A child’s game that turns into a nightmare.
Serge Brussolo is one of France’s best known writers of the fantastic. Author of nearly thirty thrillers
published in Livre de Poche, he is often referred to as France’s Stephen King. Brussolo is the author of LA MAISON
DES MURMURES, CEUX QUI DORMENT EN CES MURS, L’HÉRITIER DES ABÎMES, as well as a highly
successful youth series, PEGGY SUE.
d’Aillon, Jean: LE SECRET DE L’ENCLOS DU TEMPLE
(Flammarion, March 2011, 608 pages)
1647, during the Fronde civil war. The wrath of the Parliament and the people of Paris finally explodes
against taxes and the impudent fattening of a chosen few. Parliament members, pushed by the Parisian bourgeoisie,
wish to force upon the Regent and the Cardinal Mazarin, a constitution to restrict royal power.
It is during this period that the Count of Bussy, a regiment commander under the Prince of Condé, discovers
in his house within the Templar Enclosure, a coded message, possibly written by Jacques de Molay, the last Grand
Master of the Knights Templar. The cousin of the Count, Marie de Sévigné, then introduces him to Louis Fronsac,
reputed for his incisive ability to solve enigmas.
At the same time, Gaston de Tilly, a royal prosecutor and an old friend of Fronsac, is entrusted the task of
finding out who has quartered a valet of the favoured Duke of Orléans, and to identify a dualist who kills for thrills.
But above all, he must prepare a kidnapping case against Monsieur de Bussy who has inexplicably abducted an
attractive widow being courted by Monsieur d'Artagnan.
When he unravels the meaning of Jacques de Molay’s message, Louis Fronsac guesses that the matters his
friend is investigating are all related to the Templar treasure. But will the outbreak of civil war, the siege of Paris by
the Prince of Condé, and the ravages of mercenaries, allow him enough time to save Monsieur de Bussy and unmask
whoever in the shadows is seeking to appropriate the Templar gold?
Jean d'Aillon is the author of a number of successful historical detective novels published by Masque and
Lattès: LUCIUS GALLUS IN THE ROMAN ERA, GUILHEM D'USSEL in the 12th century, OLIVIER
HAUTEVILLE during the religious wars, Louis Fronsac under the reigns of Louis XIII and Louis XIV, and the
brigand TROIS-SUEURS during the Regency.
Graham, Patrick: RETOUR À REDEMPTION
(Anne Carrière, February 2010, 310 pages)
A business attorney, Peter Shepard has all it takes to be happy: fortune, a lovely and loving wife, two
beautiful little girls. Yet certain days anxiety takes hold of him to such an extent that he has to go sit on a park bench.
Always the same bench, always the same anxiety. Shepard fears the worst: the big one, the earthquake will wipe San
Francisco off the map. And the worst does happen - but not in the form of an earthquake. It’s his past that cleaves the
ground beneath his feet and drops him into a hell, devouring his family and leaving him to remember that twenty
years ago, six children in a cell made a vow, to hold off the darkness. A promise he broke. The time has come for a
return to Redemption.
Just two novels - L’EVANGILE SERLON SATAN and L’APOCALYPSE SELON MARIE - have made
Patrick Graham one of the Europe’s most important thriller-authors. TRANSLATED INTO 9 LANGUAGES, HIS
BOOKS HAVE BEEN IN THE BEST-SELLER LISTS IN FRANCE, GERMANY, ITALY AND SPAIN.
Depotte, Jean-Philippe: LES DÉMONS DE PARIS
(Denoël, February 2010, 260 pages)
Reminiscent at once of Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s The Dumas Club or the Prague murder mysteries by Leo
Perutz, this groundbreaking thriller with history and the supernatural as a background whisks its readers to Paris circa
1912, on the eve of WWI and the Russian revolution, to unravel the city’s darkest secrets.
Joseph, is about to become a priest, discovers he has a gift: the ability to speak with the dead. He soon
becomes known by the nickname of “ Saint Joseph of the dead ». One day, a young man who passed away, and whose
restless soul Joseph is trying to pacify to ease its passing to the other side, warns him that a demon is about to step into
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COMMERCIAL FICTION
Delalande, Arnaud: LE JARDIN DES LARMES
(Grasset, March 2011, 352 pages)
What is left when everything is lost? Two people cast adrift in life sign up to volunteer overseas in the hope
of bringing meaning back to their empty lives. But the result is not at all what they had anticipated. Arnaud
Delalande’s latest novel is a striking departure from his usual historical style.
The year is 1994. Lise, a young midwife undergoing profound upheaval in her private life, signs up with an
NGO that sends her to Rwanda. She is appalled to discover the tensions reigning between Hutus and Tutsis. Soon,
Lise is caught up in the genocide. She is taken hostage; her rescue becomes a major issue for the UN and the French
army. Fast-forward ten years. Sébastien is sent to Sri Lanka to head up a major humanitarian mission. Scarcely has he
arrived in this new, unfamiliar country when he receives a dawn phone call from one of his members of staff stationed
up-country. It seems a tidal wave has devastated much of the Sri Lankan coastline.
In the midst of chaos, Lise falls in love with one of her fellow volunteers. Sébastien has left behind his wife,
his family, and his job and now faces the greatest challenge of his life. Will they manage to silence their inner demons
and face up to the gigantic, thankless task they have set themselves? Or will they be swept away by the blind forces of
history?
Arnaud Delalande is a thirty-nine-year-old screenwriter and author. He has written seven novels, including
LE PIÈGE DE DANTE (2006), translated into twenty languages, and LES FABLES DE SANG (2009).
Foreign rights sold for previous titles: Bulgarian (Uniscorp), Chinese (China Citic Press, Jiaxibooks), Dutch
(De Bezige Bij), English (Penguin Books Canada, Weidenfeld & Nicolson), German (Lübbe, Droemer Knaur Verlag),
Greek (Harlenic), Hebrew (Kinneret), Hungarian (Gabo), Italian (Ponte Alle Grazie), Korean (Hwang-Mae), Polish
(Albatros), Portuguese (Brazil: Record, Portugal: Asa-Leya), Romanian (Rao), Russian (AST), Serbian (Laguna),
Spanish (Grijalbo Ediciones).
Orban, Christine: LE PAYS DE L’ABSENCE
(Albin Michel, January 2010, 176 pages)
75,000 copies already sold in France
After few months’ separation, Christine realises that her mother suffers from Alzheimer disease, which
reverses suddenly their roles.
For some time now, Christine’s mother has been given to strange lapses of memory and weird quirks.
Admittedly, her mother has always been the chic and changeable type, flighty and frivolous. She never knew what it
was to have responsibilities. When Christine comes to pick her up at the airport, there can be no more doubt : her
mother is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. How can she keep calm and show her tenderness and trust when her
mother’s behaviour is becoming increasingly erratic? The daughter is becoming the mother; the mother is turning into
a little girl again. But, in reality, what she is seeing now is simply the end of a long, conflictual path she has been
treading all her life.
A discreet and poignant book about the mother/daughter relationship at a phase in life when everything is
reversed, when raw emotions revive childhood memories, when the deficit and failings of maternal love are analysed
in the light of what mother and daughter have become.
Among the titles Christine Orban has published with Editions Albin Michel are: PETITES PHRASES POUR
TRAVERSER LA VIE EN CAS DE TEMPÊTE ET PAR BEAU TEMPS AUSSI (2007) and N’OUBLIE PAS
D’ÊTRE HEUREUSE (2009).
“LE PAYS DE L’ABSENCE est un très joli témoignage plein d’émotion. Un tableau d’une grande justesse,
qui se lit d’une traite.” Page
“Malgré la souffrance, la peur de la déchéance, l’incommunicabilité définitive entre une mère et sa fille,
Christine Orban rend au bout du compte un hommage poignant à cette mère qui l’aime et qu’elle aime malgré tout”
Le Figaro littéraire
Brussolo, Serge: LE VESTIAIRE DE LA REINE MORTE
(Plon, March 2010, 264 pages)
Brittany, a region steeped in the traditions of Celtic legend ans superstition, ine the days after the end of
World War II. A solitary adolescent discovers that an ancestral cult is responsible for several murders that have
plagued the neighourhood.
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Française), LES HIRONDELLES DE KABOUL (2002), L’ATTENTAT (2005, Prix des Libraires, film rights
optioned to Focus Features) and LES SIRÈNES DE BAGDAD (2006).
“On retrouve l’humanisme généreux de Khadra dans cette utopie tragi-comique.” Le Nouvel Observateur
“Sa description de la solidarité et du sens de l’entraide de ces laissés-pour-compte est une façon de
vilipender l’individualisme et la violence des société modernes.” Livres Hebdo
“Derrière l’intrigue simple de ce petit conte philosophique, l’ancien officier de l’armée algérienne reprend
ses thèmes fétiches – fraternité, souffrance de l’humiliation, culpabilité, obscurantisme- pour servir un récit touchant
et profondément humaniste.” Direct Soir
Shan Sa: LA CITHARE NUE
(Albin Michel, June 2010, 236 pages)
In the fifth century China is held captive by the inner struggles that followed the Barbarian invasions. A
young woman from high aristocracy, who practices the refined art of the zither, is abducted by a warlord. Pregnant,
she gives birth in the chaos of battles, thinking all is lost and that she will die soon. But her husband, a skilled
strategist, takes the head of the armies. Reluctantly, Young Mother becomes Empress. At her husband’s death,
destitute, her son murdered, she withdraws to a Buddhist monastery where she will be buried. Two centuries later a
young stringed-instrument maker desecrates her tomb and grabs some sarcophagus wood to make a zither. The
instrument awakens the ghost of Young Mother. A love story between the two characters then takes them away…
Shan Sa was awarded the Prix Goncourt 1997 for her first novel PORTE DE LA PAIX CELESTE, the Prix
Cazes 1999 for LES QUATRES VIES DU SAULE and the Prix Goncourt Lycéens 2003 for LA JOUEUSE DE GO.
She has also written IMPERATRICE (2003), which sold over 100,000 copies ans Alexandre et Alestria (2006) 150
copies sold in France. The Russian rights the previous books are sold to Text Publishers.
15
Kim Thúy: RU
(Librex, January 2010, 143 pages)
Awarded the Prix RTL/Lire 2010
Shortlisted for numerous prizes in France and Quebec: Prix Nicolas Bouvier 2010, Prix OuestFrance/Étonnants Voyageurs 2010 and Prix Première (RTBF).
42,000 copies sold in Quebec and already 55,000 copies sold in France
Ru is an intimate journey in the untidiness of memories, a nostalgic evocation of the Vietnam that relates the
itinerary of a Vietnamese who left Saigon after the communists have arrived. Composed by a series of linked
vignettes, Ru is more than a simple “slice-of-life” account. It draws connections between the events experienced by
the narrator : her birth in Vietnam during the war, her exodus with the boat people, her introduction to a small Quebec
town, her studies, family ties, the birth of her autistic child, etc. As she recounts her story - filled with charming,
unusual people and difficult or absurd situations—she shifts effortlessly from tragedy to comedy, from the everyday
to the deeply spiritual, carrying the reader along with her.
Written in a warm and poignant style, this first autobiographical novel, reveals the writer’s ability to use her
memories first as an invitation to play, then as a gateway to reflection. The story of a likeable survivor, this book is a
testimony to the richness of life.
Kim Thúy left Vietnam as a boat people at the age of 10, and arrived in Quebec. She has been living in
Montreal for 30 years now, working as a seamstress, interpreter, lawyer, restaurant owner and also as film director
before devoting herself to writing.
Foreign rights sold to: France (Liana Levi), Italy (Nottetempo), Sweden (Sekwa), Germany (Kunstmann),
Spain and Latin America (Alfaguara), the Netherlands (Van Gennep), Portugal (Objectiva) Canada (World English
rights : Knopf) and Czech Republic (Emitos)
“Kim Thúy nous berce autant qu'elle nous bouleverse.” Elle
“La romancière se dévoile, mais avec grâce et pudeur.” Télérama
“Fragments de mémoire poétiquement entremêlés.” La Vie
“Ru est plus qu'un livre, une révélation.” Les Echos
“Peu de descriptions, et, pourtant, des images fortes qui viennent se greffer dans l’esprit du lecteur. Une
remarquable entrée en littérature.” L’Express
“… elle refuse en effet l'apitoiement, travestit le misérabilisme, ignore la rancoeur et se moque de la
chronologie. Même le malheur, elle le traite à la légère… “ RU”est du jamais lu” Le Nouvel Observateur
Khadra,Yasmine: L’OLYMPE DES INFORTUNES
(Julliard/Robert Laffont, janvier 2010, 234 pages)
200,000 copies sold in France and still on bestsellers lists!
Wedged between a garbage dump and the sea, Olympus of the Unfortunate is an open field populated with
vagabonds and rejects who have chosen to turn their backs on society. There lives One-Eyed Ach, Junior the
Simpleton, Mama the Ghostly, The Pasha, its court of drunks and other outcasts who are as dark as they are
endearing. It is a land of illusions and great solitude that absorbs disgraces and the most terrible secrets. One-Eyed
Ach has taken Junior under his wing. He is a young and naive bum who vows an unlimited admiration to Ach while at
the same time subscribing to Horr’s philosophies. Horr is a self-made bum who voluntarily rejects society’s values:
money, work, family. Horr is free of any connections or ties. But when a profound affection takes root between the
members of this homeless community, any detachment turns out to be a mere illusion. Though they may be immoral
and decaying in their own decline, the characters in this tale remain heroic. The spirit of solidarity and the sense of
camaraderie that reigns over Horr’s followers contrast with the violence and individualism of modern society.
Olympus of the Unfortunate is a metaphor that forcefully denounces our civilization’s decadence. Yasmina Khadra
poses as a moralist of our time and the conclusion he delivers is not flattering: the lost souls are not those we thought
them to be, and hell is never where we expect to find it.
Following CE QUE LE JOUR DOIT À LA NUIT (425,000 copies sold), his biggest success in what was
already a wildly successful career, Yasmina Khadra uses his powerful eloquence in this fable which takes us headfirst
into the world of the homeless.
Yasmina Khadra’s novels have been sold to 37 countries – among which US (Nan A. Talese), UK
(Heinemann), Spain (Alianza), Denmark (Gyldendal), Finland (WSOY), the Netherlands (Atlas), Iceland (JPV
Utgafa), Norway (Gyldendal Norsk) and Sweden (Alfabeta), and have been awarded numerous literary prizes: LES
AGNEAUX DU SEIGNEUR (1998), A QUOI RÊVENT LES LOUPS (1999), L’ÉCRIVAIN (2001, Académie
14
Vasseur, Flore: COMMENT J’AI LIQUIDÉ LE MONDE
(Les Équateurs/Agence Hoffman, March 2010, 316 pages)
Pierre, an insignificant plumber’s son in Clermont-Ferrand, has sought refuge from his desperate childhood
in the world of Mathematics. Scholarship student, polytechnicien and king of “ quants”in a famous French bank, he
creates systemic calculation programs, making billions. It will take his daughter’s anorexia, his father’s death, the
11th of september, meeting a funny and loving prostitute for him to progressively open his eyes and see the man he
has become. Or, is it a man? A human being?
A formidable septuagenarian woman, head of “ Bilderberg”-a secret government whose aim was to organise
and ensure America’s domination over the Earth- invites him to New York. Death and failure now part of her life, her
sole goal is to save humanity one last time. There will be no successors to the American Empire –and above all not
China. Not if the ultimate terrorist act, that she is planning and of which Pierre is a part of, succeeds. Pierre has been
chosen for he is a useful tool in this fight and, desperate to return to his previous lifestyle, he is capable of anything.
After her book UNE FILLE DANS LA VILLE (Les Équateurs, 2006), Flore Vasseur in a charming but
critical view carries out an autopsy on the financial world and its aspects. The book’s gripping and realistic scenario is
a chronic of what could be our future as well as what could be capitalism’s next step.
“Son second roman est une charge féroce contre ceux qui considèrent l’existence comme une partie de
monopoly.” Le Figaro Littéraire
“Par sa vision conspirationniste, paranoïaque, ludique et cependant ancrée dans le réel, l’art et la manière
de Flore Vasseur évoquent certains romans de Jérôme Leroy. (…) Chapeau.” Le Figaro Littéraire
“On peut le parier en toute confiance: le roman de Flore Vasseur devrait connaître un succès semblable à
ceux de MONEY de Sulitzer ou de 99 FRANCS de Beigbeder.” Livres Hebdo
“Flore Vasseur serait-elle la petite sœur française de Bret Easton Ellis ?” Culture
“On pense à Tom Wolves et à son BÛCHER DES VANITÉS. A Bret Easton Ellis et à son monde peuplé de
néo-yuppies. A Douglas Coupland et à SA GÉNÉRATION X.” Le Monde 2
Orsenna, Erik: PRINCESSE HISTAMINE
Illustrated by Adrienne Barman
(Stock, November 2010, 128 pages)
“Hello, my name’s Histamine and I’m eleven. People say I’m very pretty, no question about it: perfect nose,
pointy teeth, devastating smile, not to mention my nails… they also say I’m unbearable. Well, I have to disagree! I’m
not unbearable because I can’t bear anything unbearable myself: people who smell bad, people who lie, people who
are too sad, anyone too happy to take any kind of risk. Of course, when you’re like me, life’s not that straightforward.
But I do have allies in this daily battle: my grandmother Suzanne (who’s a princess, like me), Isabelle, an allergy
doctor, Marie-Martine Gérard, a (very) naïve but efficient careers adviser, etc. And do you want to know why I’m
called Histamine? Ask your doctor. Histamine is a substance connected with allergies and, as I’m allergic to
everything, except for love and dreams…
This book is the first volume of my memoirs. Even when you’re just eleven there’s already a lot to talk about
if you lead a full enough life. And when you look at my plans for the years ahead… you won’t be disappointed in
2011, 2012, 2013, 2014...” PRINCESS HISTAMINE is the first volume in a series of adventures about an elevenyear-old girl. An opportunity to follow Erik Orsenna on a whole new journey and to view new landscapes of curiosity.
As is usually the case, he uses a story to ask questions about the world and try to explain its mysteries.
Erik Orsenna is a member of the Académie Française and won the Prix Goncourt for L’Exposition coloniale
(Seuil, 1988). He is the author of LONGTEMPS (Fayard, 1998), MADAME BÂ (Stock/Fayard, 2003), VOYAGE AU
PAYS DU COTON (Fayard, 2006), and more recently LA CHANSON DE CHARLES QUINT (Stock, 2008),
L’AVENIR DE L’EAU (Fayard, 2008), ET SI ON DANSAIT? (Stock, 2009) and L’ENTREPRISE DES INDES
(Stock/Fayard, 2010).
Foreign rights sold to: Hungary (Ab Ovo). Under option in: China, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Korea,
Portugal,Romania, Serbia, Spain, Taiwan
13
of the travel tales about Siam that were at the origin of his vocation. The bishop warns him about the capture of this
sacred insect, the reincarnation of the first King of Siam. But Henri is stubborn. His obstinate pursuit of the
lepidopteran will lead him in 1860 to the discovery of the Angkor ruins in the jungle and its legends. As usual, one is
seduced and carried away with delight by Maxence Fermine’s storywriter talent.
Born in 1968, Maxence Fermine lived in Paris before movinig to Africa. He now lives in Haute-Savoie with
his family. Among his numerous novels, we could name NEIGE, L’APICULTEUR (Prix del Duca and Prix Murat in
2001), OPIUM and AMAZONE (Prix Europe 1 2004). His works have been translated in several countries, among
which Italy, where he is a bestseller. Russian rights for the previous books sold to Symposiun Publishers.
Bauchau, Henry: DÉLUGE
(Actes Sud, March 2010, 176 pages)
Critically ill, Florence quits her Paris teaching job and moves to the south of France. There she works with
Florian, a crazy old “pyromaniac painter” who burns his work. A circle of friends gradually grows around Florian, the
iconoclast, who decides to involve them all in a monumental work illustrating the Flood.
In Henry Bauchau’s latest novel, it’s almost as though Orion, the psychotic young hero of L’Enfant bleu, had
grown old. Florence, the vulnerable narrator, is protective of him, while at the same time learning from him what she
lacks: loss of control, acceptance of the unexpected, the irrational… everything that she had clumsily excluded from
her studious earlier life.
But Bauchau’s readers know that madness is never far from art, which opens the way to the forces – both
negative and positive – of the unconscious. Ephemeral art; disease; vulnerability and hope appearing amidst
incertitude, dreams and delirium; the inexorable violence of modern times; the cycles of disaster through which
humanity destroys itself and is reborn: these are the paths Bauchau wanders for our reflection, illuminating them with
a writing as deep as it is magnificently fluid…
Henry Bauchau, analyst, poet, playwright, essayist and novelist, has written one of the most remarkable
oeuvres of our times. In March 2009, Actes Sud published his POÉSIE COMPLÈTE and, in September 2009, a new
volume of his diary, LES ANNÉES DIFFICILES (1972-1983). His previous novel, LE BOULEVARD
PÉRIPHÉRIQUE, won the 2008 Livre Inter Prize.
“(…) Henry Bauchau, quasi centenaire, signe une nouvelle œuvre limpide dans sa facture, tourmentée dans
ses péripéties, profonde dans son propos, qui brasse les thèmes de l’art, du rêve, du délire nécessaire et redoutable,
de l’abîme, du désastre et de la renaissance.” Le Magazine Littéraire
“Ceux qui ne connaissent pas son œuvre seront peut-être heurtés, croyant lire par moments une fable ou un
conte pour enfants. Mais les “ bauchaliens », amateurs ou professionnels (…) boiront du petit-lait, trouvant dans
DÉLUGE du grand Bauchau, avec les dimensions mythologiques et psychanalytiques de ces romans précédents.” Le
Monde des Livres
Ferney, Alice: PASSÉ SOUS SILENCE
(Actes Sud, August 2010, 199 pages)
These are troubled times for the Old Country: attempts to pacify the Southern Land are failing, the Army is
floundering and public opinion is divided. These exceptional circumstances offer an opportunity for former war hero
General de Grandberger to reclaim power. He has secretly chosen to act, while everyone is expecting him to behave
with the dignity and honour of his status. One of his admirers, Colonel Donadieu, has even stronger expectations. To
him, Grandberger embodies the righteousness of the army, and values of a bygone time. Donadieu will be so
disappointed by the General’s lack of fortitude that he will join in a plot to assassinate Grandberger. In this
confrontation, two world views clash, as History is made by men’s actions.
Based on real events, PASSÉ SOUS SILENCE doesn’t reveal them explicitly, but prefers to use them as
symbols. Alice Ferney’s emphatic style creates a striking atmosphere. Donadieu refers to himself as “you”, taking the
reader inside his tormented mind, while Grandberger is “He”: placed on a pedestal, a victim-to-be, yet someone who
will go down in History. PASSÉ SOUS SILENCE is masterfully structured to achieve a single goal: questioning to
what extent Reasons of State are simply individuals’ wishes and desires.
Alice Ferney is the celebrated author of, among other works, LA CONVERSATION AMOUREUSE (2000),
which sold over 150,000 trade copies in France alone and was translated into more than twenty languages (including
English). LES AUTRES, published in 2003, was long-listed for the Prix Medicis, Prix Femina, Prix Goncourt and the
Prix Goncourt des Lycéens.
“C’est le roman que certains attendaient de lire depuis 1963.” Le Figaro Magazine
“Alice Ferney délivre un roman particulièrement fort qui, sous les dehors de la fiction, met en scène les
acteurs de l’attentat manqué du Petit-Clamart avec une finesse rare” Page
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“Plus de deux ans après son pris Goncourt (ALABAMA SONG, Mercure de France), Gilles Leroy signe un
huis clos poignant.” Le Monde
“C’est le combat contre l’adversité qu’incarne la vieille femme, en même temps que la douleur universelle.”
La Vie
“(…) c’est d’une écriture vive, épurée, que l’auteur confie les pensées de cette femme. Rendant plus forts les
sentiments de déroute, de solitude, parfois aux limites de la folie. Gilles Leroy (…) nous offre ici un livre poignant
(…).” Le Magazine Littéraire
Castillon, Claire: LES BULLES
(Fayard, August 2010, 208 pages)
Claire Castillon’s short stories brush up a variety of portraits : the undecided woman who can’t seem to be
able to choose between her several partners ; the confident wife whose naivete concerning her husband’s
extracurricular activity is sad; the self-centered partner who doesn’t listen ; the adventures whose vision of the world
is a caricature…
Sporting their habits like shields, their certitudes like shadows, their bad faith like a parachute, Claire
Castillon’s characters are all living in bubbles, going from one whim to the next, unable to see the reality through the
cracks of the surface… Unless, of course, the bubble turns into a magnifying glass of sorts, helping them make out the
truth…
An ironic and funny vision of human interactions. Castillon is not afraid to delve into the darker sides of
love, not leaving out tenderness and humor.
Since the publication of her successful first novel LE GRENIER (Anne Carrière, 2000), Claire Castillon’s
readership has continued to expand both in France and abroad. INSECTE (Fayard) has been translated into 18
languages. She has written 9 books translated into 17 languages including the latest one LES CRIS.
“Claire Castillon construit une œuvre cohérente: l’amour dans tous ses ébats et ses états. Peu importe, au
fond, la bassesse des sentiments pourvu qu’il y ait l’ivresse de son ton et de ses phrases pointues.” ELLE
“Quel régal que cette galerie de portrait que nous propose Claire Castillon en cette rentrée ! On peut picorer
ou lire l’intégralité des nouvelles au gré de nos fantaisies, on sera toujours impressionnés par la justesse des
propos.” Page
Foreign rights sold to: the Netherlands (Ambos/anthos) and Finland (Gummerus)
Szalowski, Pierre: LE FROID MODIFIE LA TRAJECTOIRE DES POISSONS
(Hurtubise, November 2007, 296 pages)
Grand prix de la relève littéraire Archambault 2009
An excerpt in English is available
January 4, 1998. A ten-year-old boy learns that his parents plan to separate. In desperation, he asks heaven
for help. The next day, Quebec is gripped by the greatest ice-storm ever. This icy invasion does change the lives of
everyone in the street. Events, both unremarkable and incredible, will gradually alter a great many things. Julie, a
love-lorn exotic dancer, shelters Boris, a self-absorbed scientist who cares only for his experiments with fish; Michel
and Simon, two “brothers”, welcome Alexis, their homophobic neighbour. Adversity forges new bonds, and cold,
charity, solidarity and altruism warm their hearts.
Pierre Szalowski has worked as a press photographer, journalist, graphist, artistic director and creative
director in advertising, Vice-President of Ubisoft, and now works as a script-writer and author.
Foreign rights sold to: in Spain, Italy, Germany, Lituania, Poland, France, Holland, England
“With a fascinating collection of characters, people as complex as humanity itself, this novel is both a
learning experience and an initiation, in some ways, a romance novel as well…” Le Journal de Montréal
“A heart-warming novel interwoven with humour.” Le Libraire
Fermine, Maxime: LE PAPILLON DE SIAM
(Albin Michel, March 2010, 196 pages)
The novelised biography of an unknown explorer: Henri Mouhot who discovered the ruins of Angkor.
Student, Henri Mouhot is dreaming of exploring and traveling. As an adult, his desire for escape still follows
him: he wants to go to Siam. An exploration company decides to finance a mission for him to bring back a very rare
species, the Siamese butterfly. When he arrives in Bangkok, Henri is welcomed by a French missionary bishop, author
11
Chevallier, Gabriel: MASCARADE
(Le Dilettante, October 2010, 320 pages)
By the same author of LA PEUR (1930; 2008)
France Loisirs (French book club) has sold over 33,000 copies of LA PEUR
LA PEUR will come out in French paperback at Le Livre de Poche imprint in September 2010
LA PEUR will be made into a movie, to be produced by GMT Productions
In this collection of five tales, first published in 1948, we find the electric prose of the author of that
wonderful novel, LA PEUR. Tales in which the reader savours his deftness of stroke, his harshness of language, his
sense of pace.
It’s all a masquerade, so the title tells us, but other titles would have done just as well: The Killing Game,
The Monster Show, etc. In 1948, eighteen years after LA PEUR (1930), the grandiose memoirs of a soldier in the
trenches macerated in the juice of terror, fourteen years after CLOCHEMERLE (1934), a provincial glorification of
the guzzler, the merry womanizer and below-the-belt blows, Gabriel Chevallier served up another meticulous,
voracious oeuvre in which he portrays a number of colourful characters. So, let the cavalcade commence! First in line,
Colonel Crapouillot (Colonel Toad), one of the hardest nuts of the (supposedly) war to end all wars, who “wants
victims” to make a good impression, and whose homicidal mania the front liners, by means of cunning stratagems and
fraternal collusion, manage to eschew; close on his heels, Tante Zoé dubbed “the Giraffe”, a farting spinster; next
comes Ernest Mourier, a little grey man, a family-murder expert who ends up, at the termination of his lease, haunted
by madness and the chitter-chatter of a male parrot; followed by J.-M. Dubois, a salesman of shoe wax as black as the
market where he finally fulfils his potential and dies; and bringing up the rear, an old man dubbed “old man”,
clutching his gold. That’s the lot! Convinced? It’s called Masquerade, but it could have been called Drop the Mask! or
Ecce Homo: Mankind in all His Glory. And as the author says: “Life is not a dream, you can’t escape by simply
playing the guitar.” - We got the message!
Son of a solicitor's clerk of Lyon Gabriel Chevallier studies in diverse establishments, of which a religious
middle school. He enters the Beaux-Arts School of Lyon in 1911. From 1925, he dashes into the romantic writing by
using his own experiences. With The Fear, he testifies of his soldier's atrocious Calvary. It is still the own life which
he exploits to write DURAND COMMERCIAL TRAVELLER or, in memory of his terrible schooling, Saint-hill. It is
with CLOCHEMERLE, a rustic column rabelaisienne published in 1934, that he knows the success.
Foreign rights sold to previous works: which has been sold to: Italy to Adelphi (March 2011), to Spain to
Acantilado, to Cataluña to Quaderns Crema, to Germany to Nagel & Kimche/Hanser Verlag, to Holland to Cossée,
and to UK to Serpent’s Tail/Profile Books (a Malcom Imrie translation in October 2011)
Leroy, Gilles: ZOLA JACKSON
(Mercure de France, January 2010, 140 pages)
August 2005, Mississippi Delta. Hurricane Katrina is imminent. Zola, a retired black schoolteacher lives
alone with her old dog, Lady. Zola has had her share of hurricanes. No way she is going to flee before this one…
Anyhow it’s been ten years since she’s been scared, ever since Caryl died of cancer… He was her pride, her reason
for living, her only son turned a brilliant professor. She loved him dearely but couldn’t understand him and felt
betrayed when he fell in love with a young white man and moved to Atlanta. Before his death, he’d left her Lady. She
was only a pup then. Outside the storm is raging. The muddy and putrid waters are rising, and Zola and Lady take
refuge upstairs. In the morning, corpses are floating beneath the windows. Trapped by the floodwater and in the
trouble waters of her memories, the old woman unwinds the thread of her life. Will she survive Katrina?
Thanks to Gilles Leroy's subtle writing, Zola Jackson becomes much more than a mater dolorosa, a brave
woman, a touching mother and wins her place in the small world of romantic heroins. With his incredibly elegant and
intense style, Leroy develops a rare strength of evocation and emotion.
Gilles Leroy is the author of several novels published by Mercure de France, including ALABAMA SONG,
which received the prix Goncourt in 2007 and has been translated into 25 langages.
Foreign rights sold to: Germany (Kein & Aber) and the Netherlands (Cossée) - Offers from Catalonia
“Gilles Leroy a construit son roman avec son habileté coutumière.” Livres Hebdo
“Grâce à l’habile construction d’un récit qui avance par glissements successifs, au gré des flash-backs et des
associations d’idées, Gilles Leroy livre l’autoportrait d’un personnage dont on n’oublie ni la force de caractère ni les
fêlures.” Le Nouvel Observateur
“Le livre de Gilles Leroy est, de manière surprenante et discrète, un livre politique. Avec en filigrane, audelà de l’horreur de l’ouragan et du scandale de sa gestion, toute l’histoire de cette région, la question de
l’émancipation des Noirs et celle, complexe, du métissage.”La Croix
10
Italian in origin, Simonetta Greggio writes in French. She is the author of four novels published by Stock –
LA DOUCEUR DES HOMMES, COL DE L'ANGE, LES MAINS NUES, DOLCE VITA (selected for the Prix
Renaudot 2010) – and ÉTOILES, published by Flammarion and translated into German, Italian, Dutch, Korean and
Russian (Corpus/AST Group).
Chevillard, Eric: DINO EGGER
(Editions de Minuit, January 2011, 160 pages)
In this brilliant novel, Eric Chevillard explores with virtuosity the potential life of a nonexistent character:
Dino Egger.
What would the world have been like if Dino Egger, Eric Chevillard’s missing character, had ever existed?
Sadly, no one has ever heard of Dino Egger. Why? Because he doesn’t exist, though he could have accomplished
great things. Albert Moindre, an insignificant man, will try to get some importance by exploring what Dinno Egger’s
life could have been. This great man should have highly influenced his time, opened new perpectives, spread harmony
in the world. In spite of his favourable dispositions, Dino Egger never came to life. Albert Moindre will devote
himself to clarify the mystery of Dino Egger’s inexistence.
Only Eric Chevillard is capable of making of this non-story a masterpiece of humor and imagination. In spite
of the conditional dimension of the plot, the inimitable style of the author makes it unexpectedly lively and
fascinating.
Eric Chevillard (born in 1964) has written more than 15 novels, all funny, odd and enigmatic, among which:
LE VAILLANT PETIT TAILLEUR (2003), OREILLE ROUGE (2005), DÉMOLIR NISARD (2006), SANS
L’ORANG-OUTAN (2007). His novels have been translated in several countries.
“Autant d’humour, de subtilité, de références, de profondeur et d’intelligence donne le vertige.” Le Figaro
“Chevillard s’est fait, plus que voyant, savant à l’espièglerie délicate et référencée.” Le Monde
“Un étourdissant exercice de nonsense, une fable sublime sur l’absence et la virtualité.” Le Nouvel
Observateur
Quint, Michel: THE LOVERS OF FRANKFURT
(Editions d’Heloise d’Ormesson, August 2011, 240 pages)
Florent, a young French publisher, is attending the Frankfurt Book Fair for the first time. Reluctant to go to
Germany, where his father was killed, he was also hesitant about taking part in the rituals of the publishing industry’s
yearly Mecca. Nevertheless, he books a room in a prestigious luxury hotel, the sort of place a self-respecting publisher
is duty-bound to stay.
Florent casts a cynical eye over the cocktail receptions and encounters that are all part of the literary sales
show. But a flamboyant brunette is about to wreak havoc and throw his whole life into question. A powerful player at
a major publishing house, this bold, impulsive woman seems to be luring him into a trap with unknown consequences.
Their sensual, seemingly casual love affair is set against a background of political intrigue recalling a bloody era when
ex-Nazis and the Baader-Meinhof Group were part of everyday life. A cast of vibrant, eccentric characters contributes
to Michel Quint’s incisive text, which recreates the unique atmosphere of the world’s largest book fair. The novel
opens with a double murder that sparks off a thrilling investigation full of unexpected twists.
Michel Quint was born in 1949 in the Pas-de-Calais. He began his career as a professor, first of classical
letters then drama, before turning to writing plays for theatre, television, and radio, notably for France Culture (in
1986 he was awarded the sacd prize for new radio talent), and finally concentrating on the roman noir. In 1989 he was
awarded the Grand Prix de la Littérature Policière for BILLARD À L’ÉTAGE, his breakthrough novel, and in 2000 he
won the Cinéroman Prize and the sgdl prize for EFFROYABLES JARDINS (published in English as In Our Strange
Gardens, and subsequently translated into 25 languages and adapted for the cinema by Jean Becker. Michel Quint
continues to publish novels on a regular basis and devotes his time to writing. Russian rights for EFFROYABLES
JARDINS were sold to Fluide Publisheurs
“Ce premier livre aux éditions Héloïse d’Ormesson ne laissera pas indifferent” Livres Hebdo
9
Teulé, Jean: CHARLY 9
(Robert Laffont, March 2011, 240 pages)
N#1 in best-selling list
The tragicomic pen of Jean Teulé strikes again. His subject this time – Charles IX, the French king notorious
for the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572 in which thousands of Huguenots were brutally murdered.
Teulé begins his latest novel portraying Charly 9, 22 years old, as a mere puppet who is pressured to give in
to his mother Catherine de Médicis’s wishes to go ahead with the massacre. The guilt over these murders will lead to
Charly’s rapid descent into madness which is at the heart of this darkly entertaining tale. Charly loves to hunts so
when winter sets in, he has animals brought into the palace so that he could hunt in the warmth.
The New Year traditionally began on April 1 and was considered a Spring holiday when people would dance
half naked. Charly’s decision to begin the New Year on January 1 leads to the deaths of many who continued to
celebrate without clothing. He even believes that he could simply replenish the Kingdom’s treasures by producing
false money, with his head engraved on each coin. These are just some of the examples of Charly’s madness, at times
both absurd and deadly, that will quickly lead to his own death just two years after the massacre.
Jean Teulé has written the following works published by Julliard: RAINBOW POUR RIMBAUD,
DARLING (recently adapted for the cinema), LES LOIS DE LA GRAVITÉ, Ô VERLAINE!, JE FRANÇOIS
VILLON (130,000 copies sold)¸ LE MAGASIN DES SUICIDES (350,000 copies sold, animated film in production),
LE MONTESPAN (prix Maison de la Presse, 550,000 copies sold) and MANGEZ-LE SI VOUS VOULEZ (180,000
copies sold)
The Russian rights for LE MAGASIN DES SUICIDES are sold to Pokolenie
Malka, Francis: LA NOYADE DU MARCHAND DE PARAPLUIE
(Hurtubise, October 2010, 176 pages)
It is Southern France in the 11th century, and an umbrella merchant makes the gift of a mysterious book to a
young cobbler. After reading his own life-story in its pages, the young man decides to write a sequel. To his
astonishment, what he has written actually comes true, and he tries rather clumsily to turn the future to his advantage,
still managing to bring on centuries of catastrophes instead: floods, the lean in the Tower of Pisa, World War One, and
so on. This is a hisTorical novel that also delves into fantasy.
Francis Malka has studied music at the Conservatoire de Montréal and mechanical engineering at the École
Polytechnique. He has built specia lized research software for Semantix which is used by agencies like the FBI, the
CIA or the NASA. He has been nominated for the Prix de la relève littéraire Archambault 2007 and le
Prix France-Québec 2007 for The Deaf Cellist. His previous novel LE VIOLONCELLISTE SOURD was
highly acclaimed by critics.
Praises about LE VIOLONCELLISTE SOURD:
“Francis Malka has given us a book rich in its contemplation of truth and falsehood and audacious in its
interweaving of politics, society and music.” Le Libraire
“An excellent novel.” Le Soleil
Greggio, Simonetta: L’ODEUR DU FIGUIER
(Flammarion, April 2011, 176 pages)
Three stories linked by the fragrance of wild figs, the aroma of summer, childhood, nostalgia, the perfume of
delicious melancholy, like a song taking the listener back to a forgotten era.
The first story is about a couple’s inability to communicate. Returning for the holidays to the family’s seaside
home in southern Italy, both parties are imprisoned by feelings of hurt, incapable of escaping their own wounds.
Silence prevents pain and tenderness being expressed and any love is suffocated. Whatever is left unsaid invades the
living space like armies of ants, stifling all other possibilities. The second story is a cry of distress narrated in the first
person. Here again, compassion is defeated and friendship vanquished, as a couple veers towards disaster by failing to
listen, by failing to hope. The path leading from fear to love is not followed to the end. The third story, tracing the
thoughts of a stout fellow of retirement age as he stands trapped in a lift, is a summary, in metaphorical terms, of the
two previous stories. If any exit is possible, it is elsewhere than in solitude.
And the fragrance of figs, lingering over the lives of these characters, serves as a reminder to them that joy
does exist and can be found near to hand; that you just need is to breathe it in and believe in it, to let it drift over and
enfold you.
8
After publishing LE PARFUM D'ADAM which sold 130,000 copies (rights sold in 13 countries), JeanChristophe Rufin is back with a geopolitical thriller centred on a burning issue. Ambassador to Senegal for the last
two years, with first-hand experience of the changes in international relations since Obama's election, Jean-Christophe
Rufin in his role as novelist freely draws inspiration from these topical events.
Foreign rights sold to: Germany, Spain, China, Turkey. The Russian rights for the previous novels are sold to
Inostranka/Atticus
“An excellent thriller with an excellent sense of pace, suspense and the world seen from different angles.”
Libération
“A captivating thriller that gives the keys to understand the workings of international terrorism. Certainly
his best novel in a long time.” L’Express
“A gripping geopolitical thriller, sharp and effective, strikingly authentic. […] Nothing is simply black or
white in this fiction but human flaws and qualities are depicted with a keen eye, certainly acquired by the author
through his multiples lives.” Le Figaro Littéraire
Dai Sijie: TROIS VIES CHINOISES
(Flammarion, January 2011, 144 pages)
Three tales as rich in imagination as the prison-island where they take place is destitute: the young “Ho Chi
Minh” is sentenced to death at the very moment when he believes he is reaching his hour of glory, after leaving
behind the mountains of electrical waste heaped upon the nobility Island.
A young painter grows up between piles of televisions and computers. While his family fades away, he
seems to surround himself with a protective shield enabling him to face life like an “armoured tank crossing
mountains”. At the Sunrise Farm re-education camp on the Island, a warden earns a miserable wage. Perpetually with
a cigarette hanging from his mouth, he is nicknamed the “Water Reservoir Bogart”. He forces his daughter to ice skate
before his eyes every winter – until the ice reveals a secret that will shatter his family.
Tough and dense as ice, these three tales are also bewitchingly playful and graceful. Three modern and
timeless family dramas, haunting for their poetic force and paradoxical freedom.
Dai Sijie is a writer, screenwriter and film director. He has been translated into 25 languages.
Foreign rights sold to: Germany, The Russian rights for previous books are sold to Inostranka/Atticus
Malzieu, Mathias: MÉTAMORPHOSE EN BORD DE CIEL
(Flammarion, March 2011, 160 pages)
Tom Cloudman is undoubtedly the world’s worst stuntman. His unintentionally comical acrobatics propel
him to the height of glory, promising bright days ahead. Until a doctor treating his umpteenth fracture detects an
incurable disease eating away at him.
Thus begins a long hospital stay for Tom, in an attempt to win the fight against what he calls “the Beetroot”.
During one of his nocturnal wanderings in the hospital corridors, this man who has always dreamed of devouring the
clouds, meets a strange creature, half-woman, half-bird, who offers him the following pact: “I can transform you into
a bird, which will save your life, but you have to accept the consequences. To trigger your metamorphosis, you will
have to make love with me. From this union, a child will perhaps be born. A risk you will have to accept.”
In the tradition of his tales for grown-up children, Mathias Malzieu tells the marvellous story of a man who
yearns to defy death and to be on familiar terms with the skies. In so doing, he delivers a rare reflection on the power
of life and of love.
Mathias Malzieu is the energetic singer of the leading group in French alternative rock: Dionysos. After a
highly-praised collection of short stories, 38 mini western (Pimientos, 2002), and two best-selling novels: Maintenant
qu'il fait tout le temps nuit sur toi (Flammarion, 2005), and La Mécanique du cœur (Flammarion, 2007), both of which
received enormous critical acclaim, Mathias Malzieu is signing his third much-awaited novel. The national and
international success of his previous books, notably LA MÉCANIQUE DU CŒUR: with over 200,000 copies sold in
France, 200,000 copies sold in Spain and translation rights sold into eighteen languages. An adaptation is in
production for the cinema with a 3D animated film to be released in October 2012, produced by Luc Besson and
directed by Mathias Malzieu .
The Russian rights for LA MÉCANIQUE DU CŒUR are sold to Corpus
Foreign rights sold to: Spain, Catalan
7
Born in 1972, Laurent Gaudé is a novelist and a playwright. He has published five novels with Actes Sud:
CRIS (2001), LA MORT DU ROI TSONGOR (2002, Prix Goncourt des Lycéens, Prix des Libraires), LE SOLEIL
DES SCORTA (2004, Prix Goncourt), ELDORADO and LA PORTE DES ENFERS (2008) along with a collection
of short stories, DANS LA NUIT MOZAMBIQUE (2007).
The Russian rights several previous books are sold to AST-Group.
“Puissant. L’adjectif sied parfaitement au nouveau roman de Laurent Gaudé… Passant avec virtuosité d’une
voix à l’autre, Laurent Gaudé explore ces âmes confrontées à l’apocalypse.” Le Figaro Magazine
“Jamais Laurent Gaudé n'a été autant en symbiose avec son sujet, jamais il n'a réussi à porter aussi
violemment le choc en nous.(…) Une force intérieure qui ne s'explique pas mais se lit intensément.” Le Soir
“L'écrivain ose le lyrisme absolu, sans jamais s'essouffler.(…) Il a toujours le mot juste. (…) Livre après
livre, Laurent Gaudé s'impose comme un de nos meilleurs conteurs du monde moderne.” Les Échos
“Un roman haletant qui mène au cœur de la tourmente et du chaos. Une vraie belle réussite que vous n’êtes
pas prêts d’oublier.” Lire
Binet, Laurent: HHhH
(Grasset, January 2010, 448 p.)
Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman 2010 - First Novel
100.000 copies of the trade edition sold in France
The novel’s title, HHhH, refers to an acronym invented by the SS: “Himmlers Hirn heißt Heydrich”, or
“Himmler’s brain is called Heydrich”. The novel, retracing events from 1938 to 1942, consists of short chapters
recounting episodes from different times and places, all converging towards the fateful day of the assassination in
Prague.
All the characters really existed – indeed, some are still alive. The author has recounted the facts as faithfully
as possible, resisting the temptation to embroider the truth. How should History be narrated? The author himself
becomes a character in the book, detailing his own uncertainties, doubts, and hesitations. The search for historical
truth is an obsessive and endless quest.
Laurent Binet was born in Paris and is now 37. He was posted to Slovakia for his military service and now
divides his time between Paris and Prague. He teaches at both high school and university. HHhH is his first novel.
Foreign rights sold to: Castilian (Seix Barral), Catalan (1984 Editions), Chinese complex characters (YeRen), Czech Republic (Argo), Dutch (Meulenhoff), English World (USA: Farrar, Straus & Giroux / UK: Harvill
Secker), German (Rowohlt), Hebrew (Kinneret), Hungarian (Europa), Italian (Einaudi), Japanese (Tokyo Sogensha),
Norwegian (Gyldendal Norsk), Polish (Wydawnictwo Literackie), Portuguese (Brazil: Companhias das Letras /
Portugal: Porto Editora), Slovakia (Marenčin).
Laurent Binet travels back and forth in time and space, between his own personal comments and historical
documents, gradually putting together a puzzle that reveals an ever clearer picture of what happened that day,
together with a few faces” Nouvel Observateur
“The heart of his project is this: above all, avoid dressing historical characters up as fictional ones; do not
reduce their lived experience to mere narrative material; refuse to strike a pose on the pretext of defending their
cause.” Le Monde
Rufin, Jean-Christophe: KATIBA
(Flammarion April 2010, 400 pages)
In France 100,000 copies sold
A katiba is an Islamist fighter camp based in the Sahara - both a hideout and a resting point, a place where
people pray, negotiate and kill. Invisible from above by plane or satellite, this is where terrorist plots are hatched and
attacks are rehearsed. Kader Bel Kader, in charge of the zone stretching between Mali, Algeria and Mauritania,
decides to short-circuit the other rampant bands of traffickers and so assert his influence over the heads of Al-Quaeda.
On the way to Mauritania where he is being sent by the intelligence agency Providence (already active
behind the scenes in Le Parfom d'Adam) to spy on the leaders of these terrorist attacks, Dim comes across a young
woman, Jasmine, as fascinating as she is disturbing. With French and Algerian nationality, familiar with the ins and
outs of Western diplomacy and the new laws on terrorist warfare, she walks on the edge of two enemy worlds.
Jasmine is a living incarnation of the Senegalese proverb which opens the novel and hints at its main plot: “A dog
may well have four legs but it still can't follow two paths at once.”
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A novel based on a true story, written in powerful voice that is both sharply accurate and unique.
Claire Castillon was born in 1975. She is the author of several novels and volumes of short stories,
inclmuding LE GRENIER (Anne Carrière, 2000) and INSECTE (Fayard), sold into twenty territories, as well as ON
N'EMPÊCHE PAS UN PETIT COEUR D'AIMER, DESSOUS C'EST L'ENFER and LES CRIS.
Ruiz, Agnes: MA VIE ASSASSINÉE
(Cherche-Midi, May 2011, 230 pages)
Over 170 000 copies sold!
21 years after the death of her baby, is it possible that Mady Lestrey found her daughter which she believed
to have lost forever? Is Marianne really this daughter which she claims to be ? Lost love In Pincourt, when she was 16
years old, Mady fall in love with Guillaume, an Inhabitant of Canada come to seek peace in this small village of
Normandy. Despite of her father, Mady continues to see the young man. Both are dreaming of a life together,
sometimes in Canada, sometimes in Europe.
However, Guillaume must return to Canada to help his young sister, seriously sick. Lovers promise to write
and to expect each other… Guillaume’s sister recovers painfully. The life of Mady, remained in France, upsets by
distances…and the secrecy of her pregnancy.
Agnes Ruiz, a French Canadian, gracefully transports readers to Normandy, through the romantic torments of
two young persons, who vowed to love and protect them, and the machinations of a cunning person determined to
keep them apart.
Khadra, Yasmina: L’ÉQUATION AFRICAINE
(Robert Laffont, August 2011, 336 pages)
350 000 copies sold in France!
Following a horrible family drama, German Dr. Kurt Krausmann accepts to accompany a friend to the
Comoros off the eastern coast of Africa, in an attempt to overcome his sadness. Kurt’s “therapeutic” voyage turns into
a hellish nightmare when pirates attack their sailboat near Somalia. Taken hostage, beaten and humiliated, Kurt
discovers an Africa of violence and unbearable misery. Along with his friend Hans and an unfortunate French
companion, can Kurt find the strength to overcome this ordeal?
By offering this gripping, realistic journey that transports us from Somalia to Sudan, into an Eastern Africa
that is alternatingly savage, irrational, wise, proud, dignified and infinitely courageous, Yasmina Khadra once again
confirms his immense talent as a storyteller.
This powerful and timely novel describes a European’s slow and irreversible transformation as he opens his
eyes to the reality of a world that, until now, was unknown to him. Khadra renders homage to the greatness of a
continent overrun by predators and genocidal tyrants.
Yasmina Khadra is the recipient of the Académie françaises’s 2011 Grand Prix de littérature Henri Gal, Prix
de l'Institut de France for his entire body of work. His works include Cousine K (prix de la Société des gens de lettres), La
Part du mort (prix du meilleur polar francophone), Les Hirondelles de Kaboul (Newsweek Award, prix des libraires
algériens ; 48 000 copies sold), L’Attentat (prix des Libraires 2006), and Ce que le jour doit à la nuit (meilleur livre de 2008
– France Télévisions and Lire ; 280 000 copies sold). The rights for his previous books are sold in 28 langages.
Foreign rights sold: Germany (Ullstein), Italy (Marsilio), Spain (Destino)
Gaudé, Laurent: OURAGAN
(Actes Sud, August 2010, 190 pages)
Over 150,000 copies sold in France!!!
As the Hurricane is roaring by, flows of refugees are running away from New Orleans. Going against the
current is one man, Keanu. The announcement of this meteorological catastrophe has awoken him from the apathy he
was plunged into after a dramatic accident on the oilrig where he was working. He has realised that he has to get back
to Rose, the woman he loved and who is about to brave the storm. Rose has a child, the fruit of her failed love, as she
puts it. As those two destinies are going to be reunited, we also hear the voices of other outcasts, black people that no
one really cares to help out of the inferno: Josephine, almost one hundred years old, the living memory of the city, a
priest whose faith is going to be trialled, a silent boy, a group of prisoners who have been abandoned in jail after the
guards have fled… The dikes are destroyed, alligators invade the city but the characters will be confronted with
monsters of a different kind: fear, violence, stupidity, indifference…
In this apocalyptic context, Laurent Gaudé wrote an ambitious novel that studies human behaviour at its
climax with his usual delicacy and beautifully crafted style, in the vain of CRIS and ELDORADO.
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The main character, a divorced author in Paris, incapable of interpreting human relationships from any other
angle than indifference or self-interest, remains nevertheless polite and helpful to everyone. Fed up by his ordinary
life he decides to go to India. He has no reason to get back to France; his departure is permanent. But nothing seems to
turn out like he wants in India. The protagonist, an artistic soul who refuses to grow up and continues to date women
much younger than himself, searches desperately for love and inspiration to write.
With a lucidity that borders to cruelty Nicolas Fargues performs brilliantly in this sarcastic novel.
Born in 1972 in France, Nicolas Fargues lived abroad until age 11. He studied literature and worked
alternately for television and press and for the Alliance Française in Madagascar. He is the author of numerous novels
among which TU VERRAS was awarded the Prix France Culture- Télérama.
“Autour d'une existence dans l'impasse, Nicolas Fargues réussit un bel exercice de style en forme de petit
précis de solitude.” Le Monde
“Aussi féroce que jubilatoire, le nouveau roman de Nicolas Fargues sonde les mœurs de ses contemporains”
Le Figaro
“Nicolas Fargues, on le sait, écrit des romans inconfortables et grinçants où il porte un regard ironique sur
le monde moderne. Drôle et désagréable, LA LIGNE DE COURTOISIE brosse le terrible portrait d'un homme au
bord de la crise de nerfs.” Livres Hebdo
“Moins roman que fable grinçante sur la solitude et la désobéissance, LA LIGNE DE COURTOISIE met à
nu les relations entre les êtres.” Technikart
“Fargues sait observer et restituer avec précision la bêtise de ses contemporains.” Frédéric Beigbeder, le
Figaro Magazine
Fottorino, Eric: LE DOS CRAWLÉ
(Gallimard, September 2011, 208 pages)
25 000 copies sold in France
It is the summer of 1976 on the Atlantic coast. Two choldren dream of faraway lands. Parents are so
disappointing. Marin is thirteen, Lisa is ten. Marin talks of the burning sand and other things that he is not able to
express when watching Lisa and her mother, a former Miss Pontaillac. Hearts are tormented, childhood pines away.
Fortunately, there is Uncle Abel quietly watching over all, as well as Mister Archibouleau with his big
muscles, Mister Maxence who listens to the shipping forecast, and father July who pedals his bike like a young man.
Fortunately, there are the fishing expeditions, fish couscous, the smell of lemon trees and mint, the gentless of Grizzly
the cat and Plouff the dog. Fortunately, there is doctor Malik and his bouquets of jasmine, the Corniche, the Casino,
the beaches of the Cote Sauvage, the ice cream from chez Judici. Fortunately, there is the kitchen garden , the
beautiful villas, the lights of Cordouan across the bay. One day, Marin and Lisa run away swimming the backstroke,
and who cares that death is luking in the sea.
Fottorino, Eric Fottorino is very famous French author. His previous novels CARESSE DE ROUGE and
BAISER DE CINEMA were highly appreciated by critics.
Castillon, Claire: LES MERVEILLES
(Grasset, January 2012, 240 pages)
15 000 copies sold in France!
"Suddenly: love. Men, bumper-to-bumper, putting gas in my tank. I like it girly, silly Lily, rosy-cheek Rose.
Boy it's unfair, having to preen for males, preen like peacocks. Not used to smiling at just anyone. Scared my teeth'll
drop out."
Evelyne is a cynic, funny and mean. Thirteen years old, parents she despises, a brother under torture and a
dog, Lulu, she dotes on. One day, her Dad maims Lulu before her very eyes and nothing is ever the same again. First
of May it was. In France that means lily-of-the-valley, pretty bells. Now, the bells ring inside Evelyne's head.
Sometimes, they speak for her. Self-defence she calls it. Then she hits her Mum with a mallet, sleeps with Joe
Vandaire, one of her parents' friends, is expelled from schools, becomes a stripper and Lulu dies. That's when Evelyne
leaves. She moves in with Luigi, the pizza guy, who gets her pregnant. Life goes on. Only now, on weekdays, instead
of working as a cleaner at the local factory, Evelyne takes a job as an escort-girl. In secret, of course.
Meeting all that "better class of clientele", she begins to get a feel for "possible dimensions" in people. Which
is when Daniel comes into her life. "More ideas than two-headed genie. He shares them, which makes me strong."
Hanging out with someone intelligent is a kick, but Daniel just talks too much, much too much, he's vain and selfish.
Evelyne gets fed up. She leaves him. He pleads. He goes all whiny. She stabs him. "It's not easy, getting used to your
cell isn't."
4
and richly chromatic account that focuses on themes such as filiation, the complex connection between the art world
and power, and the religious influences on Turquetto’s work.
Metin Arditi was born in Turkey and is at the confluence of several Mediterranean civilizations and cultures.
He now lives in Switzerland where he is a lecturer at Ecole polytechnique. He is also the author of VICTORIA-HALL
(2004, Prix du Premier Roman de Sablet), L’IMPREVISIBLE (2006, Prix des lecteurs Fnac Riviera) and LA FILLE
DES LOUGANIS (2007, Prix Version Femina Virgin Megastore, rights sold to Germany (H&C), Russia (Ripol),
Greece (Livani), TV rights sokd to Europacorp).
Foreign rights sold to : Club (Grand Livre du Mois, France), Italy (Neri Pozza), Turkey (Can Yayinlari),
Greece (Kalendis), Poland (Noir sur Blanc), Serbia (Laguna). French Rights : Canada (Leméac), club (Grand Livre du
Mois), grands caractères (Feryane).
“Metin Arditi a composé une espèce de conte philosophique et humaniste, une célébration optimiste de la
création artistique, plus forte que tout et qui finit par triompher des pires obstacles : la pauvreté, le fanatisme, la mort
meme”. Livres Hebdo
“Un mélange irrésistible d’expériences et de connaissances” Edmonde Charles-Roux de l’Académie
Goncourt, in La Provence
“Roman historique, roman d’aventures, impeccablement consrtuit”. Le Point
“Entre ombre et lumière, avec force de détails, Metin Arditi met magistralement en perspective l’art pictural
avec les contradictions du pouvoir, de la religion et de la filiation”. Page
Sportès, Morgan: TOUT, TOUT DE SUITE
(Fayard, August 2011, 384 pages)
Total print-run 64,000 copies!
Short-listed for the Prix Roman Fnac and the Prix Renaudot.
Long-listed for the Prix Goncourt and the Prix Goncourt des lycéens.
Film rights sold to Alain Goldman / Legende
In 2006, a small gang from the suburbs kidnaps a young man. The ransom they demand is totally out of
proportion with his family's lower middle-class resources. Yet his captors chose him because he is a Jew and is
supposed to be rich. After 24 days of captivity, during which time he is repeatedly brutalized, he is finally murdered.
The authors of the crime are pizza delivery boys, high school students, delinquents or jobless young men...
But the gang is united by a morbid obsession: "We want it all, right now." In this literary true-crime novel, Morgan
Sportès has painstakingly pieced together their insane act. Without passing judgement, he attempts to reconstruct their
stupefyingly unthinking dialogues and to retrace their movements.
Born in Algiers in 1947, Morgan Sportès has written more than fifteen books translated into many languages,
notably Fresh Bait, whose cinematographic adaptation by Bertrand Tavernier won the Golden Bear in Berlin.
“Au terme d’une enquête maniaque et périlleuse, où il a soulevé nombre de questions dérangeantes, Morgan
Sportès signe un roman-vérité d’une sobriété exemplaire” Livres Hebdo
“Sans jugement ni commentaires, Sportès donne un fascinant et effrayant décryptage social. Le résultat est
tout simplement extraordinaire” Le Figaro
“(…) un grand roman social et politique, effrayant et fascinant” Le Figaro
“C’est le livre choc de la rentrée” Aujourd’hui en France
“(…) la fiction-réalité de Morgan Sportès hypnotise le lecteur” L’Express
“(…) un roman puissant à la Truman Capote” Marianne
“Le livre est passionnant, froidement terrifiant” Le Point
“Un roman envoûtant qu’on dévore comme le meilleur des polars. Sauf que cette histoire s’est réellement
passée, et que l’on n’oublie jamais cette donnée du problème à la lecture” Page
Rights sold to: Italian (Edizioni E/O), Korean (Seedpaper)
Fargues, Nicolas: LA LIGNE DE COURTOISIE
(P.O.L, January 2012, 167 pages)
20.000 copies already sold in France!
In Nicolas Fargues’ new novel, a man leaves his conventional life in France behind and starts all over again
in India.
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Darrieussecq, Marie: CLÈVES
(P.O.L, August 2011, 352 pages)
60,000 copies sold in France already!
Short-listed for the Prix France Culture Télérama
English sample translation available
CLÈVES tells the awakening of a little girl’s love life and sexuality in a small town of France about thirty
years ago. The story takes place in the south of France, not far from the ocean. The young heroine of the novel,
Solange, an observant and intelligent ten year old girl, is torn between “school where everyone is obsessed with sex”
and absent parents. From the day she has her period, “making it” (love) becomes the major issue. Strategy, tactics,
seduction. Girlfriends and intimate confidence. The village becomes a Court, with its intrigues and reversals of
alliances.
A few years later, Solange is now sixteen and she is obsessed by “it”. The girls are prey to boys, some of
them are submissive and others brutal. It will thus be Solange’s turn to find her own victim: Bihotz, her nice and
booby neighbour. Despite the fact that Bihotz is trying to resist, she is going to become, by his side, an unscrupulous
Lolita.
CLÈVES is an extremely disturbing text in which a rare literary inventiveness is a mean to express a radical
realism. Marie Darrieussecq describes a changing children world away from adults who don’t see anything. It is
violent, beautiful, funny and cruel.
Marie Darrieusecq was born in 1969. In 1996, at the age of 27, she published her first novel, TRUISMES
(Pig Tales), which became an overnight sensation and bestseller. It has been translated throughout the world,
published in 34 countries, and is currently being adapted to the screen by filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard. The New
Yorker featured her as France’s "best young novelist". She has strongly established herself as one of the leading
voices of contemporary literature.
Rights sold to: Germany (Carl Hanser Verlag), Italy (Ugo Guanda Editore), Sweden (Norstedts), Denmark
(Tiderne Skifter), UK and Australia (Text Publishing), the Netherlands (Meulenhoff) and Korea (The Open Books).
“Suivant le passage de l’enfance à l’adolescence, Marie Darrieussecq décrit une initiation frontale à la
sexualité” Lire
“A rebours de tous les clichés du genre, CLÈVES décrit les écueils de la puberté et d’une sexualité
balbutiante. Une chronique de la jeunesse à l’aube des années 80. Une merveille” Les Inrockuptibles
“Rarement les rêves, les émois et les mœurs d’une bande de jeunes Français moyens auront été aussi
finement dépeints.” L’Express
“En termes crus et denses, c’est un périple très sensible au pays du désir et des doutes.” Madame Figaro
”Drôle, inspiré, radical, Clèves, le nouveau roman de Marie Darrieussecq égratigne le mythe d’une
adolescence sentimentale et futile. Notre coup de cœur de la rentrée.” Grazia
”L’héroïne Solange, c’est nous ! Un roman cru, crucial et tellement juste.” Elle
”Toujours préoccupé par l’étrange et pourtant bizarrement familier, ce texte subtil s’avère l’un de ses plus
personnels et universels à la fois, un roman particulièrement touchant sans la moindre mièvrerie.” Libération
Arditi, Metin: LE TURQUETTO
(Actes Sud, August 2011, 288 pages)
65 000 copies sold in France
4th on the bestsellers list
Awarded the Prix des Libraires de Nancy – Le Point
Short-listed for the Prix Roman Fnac
Could it be possible that a famous painting - whose signature bears a discrete anomaly is the only work to
remain by one of the greatest painters of the Venetian Renaissance, equal to Titian or Veronese?
Born in Constantinople in about 1519, Elias Soriano was very young when he immigrated to Venice under a
secret identity. He changed his name to Elias Troyanos, spent a lot of time in Titian’s workshop, and made an
outstanding career as the Turquetto: the "Little Turk", as Titian used to nickname him.
This colourful novel is the story of the life of a man, who had an unstoppable passion for art and painting,
and who denied and hid his religion that forbade him to be a painter in the context of the Renaissance. It is a rhythmic
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ANASTASIA LESTER AGENCY
PRESENTS
FICTION BACK-LIST
BEST-SELLERS
LITERARY FICTION
de Vigan, Delphine: RIEN NE S’OPPOSE À LA NUIT
(JC Lattès, August 2011, 400 pages)
300,000 copies sold in France
5th on the bestsellers lists in France !
Awarded the Prix Roman Fnac 2011
Long-listed for the Prix Goncourt, the Prix Renaudot, the Prix Médicis and the Prix Fémina
“I don’t remember when the idea surfaced to write about my mother, around my mother or beginning with
my mother. My mother, Lucille’s despair was part of our childhood and, later on, part of our adulthood. We are no
doubt made of Lucille’s pain, my sister and I, but any attempt to explain this is destined to fail. Writing will only
barely allow me to ask questions and search my memory but is powerless to do anything else.
Lucille’s family, our family, has been the object of many suppositions and commentaries throughout the
years. My family can be defined as joy at its loudest and most spectacular, as the relentless echo of the dead and as the
reverberation of disaster. Today, I know that like so many others, my family possesses the power to destroy the Verb,
and the power of silence. Perhaps the book would be nothing but the account of this inquiry. It would contain, in
itself, its own genesis, narrative wanderings and unfinished attempts. But it would be that impulse, that momentum
towards her, raw and hesitant.”
In this brilliant investigation into the heart of family memory, where the most luminous images juxtapose the
deepest darkest secrets, Delphine de Vigan speaks powerfully of all our lives, our weaknesses and personal suffering.
Delphine de Vigan is the author of bestseller NO ET MOI - more than 400 000 copies sold, winner of the
Prix des Libraires 2008, translated into 25 languages, and made into a film. She has also written, among others, LES
HEURES SOUTERRAINES (2009) - first edition sold over 100 000 copies. She was short- listed for the Goncourt
Prize. She lives in Paris.
Rights sold to: UK (Bloomsbury), Italy (Mondadori), Germany (Droemer), Sweden (Sekwa), Poland (Sonia
Draga), Czech Republic (Euromedia), Korea (Joongang Books) and China (Shanghai 99). Offers from Denmark and
Norway!
“Un récit sensible et fascinant, qui fait écho aux blessures de chacun” Lire
“Dans ce roman dense et sidérant se dessine un long chemin d’écriture, empli de doutes, d’hésitations et
d’errances narratives. Un chemin sinueux mais tendu par la force d’un amour, d’un élan vital” Le Monde
“Elle peut être sereine Delphine de Vigan, car non seulement elle vient d’écrire un superbe et bouleversant
texte, un de ceux qu’on referme le cœur serré et la main tremblante, mais avec noblesse et délicatesse, elle a rendu le
plus beau des hommages à sa mère et à sa famille” Page
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