anastasia lester agency presents - Anastasia Lester Literary Agency

Transcription

ANASTASIA LESTER AGENCY
PRESENTS
FICTION BACK-LIST
BEST-SELLERS
LITERARY FICTION
Mayeras, Maud: REFLEX
(Editions Anne Carrière, October 2013, 368 pages)
15 000 copies sold in France!
!
The dual story of a serial killer and the mother of one of his victims makes for a discomforting novel with
a surprising ending.
!
A gripping thriller with disturbing, pathetic and dangerous characters.
!
Readers will be taken in by the red herrings: nothing about this novel is obvious or hackneyed.
When another child’s body is found in the place where her son was murdered, Iris Baudry, an asocial and
obsessive police photographer, reopens the case, unearthing family secrets in a dark and disturbing novel where no
one is what they seem…
Iris Baudry is a forensic photographer. Available night and day, she is called to crime scenes to immortalize
the victims’ tortured bodies. Iris is discreet, obsessive and determined. She shoots corpses by the dozen to try to erase
the image of her own son, who had been brutally murdered 11 years earlier. Henry Witkin, the scion of a long and
chaotic line of unwed mothers, is a discreet serial killer who skins his victims carefully, grasping for the comforting
contact of his mother’s skin. When a child’s body is found in the home town she has fled, attention à la vo, ‘fui’ au
lieu de ‘fuit’, Iris is forced to return to the scene of her worst nightmare, the unbearable place where her son died, and
where her wicked witch of a mother still has some hideous secrets buried deep within her insane mind.
Maud Mayeras leads readers through the unpredictable plot with perfect mastery. A disturbing police
procedural that is neither hackneyed nor flashy, and which has a very unexpected ending. A psycho-thriller that’s
impossible to put down!
Maud Mayeras is 30 years old; REFLEX is her second novel, after the noteworthy HEMATOME (2006), the
winner of several awards for detective fiction.
Rights sold to: Turkey (Pegasus), the Netherlands (De Bezige Bij/Cargo)
French pocket rights sold after an auction (Pocket)!
“Réflex”, paru chez Anne Carrière, est le deuxième et excellent thriller de la jeune Limougeaude, Maud
Mayeras. Elle y développe suspens, ambiance sombre mais aussi une belle écriture, percutante et inventive. (...) Cela
ajoute encore à son histoire bien ficelée, originale et prenante." Le Populaire
"Dans le monde de Maud Mayeras, la première impression est rarement la bonne et le vrai coupable jamais
celui que l'on pense (...). Un thriller hors-pair qui se lit d'une seule traite avec la peur au ventre et l'horreur dans les
yeux. " À-Lire.info
"Exceptionnel. Absolument diabolique." Gérard Collard, Le Magazine de la Santé.
"En étant tout en sensation, ce roman fait appel à tous vos sens et particulièrement à la vue. Les images de
Reflex, un thriller sensoriel, resteront un long moment dans l'esprit du lecteur." Plume Libre
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Tuil, Karine: L’INVENTION DE NOS VIES
(Grasset, August 2013, 496 pages)
65 000 copies sold in France !
Longlisted for Prix Goncourt, Prix Femina
!
“You can go very far with a lie, but you can’t come back,” goes the old Yiddish proverb underlying this
novel’s tempo and extraordinary construction, where one secret always hides another.
From New York to Paris, from the up-scale neighbourhoods of the French Capital to the wastelands of the
periphery, Karine Tuil takes us on a humorous odyssey through society. L’Invention de nos vies is an epic and unique
work which, not unlike Saul Bellow’s Herzog, brings the reader face-to-face with his/her own lies.
What drives Sam Tahar to keep going? Money, luxury goods, a lovely marriage to the daughter of a powerful
man, success with women, recognition from the New York State Bar, where this fearsome lawyer practices, or his
numerous appearances on TV? Sam has got it all… so what more does he want? To forget, maybe. Because his
success is based on a lie: he made his fortune by ransacking the life of his once best friend, Samuel Baron, a failed
writer, son of Jewish intellectuals, who slowly wastes away in an explosive inner city, and whose only consolation is
the beautiful and gentle Nina, a model for department store catalogues.
These three were close friends twenty years ago. And when they meet again, after the suspense pulls the
reader through to the last page, everything explodes. Nina prostitutes her beauty while believing she can love again.
Sam’s past catches up with him: his real name is Samir, the son of Muslim immigrants, raised in the council estate. As
for his old friend Samuel, the loser… he manages to turn things around.
Rights sold for this title: German (Aufbau), Netherlands (De Bezige). Rights sold for previous works: Italian
(Voland)
“How could you not fall for this nearly 500 page novel about the failures of our society? […] a huge success.
Unquestionably one of the season’s best. […] Masterful.” Paris Match
“Karine Tuil has succeeded in creating a work of great magnitude with L’Invention de nos vies. It envelops
the complexity of our world, mixes it around, describes it, dissects it, and, finally, helps us to understand it. We often
rave about great foreign writers – as we well should –, but France has a truly talented author in this young novelist
[…]. In terms of literary merit, L’Invention de nos vies is simply full of ideas (…), a singular voice, and a feverish,
convulsive tone.” Le Figaro
“From [...] her first novel […], Karine Tuil has built a powerful and unique body of work that has gone far
too unnoticed. In 2013, applause is now bursting forth – this is her resurgence.” Elle
Bayard, Pierre: IL EXISTE D'AUTRES MONDES
(Minuit, February 2014, 160 pages)
!
A new book, in the same vein as the preceding ones, that toys with paradoxes.
!
A book that is crammed with fascinating literary and scientific references. The narrator invites readers to
revise their classics.
!
An unsettling reading experience: readers get caught in a cleverly set trap.
Pierre Bayard, author of the best-selling COMMENT PARLER DES LIVRES QUE L’ON N’A PAS LUS, is
back with another one of those wonderfully insightful books that are his specialty.
This one is on the cusp between fiction and non-fiction. In IL EXISTE D'AUTRES MONDES, he takes as
his subject the theory of parallel worlds that so many writers have explored, then uses that as a lens through which to
examine the life of certain authors and artists whose sensitivity and imagination are heightened.
In IL EXISTE D'AUTRES MONDES, Pierre Bayard tries to convince his readers that different worlds – the
“other worlds” of the title – really do exist, and that these parallel worlds are where artists find their inspiration. While
the book reads like a serious essay, it is actually a sophisticated literary hoax. The method is simple: each section
develops one idea. The author draws on everything from quantum physics, psychology and literature to experiences
from daily life as well as from TV series. He supports his arguments with in-depth analysis and plenty of examples.
Delving into the text is both enlightening and entertaining; the analyses and comments are brilliantly
unexpected. It is an active read. Granted, readers are being manipulated, but they get their eyes opened as well: they
learn a lot and are forced to think for themselves. This is truly a euphoria-inducing book.
Reading IL EXISTE D'AUTRES MONDES is a literary experience; like Borges, the author enjoys leading
readers into confusion.
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Pierre Bayard is both a professor of literature at the University Paris VIII and a psychoanalyst. He has had
many non-fiction books published, including the best-selling COMMENT PARLER DES LIVRES QUE L'ON A PAS
LUS (rights sold in 12 languages: Korea, Holland, Germany, Norway, Russia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland,
China, Japan, USA, UK and Brasil).
Blondel, Jean-Philippe: 06:41
(Editions Buchet Chastel/Libella, January 2013, 224 pages)
Cécile Duffaut has just spent a weekend at her parents’ place in Troyes. Neither her husband nor her daughter
would come with her. The old folks are too boring. Despite two days of silence and incomprehension, she stayed over
on Sunday night anyway! On Monday morning, furious with herself, she is waiting impatiently for the 6:41 train to
Paris.
A few feet away, Philippe Leduc is pacing. He’s waiting for the 6:41 too. An atypical day is starting for him,
he’ll let the office know later. He is thinking that he could disappear. No one’s expecting him. He’s divorced. His
children are indifferent. He’s lost touch with his friends. Well, not all of them, because this journey is to go see
Matthieu, his childhood friend.
For once, the train is on time. Everyone shoves there way on board, and the train pulls away. Philippe Leduc
wanders through the cars and finally finds an empty seat. Right next to Cécile Duffaut. They recognize each other
right away, but they act like nothing’s up…
You’ll find everything that makes Jean-Philippe Blondel’s novels so enjoyable in 6:41. Empathy for his
characters – for their oversights, their compromises, their paths and their hesitations. A sensitive evocation of fates
that could be our own. Welcome on board!
They had been lovers once, but they broke up long ago. They had never forgotten each other, even though
they’d never seen each other again. Chance and the 6:41 train for Paris brought them together that morning…
A teacher in Troyes, Jean-Philippe Blondel’s novels for adults and teens have been published by Actes Sud.
Amongst those published by Buchet Chastel, LE BABY-SITTER, G229 (Virgin Prize - Version femina and 15,000
copies sold) and ET RESTER VIVANT were particularly successful. Sales of Jean-Philippe Blondel’s previous
books:
Rights sold to: Espagne (La Esfera de los Libros), Germany (Deuticke (Hanser Verlag), Italy (Einaudi)
“Habile récit à deux voix sur la destinée et les hasards qui parfois en décident, ludique, piquant, romanesque
et vivant, 06H41 ouvre grand le champ des possibles.” L’Hebdo
“Jean-Philippe Blondel dévoile avec humour et bienveillance les failles de ses personnages terriblement
normaux. Et confirme que la vie se charge toujours de redistribuer les cartes.” Point de Vue
“L’auteur de ET RESTER VIVANT revient avec un roman sensible et des personnages toute en sobriété, que
l’on quitte à regret au terminus.” Télé 7 Jours
Bichet, Yves: L’HOMME QUI MARCHE
(Mercure de France, January 2014, 174 pages)
6,000 copies already sold in France since January!
Longlisted for the 2014 Prix Femina!
!
A metaphysical suspense novel offering an insight into man’s animal nature, the potential existence of a
god, and the beauty of nature.
!
A poetical narrative that dignifies the freedom of vagabonds and poets, walking on the edges of society.
!
A vivid style that juggles between naturalist descriptions and a lyric melancholy.
In his 9th novel, Yves Bichet depicts fierce yet silent characters who, standing against the gusty winds,
remind us that freedom is a sweet madness.
Robert Coublevie used to be a monitor at a highschool in the South of France. But he was also unwillingly
poor, cuckolded by his wife, enduring a harsh life and yet finding consolation in his melancholic walks. His life
changed dramatically five years ago, when his wife went away. Since then, he walks with his female dog on the crest
between France and Italy, above the village of Briançon. He never crosses the frontier, or goes down the Italian side.
When he doesn’t spend the night in the mountain, he sleeps in some disused locals in the village, where he also has
habits at the local bar, « Le Café du Nord ».
There he can find Sylvain Taliano, the owner, Camille, his daughter, Mounir, the taciturn bartender. Their
life seems well-ordered, without any unexpected event. But only until Tissot’s arrival, a « stranger » with the
peculiarity of being a customs officer. Soon enough, Tissot is found dead... Accident or murder? With his usual
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detachment, Robert Coublevie will investigate and discover heavy family secrets. Must he reveal them or take justice
into his own hands?
Yves Bichet wrote numerous collections of poems and novels, including RESPLANDY (2010) and LA
PART ANIMALE (Gallimard, 1994), which was adapted in a movie with Niels Arestrup as the lead.
"En accompagnant son chemineau, qui préfère l'odeur des gentianes de printemps à toute autre chose, Yves
Bichet réussit un roman hybride et fascinant. L'histoire d'un homme qui a tout compris: la beauté de la nature,
l'impureté des hommes et la possibilité d'un dieu." Télérama
"Un texte poétique et incarné, mystérieux et vibrant, où l'on s'attache aux pas d'un être balloté par la vie.
Robert Coublevie est un être en marge de la société, mais jamais coupé du monde des humains. Assurément l'une des
plus grandes réussites d'Yves Bichet." Livres-hebdo
"Peu à peu se dévoilent les secrets de ce polar métaphysique. Prêtant au marcheur des cimes un
miséricordieux pas de côté, Yves Bichet mène son vibrant récit vers un épilogue imprévu. On ne lit pas sans trouble ce
roman splendidement noir, mais plein d'énigmes et de bonté." Le Monde des Livres
Duteurtre, Benoît: L'ORDINATEUR DU PARADIS
(Gallimard, August 2014 224 pages)
Long-listed for Goncourt prize 2014
!
After La Petite Fille et la cigarette, translated throughout the world, Benoît Duteurtre returns to his
penchant for the fantastic, combining realism and imagination, the better to cast light on the present.
Surveillance reigns in Paradise, where a new arrival, just recently deceased, discovers the norms of hygiene
and security now established for eternal life. At the same time, on earth, a plan to penalize pornographic images
perturbs the tranquil existence of Simon Laroche, a senior civil servant who is panicked at the thought that his
escapades on the internet will be discovered
In this society-fictitious, but only just-- where the networks are going all wrong, two youths from the suburbs
choose a unique-and ridiculous-form of resistance to the established order. An intrigue, fed by all the fears of the era,
alternates with the kindly interventions of the great Saint Peter.
Journalist and writer, Benoît Duteurtre was born in 1960. Éditions Gallimard has previously published his
works LE VOYAGE EN FRANCE (2001), SERVICE CLIENTÈLE (2003), LA REBELLE (2004), LES PIEDS
DANS L'EAU (2008) and L'ÉTÉ 76 (2011). A few previous titles were published by Azbooka.
Leclair, Bertrand: LE VERTIGE DANOIS DE PAUL GAUGUIN
(Actes Sud, February 2014, 192 pages)
!
A dizzying plunge into the suffering spirit of a budding artist.
!
Both a biographical novel and the account of an investigation, the search for a legendary artist whose
reputation is considered scandalous even now, over a century after his death.
!
A stunning style that recreates both the distress and the passion of a beleaguered being.
In this astonishing investigation, Bernard Leclair restitutes six months in the life of Paul Gauguin – a period
of doubt, heartbreak and artistic growth in the city of Copenhagen.
Obliged to join his wife and their five children in Copenhagen in November, 1884, Gauguin isn’t the
Gauguin yet, but, confronted with the hostility he inspires both in academic circles in this conservative city and within
his own family, he will become that man.
On the trail of one of the world’s most beloved painters, Bertrand Leclair draws on archive materials,
pictorial analysis and empathy to represent the distress of a man torn between his family and his art, and to highlight
the paradoxes behind the legend: devoted father and egotistical artist, haughty provocateur and insecure painter
desperate for recognition. The hero who sacrificed everything for the sake of painting, and the man who abandoned
his wife and children to spread syphilis across Polynesia.
With his ample sentences, the author draws us into the world of a character who is still resistant to critical
and biographical discourse.
Bertrand Leclair is a French writer of fiction, non-fiction and plays.
“Cette parenthèse danoise de Gauguin ressemble à un purgatoire avant l’éclosion. […] Magistral roman sur
l’entre-deux.” Libération
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“Un roman qui donne à la personnalité de Gauguin de plus en plus de grandeur […] Les lecteurs qui ne
jugent le peintre que d’après ses tableaux, et non d’après son tempérament, son invités à se rendre sans retard chez
leur libraire.” La Marseillaise
“Très documenté sur son sujet, l’auteur […] redessine avec une écriture nette et limpide le premier exil d’un
Gauguin tiraillé entre deux exigences contradictoires et incompatibles.” Livres Hebdo
Scherrer, Pierre-Emmanuel: LA DEFENSE FISCHER
(Denoël, November 2013, 224 pages)
! The fascinating story of Robert James Fischer the most famous chess player who ever lived, who experienced
everything from fame and fortune to poverty, exile and torture; from love to prison and loneliness.
! An original point of view that puts a new twist on the life of the world’s most famous chess player.
! An obsessive writing style that sucks readers into experiencing the main character’s paranoid delusion.
! A novel that makes you want to learn more about this secretive and paradoxical personality.
Pierre-Emmanuel Scherrer invents the last months of the life of Robert James Fischer, a controversial 20thcentury character who is generally considered to be the greatest chess player who ever lived. A disorienting plunge
into the twisted psyche of an obsessive and paranoid genius.
Fall 2007, a man is wandering through the streets of Reykjavik by night. The man is Bobby Fischer, and he’s
convinced that he is being followed by an elusive man in red, who has been hovering around his entourage for weeks.
Fischer is tramping through the streets in an attempt to identify the ghostly figure who keeps eluding him, and who
could as easily be an FBI, Mossad, or KGB agent as a former challenger for the title of World Chess Champion.
The author draws us into the paranoid delusion of a man who is cracking up – both physically and
psychologically. The attention paid to each minute detail reflects the obsessiveness of a brilliant but tormented mind
for which chess is a metaphor for the world, and most of the time, the world is no more than a metaphor for chess.
A fascinating novel that reinterprets the events and scandals that marked Bobby Fischer’s life, as seen
through the prism of his obsessions and his persecution complex.
Pierre-Emmanuel Scherrer was born in 1976. He lives and works in the South of France. His first novel,
DESERT PEARL HOTEL, was published by Éditions de la Table Ronde in 2010.
Echenoz, Jean: CAPRICE DE LA REINE
(Minuit, March 2014, 127 pages)
!
In a chiseled, literary style, Jean Echenoz takes us on a stroll through different places and periods, while
posing questions about the passage of time and how mankind effects the environment.
!
With an inimitable sense of humor, Jean Echenoz portrays ancient cities and famous queens as well as
more modern places, like airports.
These seven short stories and experimental narratives by Jean Echenoz were published in various journals
between 2002 and 2014; they have been brought together in this volume.
The stories have no connecting thread, yet there is coherence among them. We jump from Admiral Nelson to
Babylon and Herodotus, with a stopover to admire the portraits of 20 important French queens before tagging along
with a narrator obsessed with the idea of going to have a sandwich in Le Bourget as he strolls observantly through
modern-day Paris. That last story stands alone for its contemporary setting. The narrator – none other than the author
himself – leaves Paris proper in order to accept the challenge of eating a sandwich in the suburbs. A pretext for taking
a good look at the city and how it has changed, while offering observations about the landscape, transportation and
urbanism.
A writer and screenwriter, Jean Echenoz has published twelve books and has been awarded numerous literary
prizes, including the Prix Medicis in 1983 for CHEROKEE and the Prix Goncourt in 1999 for JE M’EN VAIS. His
books have been translated in more than 15 countries. His novel COURIR sold over 75,000 copies in France, and
translation rights have been sold to: the US (New Press), Italy (Adelphi), Germany (Berlin Verlag), Spain
(Anagrama), Norway (Aschehoug), Greece (Polis), the Netherlands (De Geus), Portugal (Objetiva), Brazil
(Alfaguara), Finland (Tammi), Denmark (Per Kofod), Czech Republic (Mlada Fronta), Poland (Noir sur Blanc), China
(Art et Litterature du Hunan), Korea (Open Books) and Turkey (Kitap Yayinevi).
“Jean Echenoz se penche sur la Grande Guerre, embrassant la tragedie en quelque cent vingt pages d’une
bouleversante beaute. Un grand livre.” Télérama
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“Dans 14, le prodigieux Echenoz, raconte quatre annees de la Grande Guerre, des tranchees au village
vendeen où une femme attend le retour de deux mobilises. (…) Leur histoire toute petite rejoindra la grande avant de
se perdre dans l’anonymat, comme les milliers de carnets de guerre grifonnes par les poilus. Elle se lit, s’ecoute, se
voit et se touche par la beaute des mots de l’ecrivain, simples, neufs et implacables.” La Croix
“Maîtrisant une ecriture aussi stylisee qu’elliptique, sans jamais se departir de son sens du detail, de son
elegance ni de son esprit, Jean Echenoz signe un de ses textes les plus graves et les plus beaux” Page
“14 est un texte les plus forts de cette rentree qui pourtant n’en manque pas. Le confirmation que Jean
Echenoz fait partie du petit club des (très) grand ecrivains.” Page
Toussaint, Jean-Philippe: NUE
(Minuit, August 2013, 176 pages)
! The final chapter in a passionate, exciting love story roaming from Tokyo to the Isle of Elba to Paris.
! Marie, a fascinating and emblematic character, bares her all, taking on a clearly defined shape by the end of
this book cycle devoted to her.
! A chiseled style focusing on the delicately elusive atmosphere of different places and on the changes in the
seasons that mirror the characters’ feelings.
! This intimate personal story is skillfully portrayed in a in a way that feels accurate, credible and universal.
The continuing romantic adventures of Marie unfold to the rhythm of the seasons. NUE, the fourth and last
volume, opens in Paris in the autumn, after the narrator and Marie’s stay on the Isle of Elba – an ephemeral halcyon
moment after their break up, which took place several months earlier. The return to daily life leaves things up in the
air, but affords the narrator the thrill of hoping that the relationship will soon pick up where it left off. Absent in the
first half of the novel, Marie is all the more present in that she appears only in memories invoked to help the narrator
await her hoped-for return. Then suddenly she appears, and with her, NUE takes a livelier, gentler turn. The two
lovers’ second visit to Elba is a study in contrasts with the preceding one, and it bares Marie’s all, exposing the
exceptional being as an ordinary woman: complex and fragile. This transformation establishes a happy ending, and
the novel finishes with the announcement that Marie is pregnant. The arrival of this third person, who creates a bond
between Marie and the narrator, allows the couple to envisage the future both more concretely and more serenely, too.
Jean-Philippe Toussaint is a writer and a filmmaker. His novels, which have all been published by Editions
de Minuit and have been translated into some 20-odd languages, include LA SALLE DE BAIN (1985), LA
TELEVISION (1997, Prix Victor Rossel), FAIRE L’AMOUR (2002), FUIR (2005, Prix Medicis). LA VERITE SUR
MARIE (2009, Prix Decembre). NUE is the 4th and final volume in the series about Marie.
Rights sold: Germany, Offers from: Italy, Spain and USA.
“La réussite de NUE est telle qu’on peut lire ce roman sans connaître les trois précédents.” Le Nouvel
Observateur
“Jean-Philippe Toussaint est] connu pour faire naître l’apparente simplicité de ses textes d’un long travail.”
Le Monde
“Jean-Philippe Toussaint clôt en beauté sa tétralogie sur Marie.” Le Monde
“Marie […] présente ou absente - attendue, espérée - occupe tout l’espace.” Télérama
“Le quatrième volet d’un grand roman d’amour à la grâce limpide.” Télérama
“NUE évolue, comme les trois autres volets, dans des espaces vidés par l’élégance. Marie est parfaite dans
ses moindres gestes, ses absences, ses caprices.” Libération
“Toussaint a un art efficace et discret de la composition : des scènes pâles, d’une texture presque
transparente…” Libération
“C’est un amour d’aujourd’hui, du début du XXIe siècle […] mais c’est aussi un amour intemporel, que
bercent les saisons et que mettent à l’épreuve les déchaînements immémoriaux de la nature…” Le Nouvel
Observateur
Gallay, Claudie: UNE PART DU CIEL
(Actes Sud, August 2013, 446 pages)
! An affectionate, melancholic novel about childhood, the wounds of the past, the unspoken, searching for who
you are, and finding your place in your family.
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! An insightful and poetical style that gets up close and personal to the characters and places, and reveals their
deepest feelings. A book about everyday life and the repetition of simple yet meaningful acts.
! The characters are moving, flaws and all. They must cope with both the weight of the past and their hopes for
the future as they try to understand each other despite their differences, and the passing of time.
Carole, who has gone back to the little village where she grew up for the holidays, tries to reestablish a bond
with her brother and sister, as they wait for their father, who asked them all to come.
The past rears its head, especially the tragic night in their childhood when their house caught fire and their
mother was forced to choose to rescue just two of her three children.There’s no news from their father, and the
siblings’ attempts at conversation are awkward at this first family reunion in years. Although Philippe and Gaby have
a lot in common and understand each other well, Carole can’t shake off her role as the one who left the others behind,
and who asks too many questions. She winds up going back to her own life in January, without ever having seen her
father.
After the bestselling LES DEFERLANTES, Claudie Gallay delivers another moving and intensely personal
tale whose atmosphere is set by the siblings’ mutual affection.
Born in 1961, Claudie Gallay has had six novels published by Editions du Rouergue since the year 2000.
They have all been released in paperback by Babel as well. Her 2008 novel, LES DEFERLANTES received the
Grand Prix des lectrices de ELLE and sold over 600,000 copies. In 2010, L’AMOUR EST UNE ÎLE was published
by Actes Sud.
“On le sait, la famille et ses non-dits, la transmission, consciente ou non, les casseroles qu'on se trimballe de
génération en génération sont un formidable moteur romanesque. Tout comme la notion de terre, la puissance
fictionnelle du microcosme des origines. On le sait, oui, mais Claudie Gallay le met joliment en émotions, sans jamais
tomber dans l'affectation.” Le Point.fr
“Un univers âpre et mélancolique, à la fois hyperréaliste et intimiste jusqu'à la grâce.”
“Des cabossés vivant à coup d'expédients. Des mal-aimés qui tentent d'aimer quand même. Claudie Gallay
pose sur eux un regard profondément juste et bouleversant.” La Vie
Le Callet, Blandine: DIX RÊVES DE PIERRE
(Stock, January 2013, 256 pages) 20 500 copies sold in France !
!
Poetic or raging, tender or dramatic, nostalgic or darkly humorous, these ten short stories depict people
who are prey to the same passions, the same fears and the same hopes.
!
Ten “dreams in stone” to save as many lives from oblivion.
!
Some epitaphs are powerfully evocative; reading them conjures the ghost of someone who may have died
even centuries ago.
In this collection Blandine Le Callet brings together real epitaphs, using them as springboards to imagine the
final hours, final days or final months of the person’s life. She resuscitates a slave girl who has just been granted
freedom, a philanthropist trapped in the stifling secrecy of a Paris brothel, two individuals united by an extraordinary
love as they head for the gallows, a cantankerous old woman writing her will, and many more besides
Ten lives interrupted by death: gentle or violent, sudden or anticipated, alone or with others. Ten journeys
between the past and the present, from the shores of ancient Asia Minor to a tiny village in deepest Brittany, from the
Paris of the Ancien Régime to the same city in the nineteenth century, from medieval Normandy to Ukrainian plains
devastated by the plague...
Blandine Le Callet was born in 1969. She is a senior lecturer at the Paris-XII university and carries out
research in ancient philosophy and Latin literature, on monsters in ancient Rome (her essay, ROME ET SES
MONSTRES, was published in 2005 by Editions J. Millon). She lives near Paris. Her first novel, UNE PIÈCE
MONTÉE, enjoyed great critical and popular acclaim in 2006 and was awarded the Livre de Poche Readers’ Prize in
2007. It was adapted for the screen in March 2010: “Pièce montée”. Her second novel, THE BALLAD OF LILA K
(Stock, 2010) was awarded the Livre de Poche Readers’ Prize in 2012
Rights sold: Estonia (Eesti Raamat), Poland (Wydawnctwo Sonia).
de Castro, Eve: LE ROI DES OMBRES
(Robert Laffont, October 2012, 320 pages)
45 000 copies sold in France
!
It took thousands of behind-the-scenes-people to keep the monarchy running. This is their untold story.
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The underbelly of Versailles is exposed in this powerful story of love and betrayal. Louis XIV’s Versailles
was built around spectacle: 20,000 people at all levels of the food chain were required to keep the monarchy
functioning. This is the adventure of those whose story has not been told: those in the shadows who tended to the
sprawling grounds, to every room, to the minutiae. Though they barely existed to those whom they served, this
narrative shows they did not go unnoticed: like Nine la Vienne, the wigmaker who was too ambitious for her time, or
Baptiste le Jongleur, the apprentice hanged for treason. The fates of these servants are inextricable from the fate of
Louis XIV and his brother Philippe d’Orléans. A unique exploration of Versailles from another angle altogether.
Eve de Castro has written numerous books and is also a screenwriter
Rights sold: Germany (Bastei Lubbe Gmbh), Spain (Random House Mondadori), Italy (Rcs Libri) Poland
(Albatros)
“Eve de Castro, qui connaît son affaire, multiplie les coups de théâtre et trousse une intrigue de haut vol,
sans jamais s' essouffler malgré la cavalcade.” Echos
“Connaissant tous les secrets du Grand Siècle, de Histoire à la vie quotidienne sans oublier les alcôves, Eva
Castro campe de magnifiques personnages dans un décor vivant.” Vers Femina
“La plume de la romancière est alerte, sa langue élégante, son intrigue documentée, efficace et prenante.”
Le Figaro
Villani, Cédric: THÉORÈME VIVANT
75.000 copies sold in France
!
The brilliant young mathematician Cédric Villani recounts the gradual dawning of the theorem that
earned him the 2010 Fields Medal – the equivalent of a Nobel Prize for mathematics. Can Cédric Villani
do for maths what Brian Cox has done for physics?
THÉORÈME VIVANT is an enthralling account of one man’s determination to solve a mathematical riddle
that had hitherto stymied all those who had tackled it. Cédric Villani spent years working on the problem until finally,
one day, he cracked it. This fictional account of the process follows the brilliant young researcher as he travels the
world in search of the answer, from Tokyo to New York and from Berkeley to Hyderabad. The account is interspersed
with feverish emails to his fellow researchers, lines from songs hummed as he works, and the fantastical tales of
adventure that he makes up for his young children, who accompany him wherever he goes. Gradually, light begins to
shine on the revolutionary theorem that is to earn Cédric Villani his place in history.
THÉORÈME VIVANT is by no means a beginner’s guide to mathematics. It is a breathless, thrilling tale of
adventure, interspersed with fascinating portraits of some of the greatest minds in mathematics. Villani explains his
dazzling equations with a child-like enthusiasm that proves highly infectious. Forget the dull arithmetic lessons you
had at school – Cédric Villani is about to convince you of the magic, beauty, and poetry of maths.
Cédric Villani was born in 1973. He is professor of mathematics at the University of Lyon. He was awarded
the Fields Medal in 2010 – the equivalent of a Nobel Prize.
Rights sold: German (Fischer Verlag), Italian (Rizzoli), Japanese (Hayakawa), Korean (Bookhouse), Dutch
(Arbeiderspers), Romanian (Humanitas), Serbian (Center for the Promotion of Science), English: UK, Australia and
NZ (Random House for The Bodley Head), USA (Farrar, Straus & Giroux).
“Cédric Villani is, like all mathematicians, a poet of necessities (…) The subject of this life, of this fate, of
this book, is freshness – perpetual inventiveness.” Le Figaro Littéraire
“The prestigious French mathematician has published Théorème vivant, the story of an adventurer in
equations, the novel of a researcher…who makes very frequent discoveries. A fascinating book.” Le Nouvel
Observateur
Marchal, Eric: LE SOLEIL SOUS LA SOIE
(Anne Carrière, November 2011, 600 pages)
100,000 copies sold in France
Here is the epic tale of a land, an era and a profession, based on actual documented cases from those times. In
the closing years of the 17th century, one of the smallest states in Europe, the Duchy of Lorraine, is recovering from
French occupation and various wars, hoping to enjoy a generation of peace. Nicolas Déruet is a travelling surgeon.
His life takes a turn the day he meets Marianne Pajot, a midwife in the city of Nancy.
Imprisoned after an operation that the patient did not survive, Nicolas is forced into the coalition forces,
which are fighting a war against the Turks. From the Lorraine countryside to the Hungarian steppes, from abandoned
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hovels to gilded palaces, Nicolas’s extraordinary destiny is driven by both love and a fierce ambition to revolutionise
medicine.
Eric Marchal is 45 years old. He is the author of INFLUENZA (PRIX CARREFOUR SAVOIRS 2009), a
historical series paced like a spy / adventure story, in which a young doctor is called up during the Second World War
to investigate the secret causes of the 1918 Spanish flu.
Rights sold to: Spain (Grijalbo/Random House). Paperback rights and Club rights sold (France Loisirs et
Grand Livre du Mois)
“Eric Marchal signe avec ce livre un grand roman d’aventure parcourant toute l’Europe de l’époque. L’un
des meilleurs livres historiques depuis LES PILIERS DE LA TERRE de Ken Follet.” Le Mutaliste
“Ce roman d’aventure est également placé sous le signe de l’amour.” Le Figaro Littéraire
“Une fantastique fresque sur les balbutiements de la médecine moderne.” Pleine Vie
“Le considérable travail de recherches mené ici par Eric Marchal débouche sur un copieux roman, au
souffle généreux .” Le Républicain Lorrain
“Un roman divertissant, aux allures de feuilleton chirurgical et sentimental.” L’Estrade
Fontanel, Sophie: L’ENVIE
(Robert Laffont, September 2011, 162 pages)
75,000 copies sold in France !!
Like a Bridget Jones for the middle-aged set, Fontanel shares real-life situations that are absolutely relatable,
and at times bittersweet and hilarious. From the very first sentence, she embarks on a taboo subject -- her decision
not to have sex for a certain period of time – and takes the reader along for a great ride. This decision puts Fontanel in
unique situations that she daringly expresses in a series of heartening vignettes. Both men and women are sure to see a
bit of themselves in Sophie Fontanel’s reality.
Sophie Fontanel is a novelist and journalist for Elle. Following the critical and commercial success of 2010’s
GRANDIR (50,000 copies sold), Sophie Fontanel confirms her voice and style with L’ENVIE.
Rights sold to: Germany (Goldmann), Spain (Lumen), Italy (Rizolli), Netherland (Artemis/Ambo Anthos),
Turkey (Once Kitap), USA (Scribner)
Quint, Michel: EN DÉPIT DES ÉTOILES
(Editions Héloïse d’Ormesson, January 2013, 281 pages)
!
After his best-selling EFFROYABLES JARDINS, Michel Quint is back with a spell-binding murder
mystery combining an exciting investigation with a love story and a realistic portrait of a family.
The narrator, Jules Gileron, 32, works for his uncle, aunt and mother as the handyman for their real-estate
agency in Lille, in the north of France. Sébastien Arnoux, a young player on Lille’s pro soccer team who rented a loft
through the agency, has disappeared. Jules hears about it through the player’s sister, Lisa, while he’s doing some
renovation work in her apartment. Taken with the young woman, he helps her search for her brother, with the help of
Emma, Jules’s cousin, a lesbian lawyer. Sébastien had been living a raffish existence, filled with one-night stands and
swinging sex parties. His body is found floating in the Deûle River. Convinced that Sébastien was murdered, Jules
worries about who might be next. Then Gianni, an Italian student who had shown Sébastien his research into
corruption in pro soccer, disappears too. He too, is found dead in the Deûle. A mafia affair is exposed. Emma is
murdered next. The daughter of a retiree, who ran a nightclub and was involved in prostitution, is the guilty party.
Once again, Michel Quint presents us with an action-packed, fast-paced novel that will guide readers through
the seamy side of Lille, in the footsteps of our ironic but touching narrator-guide.
In this story about families, love and murder investigations, the author skillfully distills an ironic but forceful
critique of the ambition, double-dealing, hypocrisy, rumors and jealousy that swirl through its pages. Michel Quint
offers us a well-written novel full of humor and sensitivity – with characters that are both funny and touching – that
goes beyond the simple murder mystery to provide us with an entertaining and moving slice of life.
Michel Quint, born in 1949 in the Pas de Calais region, lives in Lille. He has written some 30 books,
published by Fleuve Noir, Joëlle Losfeld, Rivages, Gallimard, Stock and Perrin. He was awarded the Grand Prize for
Detective Novels in 1989. His best-selling novel EFFROYABLES JARDINS, published in 2000 by Joëlle Losfeld,
was made into a movie by Jean Becker in 2003. This is his second novel published by Eho, after LES AMANTS DE
FRANCFORT in 2011.
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“Michel Quint brosse le portrait d'une ville en proie à la peur, et d'une société désenchantée... Il concocte ses
phrases entre poésie urbaine et rugosité parfois gouailleuse, passant sans cesse de la lumière à l'ombre. Une enquête
haletante.” La Voix du Nord
“Le romancier fait des eaux-fortes et froides qui échauffent le sang et glacent les coeurs. Michel Quint
revient à ses premières amours : Lille et le roman noir. Le livre combine, comme il sait si bien le faire, la poésie
géographique et le suspense.” Direct Matin Lille Plus
“Suspense au scénario implacable, En dépit des étoiles est un roman épatant.” Le Soir
Maalouf, Amin: LES DÉSORIENTÉS
95.000 copies sold in France!
!
Amin Maalouf’s long-awaited new novel marks his return to the land of his birth and to the themes he has
long held dear – exile, identity, and the clash of cultures and beliefs. It builds a bridge between two distant
shores, two very different worlds, that come together in his writing: East and West.
Adam is a much-admired historian. He is living in exile in Paris, far from the homeland that he fled twentyfive years ago. He has fought long and hard to forget his childhood memories, but one night, one phone call, is all it
takes to bring them rushing back. Mourad, his closest childhood friend, is dying. His final wish is to see Adam and
heal the rift that has arisen between them since an argument decades before. Adam immediately throws a few clothes
in a suitcase and takes the first flight out.
A few hours later, he is back home after decades of absence. Adam takes lodgings with Sémiramis, drawn by
her beauty, while he takes stock of the past. What has become of his childhood friends? One is a moderate Muslim,
another an engineer turned monk; a third is a successful businessman, while a fourth has become a corrupt politician.
They have all taken different paths in life, and some have blood on their hands.
But who is Adam to judge? Were his choices any wiser? Was exile a luxury that allowed him to remain aloof
from the difficulties his friends had no choice but to face? Adam learns that courage is not always to be found where
he thinks it is. Life, love, and friendship, ideals and compromises, politics, desire, and betrayal – Adam can no longer
avoid staring these issues in the face, having averted his gaze for quarter of a century.
Amin Maalouf was born in 1949. His novels include LE ROCHER DE TANIOS (Goncourt 1993), LE
PÉRIPLE DE BALDASSARE (2000), and ORIGINES (2004); he has also published works of non-fiction including
LES IDENTITÉS MEURTRIÈRES (1998) and LE DÉRÈGLEMENT DU MONDE (2009). Major international
literary voice, he was granted the prestigious Prince of Asturias Award for Literature in 2010.
Rights sold: Portuguese (Brazil: Bertrand), Greek (Patakis), Hungarian (Europa), German (Arche), Italian
(Bompiani), Lebanese (Dar Al Farabi), Dutch (De Geus), Norwegian (Pax), Serbian (Laguna), Castilian and Catalan
(Alianza), Turkish (Yapi Kredi).
“Amin Maalouf, gives us a perfect look at the thoughts and feelings that can lead to emigration. One can only
be impressed by the magnitude and the precision of his introspection.” Le Monde des Livres
“His new book, Les Désorientés, marks his return to the novel with fanfare. It is a very endearing book.”
Lire
“A big, exquisite novel about friendship, betrayal, nostalgia, ideals, politics, and the world as it is…” Page
des Libraires
Wolkenstein, Julie: ADÈLE ET MOI
(POL, January 2013, 500 pages)
Shortlisted for the Prix Francoise Sagan 2013
Shortlisted for the Prix France Culture – Telerama 2013
One hundred years separate the two women but the bonds between them exist.
Adèle and Me is a novel about the passage of time. Beyond the love stories, historic tragedies and cultural
mutations, it is above all about memories, nostalgia, what we lose and what we keep of our past and our dead ones.
After the death of her father, a woman, while sorting out his papers, found documents on her greatgrandmother, Adèle, whose existence she had previously ignored. She started to look into these and the novel of a
long life took shape, the saga of a family disrupted by three wars, from the middle of the nineteenth century to the
middle of the twentieth. And it was also to be the revelation of a family secret…
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Julie Wolkenstein was born in 1968. She teaches comparative Literature at the Université de Caen. She is an
author of several novels: L’EXCUSE (2009), HAPPY END (2005), COLLOQUE SENTIMENTAL (2001),
L'HEURE ANGLAISE (2000), JULIETTE OU LA PARESSEUSE (1999).
“Adèle et moi est un roman ardent, rythmé par les allers-retours entre passé et présent, sur un minuscule
bout de lande normande commun aux deux femmes, à un siècle et demi d’intervalle. […] Qu’elle est belle, la manière
dont Julie Wolkenstein remplit les blancs de son enquête fatalement inachevée. Ce qu’on ne peut savoir, elle le
pressent et l’imagine.” Le Nouvel Observateur
“Plus l’étau se resserre sur l’identité d’Adèle, et plus le mystère s’épaissit. C’est la magie de ce roman
déferlant, qui efface toutes les traces qu’il a trouvées, qui submerge et met à nu avec la même constance et la même
puissance. […] Envoûtant.” Télérama
“Fine spécialiste du roman, Julie Wolkenstein en connaît toutes les ficelles qu’elle prend un malin plaisir à
tordre. Avec recul et humour, elle déjoue les conventions du genre pour construire un grand roman autour d’un
secret de famille.” Elle
“Un moment de grâce dans la nuit des souvenirs cruels.” Version Femina
Malzieu, Mathias: LE PLUS PETIT BAISER JAMAIS RECENSÉ
(Flammarion, March 2013, 192 pages)
To cook Les œufs à la neige, take 500 grams of miniature love stories, sprinkle erotic sugar and beat egg
whites with electric humour. Never leave it to settle, then add a pinch of melancholic salt. Les œufs à la neige is a
book that should be eaten. You may find a pancake batter princess or the smallest kiss ever recorded. Singer, writer
and poet, Mathias Malzieu gives free reign to his imagination to write his brief, sensual and hallucinatory texts, in
which dreams are the only limit.
Mathias Malzieu is the dashing singer of the best performing French rock band: Dionysos. With their gold
discs, unforgettable stage performances alongside the greatest acts, Dionysos are the idol of the 15 to 35 year old age
group, who sing along their hits: Song for a Jedi, John McEnroe and Miss Accacia. After La MÉCANIQUE DU
CŒUR (Flammarion, 2007), and MÉTAMORPHOSE EN BORD DE CIEL (Flammarion, 2011), which won huge
international critical and public acclaim, LES ŒUFS À LA NEIGE is his fifth novel.
The Russian rights for LA MÉCANIQUE DU CŒUR are sold to Corpus Publishers
away at the old one,” Franck thinks when he gets to the farm. But in the silent summer centered on
the five-year-old boy, “hammering away” starts to look a lot like reinventing one’s life.
His previous books UV is sold 17,000 copies, L’IDOLE is more than 10,000, and his latest
collection of short stories, COMBIEN DE FOIS JE T’AIME, 7,000 copies.
Olmi, Véronique: LA NUIT EN VÉRITÉ
(Albin Michel, August 2013, 320 pages)
!
Enzo, caught between childish naivety and necessary maturity, is a well-rounded, realistic character that
readers can relate to and admire.
!
Véronique Olmi manages to capture the complexity of Enzo’s world through a combination of realistic
and more poetic writing styles.
!
One of Véronique Olmi’s more surprising novels, along the lines of BORD DE MER.
Enzo is not your typical pre-teen boy. Overweight, solitary and absent-minded, he loves to lose himself in
books and to reinvent the world. He and his mother, a housekeeper, live in her employers’ huge Parisian apartment,
and he attends the excellent local school. But the situation is far from ideal, and Enzo will need a great deal of
emotional maturity to cope with the problems that are about to befall him.
Eleven-year-old Enzo Popov has just entered middle school. His mother, Loubia, 29, is a housekeeper; his
father’s whereabouts are unknown. He and his mom live in a maid’s room in her employers’ apartment. What seemed
to be a lucky break is actually more of a nightmare. Loubia lives in fear of her employers, and with no privacy, the
mother-son relation has to be endlessly reinvented. Enzo handles the situation quite diplomatically. Attentive to his
mother’s needs, he turns a china cupboard into a small bedroom for himself, affording Loubia the privacy she craves
on Saturday nights. In the cupboard, Enzo encounters the ghost of a soldier. This intriguing visit only adds to Enzo’s
endless questions about his origins.
To make matters worse, Enzo doesn’t have any friends at school. The bullying he suffers eventually escalates
into such a brutal attack that he leaves the school for good. Feverish from the blows and the humiliation, he has a
vision in which he meets his grandfather, André, a Russian who came to France to fight the Germans during World
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War I. Her son’s suffering convinces Loubia to quit her job. Mother and son go to build a new life by the sea – one
that will truly be theirs. But first, Enzo needs to find his roots. So he goes to the countryside to see the fort where
André was stationed and where his mother grew up. In an epiphany moment, he finally understands where he comes
from.
Véronique Olmi has written a moving narrative about the search for one’s roots, a mother-son relationship in
an awkward situation, and their clumsy attempts to find a place in a world they don’t feel at home.
After having written several plays, Véronique Olmi’s first novel, BORD DE MER (“Seaside”), published by
Editions Actes Sud, won the Prix Alain Fournier. She went on to write numerous novels for Éditions Grasset and
Actes Sud. LA NUIT EN VÉRITÉ is her second novel for Éditions Albin Michel, after NOUS ÉTIONS FAIT POUR
ÊTRE HEUREUX. Her plays and novels have been translated into many languages.
“Très tenu et fort bien charpenté, LA NUIT EN VERITE est comme toujours une œuvre de tension, de liberté,
et de grande émotion.” Lire
“Un roman d’une tendresse bouleversante, qui proclame l’affirmation radieuse que l’on peut toujours
résister à la violence du monde.” Le Matin Dimanche
“LA NUIT EN VERITE est un magnifique roman d’apprentissage centré sur le personnage d’Enzo Popov,
garçon rondouillard au seuil de l’adolescence et aux marges de la société.” Page
“Véronique Olmi nous livre un roman d’apprentissage, de construction, de résilience tout en sensibilité.”
RFI
Darrieussecq, Marie: CLÈVES
(P.O.L, August 2011, 352 pages)
70,000 copies sold in France !
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
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”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
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
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 80,000 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
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“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)
50 000 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.
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)
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.
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Khadra, Yasmina: L’ÉQUATION AFRICAINE
(Robert Laffont, August 2011, 336 pages)
600 000 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
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.
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
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
15
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.”
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
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
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.
16
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
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
17
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
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)
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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
“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)
19
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
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
20
“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
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
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
21
“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
22
COMMERCIAL FICTION
Sardou, Romain: FRÄULEIN FRANCE
(Editions XO, May 2014, approx.. 320 pages)
Partial English translation available
!
France plays a dangerous and thrilling game in times of war.
In a French village, a large town house is requisitioned. One evening, two drunk men rape the woman of the
house and brutally murder her husband.
In Paris, German soldiers take advantage of la vie Parisienne: the brothels have opened back up. Word gets
around about one of their residents who is causing quite a stir: France is not only drop-dead gorgeous, she is also very
demanding. She and she alone decides which men will have the pleasure of her services. What is she hiding behind
her cold exterior? Nothing that she does is left to chance because she has a master plan driving her forward. With
Paris in the hands of the enemy, she enters into the highest circles of power and mingles with the worst collaborators.
The secret she hides would certainly come as a shock to many... n
Born in 1974 of a long line of artists, Romain Sardou developed a passion at a young age for opera, theatre
and literature. He left the lycée in the year before graduation with the firm intention of becoming a playwright. After
living 2 years in Los Angeles, where he wrote scripts for children, he came back to France and wrote a very successful
first novel FORGIVE US OUR SINS followed by other successful medieval thrillers, contemporary thrillers, as well
as a philosophical novel.
Révay, Thérésa: L’AUTRE RIVE DU BOSPHORE
(Belfond, October 2013, 416 pages)
!
L’AUTRE RIVE DU BOSPHORE is a powerful novel set during the occupation of Istanbul by the Allied
Forces after WWI.
Leyla, a modern, intelligent woman with political ties to the Sultan, is caught between her duty to her family
and her duty to her nation. Her comfortable life with her two children and husband is threatened once the Allies
occupy Istanbul. As her brother and friends fight for survival and the independence of their country, Leyla must find a
way to join the struggle without sacrificing too much in the process.
A distinguished Turkish family in danger, a daring German archaeologist, a French military officer who risks
his reputation in search of love, desperate Russian refugees...
As East meets West, gripping characters bring alive this thorou- ghly researched, moving novel about a
changing world. While a new Turkey rises from the ashes of the dazzling Ottoman Empire, Leyla learns the price she
must pay for her independence and freedom.
Theresa Révay is a European writer with a French twist who has published several novels with Belfond
including LA LOUVE BLANCHE and its sequel TOUS LES RÊVES DU MONDE, both translated into 8 languages
and with combined sales of over 300,000 copies.
Rights sold: Ediciones B (Spain) Der Club Berterlsmann/Golmann (Germany) Turkey-auction in progress
Bourdin, Françoise: SERMENT D’AUTOMNE
(Belfond, March 2012, 308 pages,)
A sensitive and touching novel about the complex relationship between twin brothers by one of France’s
foremost writers of commercial women’s fiction.
Guillaume, a brilliant architect, runs a successful company in Versailles. When his twin brother Robin, a
wine grower in Burgundy, asks for his help, Guillaume joins him for a few days. Robin is gravely ill, suffering from a
cancer, and can’t manage the grape harvest alone. Moreover, his wife is pregnant and will soon give birth… Once
there, Guillaume finally decides to stay even if he has to put aside his thriving professional career and renounce to his
former Parisian life…
A best-selling author in France, Françoise Bourdin has published more than thirty novels at Belfond and is
renown in the realm of French commercial women’s fiction. Her novels have been translated into eleven languages.
The Russian rights for several previous books are sold to Hemiro/Family Leisure Cub.
“Françoise Bourdin signe un drame à la fois contemporain et intemporel.” Le Nouvel Observateur
23
Bourdin, Françoise: D’EAU ET DE FEU
(Belfond, September 2013, 330 pages)
!
The latest blockbuster from mega-selling author Françoise Bourdin set in a Scottish whiskey distillery...
Rivalries, old wounds, revenge, love...D’EAU ET DE FEU is Françoise Bourdin at her best. After travelling
abroad, Scott, 20s, returns to his family’s estate and whiskey distillery stupefied to discover that his authoritative and
aging father Angus has remarried a much younger French woman. Amélie, his new step- mother, has every intention
of marking her territory with her four children in tow – three unruly boys and a teenage girl. As Amélie does her best
to push Scott away, personalities clash and jealousy sets in. The tension mounts over what’s really at stake: who will
inherit the estate and operate the distillery? Each side readies its weapons but an improbable love will blossom and
surprise everyone.
D’EAU ET DE FEU is Françoise Bourdin’s 33rd novel published by Belfond, her publisher of the past 20
years.
Rights sold: Maeva (Spain); the Russian rights for several titles sold to: Family Leisure Club
Van Cauwelaert, Didier: DOUBLE IDENTITÉ
(Albin Michel, April 2012, 245 pages)
In this tremendous adventure story we meet once again the hero of HORS DE MOI, the CIA agent Stephen
Lutz. Stephen Lutz’s cover name is Martin Harris, a famous botanist who fights against multinational firms, guilty of
despoiling the Amazonian Indians by exploiting their sacred plants for profit. After a traumatic brain injury, Stephen
suffers from identity problems and sometimes thinks he really is the scientist. When the real Harris dies, Stephen
decides to continue his battle and sets off to Ecuador with Harris’ widow to lead an investigation. They find
themselves caught up in a cascade of extraordinary adventures before falling in love with one another…
DOUBLE IDENTITÉ is a thriller as well as a romantic novel. With a great sense of humour, in the style of
Indiana Jones, this book evokes scientific questions about earth and environment but also about hypnosis, coma and
the healing effect of plants.
A novelist, Didier Van Cauwelaert is also successful with playwriting, screenwriting or even writing a
libretto for a musical. Having conquered the French audience, Didier Van Cauwelaert now reaches to the whole world
with translations into 25 languages and worldwide sales of 4 300 000 copies. His first book gathered praise from
readers, critics and literary prizes, the most prestigious of which, the Prix Goncourt, was awarded to him in 1994 for
UN ALLER SIMPLE. The American movie Unknown, based on HORS DE MOI, came out in 2011, starring Liam
Neeson and Diane Kruger.
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
24
Teulé, Jean: FLEUR DE TONNERRE
(Julliard/Robert Laffont, March 2013, 288 pages)
100 000 copies already sold in France !
Hélène Jegado, known as Flower of Thunder, is the most notorious serial killer in France, and even the entire
world.
Throughout the moors and forests of Bretagne, outrageous legends run wild. Without doubt the most fearful
is that of Ankou, the worker of death. A young Hélène Jegado persuaded herself that she was his reincarnation. She
therefore had to kill everything in her path in order to fulfil her destiny with a bloodcurdling composure. After having
poisoned her own mother who had nicknamed her Flower of Thunder, she ploughed through Bretagne, ruthlessly
murdering anyone who had the kindness to welcome this seemingly perfect cook into their home. No one was safe;
men, women, children, babies. She was so good that no one suspected her. Until the day she attacked a former judge,
an expert in criminal matters, and was finally guillotined on 26th February, 1852.
Jean Teulé is the author of fourteen novels, among which THE SUICIDE SHOP (350,000 copies sold,
translated into 19 languages and adapted into a film by Patrice Leconte), MONSIEUR MONTESPAN, (600,000
copies sold, winner of Maison de la Presse prize, currently being adapted into a film by Olivier Marchal). His latest
book, CHARLY 9, was published in 2011 and excellently reviewed by both critics and readers. The entirety of Jean
Teulé’s fiction has been published by Éditions Julliard
JM Erre: LA FIN DU MONDE A DU RETARD
(Buchet Chastel/Libella, February 2014, 416 pages)
!
A side-splitting tribute to esoteric thrillers. In this brilliant, off-the-wall and absolutely hilarious new
novel, J-M Erre draws us into a paranoid amnesiac’s epic quest to save the world.
Composed like a thriller, LA FIN DU MONDE A DU RETARD features Alice and Julius, two amnesiacs who have
escaped from the psychiatric ward where they are being treated. Julius is convinced that he has a mission to save
humanity from a dastardly plot. As he is chased by the police, the press and mysterious, shadowy figures, adventures
and plot twists pile up until the incredible final revelation.
As with all of his novels, J. M. Erre plays fast and free with the codes of a popular genre (B movies in SÉRIE
Z, detective novels in LE MYSTÈRE SHERLOCK). In LA FIN DU MONDE A DU RETARD, esoteric thrillers like the DA
VINCI CODE are his new playground.
LA FIN DU MONDE A DU RETARD questions in an off-beat way how each of us comes to our beliefs, but above
all, it is a joyful tale about what is both so horrible and so wonderful about being human: our ability to tell stories.
J.M. Erre is a professor in Sète and lives in Montpellier. He has had four previous novels published by
Buchet Chastel: PRENEZ SOIN DU CHIEN (2006), MADE IN CHINA (2008), SÉRIE Z (2010) and LE MYSTÈRE SHERLOCK
(2012).
Rights for previous books sold to: Korea (Moeum & Jaeum), China (Shangai Translation Publishing House),
Italy (Clichy Edizioni) and Russia (Inostranka)
Graham, Patrick: CES LIEUX SONT MORTS
(Univers Poche, May 2014, 340 pages)
Sample English translation and Reader’s report available
!
Beautifully written, sizzling with tension and containing a host of troubled, extremely well drawn
characters.... Fleuve Noir is delighted to welcome a great author!
!
An exciting thriller, in which the terrified reader shivers with anticipation as much as he/she is horrified
by some striking scenes in the vein of Thomas Harris.
!
A novel that also follows the rules of noir fiction, as the main character has to face his own inner
darkness.
A neuropsychiatrist whose only link to his kidnapped daughter lies in a patient in a coma: is he prepared to
go beyond the dead places of her conscience?
Eric Searl is a doctor specialized in helping people in a coma. Shaken by the death of his wife, he has
devoted his time to his patients instead of his family. On Christmas break, he stays in Los Angeles instead of going
with Rebecca, his new partner, and his three children to their recluse house in the Rockies, where he is supposed to
come later.
25
On their way up, Rebecca takes a young hitchhiker, Liam, who turns out to be a psychopath. He leaves
Rebecca and Searl’s two eldest children on the verge of death and kidnaps Kirsten, the youngest. Eager to reunite his
family, Searl will have to become the hero or the plaything of a story that escapes him.
Patrick Graham is the author of several thrillers, among which L’ÉVANGILE SELON SATAN,
L’APOCALYPSE SELON MARIE whose rights have been sold in nine countries.
Ragougneau, Alexis: LA MADONE DE NOTRE-DAME
(Viviane Hamy, January 2014, 200 pages)
!
THE MADONNA OF NOTRE-DAME is a dazzling dive into the mystery of good and evil but is also a
comic and quirky novel which shows the cathedral of Paris in a new light.
It is the day after 15 August in Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris. A beautiful young woman, clothed in white, is
kneeling in one of the side chapels. She does not go unnoticed. The sexton and the warden have their eyes on her. But
when an American tourist knocks against her, her body collapses: she has been murdered.
Commanding officer Landart and lieutenant Gombrowicz, together with the young and sensitive acting
prosecutor, Claire Kauffmann, are leading the inquiry. When they arrive at the scene of the crime the witnesses have
fled. The autopsy reveals that the victim’s sex had been sealed with wax, as if to reconstruct her virginity.
Who committed such a crime? Was it one of the religious fanatics with an obsession for the Virgin
Mary who, the day of the feast of the Assumption, took part in the traditional procession with a statue of the Virgin on
l’Ile-de-la-Cité? Or was it one of the staff members or one of the ‘strayed souls’ who wanders around the cathedral
and knows its corners well?
Father Kern, substituting as he does every summer in the Parisian cathedral, is questioned from all sides: the
police and his superior, the bishop Monseigneur de Bracy, who is annoyed by the bad press surrounding the cathedral.
He will investigate on his side…
Alexis Ragougneau, is a playwright and this is his first novel. He worked for many years in Notre-Dame
cathedral as a guide. He knows well its infinite secrets and the little people who linger there who he calls ‘the strayed
souls of Notre-Dame’.
“The inquiry dives into the painful past of the protagonists, takes us behind the masks and appearances, and
swings between shadows and light. The style is racy and the humour subtle. It is one of those exceptional novels to
which Viviane Hamy has the key. “ Télérama
Rights sold to: Germany (Ullstein NDA), Spain (Siruela), Sweden (Sekwa), Greece (Stereoma).
Aubert, Brigitte: THE CINEMATOGRAPH DETECTIVE
1. THE MIRROR OF SHADOWS
2. THE DANCE OF ILLUSIONS
3. MACABRE SCREENINGS
4. THE SECRET OF THE ABBAYE
(Fleuve Noir-10/18, 420 pages)
Louis Denfert is a young and dashing reporter who happens to investigate a series of dark mysteries. Like a
precursor to Rouletabille, he hunts the truth down across Europe. This series covers the years 1890 to 1900 and the
highly original plots are based on the cinema, the opium of the decade that totally remodeled the 20th Century’s
imaginary.
Savory anecdotes and references to the cinema, all from an expert who passionately distills everything you
have always wanted to know about the beginnings of the 7th art.
Brigitte Aubert was born in Cannes in 1956. She works as a program planner for the cinema and has
published fifteen or so thrillers (Le Seuil), including La Mort des bois, which received the Grand Prize for Detective
Novels in 1997, as well as detective novels for young adults.
“Orchestrating unstoppable suspense and skillfully manipulating the art of the cliffhanger and the
unexpected, Brigitte Aubert has begun a promising series.” Ciné Live
“The first two volumes are a delight and can be read like a comic book.” Cosmopolitan
Monfils, Nadine: LA PETITE FÊLEE AUX ALLUMETTES
(Belfond, February 2012, 264 pages)
A new thriller, full of black humour and poetry, by one of the most comical writers of crime novels.
26
One night, in the streets of Pandore, Nake, a young woman, meets a crazy man who abducted her. She
manages to escape and takes refuge at her grandmother’s place. Her grandmother raised her since her mother died
when she was only a child. But Nake finds her grandmother dead, with a box of matches in her hand, which reminds
our heroine of the famous Little Match Girl’s story… She soon realises that each time she strikes a match, she can see
a dreadful crime scene, one that really does take place only a few hours later…
Born in Belgium, Nadine Monfils is renown in the realm of crime novels. She has published several and has
made her mark with her original writing style. Her last novel LES VACANCES D’UN SERIAL KILLER (Belfond,
2011) was a great success and has been translated into Italian (Neri Pozza).
“Really poignant, colourful, joyful!” Jean-Pierre Jeunet (film maker)
Monfils, Nadine: LES VACANCES D’UN SERIAL KILLER
(Belfond/Place des editeurs, June-November 2012, 300 pages)
50,000 copies sold in France
In this black comedy, the Destrooper family is on holiday at a bed & breakfast where another one of the
guests is a serial killer who recently escaped from prison. After filming one of his murders, the teenage kids try to
blackmail him. It’s probably not wise to confront a serial killer, but then again, nobody has a Granny quite like theirs.
Rights sold to: Italy (Neri Pozza)
Monfils, Nadine: LES ENQUÊTES DU COMMISSAIRE LÉON VOL 1 & 2
(Belfond/Place des editeurs, February 2012, 230 pages)
In two volumes, rediscover the first four investigations of the quirky Commissioner Léon, the cop who
secretly knits ever since he quit smoking, makes old-fashioned clothing for his dog, spends all of his time in a bistrot
in Montmartre and still lives with his mother...Nadine Monfils in all her splendor!
Monfils, Nadine: LA PETITE FÊLÉE AUX ALLUMETTES
(Belfond/Place des editeurs, February 2012, 230 pages)
After her grandmother’s death, Nake discovers terrifying family secrets. This on top of the awful visions of
little girls’ dead bodies that appear each time she lights a match. And when the photos of these same little girls are
published in the newspaper the day after each vision, things get complicated...A quirky thriller tinged with black
comedy and poetry.
Author and filmmaker, Nadine Monfils has written nearly 20 crime thrillers. She has won a number of
literary prizes for her works.
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).
27
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…
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.
Colin, Fabrice: 49 DAYS
(Michel Lafon, November 2012, 400 pages)
“My name is Floryan; I’m 17-years-old. I died a few days ago: a bomb attack in the subway. I woke up in a
sumptuous landscape of plains and mountains as far as eyes can see. A being of light came to me – a “Elohim” as he
said. He offered me a choice: I could either follow him in the Kingdom – some kind of paradise, he said, but I wasn’t
allowed to see it before going there; or I could follow him to the Nihil, a gigantic abyss leading to… to what? That is
the question. I don’t know anything about the Nihil, like I ignore everything about the Kingdom. And I have 49 days
to make a decision. No more. The thing is that I’m not the only one involved in this choice…”
In his new series in two books, in the same vein as 1984, Fabrice Colin explores the mysteries of life after
death. In this first opus, he brings us to the Interworld, a lost and forbidden place. The young Floryan will have to
challenge his beliefs and convictions to discover the truth about the world which is expecting him. Because now the
fate of Humanity depends on his choice.
Fabrice Colin is one of the most talented French writers of its generation. He won the Grand Prix de
l’Imaginaire four times. From science-fiction to Fantasy, his skilled and elegant writing appeals to both a young and
adult readership. He’s the writer of LA MALÉDICTION D’OLD HAVEN (30 000 copies sold) and BAL DE GIVRE
À NEW YORK (20 000 copies sold).
“Reading this book is exulting. Fabrice Colin writes images and makes every part of his stories fantastic.”
Libération
“You can’t put his novels down.” L’Express
“We fell in love with Fabrice Colin’s work.” RTL
“Fabrice Colin makes a masterpiece of ambiguity between realism and fantastic. A real page-turner, the
book gradually becomes as fascinating as the best suspense.” Télérama (BAL DE GIVRE À NEW YORK)
28
ALL TITLES
FICTION BACK-LIST.............................................................................................................. 1 BEST-SELLERS ....................................................................................................................... 1 LITERARY FICTION ............................................................................................................... 1 Mayeras, Maud: REFLEX.......................................................................................................... 1 Tuil, Karine: L’INVENTION DE NOS VIES ............................................................................. 2 Bayard, Pierre: IL EXISTE D'AUTRES MONDES .................................................................... 2 Blondel, Jean-Philippe: 06:41 ................................................................................................... 3 Bichet, Yves: L’HOMME QUI MARCHE ................................................................................. 3 Duteurtre, Benoît: L'ORDINATEUR DU PARADIS .................................................................. 4 Leclair, Bertrand: LE VERTIGE DANOIS DE PAUL GAUGUIN ............................................ 4 Scherrer, Pierre-Emmanuel: LA DEFENSE FISCHER ............................................................. 5 Echenoz, Jean: CAPRICE DE LA REINE.................................................................................. 5 Toussaint, Jean-Philippe: NUE .................................................................................................. 6 Gallay, Claudie: UNE PART DU CIEL ..................................................................................... 6 Le Callet, Blandine: DIX REVES DE PIERRE.......................................................................... 7 de Castro, Eve: LE ROI DES OMBRES .................................................................................... 7 Villani, Cédric: THEOREME VIVANT ...................................................................................... 8 Marchal, Eric: LE SOLEIL SOUS LA SOIE .............................................................................. 8 Fontanel, Sophie: L’ENVIE ....................................................................................................... 9 Quint, Michel: EN DEPIT DES ETOILES ................................................................................ 9 Maalouf, Amin: LES DESORIENTES ..................................................................................... 10 Wolkenstein, Julie: ADELE ET MOI ....................................................................................... 10 Malzieu, Mathias: LE PLUS PETIT BAISER JAMAIS RECENSÉ .......................................... 11 Olmi, Véronique: LA NUIT EN VERITE ................................................................................. 11 Darrieussecq, Marie: CLEVES ................................................................................................ 12 Arditi, Metin: LE TURQUETTO ............................................................................................. 13 Sportès, Morgan: TOUT, TOUT DE SUITE ............................................................................ 13 Fargues, Nicolas: LA LIGNE DE COURTOISIE..................................................................... 14 Fottorino, Eric: LE DOS CRAWLÉ.......................................................................................... 14 Khadra, Yasmina: L’EQUATION AFRICAINE....................................................................... 15 Gaudé, Laurent: OURAGAN.................................................................................................... 15 Rufin, Jean-Christophe: KATIBA ............................................................................................ 15 Malzieu, Mathias: METAMORPHOSE EN BORD DE CIEL.................................................. 16 Teulé, Jean: CHARLY 9 ........................................................................................................... 16 Malka, Francis: LA NOYADE DU MARCHAND DE PARAPLUIE ........................................ 17 Chevillard, Eric: DINO EGGER .............................................................................................. 17 Quint, Michel: THE LOVERS OF FRANKFURT .................................................................... 18 Chevallier, Gabriel: MASCARADE ......................................................................................... 18 Leroy, Gilles: ZOLA JACKSON .............................................................................................. 19 Castillon, Claire: LES BULLES ............................................................................................... 19 Szalowski, Pierre: LE FROID MODIFIE LA TRAJECTOIRE DES POISSONS .................... 20 Fermine, Maxime: LE PAPILLON DE SIAM .......................................................................... 20 Bauchau, Henry: DÉLUGE ..................................................................................................... 20 Ferney, Alice: PASSÉ SOUS SILENCE .................................................................................. 21 Kim Thúy: RU ......................................................................................................................... 21 COMMERCIAL FICTION ..................................................................................................... 23 Sardou, Romain: FRÄULEIN FRANCE .................................................................................. 23 Révay, Thérésa: L’AUTRE RIVE DU BOSPHORE ................................................................ 23 Bourdin, Françoise: SERMENT D’AUTOMNE ....................................................................... 23 Bourdin, Françoise: D’EAU ET DE FEU ................................................................................ 24 29
Van Cauwelaert, Didier: DOUBLE IDENTITE ....................................................................... 24 Orban, Christine: LE PAYS DE L’ABSENCE .......................................................................... 24 Teulé, Jean: FLEUR DE TONNERRE ..................................................................................... 25 JM Erre: LA FIN DU MONDE A DU RETARD ...................................................................... 25 Graham, Patrick: CES LIEUX SONT MORTS ......................................................................... 25 Ragougneau, Alexis: LA MADONE DE NOTRE-DAME ........................................................ 26 Aubert, Brigitte: THE CINEMATOGRAPH DETECTIVE ...................................................... 26 Monfils, Nadine: LA PETITE FÊLEE AUX ALLUMETTES ................................................... 26 Monfils, Nadine: LES VACANCES D’UN SERIAL KILLER .................................................. 27 Monfils, Nadine: LES ENQUÊTES DU COMMISSAIRE LÉON VOL 1 & 2 ......................... 27 Monfils, Nadine: LA PETITE FÊLÉE AUX ALLUMETTES ................................................... 27 Pevel, Pierre: L’ALCHIMIE DES OMBRES............................................................................ 27 Sire Cédric: DECHIRURES..................................................................................................... 28 Sire Cédric: DE FIÈVRE ET DE SANG .................................................................................. 28 Sire Cédric: DREAMWORLD .................................................................................................. 28 Colin, Fabrice: 49 DAYS .......................................................................................................... 28 30

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