Barbara Constantine - Calmann-Lévy

Transcription

LONDON
2015
London Book Fair 2015
Rights Catalogue
ÉDITIONS CALMANN-LÉVY
& ÉDITIONS N°1
31 rue de Fleurus
75278 Paris cedex 06
France
www. calmann-levy.fr
***
RIGHTS DEPARTMENT
Subsidiary rights manager : Patricia Roussel
[email protected]
Subsidiary rights assistant: Júlia Balcells
[email protected]
Tél : + 33 (0)1 49 54 36 49
Tél : + 33 (0) 1 49 54 36 48
Highlights – Fiction
Le Fils du Sheol / The Child of Sheol by Anouar Benmalek ……….……………………………………………5
Des vallées à vélo (des pentes et des coteaux) / Riding allong valleys (hillsides and slopes) by Barbara Constantine …6
Blue Book / Blue Book by Elise Fontenaille N’Diaye ……….……………………………………………….…7
Mémoires fauves /Fauves by René Guitton …………………..……………………………………..………….8
On ne joue pas avec le diable / Don’t Mess with the Devil by Patrick Mosconi ……………………..……….…….9
Voyage de noces avec ma mère / Honeymooning with my Mother by Véronique Sels …..………..………..….……10
Les Crires / Les Crires by Vanessa Zocchetti ………………………………………………………………....11
Le Fils maudit / The Accursed Son by Françoise Bourdon ………..………………………………….………..12
L’Affaire Cabre d’Or / The Affair of the Golden Fleece by Édouard Brasey …….………………………………12
L’Orphelinat by Emmanuelle Friedmann …………………………………...……………………..…..……..13
A l’ombre de nos larmes / In the Shadow of Tears by Éric Le Nabour ………………………..………………13
Du poison dans les veines d’Alfred Lenglet ………………………………….………………….……………14
La Partition des illusions / The Partition of Illusions by Frédérick d’Onaglia ……………………...…………….15
L’Enfant des Maures / The Children of the Massif des Maures by Frédérick d’Onaglia …………….…………….15
Le Marais des ombres / Swampy Grounds by Bernard Simonay ……....……………………………………….16
Highlights – Non-Fiction
Voyage d’un gourmet à Paris / A Gourmet’s Journey in Paris by Jean-Claude Ribaut ………..…..…………..……17
Assortiment de friandises / Assorted Sweets for the Mind by Agnès Abécassis……………..………………..……17
Marion, 13 ans pour toujours / Marion, Forever Thirteen by Nora Fraisse ………………...…..…………..……18
La Grande Détox / Our Daily Poisons by Patrice Halimi ……………………………….………………..……19
Poutine / Putin by Frédéric Pons ………………………………………………………..…………………….19
Ils sont fous ces Coréens ! / They are completely nuts in Korea by Eric Surdej ……………………………………20
Mickey à Gurs / Mickey Mouse at Gurs ……………………………………………………………………….. 21
Backlist – Fiction
 Literary fiction
Les Amants désunis / An Estranged Love by Anouar Benmalek ..……..………………………………………..22
Personne ne peut arrêter une fille qui rêve / A Girl with a Dream is Unstoppable by Brigitte Hemmerlin .………..22
Fenicia / Fenicia by Pierre Brunet ………………………………….……..…………………………….……..23
Xenia/ Xenia by Gérard Mordillat ……………………………………………………………………………24
1 rue des Petits-Pas / 1 rue des Petits-Pas by Nathalie Hug ..……………………………………………………25
Un automne en clair-obscur / Autumn Chiaroscuro by Martine Delomme ……………..………………………25
Souviens-toi de demain / Remember Tomorrow by Vanessa Caffin ...……….……………….…………………..26
L’Entre-temps / The Meantime by René Guitton ……………..………….……………………………………..26
Le Palais de mémoire / ..……………
The Memory Palace by Elise Fontenaille
…………………………………………...………27
N’Diaye
 Commercial fiction
Et puis, Paulette… / And Then Came Paulette… by Barbara Constantine...……...…………….………..……….28
Tom, petit Tom, tout petit homme, Tom /Tom, Little Tom, Little Man, Tom by Barbara Constantine……....……29
À Mélie, sans mélo / To Mélie, without Melodrama by Barbara Constantine….…..………………………………30
Allumer le chat / Turn on the Cat by Barbara Constantine
..…………………………………………..……..……30
Hôtel Miranda / Hotel Miranda by Iman Bassalah………………....…………...………………………………31
L’Iranienne / The Iranian Woman by Maurice Bigio………….…….…………………………….…..…………31
Week-end surprise / A Week-end Away by Agnès Abécassis
…...………………………………………....…………32
Le Théorème de Cupidon / Cupid’s Theorem by Agnès Abécassis
……………………………………...…………32
L’Avant-dernière Chance / The Next-to-Last Chance by Caroline Vermalle ….………………………………….33
La Mémoire des autres / Other People’s Memories by Annelise Corbrion…….………………………..………….33
Une terre pour demain / A Home for Future Generations by Gérard Georges...…………………………………..34
 Suspense fiction
Robe de marié / The Groom Wore White by Pierre Lemaitre .…………………………………………………35
…..………………………….………………………35
Cadres noirs / High-Profile Management by Pierre Lemaitre
La Nuit des enfants-rois / The Prodigies by Bernard Lenteric ..……. …………………………………………36
Noces de paille / Straw Wedding by Yves Hughes …...………………………..………………………………36
Série “Diane Silver” / “Diane Silver ” series by Andrea H. Japp ….……………………………………………37
Série “ La Dame sans Terre” / “The Landless Lady ” series by Andrea H. Japp …………………………..……38
Monestarium / Monestarium by Andrea H. Japp ………….…………………….…………………….……39
La Croix de perdition / The Cross of Perdition by Andrea H. Japp …………………….………………………39
 Historical fiction
« The Wine Trilogy » by Jean-François Bazin …….……….………………………..…………….……………40
La Dame de Kyoto / The Lady of Kyoto by Éric Le Nabour ….………..……………...………………………41
Fernand de Magellan / Magellan, Inventing the World by Patrick Girard ….………………………………….…41
Un Bateau pour l’enfer / The Saint Louis’ Epic by Gilbert Sinoué…….……………………………………….42
La Dame à la lampe / The Lady of the Lamp by Gilbert Sinoué …...……….……...………………………..…42
Backlist – Non-Fiction
 Social Sciences
Collection “La Petite Bibliothèque des Idées” / “A Little Library of Modern Thought ” series
…….…………….43-45
Works by Raymond Aron…………..………………………………………………………….………………46
Works by Léon Poliakov……..………………………………………………………………..………………47
La Critique et la Conviction / Criticism and Conviction by Paul Ricœur …....……………………………………48
Dictionnaire international de la Psychanalyse / International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis by Alain de Mijolla
..…..…48
Bohèmes / The Bohemians by Dan Franck……..……………………………………………………………….49
De Freud à Kafka / From Freud to Kafka by Philippe Réfabert…....…………….…………………….………..49
Rhétorique spéculative / Speculative Rhetoric by Pascal Quignard..…..…………………………………………..50
La Haine de la musique / The Hatred of Music by Pascal Quignard……..……………..……………………….50
Sur les traces des Chrétiens oubliés / Among the Forgotten Christians by Charles Guilhamon..........……...………51
Blind Date / Blind Date by Anne Dufourmantelle…..…………………………………………………………51
Krach Machine / The Crash Machine by F.rédéric Lelièvre & François Pilet………………...………………….52
Un fléau si rentable / A Highly Profitable Scourge……………………………………………….………………52
 Narrative non-fiction / Autobiography / Biography
Femen / Femen by Femen …………………………………………………………………………………..53
Mémoire d’un fils à papa The Memoirs of a Daddy’s Boy by Marcel Ophuls ………….……………….……….54
Pierre Cardin / Pierre Cardin by Sylvana Lorenz ……………………………………………………………..55
Adolfo Kaminsky, une vie de faussaire / Adolfo Kaminsky, the Life of a Counterfeit Artist by Sarah Kaminsky .…56
Moi Pierre Seel, déporté homosexuel / I, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual by Pierre Seel ..………………....…56
Les Sœurs Beauvoir / The Beauvoir Sisters by Claudine Monteil …………………………………………....…57
Un homo dans la cité / On Being Gay in the Projects by Brahim Naït-Balk ……………….………………..…..57
Staline, vie privée / The Private Life of Stalin by Lilly Marcou ………………………………………………..58
Hermann Hesse, poète ou rien / Hermann Hesse, a Poet and Nothing Else by François Mathieu ………………58
 Lifestyle / Albums
Imprint « Une vie de Pintade » ……………………………………………………………………………59
Collection “Petites philosophies” / “A Dose of Philosophy” series by Catherine Rambert …………..………..60
Bonheur zen / The Most Beautiful Zen Stories by Henri Brunel .………………………………..…………….61
Conte du chat maître zen / The Tale of the Zen Master Cat by Henri Brunel ………….………...…………….61
LE FILS DU SHEOL – The Child of Sheol
Anouar Benmalek
A terrible backward journey in time, spanning three generations, to the original source of
suffering. Deftly paced narrative-in-reverse, this novel keeps the reader on tenterhooks, page after
page, its characters eliciting a powerful emotional response from the reader, who can’t help hoping
for a happy ending.
“The guards go to the trouble of counting us, because we are important, we
count. Because dead, well, we aren’t good for anything anymore. So there must
be some mistake.”
It all starts with young Karl. In the suffocating heat of the cattle car
taking him to a concentration camp, he meets the love of his life,
Helena. As soon as the convoy reaches its destination, Karl is gassed.
From Sheol, or the common grave of men, he is condemned to
watch the lives of his loved ones, and to attempt averting
catastrophe.
Manfred is a Sonderkommando. From the depths of his hell on
earth, he recalls the radiance of bygone days, those in particular
spent with Elisa, his beloved. Years ago they had met in Algeria and
fallen madly in love with each other. He had married her and
brought her back to Berlin, where she had given him a son... Karl.
Manfred’s father, Ludwig, lived with them and liked nothing better
than to tell his grandson stories from his youth. As a young man,
Ludwig had served in West Africa in the German army. He was
nostalgic about those days and had kept a few trinkets, most
importantly, a single cherished photograph. In it, he is seen at the
side of a woman, almost an apparition. From his final resting place,
Karl follows the tribulations of his grandfather in the former colony
but also those of his true love, Hitjiverwe, a Herero beauty whose
terrible fate tolls a dire warning to generations to come.
August 2015 – Fiction – 400 pages
From Poland in 1940 back to Namibia in 1900, three love stories in
reverse, spanning three generations and two genocides, explore the
origins of evil…
Anouar Benmalek was born in Casablanca in 1956. Novelist, journalist and poet, he is one of the founders of the
Algerian Committee Against Torture. His acerbic pen has made him one of the most important figures of
Algerian literature today. A prolific author, he has been awarded numerous literary prizes for his books such as
Les Amants désunis (Calmann-Lévy, 1998), L’Enfant du peuple ancien (Pauvert, 2000), Le Rapt (Fayard, 2009).
5
DES VALLÉES À VÉLO (DES PENTES ET DES COTEAUX)
Riding along valleys (hillsides and slopes)
Barbara Constantine
Barbara Constantine's upcoming novel, set in the country as always, is about bicycles and aging
people, children and animals but more so… rebellious teenagers, an unhappy overworked father
and a great-aunt on Prozac. Theoretically, not the stuff dream vacations are made of. Yet despite
the tensions, some knockdown drag-out fights and a few rivers of tears, it is the roaring laughter,
the vital discoveries and heartwarming moments that will of course be remembered.
Summertime : two short months to heal, learn, get along and love one
another ; two short months to do some pretty serious growing up...
The eldest of the pack, 18, had first planned on going on vacation
alone with his new girlfriend. But he failed his exams, he is broke and
he noticed that his dad is slowly going down the drain. So he decides to
go to the country with his 8-year-old twin half-brothers and his 13year-old angry half-sister. His great-aunt (75) lives right next door;
obviously she'll help out with the kids... She turns out to be too
depressed and totally unfit to look out for anything, including herself!
Des vallées à
vélo (des pentes
et des coteaux)
The four kids are going to have to do it all – all by themselves – in a
house without indoor plumbing, TV, Internet or even a washing
machine ! They are also going to have to look after the great-aunt, who
has taken a turn for the worse. All this, not wanting to add more
troubles to his already full plate, without letting their father, Dimitri,
know what's going on.
Because Dimitri, meanwhile, is in the city to work. He's been working
day and night for some time now. Mornings and evenings, at his job as
a plumber ; afternoons, at his wife's bookstore. Though he's not really
into books the thought of closing the bookstore never even crossed his
mind. So he reads the inside covers, bios and bookseller favorites, trying
to advise the clients – almost with a smile. Not an easy task for him
these days, but “avec le temps”, as the song by Léo Ferré goes, he'll
somehow get by... And maybe, after all, through reading, he'll dig up
the energy and love that he thought had deserted him.
2016 – Commercial Fiction
Barbara Constantine writes novels and fixes a house in the Berry region. She also watches the cranes go by, the
flowers and the trees grow, and the cats, and the birds, and the squirrels... She is the author of Allumer le chat
(2007), A Mélie, sans mélo (2009) and the best-sellers Tom, petit Tom, tout petit homme, Tom (2010) and And then came
Paulette (2012), which has been sold in 20 languages. For the Autumn 2014, Calmann-Lévy published a
compilation of Barbara Constantine’s four titles, together with an unpublished short novel My beautiful Week-end.
6
BLUE BOOK – Blue Book
Elise Fontenaille N’Diaye
Elise Fontenaille-N’Diaye brings back to life the peoples of South-West Africa and their plight.
This gripping, harrowing, narrative proves her ability to weave impeccable research with immense
storytelling skills. She questions at every page our ability to look away from what appears to have
been a rehearsal for the final solution.
Blue Book is a startling book based on dramatic, little-known
historical fact. While attempting to write a book on her great grandfather, WWI General Charles Mangin, famous for incorporating
African troops in the French army, Elise Fontenaille-N’Diaye
discovered the 1918 report written by Major Thomas O'Reilly for
the British government, documenting the massacre of the Herero
people by the Germans between 1904 and 1909, in their colony of
German South-West Africa - what is now known as Namibia.
What begins as an episode of brutal colonialism becomes the first
genocide of the 20st century. General Von Trotha and his troops
used the Kalahari desert as a death playground. German “scientists”
collected the skulls and bodies of the dead to experiment and devise
theories that will support the future Nuremberg Laws - among them,
Mengele’s mentor, Dr Eugen Fischer. And in a concentration camp
set on Shark Island, off the main land of Lüderitz, they tortured,
raped and slaughtered.
"Cold - for the nights are often bitterly cold there - hunger, thirst, exposure,
disease and madness claimed scores of victims every day, and cartloads of their
bodies were every day carted over to the back beach, buried in a few inches of
sand at low tide, and as the tide came in the bodies went out, food for the
sharks."
January 2015 – Fiction – 240 p.
Elise Fontenaille N’Diaye was born in Nancy and has worked as a journalist. She is the author of numerous
novels, including Les Disparues de Vancouver published by Grasset and which received the 2010 Prix ErckmannChatrian, Le Palais de mémoire published by Calmann-Lévy as part of the 2011 Rentrée Littéraire and Ma vie précaire
published by Calmann-Lévy in 2012.
7
MÉMOIRES FAUVES – Fauves
René Guitton
A subtly-written compelling story that shatters stereotypes while denouncing extremist paranoia,
injustice and inhuman treatment.
“I roar all their fury into the faces of men, and I’ll roar the memory of it, time
and again, until the savage instinct of man is broken.”
Paris, November 2013. World famous rock star, Fauves, has
scheduled a meeting with Michel Beaufort, the CEO of a cuttingedge music label. Fauves’ girlfriend, Aurélie, goes with him. The
upshot of the meeting, a mere three months later: an intricate and
disturbing love triangle in which East meets West. But the romance
between the beautiful, thirty-something special correspondent and
the bookish, cynical fifty-year-old Michael, is haunted from the start
by the shadow of the flamboyant but mysterious Fauves...
Raised in the Middle East, the rock star’s life has been shaped by an
unspeakable secret. And it is the secret of his childhood that seems
to feed his exuberant imagination, inhabited by animals, masks and
tormented souls. The truth of his dark past finally comes to light,
however, when Michel and Aurélie, upon returning from a trip to
Jerusalem, learn that Fauves has died in tragic circumstances. The
young man’s diary provides a whole new perspective on his
relationship with Aurélie, on his life, his origins, his Egypt and his
Orient, with its violence and taboos, and an unsuspected barbarism
unknown in the West: bača bāzī, an age-old tradition that Fauves had
been subjected to as a child, which had made him dancer and sex
slave for a rich businessman.
August 2015 – Fiction – 270 pages
Writer René Guitton is a champion of causes, often the backdrop of his novels. He is the author of a number of
prize-winning works, including Calmann-Lévy’s Si nous nous taisons (Prix Montyon de l’Académie Française, Prix
Liberté and Prix Lyautey de l’Académie des Sciences) and Flammarion’s Ces Chrétiens qu’on assassine (Prix des
Droits de l’homme). In 2013, he was made Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
By the same author: L’Entre-temps, 2014; En quête de vérité, 2011
8
ON NE JOUE PAS AVEC LE DIABLE – Don’t Mess with the Devil
Patrick Mosconi
A hard-hitting road novel pitting manipulation and humiliation against love and death, blurring
the lines between good and evil and a novel of suspense, worthy of Anglo-Saxon crime fiction, in
which the survival instinct is played out against the multiple facets of love.
Twice a year, the mysterious Michaël Turner travels the coasts of
France. From casino to palace, the businessman is addicted to playing
games – head games in particular. One of his favorites: to get beautiful
and preferably serious-minded women to fall for him, only to push
them into bed with his chauffeur, Rachid. This ultimate insult
reinforces his conviction that everything can be had for either a price
– or an illusion.
When the limousine rental agency informs Rachid that Turner has put
in yet another personal request for him, Rachid is thrown into a state
of panic: He has fallen madly in love with Elena and is convinced his
girlfriend would be furious if she found out about their little trysts. He
is in for a rude awakening, however, when Elena’s scooter
“accidently” hits the millionaire’s Bentley: She has decided to try her
hand at Turner’s perverse little game – and to win!
Meanwhile, Turner is being watched by a bemused Martin Condé who
can’t quite figure out what the bizarre trio is up to. As things between
Elena and Turner heat up, and manipulation aside the sparks are
obviously real, Rachid is unable to accept the truth.
February 2015 – Fiction – 224 p.
Novelist, screenwriter and painter, Patrick Mosconi is the author of over twenty works, most published with
Gallimard, including Louise Brook est morte, Mélancolie and Le Chant de la mort. He is an emblematic French novelist
who surfs between “écriture blanche” – writing that is white, blank or neutral – and the roman noir. The present
dramatic yet carefully polished novel effortlessly blends the two styles.
9
VOYAGE DE NOCES AVEC MA MÈRE
Honeymooning with my Mother
Véronique Sels
A deftly-woven narrative, both hilarious and heartfelt, that addresses with subtlety such complex
and universal topics as marriage, family and mother-daughter dynamics. Prose that invites us on an
exotic journey, conjuring up the vivid imaginary world of the great American West and vintage
cars, in a hilarious, lively and therapeutic novel addressing the Oedipus complex through the
tongue-in-cheek extreme solution of “killing” the mother figure.
Anne, just married to Raphaël, is planning a honeymoon trip to the
American West, in a red convertible Mustang! An idyllic road trip, that is,
until Anne’s mother, Dana, in the process of getting divorced, is invited
along for the ride. Our newlyweds don’t have the heart to leave her
behind….
So a frazzled bride, a meddling mother and a seemingly perfect son-inlaw are off on a burlesque road trip-cum-showdown in a 1980s America
where anything goes. Before long, a man in his early fifties, no luggage
but perfectly creased trousers, catches Anne’s attention. The business
card he eventually hands her reads: Dan O’Leary, hit-man specialized in
mothers and mother-in-laws! The idea of making use of his ghastly
services, a thought at first intolerable to her, slowly takes root in her
mind, and for good reason: Her mother is absolutely infuriating, and
Raphaël kowtows to her every demand.
Then, O’Leary kidnaps Dana. While the American police force and the
Belgian consulate attempt with enthusiasm to apprehend the hit-man, if
only to take out contracts of their own, Anne and Raphaël, worried to
death though momentarily relieved of their “burden,” decide to set off
for Las Vegas to spend 24 hours – alone!
French Sale : Book-club editions (GLM)
After a disastrous attempt to renew their wedding vows, with a bogus Elvis, and reunion with Dana, with great fanfare,
Raphaël decides to take off on his own, to give himself some time to “think.” Anne finds herself alone with her
mother, minus the Mustang. Continuing their journey as best they can, by scooter and then on foot, they end up in the
gullies of the Grand Canyon where they are robbed by a gang of phony tourists. When O’Leary appears on the scene
once more, Anne, at long last, will be able to get rid of her mother – in more ways than one!
20 years down the road, Anne and Raphaël are now divorced. Meanwhile, a scattered and maddening Anne has reentered the life, and the apartment, of her daughter Quatrine. One day, while grumbling about her daughter’s way of
life, she is approached by a man with neatly pressed trousers – O’Leary himself. She immediately realizes why he is
there: to take her out, in turn!
Belgian author Véronique Sels has published two novels with Editions Genèse, La Tentation du pont and Bienvenue en
Norlande. A onetime teacher, contemporary dancer and advertising writer, she is also a wife, a mother and a world
traveler.
10
LES CRIRES – Les Crires
Vanessa Zocchetti
In this story of obsession, part thriller part fantasy, a Parisian writer, has banished herself to the
country to find inspiration for her next book. Along the way, she loses herself on the tortuous path of
the creative process – a nightmarish metaphor of the difficulties of writing, in the shape of a novel.
Maud Cima has forced herself to move to the country in order to write her
next novel. She hates the country with its flies, smells, woods and birds...
Everything about it is repellent to her. Her publisher’s demands are
increasingly pressing, however, and she has no other choice than to take
her Parisian snobberies and social drinking to Les Crires, the village where
she had spent her childhood summers.
Leaden, dank and threatening, the atmosphere of Les Crires is hardly
idyllic. Maud nonetheless wanders the deserted streets, and winding paths
of childhood memories, in search of inspiration. But it’s no good. Then
one day she realizes she is being watched, by an incredibly repulsive man.
Obscene, crass and downright disgusting, her neighbor, Etienne, has been
watching her in secret since she was a little girl. His desire, mixed with
hatred, is the key to Maud’s inspiration, and she knows it. He would do
anything to have her; she is equally determined to satisfy her own
obsession: to produce a story, even if it means suffering.
Maud is willing to pay the price, however, and soon, she has completely
lost touch with reality. The landscape gradually starts to change; the forest
begins to close in on her, to grow thicker and denser; spongy bogs spring
up all around her. The nightmare world she has created reaches its climax
when she lets herself be sequestered by Étienne and his wife in their house
of horrors, for nine whole months… the time of a monstrous pregnancy.
February 2015 – Fiction – 184 p.
In spite of the humiliations, abuse and horror, and the vicious circle of
attraction-repulsion, she is devoured by a vital need to write. Defiled, she
is nonetheless able to finish her novel, but will only find the strength to
escape when she realizes that Etienne and his wife are trying to steal her
work. Rescued and taken to the hospital, Maud repeatedly insists she has
to protect her novel and cannot accept the devastating truth delivered by
her mother and doctor: the novel she has engendered is in fact a child.
Vanessa Zocchetti is a journalist. Her novel Les Crires submerge the reader into a surreal universe, close to those
of her first novels Croc-en-jambe and Equarristie published by Julliard.
11
LE FILS MAUDIT – The Accursed Son
Françoise Bourdon
The novel’s narrative drive built around the interconnecting lives of two
characters—an Italian proletarian and the daughter of the Provence
bourgeoisie—from opposing walks of life but united by fate in their shared
quest for dignity and freedom.
The 1860s, the Luberon. Having had enough of his father’s humiliations, Lorenzo, a
collier from the Piedmont region, leaves his family and takes to the road. He returns
a few years later, now a journeyman carpenter proud of his expertise, to learn that
his mother has died. He hopes for a reconciliation with his father but is in for a
rude awakening: on the day of his second marriage, his father curses him, calling
him the bastard child of an adulteress and the village priest…
August 2014 – Historical fiction –
300 p.
French Sales: Book-club edition
(Main Selection GLM), Large print
edition (Feryane), Audio-book edition
(CDL), Paperback edition (Le Livre
de Poche)
Lorenzo takes to the road once more, haunted by the mystery surrounding his birth.
A staunch believer in justice and freedom, he will return to the region of his
childhood only after a good number of struggles and dramas. In Roussillon, the
region’s ochre-colored capital, fate will bring him together with Virginie, a liberated
school teacher and the heir to an ochre pigment mining dynasty. He continues to
harbor secret hopes of one day discovering the truth of his origins, in this land of
blood-red and golden-yellow clay…
Former teacher, Françoise Bourdon is a writer with a passion for history and literature.
Her most recent novels, set in Provence – her region of adoption – explore the trades and
lives of the bygone times.
L’AFFAIRE CABRE D’OR – The Affair of the Golden Fleece
Édouard Brasey
A flamboyant hero, with a contagious love for the scents and traditions of his native Provence, with a unique
ability to probe the hidden passions of fellow his compatriots. An ingenious plot of unexpected twists, turns,
and pitfalls, dotted with atypical murders that question the dizzying depths of the human psyche.
Provence, the 1960s.
Chief Inspector Garrigue is convalescing in his picturesque hometown of Gordes.
But his passion for good meals, the company of his domesticated pig, Rosalie, and
his beekeeping pursuits are not quite enough to get the better of his boredom.
When a murder is committed in the region, he jumps on the opportunity of offering
a helping hand to the Marseille inspector put on the case. Who had set fire to the
car of lavender farmer, Léon Jourdan – and in the process burnt alive a tramp
sleeping in the vehicle?
Garrigue knows Jourdan only too well: the man had played a murky part in his
wife’s tragic death at the time of the Liberation. The initial phase of the
investigation soon brings to light the farmer’s hidden depravity. But it is practically
impossible to pin the guilt of Jourdan when three of his children turn up brutally
murdered, one after the other. Could someone be trying to settle an old score by
attacking Jourdan and his family? For now, there is only a single slim clue to follow
up on: a tuft of golden goat fleece found at the crime scene…
March 2015 – Fiction – 416 p.
Édouard Brasey is a renowned specialist of the esoteric and fables, especially Celtic legends.
He is a successful author in a number of genres, including historic and legendary novels,
regional fiction and thrillers.
12
L’ORPHELINAT – The Orphanage
Emmanuelle Friedmann
A deeply-moving account of the plight of orphans, especially in the more troubled
times of history.
1920, Saint-Malo. Nine-year-old Olivier is interested in one thing only: to escape from
the Victoire Orpahange, where he has been confined for four years. He is going to find
his parents; he refuses to believe the president of the orphanage who insists they are
dead.
Life at the orphanage is hard. The wards are mistreated by unpredictable, sadistic guards.
In the morning, they study under the vicious authority of close-minded and even
alcoholic teachers; in the afternoon, they are forced to work for greedy and cruel bosses,
in either the harbor or the fields, without the slightest remuneration.
Meanwhile, in nearby Douarnenez, the owner of a prosperous sardine factory, whose
health is declining, senses he has little time left. He regrets having banished his only
child, Max, who had fallen in love with a factory worker. Hoping for to make amends for
past wrongs, he sets out to find him. But Max is nowhere to be found. Someone seems
to have erased even the slightest traces of his son’s existence…
French sales: Book-club edition (GLM),
Large-print edition (Libra Diffusio)
Emmanuelle Friedmann is a journalist specialized in lifestyle and culture. She has written a number of books, including Le Rêveur
des Halles and La Dynastie des Chevallier with Calmann-Lévy, as well as Tu m’envoies un mail ? (Editions Privé) and Trouver un logement. com
(Editions J’ai lu).
A L’OMBRE DE NOS LARMES – In the Shadow of Tears
Éric Le Nabour
A powerful novel of elegant and deftly-crafted prose, built around the central figure of a strong and deeply
moving woman. An enigmatic heroine with exceptional talent and fortitude, yet broken by life.
At the age of four, Jeanne loses her parents in a fire in their home on Ile aux Moines. She
takes refuge in silence. Mistreated by her foster family, she is saved by Doctor Mérieux, who
manages to bring her out of her world of silence. Jeanne growns up and becomes a doctor in
turn.
She sets up a practice in a small village, where her compassion and skill earn her a reputation
that quickly spreads to the surrounding towns. One day she is contacted by a reporter who
believe that the death of her parents was not accidental…
Éric Le Nabour recounts with brio the story of a female doctor at the end of the 19th century.
He delves into the mystery surrounding the young woman’s past and describes the daily life
of women physicians of the day, more numerous than usually thought but nonetheless poorly
accepted and mistrusted by the general population unconvinced of their skills.
Éric Le Nabour earned early acclaim with several biographies and historical works. He is also
September 2014 –
an expert on the East and the Far East.
Historical Fiction – 300 p.
French Sales: Book-club edition
(Avant première France Loisirs & GLM),
Large print edition (Libra Diffusio).
13
DU POISON DANS LES VEINES – Poison in the Veins
Alfred Lenglet
A police procedural steeped in atmosphere featuring a female cop who is tough, vulnerable and
attractive. A cleverly-crafted whodunit that keeps the reader guessing until the very end.
Mâcon. Lieutenant Léa Ribaucourt is to investigate the disappearance
of Paul Humbert, a local notable and the owner of a large Lyonais
vineyard. His car has been discovered on the banks of the Saone,
keys and wallet inside. His corpse is soon located and the possibility
of accidental death ruled out when traces of poison are found in his
blood. Two intriguing tattoos, one representing a snake, the other
the words “God forgive me,” are also found on the victim’s body.
Léa and her assistant, Sergeant Aurel Raisin, first question the
victim’s relatives, all of whom are either reluctant to talk or
downright hostile. She then makes inquiries at the local café where
Humbert had been a regular. Catherine Lafleur, the owner, is
shocked by the news but can offer little help. Léa also meets
Catherine’s daughter with Down’s syndrome, Clémentine, and takes
an immediate liking to the girl.
Over the course of the investigation, Humbert’s ex-wife, mistress
and best friends are questioned, as are his political adversaries and
neighbors, including the attractive winegrower, Barbara Chevalier,
and the aging poacher, Prudent Sénéchal. Apparently Humbert’s
behavior had suddenly changed in 1984. That same year he had left
both his wife and mistress, gotten tattooed, and acquired
inexplicable wealth.
Meanwhile, Sénéchal’s fingerprints are found on the poison-dosed
thermos but neither Léa nor Judge Bastogne—who is assigned to the
case and whose opinion Léa holds in high esteem—believe the old
man guilty.
French sale: Book-club edition (GLM)
The break comes when Catherine Lafleur shows Léa a drawing by
Clémentine that clearly incriminates Barbara Chevalier. Léa lays a
trap for the winegrower, who is caught red-handed trying to poison
her and confesses: She had wanted to avenge the death of her father,
murdered by Humbert in 1984 after the two men had discovered a
secret stash of gold from World War II on land they had purchased
together.
Former head of the Saône-et-Loire Renseignements Généraux, the intelligence service of the French Police, and
the Haute-Loire Direction Centrale de la Sécurité Publique, the national patrol and response arm of the police,
Alfred Lenglet is currently the Commissaire Divisionnaire of the city of Lyon. He is a literature enthusiast and
the author of seven novels with Souny.
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FRÉDÉRICK D’ONAGLIA
Frédérick d’Onaglia’s fascination with Provence goes back to his earliest childhood, and the stories of his maternal grandmother
who passed on to him her passion for the contrasts and lore of her native region. His vivid portrayals of Provence, central to all of
his books, have earned him an ever-growing readership. He is one of the few French male authors whose work explores the genre
of family saga from the feminine viewpoint.
LA PARTITION DES ILLUSIONS – The Partition of Illusions
A moving novel packed with complexity and insight.
Violin teacher at the Aix-en-Provence conservatory, Camille Delgado sees her life turned
upside down the day her husband, Stéphane, is physically violent with her. Domineering by
nature, Stéphane has been humiliating her for years, goading her more often than not in front
of their confused teenage son, Benjamin. Badly shaken, Camille finally decides to leave her
husband. Though no longer under her ex-husband’s influence, she knows the road ahead will
be long and difficult: Stéphane wants custody of Benjamin, who has given up on school
completely and is in total rebellion. To make matters worse, the teenage boy, manipulated by
his father, holds his mother responsible for the breakup of the family.
May 2015 – Fiction – 300 p.
In the meantime Camille is trying to make a fresh start. She gets back in touch with Cédric, an
old childhood friend, and throws herself into her work teaching, actively participating in the
events of the music school now run by the brilliant conductor, Julien Leffert, recently
appointed head of prestigious institute. But having lived with a perverse narcissist for fifteen
years, Camille has lost confidence in herself and feels deep down she is not allowed to be
happy: her son’s well-being is all that matters, even if it means sacrificing her life for his. But
how can she reestablish a healthy relationship with her son and when will she be able to meet
someone without being riddled by a sense of guilt? Luckily, she is surrounded by people
willing to help, including Cédric, her lifelong friend, and Julien, who is quickly becoming a big
part of her life…
L’ENFANT DES MAURES– The Children of the Massif des Maures
A remarkable family saga of love, loss, passion and intrigue set against the beautiful hill country of the Massif
des Maures. A finely rendered novel of haunting narrative and riveting suspense.
32-year-old doctor Maurine Casténat is back in her natal village and intends to both set up
a new practice and help her sister, Carole, who is managing the family chestnuts business
now that their father has fallen ill.
Relations between the two women are strained from the very start. Between her
consultations and duties on call, Maurine is rarely around. Carole, in the meantime, must
find new financial backers to save the family business, which the economic downturn has
brought to the brink of bankruptcy.
At the same time the Casténat sisters’ aunt, a nun at the Carthusian monastery in Vernes,
reveals disturbing information about a thirty-year old scandal, which had been big news at
the time. Maurine starts asking questions, setting off an unexpected wave of violent
reactions in the village. Nobody wants to see the long buried business come to light.
Emotions run high, Maurine starts getting poison-pen letters…
A novel devoted to contemporary and universal themes: environmental and conservation
issues; the struggle of reconciling professional responsibilities and personal life; secrets
from the past shedding doubt on one’s very identity; the ravages of Alzheimer's disease
for sufferers and families alike; the difficulty of committing to a new relationship after
losing a spouse. A host of subjects that readers of all ages and walks of life can easily
identify with.
15
May 2014 – Fiction – 300 p.
French Sales : Book-club editions (Avant
première France Loisirs & GLM), Large
print edition (Libra Diffusio).
Foreign Sale : Amber (Polish)
LE MARAIS DES OMBRES – Swampy Grounds
Bernard Simonay
A razor-sharp police procedural that gives us the lowdown on a not-so sleepy Provencal town ripe
with city corruption, covered-up sex scandals and sleazy political maneuverings.
A multilayered police investigation conducted by the simpatico
sleuthing twosome of an impassioned crime fiction author, Karine
Delorme, and a secretly-smitten young police chief, Inspector
Moreno.
When mystery writer, Karine Delorme, witnesses the horrific course
of a passenger plane plummeting toward a nearby vineyard, she
hurries to the site of the crash – only to see the plane has burst into
flames.
The findings leave no room for doubt: the plane had been tampered
with. Its sole occupant, Vincent Lauragais, was the son of the late
Alain Lauragais, a politician who had also died in troubling
circumstances thirty years before. Purportedly he had committed
suicide.
Next, Vincent’s older brother miraculously survives a spectacular car
accident. Naturally, rumors of a family vendetta start to spread,
fueled by ghosts of the past stirred up by the media: embezzlement,
sex scandals, the settling of political scores... Yet, Inspector
Moreno’s investigation is at a standstill; all of the suspects have
watertight alibis.
Meanwhile, Karine Delorme keeps running up against another
unsolved mystery: two days prior to Alain Lauragais’s apparent
suicide, the body of a lifeless fifteen-year-old girl had been found at
the exact same spot: on the banks of an isolated pond in a nearby
forest. Our whodunit author is convinced the two deaths are
somehow related – but how?
April 2015 – Fiction – 372 p.
Bernard Simonay is the best-selling author of over two dozen novels. He writes in various genres, including
fantasy, regional fiction (of the French terroir) and crime fiction. His works have been awarded a number of
literary prizes.
16
VOYAGE D’UN GOURMET A PARIS – A Gourmet’s Journey in Paris
Jean-Claude Ribaut
Both gourmand and scholarly, this foodie’s history of Paris is an original take on the history of City of Lights.
A delightful read, for foodie and aspiring gourmet alike.
For over two hundred years, the restaurants and bistros of Paris have earned the
French capital its gastronomical reputation. An integral part of the scenery, they
have come and gone with the air du temps, marking the memories of entire
generations like phantom limbs, or the guardians of passing time. Yet most of
these public gathering places are less than a hundred years old, renewed every halfcentury or so. The fact is, restaurants, like transitory monuments of sorts, are
impermanent.
The present work sets out to recount the history of Paris through its restaurants
and bistros, those sacrosanct establishments of good food and good times. The
author's quest will lead him to wander the city, from one neighborhood to the
next, in search of spots with that certain je ne sais quoi, whether inviting, informal or
elegant. Literary flaneur Jean-Claude Ribaut takes us on a gourmand tour of Paris,
visiting both memory lane and today's best gastronomic tables, in a unique history
of the culinary neighborhoods, traditions and success stories of the City of Lights.
October 2014 – Non-fiction – 328 p.
French Sale : Book-club edition (GLM)
Foreign Sales : Individiuum (Russian),
L&PM (Portuguese /Brazil)
Jean-Claude Ribaut has written a weekly food and wine column for Le Monde since 1989. Trained as an architect, he is a
connoisseur of gourmand Paris and this famous columnist is a recognized authority with food lovers.
ASSORTIMENT DE FRIANDISES - Assorted Sweets for the Mind
Agnès Abécassis
The Everyday Art of Positive Thinking! The perfect cure-all gift for the end of
the year celebrations and an unparalleled multipurpose book with something
for everyone: sayings, quotes and drawings; coloring pages for grownups,
exercises both physical and mental, and cooking tricks and tips to be used in
all realms of life, whether domestic, private or professional...
A book about wellness, happiness and staying Zen addressing a selection of topics
that are good for the morale! The magic word here - to think positive.
At the end of each chapter, the reader is invited to participate in a selection of
humorous activities, such as doing something creative or coloring to relax.
More than a book, it is a bouquet of positive thoughts, a panoply of inspirational
quotes, a wide-range of relaxing activities and a color chart of laughter and smiles. But
it is also a personal diary, a heady and soothing fragrance, a jumble of knowledgeable
tidbits and a present to give to yourself… This is not a novel. This is your book!
French Sales : Paperback edition (Le Livre
de Poche)
Agnès Abécassis was born in 1972. She started her career as a writer and an illustrator for a women's health magazine. A former
screenwriter, she is also a journalist and a literary chronicler for a number of magazines. She is the author of the bestselling Les
Tribulations d’une jeune divorcée and of Au secours, il veut m’épouser !, Toubib or not toubib ; Chouette, une ride ! ; Soirée Sushi and Le Théorème de
Cupidon and Week-end surprise published by Calmann-Lévy.
17
MARION, 13 ANS POUR TOUJOURS
Marion, Forever Thirteen
Nora Fraisse
“I am writing this book for you, to tell you how much I regret the future you will not be sharing
with us. I am writing this book so that your death will help others, so that bullying at school will be
taken seriously, so that no child will ever want to put a stop to life, forever.”
Marion Fraisse was a good student. She was cheerful, engaging and
openhearted with a bright future ahead of her. She lived with her
parents and her brother and sister in the suburbs of Paris. She had a
happy home life and dreamed of becoming an architect. On
February 13, 2013, at the age of thirteen, she committed suicide by
hanging herself with a scarf in her bedroom.
She left a note behind for her classmates, explaining that this time
the insults and violence had gone too far, a poignantly truthful letter
in which the teenager is almost apologetic: “I guess I wasn’t able to
tell you how heavy-hearted it all made me, but I’m doing it now,
though my heart has stopped beating.”
Could this terrible loss of life have been avoided? Nora Fraisse,
Marion’s mother, is convinced it could have been. Her daughter had
complained to her about the atmosphere at school—she had been
booed in class for asking the other kids to quiet down. She had asked
the school to switch her daughter into another class, for that matter.
But the school system doesn’t know how to deal with bullying unless
adults, teachers and school personnel are brave enough and
responsible enough to take up the problem. After the death of their
daughter, Marion’s parents – who filed a complaint – had to face the
indifference, clumsiness and corporatism of the educational
institution, in addition to their grief.
Nora Fraisse decided to try to understand, at all costs, how her
daughter could have chosen to take her own life. She poured
through the Facebook messages and text messages Marion received
from her 8th grade schoolmates. She gleaned bits of information here
and there from the parents and teachers who were willing to share
with her, though generally reluctantly.
Then she decided to write it all down, to denounce society’s
collective negligence in the face of the growing phenomenon of
bullying at school, fueled and made worse—and at times even
tragic—by social networks. The present book is a call for vigilance
and for concrete action, but it is also a personal response, the voice
of a mother speaking to a daughter, her daughter, Marion, addressed
here directly.
Nora Fraisse is forty-two years old. She is a company executive.
18
January 2015 – Non-fiction – 192 p.
LA GRANDE DETOX – Our Daily Poisons (and how to take it)
Patrice Halimi
A book that is good for you!
Every day we are confronted with dozens, or even hundreds, of toxic products that
affect both our metabolism and our health. The number of cancers linked to these
phenomena is constantly on the rise. This much we know, but what can we do about it,
at our own level? How can we avoid coming into contact with the “poisons” that
surround us?
We go into our bathrooms every day, we go to work, by car or on foot, we make phone
calls, we eat, we do chores, we garden, etc. What are the risks involved? How can we
control the extent of our exposure to environmental chemicals and make informed
choices?
Patrice Halimi takes us by the hand and gives us the key to living better and taking
necessary precautions.
It is not a book for toxicologists (though the author builds on numerous scientific
studies that have led him to reflect on present-day issues). It is first and foremost the
work of a pragmatic doctor concerned with questions raised by his patients on a daily
basis, a doctor who became interested in questions of environment and health because
he believes we can all take action, both individually and collectively.
March 2015 – Document – 224 p.
Patrice Halimi is 47 years old. He is a pediatric surgeon in Aix-en-Provence. In recent years, he has become actively involved
in non-profit organization work with the Association Santé Environnement France that he founded in 2008 with Dr. Pierre
Souvet. The ASEF conducts preventive campaigns on issues related to health and environment, including air quality, childhood
environments, climate change, electromagnetic waves, biodiversity, food and sports.
POUTINE – Putin
Frédéric Pons
An unbiased and in-depth investigation that breaks with received ideas and finger pointing in a context prone to
exaggeration and easy assumption. The book is developed as an innovative and constructive geopolitical essay
and explores concrete avenues for improved but clear-headed relations with Russia.
October 2014 – Biography – 374 p.
Foreign Sales : Kuchkovo-Pole (Russian)
Who is the enigmatic Vladimir Putin? A tyrant at all costs bent on asserting power, his own
and that of his inner circle, in the century-old tradition of the Kremlin autocrats? Or Russia’s
savior, out to reinstate the greatness of his country by encapsulating Russian history from the
Tsars to the Soviets? How did the man, a mere KGB Lieutenant Colonel at the end of the
Cold War, rise to the top of one of the most powerful nations in the world? Who is the man
behind the seemingly implacable mask: a brutal and cynical politician, a power-hungry
mercenary, or a true patriot committed to defending his country’s interests?
In a thoroughly documented investigation backed by a number of unprecedented meetings in
Saint Petersburg and Moscow, Frédéric Pons gives us a compelling portrait of the Kremlin’s
supreme leader: his training, dreams and ambitions, but also his passion for sports, as both a
spectator and an athlete, and the diversity of his powerful network of influence, not to
mention the decisive phases of his stunning political ascension, part ruthlessness part
persuasion.
Without ignoring the ambiguous nature of Putin himself, Frédéric Pons recalls the mistakes
of the West now paying the price for deliberately ignoring the fears and aspirations of Russia
after the collapse of Communism, an attitude of “contempt” responsible, in part, for the
present impasse.
Frédéric Pons is a journalist and the editor-in-chief of the World service of Valeurs Actuelles. He teaches geopolitics at Saint-Cyr Military
School and the École de Guerre and is president of the Association des journalistes de la Défense.
19
ILS SONT FOUS, CES COREENS !
They are completely nuts in Korea
Éric Surdej
Neither political essay nor pamphlet, the present book is a riveting tell-all, up close and personal,
packed with suspense.
Éric Surdej spent ten-years of his life at the Korean conglomerate, or
chaebols, LG, a global leader in consumer electronics. First, as
Managing Director, then as CEO of LG France, Surdej would be the
first non-Korean to take the reins of an LG subsidiary, and one of
the few therefore to enter the “inner sanctum” of LG’s exclusive
club of 400 global executives.
His description of daily life at a Korean company is nothing short of
hallucinating: ten, even twelve hour workdays under the crossexamining eye of bosses obsessed with ratings and yields; an
incredibly subservient company spirit to which private life is virtually
sacrificed; extremely fierce co-working relationships, which even lead
to physical confrontation at times; motivation seminars worthy of a
sect; and that ever-present injunction of pali, pali, or faster, faster!
Why did he choose to enter a world of such corporate mayhem? The
fact is, Éric Surdej, during his twenty years in the electronics sector,
would also witness the extraordinary efficiency of his Korean
competitors, their attention to detail in strategic planning, and their
ability to mobilize almost unlimited energy and determination in
order to achieve goals. For that matter, he too had a goal: to unite
the conquering spirit of Korea with the French spirit of finesse, or to
found “a Gaul village” within Korea’s global empire. Such was the
challenge he had set—and met: For long, LG France was one of the
group’s most profitable branches. In the end, however, LG’s Gaul
would be swallowed up by a new emperor, who believed there was
only room for a single chief—naturally a Korean!
The present tell-all is sure to find resonance with a large readership,
especially those readers sensitive to the nightmare reality of today’s
corporate world. It also sheds light on how the Korean chaebols
outperformed the Japanese keiretsus, not to mention the
conglomerates in the West. All the same, these latter would do well
to emulate a number of Korea’s lessons if they want to survive in
today’s global economy, as the “young tiger” has turned into a
ferocious beast with an insatiable appetite.
January 2015 – Non-fiction – 192 p.
Foreign sale: Bookhouse Publishing (Korea)
Éric Surdej was born in 1956. He has spent his entire career working in leading European and Asian companies
that manufacture and distribute consumer electronics and appliances. He was the first foreigner to be appointed
to the board of a Korean conglomerate, an eye-opening and highly informative experience.
20
MICKEY A GURS
Mickey Mouse at Gurs
Joël Kotek and Didier Pasamonik
The unprecendented publication of three extraordinary sketchbooks
Nothing had predisposed Horst Rosenthal, a young German Jew
and illustrator, to a tragic fate. Other than the fact he was born a Jew
in Breslau in 1915. On top of this, he was a Jewish socialist. So Horst
Rosenthal was forced to flee to France in July 1933, the
romanticized birthplace of human rights. He was eighteen at the
time. Though granted asylum by a France that was liberal, France
turned out to be much less particular about human rights in 1940,
when Rosenthal found himself interned for being German in the
“zone libre,” and even less so, two years later, when he would be
handed over to the Nazis, this time for being Jewish. Horst
Rosenthal would spend time in six different concentration camps
before his final stop at Auschwitz in September 1942, where he was
presumably gassed as soon as he arrived, due to the paralysis of his
left hand.
He left behind a legacy of three sketchbooks, including Mickey Mouse
at Gurs, known only to a handful of experts and previously
unpublished in full. The small notebook, made to be passed around
among the prisoners, recounts the ludicrous adventures of an
interned Mickey Mouse, revealing with irony and irreverence the
absurdity of statelessness.
The second sketchbook, A Day as a Guest, is published here for the
first time ever. Its falsely-naïve schoolboy tone is in reality a front to
better expose the unbearable monotony of camp life and the
precarious conditions of internment.
The third book, A Brief Introduction to Camp Gurs, also published here
for the first time, is the strongest of the three sketchbooks. Styled
after a tourism brochure that invites the reader to discover a
“holiday camp,” it is a highly-effective parody exposing, through
laughter, the internees’ suffering.
51 pages of full-color illustrations
Joël Kotek is a political scientist, a historian and a specialist of the Holocaust. He has published numerous articles
and books.
Belgium editor, journalist and curator, Didier Pasamonik is a renowned comics expert. He writes for a number of
newspapers and has written several books on caricature, comics and popular culture. He is the associate editor of
ActuaBD.com, the first news website dedicated to francophone comics.
21
- BACKLIST -
LES AMANTS DÉSUNIS– An Estranged Love
Anouar Benmalek
An elderly Swiss woman roaming a cemetery stops before each tombstone, eyes searching
eagerly for two beloved names: Mehdi and Myriem, her children, slayed by combatants of
Algeria’s National Liberation Front, the FLN, convinced their father, Nassredine, was a
traitor.
The only thing the Anna has saved from the past is her wedding ring, in memory of a
great love cut down in its prime. Forty years have since gone by. Back in Algiers, Anna
sends a telegram to Nassreddine: Meet me at the graves of our children.
But it’s not so easy for foreigners to get around contemporary Algeria. Anna needs a little
help. She meets Jallal, an unhappy boy selling peanuts at the Place des Martyrs, who agrees
to be her guide. Disguised as a Muslim woman, the “grandmother” and her “grandson”
are captured by a group of jihadists. Will Nassreddine be able to find them before fate is
determined, once more, by the blade of a knife?
August 1998 – Literary Fiction – 393 p.
French sale: Paperback edition (Le Livre de
Poche)
Foreign sales: Luchterhand Verlag (German),
Graywolf Press (English), Psichogios (Greek),
Tammi Publishers (Finish)
Anouar Benmalek was born in Casablanca on 1956. After the October 1988 riots, he became one of the founders of the Algerian
Committee Against Torture. His incisive prose has made him one of the most prominent voices of Algeria today.
PERSONNE NE PEUT ARRÊTER UNE FILLE QUI RÊVE
A Girl With a Dream is Unstoppable
A young woman is lost to unrequited love; her life will never be the same.
Brigitte Hemmerlin
Based on a widely talked about case from thirty years ago, Brigitte Hemmerlin recounts a law
school student’s obsession with a famous criminal lawyer.
The moment Claire sets eyes on the picture of Gabriel Doré in a major weekly magazine, she
falls head over heels in love with him. To seduce the man, who doesn’t even know she exists,
she will gradually weave her way into his life. First she takes on a summer job as his personal
assistant. Then she becomes friends with Dominique, the law firm’s chief secretary. Though
Gabriel spurns her advances, Claire is eventually made an associate at the firm where she will
work for next several years.
Hurt but happy, Claire will give up everything – family, fiancé, friends and future – just to be
near the man she loves. When in time she is fired, she refuses to give up her passion. Instead,
she destroys her own life just to have him near her.
From law firm to courtroom by way of prison – where the suffering of the convicted is clearly
palpable – Claire, guided by love, loses control of her life and ultimately commits an act that will
send her to prison.
March 2014 – Literary Fiction – 240 p.
French Sale : Paperback edition (Le Livre
de Poche).
In a story reflecting both an era, prior to the abolition of the death penalty, and an environment, that of the judicial system,
Brigitte Hemmerlin gives us a fictionalized account of her own past, her elegant prose moving effortlessly from dream to reality
and back again.
Brigitte Hemmerlin was a lawyer from 1978 to 1981. She is now a journalist and a writer and she is currently working on her second
novel.
22
English
sample
translation
available
x
FENICIA – Fenicia
Pierre Brunet
Pierre Brunet gives us the story of his mother Fenicia, a heroine marked early in life by the
brutality of the world ; a radiant and tragic figure who would leave behind a heritage first of
fascination and idolization, then of chaos, ruin and silence.
On April 5, 1964, at the age of 31, Fenicia would pass away in a
psychiatric ward on the outskirts of Paris. She had had a number of last
names as well as the two given names of Ana and Fenicia. For one of
her sons, she would become both a myth and a taboo – a taboo broken
here at last through the recounting of her story. The story of little Ana,
abandoned at birth near a Catholic orphanage in Barcelona and
adopted, at the age of 4, by a fervent couple of anarchists, Conchita
and Mateo.
Spain's Civil War is in full swing. Exile, life on the road and internment
in the concentration camp of Argelès-sur-Mer are little Ana's earliest
memories. It is there that her new parents would decide to change
Ana's name to Fenicia, in honor of the Phoenicians, who, in the minds
of the Spanish anarchists, had landed in Spain not for conquest but
rather to give the country its indomitable spirit of freedom.
The intelligent and beautiful Fenicia would grow up in France. An
anarchist, a seductress, a teenage mother, a wife, but also a doctor of
letters, Fenicia would be loved by many : by Mateo, her adoptive
father, for whom she would remain “his little girl from heaven above” ;
by Georges, the brilliant lawyer who would be Fenicia's her first lover
and mentor ; by Jean, her faithful husband who would never
understand her and lastly by Gil, the gallant knight who would be her
final lover. But the puzzle pieces of this life would never fit together.
March 2014 – Literary Fiction – 434 p.
Indeed, over the course of the years, she would never be sure of being loved, would eternally remain the little girl
terrified by the fear of abandonment, by the violence of war, by the ugliness of the world… And terrified, what is
more, by the possibility of her own ugliness. Henceforth, Fenicia would steer her life into the virgin territories of
make-believe. A life invented and reinvented, a life where truth and lies would become inextricably tangled and
eventually cause her downfall.
With abandonment for a birthright, war for a childhood and exile for a country, is it possible to make peace with
both the world and oneself ? How long can you maintain a balancing act of fact and fiction before you are overtaken
by History and the story of your life ? At least thirty-one years, in this case – enough time for an entire life.
Pierre Brunet was born in Paris in 1961. He has held a number of jobs, including ad salesman, croupier, delivery
man, security guard and journalist, to name a few. In 1994, he began working by chance in the field of
humanitarian aid, which would take him first to Rwanda and then to Bosnia. He is now a member of the board of
a French NGO and spends a good part of his time writing. He is the author of Barnum and J.A.B., published
respectively by Calmann-Lévy in 2006 and 2008.
23
XENIA – Xenia
Gérard Mordillat
Xenia is the story of two women, of two invisible heroines, that is, the cleaning women, cashiers
and salesgirls we run into everyday. It is also a revealing look at the struggle of just getting by, an
eye-opening incursion into the real-life workplaces of today's Thelma and Louises.
Xenia (“foreigner” in Greek) is a 23 years old mother with a 5 months old
baby. She is barely able to make ends meet by cleaning offices for a
corporate cleaning company, when her boyfriend takes off with all of
their savings. With no one to look after her son now, Xenia is forced to
take him to work, a makeshift solution that works for a while, thanks to
the help of her colleagues. Eventually she is caught at work with her son
and is fired on the spot.
Luckily, Xenia's neighbours are there for her, especially Blandine who gets
her a cashier job at the local supermarket. Soon – amid laughter and tears,
romances and quarrels but also hope and insurrection – Xenia and
Blandine are sharing the same daily routine: the same job, the same
apartment and the same furious drive to work their way to a better life.
Then one day their world comes crashing down around them: Blandine is
caught taking fruit from the supermarket's dumpster and is threatened
with losing her job.
Her fate sparks outrage among the inhabitants of the neighbourhood,
however, and spurred on by Xenia, they rise up against Blandine's unfair
treatment.
January 2014 – Literary Fiction – 384 p.
French Sale : Paperback edition
(Le Livre de Poche).
Xenia and Blandine’ story is like a whirlwind, filled with heartwarming moments, everyday trials and triumphs and the
incessant struggles of earning a living at nose-to-the-grind jobs that don't leave much time for actual living. Along the
way, we encounter a group of truly amazing people who face the hardships of life with quiet dignity and a ready smile.
There is Gauvain, the laid-off bank employee who will win Xenia's heart; Mrs Aziz, the affectionate old Algerian
woman and her shopkeeper son; Biglouche, the mechanic with a heart of gold and Samuel, the young half-black man
in search of an identity.
They invite us into their world, which is also our own, a world where solidarity is not just another empty word. And a
world that Xenia and Blandine are determined to change for the better, even if it means first setting it on fire !
Gérard Mordillat is a writer and a filmmaker. He has published numerous novels, including L’Attraction universelle,
Les Vivants et les Morts (Calmann-Lévy 2005), Notre part des ténèbres (Calmann-Lévy, 2008) and Ce que savait Jennie
(Rentrée Littéraire 2012). He and Jérôme Prieur are the coauthors of Corpus Christi, a three-part documentary film
on the origins of Christianity. He has made over twenty films and wrote the film adaptation of his novel, Les
Vivants et les Morts, for France 2.
24
English
sample
translation
available
x
1 RUE DES PETITS-PAS – 1 Rue des Petits-Pas
Nathalie Hug
With 1 Rue des Petits-Pas, Nathalie Hug deftly recounts village life in post-World War I France. A remarkable
fresco of vivid realism and heartfelt emotion.
The winter of 1918-1919. The Great War is coming to an end. A small village in Lorraine, only
a few miles from the front, is nothing but ruins. Most of the men are dead; the women and
children are struggling to survive. Nobody has been spared the tragedies of war, but life must
go on. It is time to rebuild, to reopen shops, to start living again – in spite of old wounds.
Louise, an orphan at the age of sixteen, knows all about poverty and violence. Taken in by a
midwife, she is learning the trade of delivering babies, treating the complaints of expecting
mothers and lending a sympathetic ear. She is determined to move on, to learn to read and
write, to raise a child and to love. With each passing day at 1, rue des Petits-Pas she will
discover quite simply what being a woman really means.
But in the remote village of eastern France, local legends feed into fear, and hatred keeps the
villagers going. The war wasn't over with the signing of the Armistice.
February 2014 – Literary Fiction – 325 p.
French Sales : Paperback edition (Le Livre de Poche), Book-club editions (France Loisirs & GLM).
Nathalie Hug lives in eastern France. She has co-written several thrillers with Jérôme Camut and is the author of two solo novels
published by Calmann-Lévy : The Nothing Child (2011) and Miss Ticks-Tacks (2012) which has been selected by the French Institute
magazine, Fiction France.
UN AUTOMNE EN CLAIR-OBSCUR – Autumn Chiaroscuro
Martine Delomme
She thought she had found happiness but her life is about to be turned upside down… A masterful narrative
and gripping suspense with an endearing heroine who comes to life as the story unfolds.
Claire is the perfect wife, happy and fulfilled. She is expecting a second child and
enjoys her job at the cardboard factory owned by her husband, Henri. This latter has
fallen into a deep coma after a hunting accident, however, and his chances of
surviving are slim.
Claire’s life takes a sudden nightmarish turn. Olivia, Henri’s first wife starts harassing
her. She seems to be obsessed with her – even bent on destroying her – and much to
Claire’s surprise, none of colleagues even seem to care.
What’s behind Olivia strange behavior? How should Claire respond to her relentless
attacks? What if her husband was not the man she had though he was? Claire looks to
the past for answers, determined to bring the truth to light. Along the way, she
discovers her own unsuspected mettle.
At the center of a conspiracy and surrounded by a host of ruthless characters, Claire
finds two precious allies in her mother and her lawyer, an honest man and a divorced
dad. With courage and perseverance, she will ultimately change the course of things
and uncover the truth…
September 2014 – Fiction – 330 p.
French Sale : Book-club edition
(Avant première France Loisirs).
Martine Delomme was born in Bordeaux. Her two previous novels published by Belfond have gained her an ever-growing readership.
25
SOUVIENS-TOI DE DEMAIN – Remember Tomorrow
A young woman, the victim of a physical aggression, is struck by a severe form
of amnesia. Will she be able to piece the puzzle of her life back together again
without the familiar bearings of memory? A page-turning psychological
thriller!
Vanessa Caffin
Following a violent assault, Charlie Longe wakes up in the hospital completely amnesiac:
She has no memories of the past and her mind is unable to record anything new. To
remember the events of the day before, she starts keeping a diary. In it, she discovers a
cell phone number and the unsettling words, “I am going to die, find husband, find
Adam.” Is her life in danger? Who is this Adam? And why is nobody answering the cell
phone?
Charlie finds herself caught up in a disturbing quest for truth, her diary and the badge of
an advertising agency as her only compass. But all of her leads get her nowhere. The
agency owner is behaving strangely for one, and so is Georges, the company’s graphic
designer who seems to be hiding something. Then there is Vincent, her moody
neighbor, an author with a writer’s block who swears he’d never seen her with a man
before. Not to mention all of the anonymous emails… Terrified, Charlie looks for
answers, alone, unable to trust anyone.
March 2014 – Literature – 250 p.
French Sale : Paperback edition
(Le Livre de Poche).
Vanessa Caffin was born in 1976. The author of the acclaimed début novel J’aime pas l’amour… ou trop peut-être (Anne Carrière,
2008), followed by Mémoire vive (Belfond, 2009), which is currently being adapted into film, she published Rossmore Avenue with
Belfond in 2011. This latter was among the ten international titles selected for the 2011 Berlin Film Festival. Caffin, who is
particularly interested in cinema, is currently writing her first feature film screenplay.
L’ENTRE-TEMPS – The Meantime
René Guitton
Addressing his father with a shy yet loving “you”, a son explores his origins. A brilliant and captivating novel
written with passion, wisdom and care.
Alexandre, the little boy born in prison in a remote corner of Morocco in 1943, is a grown
man now. He is back in Casablanca to exhume his father. The father he had adored, the naval
officer who had taught him about airplane mechanics and green flashes at sunset. The man
who had taught him the importance of treating others with kindness and respect.
However, exhuming his father means digging up the past. There is his mother, Rose, a young
Italian milliner, shy but impassioned ; and his maternal grandparents truly enamored of
freedom. But there is also Yemna, the Jew, and Mina, the Muslim ; the aunt from America
and the cousins from Africa…
With modesty and feeling, the author gives us a finely-wrought family history within the
larger context of History : that of World War II. Yet throughout it all, with the world
crumbling tragically around them, a sense of joy prevails. Cruelty is outweighed by the
pleasure of being together.
August 2013 – Literary Fiction – 208 p.
French Sales : Paperback edition
(Le Livre de Poche), Large print edition
(Feryane).
Publisher, author and an ardent defender of human dignity, René Guitton is a tireless
purveyor of trends of thought, his work over the years having sought, in particular, to
establish a philosophical, cultural, and religious dialogue between the East and West. He won
numerous prestigious literary awards with Ces chrétiens qu’on assassine (Flammarion, 2009) and
Si nous nous taisons : le martyre des moines de Tibhirine (Calmann-Lévy, 2001). He is also the
author of En quête de vérité (Calmann-Lévy, 2011).
26
LE PALAIS DE MÉMOIRE – The Memory Palace
An evocative yet delightful tale, taking the reader down intellectual, spiritual and sensual roads in a spellbinding
journey.
From the depths of an opium den, the Jesuit Artus de Leys – deserted by faith and
torn by love – hesitates over the comfort of oblivion and the pain of remembrance.
The man he loves exists only in his mind now. To bring him back to life, Artus
builds an imaginary edifice inherited from an ancient art form : a memory palace.
With each addition to his palace, memories come flooding in, from his first visit to
China in the 1720’s, invited by the Emperor Kangxi to train young scholars in the
Forbidden City, to his escapades in Paris and his friends of bygone days. He sees
himself riding in the forests of Manchuria alongside his beloved pupil, Jade, who he
initiates to the Ars Memorativa and the Christian faith. But Artus can't keep
reminders of their passion's fatal turn at bay, without seeing his palace of memory
collapse.
August 2011 – Literary fiction – 162 p.
French Sales : Paperback edition (Le Livre de Poche)
Elise Fontenaille N’Diaye was born in Nancy and has worked as a journalist. She is the author of numerous novels,
including Les Disparues de Vancouver published by Grasset and which received the 2010 Prix Erckmann-Chatrian.
27
ET PUIS, PAULETTE… – And Then Came Paulette…
Barbara Constantine
After her 2010 best-seller Tom, petit Tom, tout petit homme, Tom, Barbara Constantine succeeds
once again to create a real gem and takes the reader to a moving and strong story, full of life,
humor and hope. You will smile, be teary-eyed and above all feel good.
RIGHTS SOLD IN 20 LANGUAGES
PRIX DES LIBRAIRES - LE LIVRE DE POCHE 2013
Ferdinand lives all by himself on his big empty farm. His son, daughter and
grandchildren have all moved away.
One day his neighbour Marceline shows up after a terrible storm. With his
usual awkwardness, Ferdinand invites her to stay. Then his best friend Guy, a
recent widower at loose ends, moves in. Lastly come the Lumière sisters,
fleeing a monster of a nephew bent on getting their home.
Thus a strange 67 to 95 year-old quintet is formed. An odd arrangement, to
say the least, that little by little becomes the norm. When the health needs of
the eldest prove too challenging, the quintet decides to recruit a suitable
candidate at a nearby nursing school, who, in exchange for a few hours work a
week, will be given room and board. Muriel takes them up on it. Then at the
local agricultural school, Kim is enlisted to help out with the garden.
One night an increasingly round and nauseous Muriel gives birth – both to her
own surprise and that of everyone else – to a little girl, an unwanted addition
in Muriel's eye... But our new-formed fivesome doesn't see things in the same
light... Baby Paulette will be well looked after indeed !
flowers and the trees grow, and the cats, and the birds, and the squirrels... She is the author of Allumer le chat (2007),
A Mélie, sans mélo (2009) and the best-sellersTom, petit Tom, tout petit homme, Tom (2010) and And then came Paulette
(2012).
French Sales : Book-club editions (GLM & France Loisirs), Large print edition (Feryane), Audio-book edition (Audiolib),
Paperback editions (Le Livre de Poche adult & young-adult editions), Condensed edition (Selection du Reader’s Digest).
Foreign Sales : MacLehose Press (World English), Einaudi Stile Libero (Italian), Seix Barral (World Spanish), Rowohlt Kindler
(German), Intrinseca (Portuguese/Brazil), Meulenhoff/Boekerij (Dutch), Kinneret Zmora (Hebrew), Can Yayinlari (Turkish),
Shanghai 99 (Simplified Chinese), Munhakdongne (Korean), Bertrand (Portuguese), Yuan-Liou Publishing (Complex Chinese),
Empuries/Grup62 (Catalan), Sekwa Förlag (Swedish), Arvids (Danish), Azbooka-Atticus (Russian), Bazar Forlag (Norwegian),
Poplar Sha (Japanese), Stereoma SA (Greek), Sonia Draga (Polish).
28
TOM, PETIT TOM, TOUT PETIT HOMME, TOM
Tom, Little Tom, Little Man, Tom
Barbara Constantine
This is the heart-warming story of a little boy who acts like an adult and a mother who acts like a
child.
RIGHTS SOLD IN 12 LANGUAGES
“A concentrated dose of vitamins to brighten your life ! Happiness,
pleasure…things you absolutely need right now for a welcome change of
pace.” – Gérard Collard, bookseller
“Barbara Constantine tenderly paints the lives of regular people, and
knows like no one else how to bring them to life to share with us the mix
of solemnity and irony that make up their everyday lives.” – Prima
“Barbara Constantine helps us see la vie en rose, and it feels fabulous!” –
Femmes d’Aujourd’hui.
Tom, an eleven-year-old boy, lives with his young mother, Joss. She was
thirteen when she gave birth to Tom. As Joss has a penchant for going out,
falling in love and disappearing on weekends, Tom is often left to his own
devices and has learned to fend for himself. Plus, the little money his mother
does earn is scrupulously set aside to pay for breast reduction surgery. Joss
wants men to pay attention to her for something more than just her chest.
Tom, therefore, slips quietly into his neighbours' vegetable gardens for food,
digging up carrots and potatoes... Before leaving, however, he carefully replants
and waters everything he has dug up.
One day, he enters a new garden and comes across Madeleine, an old woman
who had been lying in the middle of her cabbage patch for two whole days.
Without Tom's help, she would most certainly have died.
flowers and the trees grow, and the cats, and the birds, and the squirrels... She is the author of Allumer le chat (2007),
A Mélie, sans mélo (2009) and the best-sellers Tom, petit Tom, tout petit homme, Tom (2010) and And then came Paulette
(2012).
French Sales : Paperback editions (Le Livre de Poche adult & young-adult editions),
Large print edition (Feryane), Book-club editions (GLM & France Loisirs).
Foreign Sales : Blanvalet (German), Fazi Editore (Italian), Seix Barral (World Spanish),
Grup 62 (Catalan), Munhakdongne (Korean), Azbooka-Atticus (Russian), Könyvmolyképző Kiadó (Hongrois),
Yuan-Liou Publishing (Complex Chinese), Albatros media (Czech), La Maison des femmes (Vietnamese), Sekwa Förlag (Swedish),
Sonia Draga (Polish).
Movie Sale : Rhamsa Productions.
29
BARBARA CONSTANTINE
À MÉLIE, SANS MÉLO – To Mélie, without Melodrama
A fantastic dose of refreshment, humor and emotion ! “ This book invites us to take the time to live, to love
from 10 to 78, to escape the infernal pace of work, illness and death.” – ELLE
Mélie is 72 and lives alone in the countryside. Her granddaughter, Clara, 10-yearold, is coming to spend the whole summer with her for the first time. The
evening before her arrival, Mélie learns that she has some serious health
problems and should begin a heavy treatment immediately…too bad, she says !
But her top priority is her dear Clarinette !
Indeed the grandma is really not into melodrama and prefers to spend her
summer (perhaps her last ?) making wonderful memories for Clara : funny ones,
like watching bamboo grow while listening to La Traviata, singing songs in the
rain, or tasting the weeds growing on trail edges.
And there’s also old Marcel, who teaches Clara how to do handy work, and
Fanette, her mother, who wants to find a step-father for Clara, or Bello her
godfather, who wants to include her in his group of musical godchildren… Of
course, since life always holds surprises, Mélie is finally going to fall in love.
French Sales : Book-club edition (GLM), Paperback edition (Le Livre de Poche),
September 2008 – Fiction – 256 p.
Large print edition (Feryane).
Foreign Sales : Cairo Editore (Italian), Azbooka-Atticus (Russian), Random House (German).
ALLUMER LE CHAT– Turn on the Cat
Barbara Constantine’s first novel, Allumer le Chat is about fairly normal
folks who rather naturally experience incredibly weird things.
There is the embalmer at a funeral home who takes up photography as a hobby, a
child who learns healing from his pot-smoking grandpa, a cat convinced of being
an intellectual, and… well, you get the drift.
This is a book written to make us laugh. It is not a nice book. Between the lines is
a running critique of annoying idiots. However, it is infused with a certain
tenderness that pays homage to simple lives and to the pride of humble spirits, to
those who do not run with the pack, who pass inconspicuously. It is a tribute to
“un-beautiful” people. The short chapters, titled much like silent movies, are
written in a spoken style. It is a book that begs to be seen and listened to. The odd,
quirky characters will stick in your memory for a long time because you know that
they really do exist – you have seen them !
French Sales : Book-club edition (GLM), Paperback edition (Points Seuil).
Foreign Sale : Cairo Editore (Italian).
30
HÔTEL MIRANDA – Hotel Miranda
Iman Bassalah
“Iman Bassalah’s exquisite novel is a poignant missive from that inviolate
stronghold, from that pocket of resistance denouncing dictatorships –
wether marital or political – around the world : the human heart.” – ELLE
20-year-old Selma boarded, after spending time in a Tunisian jail, an overloaded
vessel bound for Lampedusa. The Arab Spring had not yet occurred. Ever since
her boyfriend had mysteriously disappeared, the sole purpose of her life had been
to get to Paris. She leaves behind her mother, Zineb and her adorable brother,
Rabih – whose mental handicap had turned him into an avid collector of photos of
Ben Ali, in his mind a fabulous king.
Meanwhile, Louise is desperate to find a hotel room in Paris. She is determined not
to spend another day trapped by her relationship and the dictates of perfect
motherhood.
Thus do our two runaways find themselves making a temporary last stop at the
Hotel Miranda, a no star hotel, home to a cast of luminous characters with secret
sorrows. There is Osmani, the goodhearted old Turk ; Moncef, the proprietor with
a booming laugh ; Warda, the Lebanese connoisseur of good bread ; Ilan, the
Israeli tourist ; Mama Fanta, the Malian matron ; Taoufik, the emergency room
doctor ; all of whom will give Selma and Louise a warm welcome to their new
home, a safe haven where they will be able to make a fresh start, to rebuild their
lives at last.
May 2012 – Commercial Fiction
240 p.
Foreign Sale : Newton Compton (Italian).
Iman Bassalah is a journalist and a writer who divides her time between France, Italy
and Tunisia. She is the author of numerous works, essays and short stories. Hotel
Miranda is her first novel.
L‘IRANIENNE – The Iranian Woman
Maurice Bigio
The story of one woman's determination to forge a new destiny for both her son and her country. Based on
an international Iranian figure, Shirin Ebadi, and her fight for human rights.
“ A masterful novel of Iran today. Powerful and moving.” – Biba
Shirine is an Iranian, a mother and a lawyer. A staunch defender of freedom of
thought, of women's rights, of hope. Jew, she had converted to Islam out of love to
marry Shapour, a respected scientist. Their son, Shantia, is afflicted with a form of
muscular dystrophy transmitted on the mother's side. Shirine refuses to give in to
guilt but her convictions have put up a wall between herself and her husband, who,
due to the illness of Shantia, progressively turned to be a religious fanatic.
Despite the threats, Shirine continues braving the arbitrary decrees of Iranian society:
she disobeys her husband and continues her work as a lawyer. Her indomitable spirit
soon lands her in jail and after months of solitary confinement, she is released, only
to find her son has been placed with a “new mother” and her husband has
repudiated her. She has nothing left to lose now and is determined to save her son.
264 p.
Foreign Sales : Newton Compton
Maurice Bigio was born in Cairo and lives in France. A staunch defender of human
rights, he has closely followed the political, social and religious evolution of the MiddleEast region. He won the Prix du Livre Pourpre 2013 for this novel.
(Italian).
31
AGNÈS ABÉCASSIS
Agnès Abécassis was born in 1972. She started her career as a writer and an illustrator for a women's health magazine. A
former screenwriter, she is also a journalist and a literary chronicler for a number of magazines. She is the author of the
bestselling Les Tribulations d’une jeune divorcée ; Au secours, il veut m’épouser !, a hilarious text on the joys of coupledom ; as well
as Toubib or not toubib ; Chouette, une ride ! ; Soirée Sushi and Le Théorème de Cupidon, a romantic comedy set in the movie
industry.
WEEK-END SURPRISE– A Week-end Away
A great summer read with fresh vibes and a delightful sense of humor with a lovely heroine today’s readers will
easily identify with : Brune, a modern mom stretched thin between romantic entanglements, raising her sons
and her search for personal fulfillment.
Once upon a time, when paper mail was out and letters were sent electronically, in
little bits and pieces, was Brune, an actress and divorced mother of Nestor and Noé,
twin brothers experimenting puberty. A week in the life of this woman, in pictures.
Snapshots of her “moments”, her brief emotional outbursts. But those days, real
feelings were hidden by the seeming futility of text-messages.
Indeed, Brune was receiving ambiguous text messages from Leonard, her radio host
best friend, desperately in love with her. She was also always there for Suzie, texting
her during her love disappointments. Then she was chatting with Prunelle who had a
job on line and was being hounded by Simon, a sleazy guy on the Internet. Luckily, with
all this going on, Noé and Nestor were doing pretty well at school (if it weren't for
that awful teacher) and had an unlimited imagination.
In brief, a week in the life of a woman, still dreaming of vacation, who finds herself
invited to London, for a tête-à-tête weekend, just herself and her sons… but after all
not just her sons.
232 p.
French Sale : Paperback edition (Le Livre
de Poche).
LE THÉORÈME DE CUPIDON – Cupid’s Theorem
“Between sparkling situations and compelling twists, Agnès Abécassis gives us a delicious romantic
comedy in two voices, one female and one that has transformed.” – La Nouvelle République
“Bubbly, energetic, Agnès Abécassis gave a sweep to the gloom, and gives us
lightness and cheerfulness, with a beautiful energy which become
trademark.” – Question de femmes
Nothing happens by chance. Indeed, even love has its laws, a mathematical law, in
our case the Cupid's theorem : two parallel lines that never converge. Unless, that
is, if they meet up at an intersection and fall in love.
Take, for example, the trajectories of our lovebirds with seemingly antipodean
expectations. Adélaïde, an exuberant, straight-forward and funny casting director –
and fed up with love – and Philéas, an awkward, serious and shy filmmaker – with
sex on the brain.
Each in turn relates the ins and outs of daily life, revealing, along the way, the
failures of one very short-sighted cherub... who finally gets it right !
March 2011 – Commercial fiction – 240 p.
French Sale : Paperback edition (Le Livre de Poche).
Movie Sale : Nexus Factory.
32
L’AVANT-DERNIÈRE CHANCE – The Next-to-Last Chance
Caroline Vermalle
This touching and convincing story is an artful mix of cheeky dialogue and the expression of feelings and
emotions that are hard to share. The German edition of L’Avant-dernière Chance, Denn das Glück ist eine Reise,
has been a best-seller in Germany.
While working on the filming of a movie in London, Adèle, an independent young
French intern, receives an unexpected text message from beyond the grave ! Indeed,
her grandfather, who passed away a few days earlier, writes to wish her happy
birthday… This odd event causes Adèle to remember the past few months, in an
attempt to make sense out of things.
Her Grandpa Georges, aged 83, a homebody and avid gardener suddenly decided to
set off on a road trip around France with his friend. Adèle, worried about his fragile
health when she found out, asked that he send her daily updates by text message.
And thus began their unique correspondence, a seemingly simple form of
communication which brought them back together after ten years apart. Could texting
be a way for them to nurture their close relationship even when separated by death ?
Caroline Vermalle worked on documentaries for BBC in London for 7 years. She now
lives in Paris and runs an architectural firm. L’Avant-dernière Chance is her debut novel and
won the Prix Nouveau Talent Bouygues in 2009 and the 2011 Prix Chronos.
March 2009 – Fiction – 252 p.
French Sales : Large print edition (A vue d’oeil editions), Condensed edition (Sélection du Reader’s Digest),
Paperback edition (Le Livre de Poche Young-Adult).
Foreign Sales : Lübbe (German), Ediciones B (Spanish), Ecus Publishing (Complex Chinese),
Gallic Books (English World rights).
LA MÉMOIRE DES AUTRES – Other People’s Memories
Annelise Corbrion
A novel that challenges our convictions for which the author was awarded the 2012 Prix Nouveau Talent
Bouygues Télécom-Metro.
Emma is having a hard time getting over her parents' sudden death. She does find
some comfort, however, in her work as a computer graphics artist specialized in
touching up old photographs. Immersing herself in the lives of perfect strangers,
frozen in eternal happiness, she restores some of the original splendor of memories
tarnished over time.
Little does she expect the “paranormal” turn her life is about to take when she
receives a mysterious email one day. Its sender is none other than a man from one of
the photos she had restored – a man who had died in the 1940s ! He says he needs
her help, as do the other ghosts whose requests soon start inundating her inbox.
Why are all of these departed souls getting in touch with her ? Emma unwittingly
becomes their messenger, carrying out their last wishes to defy oblivion and establish
truth. Until she gets one too many emails – one that involves her personally. Soon she
is off on dangerous investigation of memories that don't quite belong to the past. The
departed may have brought Emma back to life, but she is in for a wild ride... Just how
far will Emma be willing to go in her quest for truth ?
April 2012 – Commercial Fiction
210 p.
Annelise Corbrion lives in the east of France. La Mémoire des autres is her debut novel.
Foreign Sale : Fabbri (Italian).
33
English
translation
available
x
UNE TERRE POUR DEMAIN – A Home for Future Generations
Gérard Georges
A young British family shakes up the life of a solitary, stubborn farmer in a small village in Auvergne.
Against all odds, a lasting friendship will form.
In the tiny French hamlet of Garachou, the population is 1 : Old Ferdinand Pelissier
who raises a few animals along with his dog Gamine. Ferdinand’s only love Yvette,
has disappeared a long time ago, along with all of his friends.
But one October evening, after milking time, a couple of British city-dwellers
stumble into his yard. Ferdinand grabs his hunting rifle and refuses to let them in.
The foreigners return the next day, along with the mayor : they are buying the
neighbouring farm in ruins to turn it into a bed and breakfast.
Thus begins a very tense lesson of understanding between an urban British family
dreaming of getting back in touch with nature and a cantankerous old French loner.
Slowly, thanks to the couple’s charming little girl, Peggy, a beautiful and sincere
friendship blooms across cultures and generations. Until one day, Ferdinand is
hospitalized and diagnosed with pneumonia.
November 2010 – Fiction – 270 p.
Gérard Georges worked as a radio journalist, teacher and school director before
becoming a full-time writer.
French Sale : Large print edition (VDB).
Foreign Sales : Thiele & Brandstätter Verlag GmbH (German), Piper Verlag (German paperback).
34
PIERRE LEMAITRE
Pierre Lemaitre was born in Paris in 1956. He worked for many years as a teacher of literature and now devotes his
time to writing novels and screenplays. His novels, rewarded by many prizes, have made Pierre Lemaitre an
outstanding success with critics and the public alike. In 2013 he was awarded the Prix Goncourt, France's most
prestigious literary award, for Au revoir là-haut (Albin Michel).
ROBE DE MARIÉ – The Groom Wore White
A masterpiece translated in 13 languages ! “Though the French suspense novel often seems a bit tentative
next to the machine of English-language suspense, this one comes to shake away our misconceptions and
demonstrate a morbidly efficient ‘French touch’.” – Atmosphères
Sophie Auverney, the thirty-year-old nanny of little Loïc, feels she is losing her
mind, she forgets details, does or errands unexpected things. Sophie is haunted by
her terrible past. Vincent, her husband, committed suicide after a tragic car accident
had left him paralyzed and there have been other deaths too among her loved ones.
One day, she awakens from a deep sleep and finds Loïc in his bed, strangled by a
shoelace. Panic-stricken, Sophie runs away. A kind stranger crosses her path at the
train station and invites Sophie to her house. There, Sophie steals her ID then
wakes once again from a deep sleep to discover the young woman’s lifeless body.
Did Sophie stab her ? She doesn’t recall anything.
Knowing that the police are already searching for her, she goes into hiding. Is she a
cold-blooded murderer ? What is going on ?
French Sales : Paperback edition (Le Livre de Poche ), Book-club editions
(GLM & France Loisirs), Audio-book edition (CDL).
January 2009 – Suspense fiction – 286 p.
Movie Sale : Alexandre Films.
Foreign Sales : Ullstein (German), House of Books (Dutch), Könyvmolyképzö Kiadó (Hungarian), Kashiwa Shobo (Japanese),
Fish+Fish (Complex Chinese), Muza (Polish), Dasan Books (Korean), Fazi Editore (Italian), Azbooka-Atticus (Russian),
Editora Nemo – Autentica (Portuguese/Brazil), MacLehose Press (English World rights), Alfaguara (Spanish World rights), Colibri (Bulgarian).
CADRES NOIRS – High-Profile Management
WINNER OF THE 2010 PRIX DU POLAR EUROPÉEN - LE POINT
Translated in 8 languages
“Lemaitre brilliantly explores an explosive social reality” – Le Parisien
57-year-old Alain Delambre, former human resources manager, has been unemployed
for five years. Unable to find work in his field, he has accepted a menial job as an
inventory clerk at a ridiculously low salary. With the support of his wife Nicole and
their two daughters, he tries his best to make do. Then one day he comes across an
unexpected job offer that fits his profile to a T, except for his age. Not to be put off,
he goes in to the recruitment agency ready to give it all.
Short-listed along with two other candidates, he is informed that the management's
final decision will depend on how well he reacts under intense pressure, that is in a
simulated hostage-taking situation. Determined to land the job at all costs, our
protagonist agrees to play the game, setting off an unstoppable chain of events... Our
disillusioned and scorned hero may be a “grandpa boomer”, but he is more than ready
to prove that he too is an expert at making the most of any opportunity that comes
his way. A remarkably taut, well-crafted novel and a blistering attack on the cynicism
February 2010 – Suspense fiction – 350 p. and snobbery of corporate bigwigs and management techniques.
French Sales : Paperback edition (Le Livre de Poche), Book-club edition (France Loisirs).
Movie Sale : Acajou Films.
Foreign Sales : Fazi Editore (Italian), Pegasus Yayinlari (Turkish), House of Books (Dutch), Muza (Polish), Dasan Books (Korean), Editora
Nemo – Autentica (Portuguese/Brazil), Alfaguarra (Spanish World rights), MacLehose Press (English World rights), Atticus (Russian).
35
LA NUIT DES ENFANTS-ROIS – The Prodigies
Bernard Lenteric
The electrifying and pulse-pounding novel of a whole generation.
The most powerful computer on Earth has been equipped with a program to
detect child prodigies. Jimbo Farrar, a young man, prodigy, became in charge of
this operation, created for dozens of years but forgotten by all. One day, whereas it
has never discovered anything that really matters, the computer alerts Jimbo : seven
child prodigies have been localized. Jimbo is the only one to know and he will keep
their existence secret.
Some years later : New York City, nighttime in Central Park. Seven teenagers are
brutally attacked, beaten and sexually abused. All seven victims, however, happen
to be the child prodigies, linked what is more by a single mind, a single spirit. Thus
is born their inexorable hatred of the world, hatred only to be quenched by a series
of robberies and perfect crimes.
First publication : May 1992
New release : May 2011
Fiction – Thriller – 350 p.
If there were eight of them, the world would be theirs – and the long night of the
Prodigies would come at last… Jimbo knows it and is trying desperately to stop
them... Unless, of course, he is on their side !
Bernard Lenteric was born in 1944 and died in march 2009. He has been a filmmaker
before becoming a successful writer.
Movie Sale : The Prodigies, released on June 2011 and produced by Fidélité Productions.
Foreign Sales : Salani (Italian), Demipage (World Spanish).
NOCES DE PAILLE – Straw Wedding
Yves Hughes
A masterfully-crafted dark novel, full of humour, in two acts from the
tender meeting between a young taxidermist and a lovely old couple with
a weird wish to a suffocating paranoia and a astounding outcome.
Lukas, a taxidermist, meets clients for an unexpected mission. Charlotte and
Léonce have been together for fifty years and they toy with the crazy idea of being
stuffed. That way, they won’t be separated ; they will continue to hold each other’s
hand.
At first quite confused, Lukas is quickly carried away by the project. And gets
involved in the game. All three will become obsessed by the idea. A strange
relationship develops between them, like a weird complicity, very intimate, made up
of imagination, tenderness and humour…. black humour.
Lukas finally becomes part of his clients’ everyday life. He even settles in their house.
Then, when the Day comes, he will have everything at hand. The project takes on
great importance, to the point that it is obsessive, and finally becomes the ultimate
goal of their lives. And soon, they are gripped by suspicion. They start to doubt, to
spy on each other, to watch, to suspect each other. Indeed, each will become
progressively very impatient.
Born in Geneva in 1960, Yves Hughes has written scripts for the television and for radio.
He has also written numerous novels for young people. Straw Wedding is his fourth novel.
36
2005 – Suspense fiction – 190 p.
Foreign sale : Ripol Classic (Russian).
DIANE SILVER – Diane Silver series
Andrea H. Japp
Born in 1957, trained as a toxicologist, since 1990, Andrea H. Japp has written over twenty novels, she is considered
one of the “queens” of crime fiction in France. She has also written many novellas, scenarios for television and cartoons.
Celebrated French detective novelist Andrea H. Japp has left historical fiction for a while to make a remarkable
return to the world of thrillers with a contemporary setting starring Diane Silver, one of the world’s finest
profilers.
DANS LA TÊTE, LE VENIN – Venom
France, 2008 : a man has been strangled by a former lover who had dropped out of sight.
Two psychotic teens, Louise and her sidekick Cyril, are ensnared in a murderous brand
of Satanism. The final step in their initiation involves committing a murder but their own
bloodthirsty plans are annihilated when the two are brutally murdered.
USA, 2008 : Diane Silver is hunting down a serial killer. Yves, a French cop who Diane
trained in profiling, informs her of the murder of the two teens. As she reconstitutes the
murder of the two adolescents, Diane opens Pandora’s box…
French Sales : Paperback edition (Le Livre de Poche), Book-club edition (GLM “Main Selection”),
Foreign Sale : Editora Nemo – Autentica (Portuguese / Brazil).
March 2010 – Crime Novel
266 p.
UNE OMBRE PLUS PÂLE – A Lighter Shadow
Diane has made a pact with Rupert Teelaney, alias Nathan, one of world’s rich and
famous, to hunt down serial killers and eliminate them in order to spare their future
victims. This is perfectly illegal, but Diane wants more than anything to find the “tout”
who drove her daughter into the hands of a murderer. While Nathan is hunting down
the tout, Diane is working on a gruesome case : in a quaint cottage, a pipe leak reveals a
mass grave in the basement housing at least 9 women’s bodies. In Paris, Yves Guéguen
takes a liking to Sara Heurtel and her son Victor. Nathan is watching him and Yves is
getting in the way. How will these three stories come together ?
September 2009 – Crime Novel
308 p.
French Sales : Paperback edition (Le Livre de Poche), Book-club edition (GLM “Main Selection”).
Foreign Sale : Editora Nemo – Autentica (Portuguese /Brazil).
LA MORT, SIMPLEMENT– Death simply
Any relief Diane might have felt after this vengeful murder is masked by her growing
feelings of doubt about Nathan. Who exactly is he ? A righter of wrongs or a charming,
intelligent and dreadful psychopath who is merely looking for excuses to do what he
loves most : killing ? When Diane learns that her best friend and French counterpart
Yves Guéguen was murdered in Paris, she wonders if Nathan might be involved.
French Sales : Paperback edition (Le Livre de Poche), Book-club edition (GLM).
Foreign Sale : Editora Nemo – Autentica (Portuguese /Brazil).
January 2010 – Crime Novel
330 p.
37
LA DAME SANS TERRE – The Landless Lady
Andrea H. Japp
A historical series by Andrea H. Japp, author of about thirty novels, and considered one of the “queens” of
crime fiction in France.
Published between 2006 and 2008, around 384 p. each.
VOL. 1 – The Track of the Beast
1304. France is divided by the conflict between Philip the Fair, who wants to free himself
from the church’s omnipotent authority, and Pope Benedict XI, who dies suddenly from
poisoning. In these troubled times, Agnès, a tempestuous young widow, will see her destiny
change radically. Why does Eudes de Larnay, Agnès’s perversely stupid half-brother, accuse
her of being possessed by the devil and plotting with heretics to bring her before the
Inquisition ? Who sends the letters bearing the papal seal that speak of the “divine blood” to
the convent of Clairets ? What does the young Clément, Agnès’s protégé, discover in the
books of the convent’s library ? What can one make of the dead bodies found abandoned in
the forest, burnt but without any trace of fire, or clawed by a mysterious animal ?
VOL. 2 – The Rose-Whisperer
Agnès is dragged before the court of the Inquisition, where Nicolas Florin, the Grand
Inquisitor, wants to see her weep and beg, and demands that she be put to death. Meanwhile,
at the convent of Clairets, one nun after another is found poisoned. They know that the
culprit is among them but who could really commit such atrocities ? Everyone is a suspect.
Élodie, the mother abbess is sure only of one thing : the key to solving this mystery lies in
the manuscripts of the Abbey’s secret library. Though Agnès doesn’t know it yet, she is not
alone : Count Arthus of Authon is prepared to kill in order to save Agnès, who has stolen his
heart. Francesco de Leone, a Knight Hospitaller, is on a mysterious quest involving Agnès
and has sworn to protect her at all costs against her enemies. Finally, Clément’s ingenuity
may just change his destiny and his Lady’s one forever.
VOL. 3 – Divine Blood
In this third volume, the knots surrounding the multiple mysteries exposed in the first two
volumes are untied. The title, Divine Blood, is a clue. Whose blood courses through young
Clément’s veins ? And what does this reveal about his identity ? Who was behind murders in
the convent of Clairets ? The investigation will go as far as Rome and Pope’s closest advisors.
As for the love kindling between Agnès and Arthus, there is yet another surprise in store…
VOL. 4 – The Battle of the Shadows
Young Clémence (formerly Clément) has disappeared. Agnès desperately hopes to find her
again. She manages to escape the clutches of the inquisition but is being slowly poisoned…
Arthus, count of Authon, now Agnès’s husband falls, in his turn, into the hands of the
Inquisition ; whereas Francesco de Léone, the white knight, tries once again to save them
and protect their secret. A thrilling ride from beginning to end, the fourth volume of “La
Dame sans terre” gives long-awaited answers to the mysteries of this exciting and intriguing
story.
French Sales : Paperback edition (Le Livre de Poche), Book-club edition (GLM “Main Selection”).
Foreign Sales : Gallic Books (English), Goldmann (German), Gotica (Portuguese), Family Leisure Club (Russian).
38
POLARS HISTORIQUES – Historical Thrillers
Andrea H. Japp
MONESTARIUM – Monestarium
1288. Alexandria, Egypt. An Armenian merchant helps a dying man in the desert who
bequeaths him a mysterious bag containing bone and clay fragments.
1290. Acre, Galilee. The Armenian has been contacted by someone who wants to buy
the mysterious bag from him. Instead of money in exchange for the bag, only a knife
to the throat.
1307. Convent of Clairets, France. Angélique, a young cloistered nun, has been strangled.
What was the motive ? Undoubtedly because she too closely resembled one of her
sisters, Marie-Gillette d’Andremont, who found anonymous refuge in the convent
after fleeing Spain where her lover was assassinated by two killers…
The investigation thus begins, conducted by Plaisance de Champlois, the young and
newly-appointed abbess of Clairets, aided by the honourable Aimery, count of
Mortagne. Rumour has it that these murders are all linked to the secret held in the
mysterious bag containing bone and clay fragments. A diptych of the Virgin in
conversation with repentant soldiers, given to Marie-Gillette by her lover before his
death is the key to the enigma. The answer, which, if revealed, would threaten the
Church’s credibility, is presumably to be found in a reflection on the soldiers’
March 2007 – Historical Thriller – 356 p.
armor…
French Sales : Paperback edition (Le Livre de Poche), Book-club edition (GLM “Main Selection”), Large print edition (Libra Diffusio).
Foreign Sales : Algaida Editores (Spanish), Euromedia (Czech), Newton Compton (Italian).
LA CROIX DE PERDITION – The Cross of Perdition
Winter 1308. The snowbound Convent of Clairets. A string of macabre murders
involving Tarot cards. How do the brutal killings of Dominican nuns tie in to the
ruthless hunt for Arnauld Amalric's cross, of alleged magical powers, worn during
the Albigensian Crusade in Béziers (a military campaign initiated by the Catholic
church to eliminate the Cathars) a hundred years earlier ? And who exactly is Claire,
young daylight-shunning woman determined to protect four ill-treated, but gentle,
“circus freaks” ?
As the champions of good, young abbess Plaisance de Champlois and Knight
Arnaud de Villeneuve, look for answers, the reader is caught up in a spine-tingling
and expertly-crafted medieval mystery.
French Sales : Paperback edition (Le Livre de Poche), Book-club edition (GLM “Main Selection”)
Foreign Sale : Algaida Editores (Spanish).
39
May 2008 – Historical Thriller – 330 p.
THE WINE TRILOGY by Jean-François Bazin
Journalist, writer, historian and former President of the Regional Council of Burgundy, Jean-François Bazin is a leading
expert on wine and wineries. A regular contributor to the Hachette Wine Guide, he has written over twenty reference works
on wine, including the monumental Universal Dictionary of Burgundy Wine (Presses du Belvédère).
LES RAISINS BLEUS – Blue grapes
1880 – 1914. Set in Burgundy’s famous Gevrey-Chambertin and recounting the
intermingled destinies of a family of winery owners and a family of winemakers, Blue
Grapes is a tale of rivalry between the advocates the “French grapevine,” decimated by
rampant phylloxera, and the promoters of the more robust “American plants.” A splinter
group will choose exile and in doing so give rise to the vineyards of California.
French Sales : Book-club edition (GLM), Large print edition (Libra Diffusio).
March 2010 – 464 p.
LE CLOS DES MONTS-LUISANTS –
The Clos des Monts-Luisants
The interwar period. Dissent and rivalry among a dynasty of Burgundy winemakers set
against the raging battle, between winery owners and wine traders, over the birth of
Burgundy’s appellations contrôlées.
September 2011 – 480 p.
LE VIN DE BONNE ESPERANCE –
The Wine of Good Hope
Both a tale of the turbulent relations between a Burgundian estate owner and his wife,
the heiress of a Bordeaux château, and a celebratory initiation into the mysteries of the
present day world of wine, from the dictatorship of the American wine tasters to our
mystic infatuation with biodynamics by way of label fraud.
October 2012 – 480 p.
40
LA DAME DE KYOTO – The Lady of Kyoto
Éric Le Nabour
“A captivating look at Japan through the eyes of an impassioned young woman
searching for freedom” – Le Semeur hebdo
“Both the magnificent portrait of a woman at a historic crossroads and an engrossing
tale, the author’s poignant ‘Lady of Kyoto’ has it all.” – Le Dauphiné Libéré
Kyoto, 1904. Myako Matsuka has been the ward of her brother, Naoki, since the assassination
of their parents, a couple of rich silk industrialists. When Naoki leaves for the front during the
Russo-Japanese War, Myako is left to manage the family business on her own. Horrified by
working conditions in the factory, she doesn't hesitate to violate her brother's instructions,
revealing a proud and independent temperament.
But her troubling love for an English diplomat, Allan Pearson, and the entrance into her life of
a young Frenchman with a passion for stamps, Martin Fallières, complicate the situation.
November 2012 – Historical Fiction
380 p.
Torn between passion, family ties and professional responsibilities, tormented by her parents'
mysterious death, Myako is going to have to choose : a painful decision that will expose the
equally tragic truth of her own past and that will cause her future to take a very different
direction than the one she had imagined.
Foreign Sale : Newton Compton
(Italian).
Éric Le Nabour earned early acclaim with several biographies and historical works. He is also an
expert on the East and the Far East.
FERNAND DE MAGELLAN – Magellan, Inventing the World
Patrick Girard
In this novel Patrick Girard relates the exceptional destiny of Fernand de Magellan’s
history, often overlooked. Magellan's great journey is a prototype of sorts, an adventure for
adventure's sake, a feat with no tomorrow. The gallant maritime epic of a veritable Don
Quixote of the Seas.
Educated in the Portuguese court, the penniless fidalgo was raised on feats of chivalry, serving as a
young man in India and Barbary until a wound makes him unfit for soldiering. Decommissioned
and living on a modest pension granted by Portugal's Manuel I, with whom he is out of favor,
Magellan devotes himself to a secret dream : to sail around the southern tip of the newly
discovered Americas, the passage to the Moluccas spices.
Achieving this feat would not only bring new wealth and lands to his native country, it would also
reunite him with his former comrade in arms, now the vizier of the Sultan of Ternate, with whom
he had been secretly corresponding.
But like Columbus before him, Magellan's request for a small fleet is refused by the Portuguese
court. He is forced to turn to Spain, to win the trust of the recently crowned Don Carlos, future
Charles V, also a newcomer to Spain.
May 2012 – Historical Fiction
350 p.
Foreign Sale : El Ateneo
(Spanish for Latin America only).
Historian, journalist and novelist Patrick Girard is the author of numerous works, including the epic historical trilogies Le
Roman de Carthage (Éditions N°1) and Al Andaluz (Calmann-Lévy).
Also written by Patrick Girard :
CHRISTOPHE COLOMB – Christopher Columbus (April 2011 – 350 p.)
Foreign Sales : Presença (Portuguese), El Ateneo (Spanish – Latin America only).
41
GILBERT SINOUÉ
Gilbert Sinoué was born in Cairo in 1947. His books, among which Le Livre de saphir (Gallimard, Prix des Libraires 1996),
L’Enfant de Bruges (Gallimard, 1999), A mon fils, à l’aube du troisième millénaire (Gallimard, 2000), Des jours et des nuits
(Gallimard, 2001), L’Ambassadrice (Calmann-Lévy, 2002), Les Silences de Dieu (Albin Michel, 2003), and Un bateau pour l’enfer
(Calmann-Lévy, 2005) have been translated throughout the world with great success.
UN BATEAU POUR L’ENFER – The Saint Louis’ Epic
November 8th, 1938. Following the murder in Paris of the Embassy attaché von
Rath, Goebbels – in retaliation – launched the tragically famous Kristallnacht,
“Night of the Broken Glass” : the burning of synagogues and ransacking of Jewish
homes. From then on, in addition to an out-going visa, the Jews who wanted to
leave Germany had to buy an immigration visa.
1939. For reasons of exterior propaganda, Adolph Hitler decided to authorise the
departure from Germany of all Jews who desired to do so. In May 13th, 1939, the
S.S. Saint-Louis, a liner sailing under the Nazi flag, casted off from Hamburg. Close
to a thousand passengers were aboard, all German Jews and all in possession of very
expensively acquired valid tourist visas. Destination : Havana, Cuba, where the exiled
would wait for the right to enter the United-States.
On May 23th , the day prior to the boat’s entrance into Cuban territorial waters,
Gustave Schroeder, captain of the Saint-Louis, received a cable from the Cuban
government. The latter, manipulated by the Nazi agents established there, had
suddenly decided to cancel all the authorisations. Schroeder was informed that the
January 2005 – Historical fiction – 304 p. ship would not be authorised to come alongside. And an order was given to make an
about turn and to bring back its “cargo” to Hamburg. Schroeder decided to disobey
and established radio contact with the governments of the so-called free world.
Roosevelt, the first approached, refused. Thus began the horrifying epic of the SaintLouis.
French Sales : Paperback edition (Le Livre de Poche), Book-club edition (GLM), Large print edition (Libra Diffusio).
Foreign Sales : Actel Trading (Greek /Cyprus), Neri Pozza (Italian), Pro Editura (Romanian), Styria de Ediciones (Spanish), Park Publishing
(Hungarian), Kok Ten Have (Dutch).
LA DAME À LA LAMPE – The Lady of the Lamp
Gilbert Sinoué paints here a portrait of Florence Nightingale’s life. A pioneer of modern nursing, known as
“The Lady of the Lamp”, for the oil lamp she always carried as she ran through darkened hospital
hallways.
This formidable woman’s life is recounted through a series of conversations between
the young biographer, Jonathan Brink – inspired to document Miss Nightingale’s life
after having interviewed her twenty-some years earlier – and Henry Bonham Carter,
Nightingale’s cousin and right-hand man through much of her life.
From her bourgeois beginnings and early role as a caretaker to her clear compassion
for those less fortunate than she ; from her legendary work in the Crimean War to
the foundation of the first nursing school in Great Britain ; from her organization of
field medicine during the US Civil War to the commendable work she accomplished
in the latter part of her life fighting infectious diseases…
Gilbert Sinoué artfully delves into the past to bring Florence Nightingale, as well as
the people and events that marked her, back to life.
French Sales : Paperback edition (Folio), Book-club editions (GLM & France Loisirs),
Large print edition (Feryane).
Foreign Sales : Psichogios (Greek), Neri Pozza (Italian).
42
April 2008 – Historical fiction – 286 p.
LA PETITE BIBLIOTHÈQUE DES IDÉES
A Little Library of Modern Thought
J. Derrida, J. Baudrillard, J. Kristeva, A. Negri, etc.
DE L’HOSPITALITÉ by Jacques Derrida & Anne Dufourmantelle (1997)
Anne Dufourmantelle attends a seminar held by Jacques Derrida. He speaks of hospitality but also of hostility, the
other and the stranger, or what is approaching our borders.
Foreign Sales : Boom (Dutch), Stanford UP (English), Sangyo Toshu (Japanese), Ekkremes (Greek), Ediciones de la Flor (Spanish),
Passagen Verlag (German), Escuta (Portuguese /Brazil), Resling Publishing (Hebrew), Egyptian National Center for Translation (Arabic),
Dongmoonsung Publishing (Korean).
LES OBJETS SINGULIERS by Jean Baudrillard & Jean Nouvel (2000)
This title is an initial dialogue between a philosopher and an architect, both known for the audacity and strength of
their works. They explore the “singular objects” of our time and make a lively critique of current obsessions and
paradoxes.
French Sale : Paperback edition (ARLEA).
Foreign Sales : Minnesota UP (English), Dongmunsun (Korean), Fondo de Cultura Economica (Spanish),
Passagen Verlag (German), Electa (Italian), Dar Charkeyyat (Arabic), Kajima Institute (Japanese), Futura (Greek),
Paideia (Romanian), AGM (Croatian), Yem Publications (Turkish), Boekencentrum Publishers / Klement (Dutch), Prazine (Slovenian).
L’AVENIR D’UNE RÉVOLTE by Julia Kristeva (1998)
This title brings together three of Kristeva’s major texts on exile and revolt, more in terms of an interior revolution
than political action. The texts are witness to her powerful argumentation, both on a psychoanalytical level and as a
literary critic. She also touches on her own arrival in France and what it means to be a stranger in a strange land.
French Sale : Paperback edition (Champs-Flammarion).
Foreign Sales : Boom (Dutch), Guangxi Normal University (Chinese), Il Nuevo Melangolo (Italian),
Instituto de Sao Paulo (Portuguese /Brazil), Brandes & Apsel (German).
DU RETOUR by Antonio Negri (2002)
In his own inimitable voice, Antonio Negri recounts his exceptional destiny. From one letter to another (F for Future,
B for Red Brigade, C for Crime, etc.), he relates the most important events of his life, his political commitments, his
exile in France, his return to Italy and his imprisonment.
Foreign Sales : Metaichmio (Greek), Rizzoli (Italian), Distribuidora Record (Portuguese / Brésil), Campus (German), Ehak
(Korean), Sakuhin Sha (Japanese), Routledge (English), Van Gennep (Dutch), Korpus (Slovenian), Sic (Polish).
COMME DES FRÈRES by Frédéric Boyer (1998)
This is a magnificently-written biblical, literary and philosophical essay on fraternity and war.
Foreign Sale : Dongmunsun (Korean).
43
B. Cannone, C. de Portzamparc, P. Sollers, G. Pommier, etc.
VOIR, ÉCRIRE by Philippe Sollers & Christian de Portzamparc (2003)
A second dialogue between an architect and a writer. They evoke favourite writers, painters, other architects and raise
the question : can we think without language ?
French Sale : Paperback edition (Folio).
Foreign Sales : Minnesota UP (English), Yapi Kredi Kültür (Turkish).
LE SENTIMENT D’IMPOSTURE by Belinda Cannone (2005)
This title invites us to reflect upon the origins and manifestations of a very common feeling that we carefully hide –
feeling out of place, like we do not deserve the place we are and fear being found out. The author draws on literature,
film, psychoanalysis, politics and personal accounts to better understand this phenomenon.
Foreign Sales : Bibliotheca nueva (Spanish), Editura Art (Romanian), East China Normal UP (Simplified Chinese),
Edizioni di Passaggio (Italian).
L’ ÉCRITURE DU DÉSIR by Belinda Cannone (2000)
WINNER OF THE BEST ESSAY PRIZE FROM THE ACADÉMIE FRANÇAISE 2000
What makes us a writer ? What is the driving force behind the desire to write, transcribe, tell the world’s story ?
Belinda Cannone studies this question through an analysis of her favourite writers.
Foreign Sale : East China Normal UP (Simplified Chinese).
À QUELLE HEURE PASSE LE TRAIN… by Jean Oury & Marie Depussé (2003)
This is an extraordinary dialogue about madness and ordinary life in a mental hospital, housed in an old castle, between
Jean Oury, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst and writer Marie Depussé.
LES CORPS ANGÉLIQUES DE LA POST-MODERNITÉ by Gérard Pommier (2000)
Psychoanalyst Gérard Pommier explores the current need to smooth over the rough edges, to “angelify” the body and
desire (cloning, virtual reality) which paradoxically leads to a resurgence of extreme violence. A very pertinent analysis of
our constantly changing society.
44
J. Darras, M-A. Ouaknin, C. Bident, etc.
NOUS SOMMES TOUS DES ROMANTIQUES ALLEMANDS by Jacques Darras (2002)
Poet and essayist Jacques Darras explores the thinking of great German romantics such as Hegel, Schelling, Holderlin,
Lessing, etc. and the influence they have on us today, particularly in terms of building Europe.
LETTRES SUR LA NATURE HUMAINE À L’USAGE DES SURVIVANTS
by Dany-Robert Dufour (1999)
Dany-Robert Dufour, writer, essayist and linguistics professor at the University of Paris brings us a anthropological
essay on the human being as an “anaxotl” – that is a being who, unlike most animals, is incapable of taking care of
himself at birth.
RECONNAISSANCES by Christophe Bident (2003)
Writer and literature professor, Christophe Bident explores the theme of recognition, particularly in the works of
Robert Antelme, Maurice Blanchot and Gilles Deleuze.
Foreign Sale : Arena (Spanish).
ANTHROPOLOGIE DE l’INHUMANITÉ by Maria Victoria Uribe (2003)
This book relates the history of Colombia from the period of “La Violencia” from the 1950’s to nowadays, through
the study of the massacres. Basing herself upon political, social and contextual considerations, the author, a
Colombian anthropologist born in Bogotá, establishes a typology of the massacres and of its perpetrators. The author
questions the symbolization and ritualization of acts of violence, the semantic grounds of an inhuman anthropology,
but also the devastating effects of the massacres regarding the body classification.
C’EST POUR CELA QU’ON AIME LES LIBELLULES by Marc-Alain Ouaknin (1998)
Rabbi Marc-Alain Ouaknin, who holds a degree in philosophy, tells the story of a meeting between a wise master and
his disciple in the Luxembourg Gardens and the philosophical quest that is born from this meeting. He mixes the
teachings of the Bible, cabala, major European literary texts and philosophical references with his own personal
humour and prose.
French Sale : Paperback edition (Points Seuil).
45
RAYMOND ARON
Born in Paris in 1905, Raymond Aron, professor of Philosophy, was in turn, professor at the Institut des Sciences
Politiques and at the École Nationale d’Administration in 1945, sociology professor at the Sorbonne in 1955, director of
research at the École pratique des Hautes Etudes and professor at the prestigious Collège de France (1970). In parallel,
he also pursued a career in journalism, contributing to Combat, Le Figaro where he became director of their politics
department in 1976 before being appointed general administrator of L’Express in 1979. His many works have marked the
20th century.
L’OPIUM DES INTELLECTUELS (1955)
First published in 1955, L’Opium des intellectuels is an irrevocable condemnation of the
credulity tinged with dishonesty and of the dogmatism on which the French
intelligentsia stands.
Raymond Aron examines with rigorous and strict probity the evolution of “the Left”,
“the Revolution” and “the Proletariat”, ideas that belong to the myth he explodes.
How is it possible to accept the attitude of intellectuals who are merciless toward the
failings of democracy but ready to tolerate the worst of crimes as long as they are
committed in the name of the proper doctrines ? How is it possible not to grasp the
absurdity of the political and ideological mixtures that alienate intellectuals who are
religion seekers, who worship History as a god ?
April 2004 – Essay – 341 p.
Even if he repudiates his youthful ideas, Raymond Aron does not take the law into his
own hands. He offers a dispassionate thought-process, a fight rid of all hatred, urging
“all those who refuse to see in the Forum struggles the secret of the human
destination” to follow him.
French Sale : Paperback edition (Pluriel).
Foreign Sales : Kiepenheuer & Witsch (German), Doubleday (English World rights),
Lindau Edizioni (Italian), Mlata Fronta (Czech), Yilin Press (Simplified Chinese),
Akademiai Kiado (Hungarian), RBA Libros (Spanish), Dituria (Albanian),
Curtea Veche (Romanian), AST (Russian), Três Estrelas (Portuguese/Brazil).
PAIX ET GUERRE ENTRE LES NATIONS (1962)
Dissuasion, subversion, persuasion. These are the three central means by which state
relations are conducted. Having reached the end of his investigation, Raymond Aron
tries to define the moral doctrine of diplomatic action and the strategy with the best
chance of saving peace without sacrificing liberty. Finally, in an exercise of utopian
thought, he is looking for the conditions of peace by law.
In 1962, when the book is published, these conditions are not completed and peace is
ensured by the absence or limitation of wars. Raymond Aron’s analysis takes place at
the height of the Cold War and explains the power struggle imposed by the nuclear
weapons that only a few military powers hold. It is also a reflection on the history of
mankind.
Foreign Sales : Golden Marketing (Croatian), W. Martins Fontes (Brazil),
University Ljubljana (Slovenian), Social Sciences Academic Press (Simplified Chinese), AST (Russian).
Translation rights for English, German and Italian are not available.
Calmann Lévy also holds rights to Essai sur les libertés (1965).
46
January 2004 – Essay – 341 p.
LÉON POLIAKOV
Léon Poliakov was born in St Petersburg on November 25, 1910. Raised in Russia, Italy and Germany, he studied law
and literature in Paris before turning to journalism and historical research. In 1944, he participated in the creation of the
Centre of Modern Jewish Archives. At the end of World War II, he assisted Edgar Faure at the Nuremberg trials. He
died in Paris in 1997.
Léon Poliakov published numerous works with Calmann-Lévy, including Le Bréviaire de la haine (1951), Le Procès de
Jérusalem (1963), Les Banquiers juifs et le Saint-Siège (1967) and Le Mythe aryen (1971).
HISTOIRE DE L’ANTISÉMITISME – 4 VOL. (1955)
Covering the history of prejudice against Jews from the time of Christ
through the rise of Nazi Germany, this title presents in elegant and thoughtful
language a balanced, careful assessment of this egregious human failing that is
nearly ubiquitous in the history of Europe.
VOL. 1 : Du Christ au juifs de cour
VOL. 2 : De Mahomet aux Marranes
VOL. 3 : De Voltaire à Wagner
VOL. 4 : L’Europe suicidaire
French Sale : Volumes 1 and 2 : Paperback edition (Points Seuil).
Foreign Sales : Idiomas Vivientes (Spanish), RCS Libri (Italian), Perspectiva
(Portuguese), Jüdischer Verlag (German), Pennsylvania UP (English), Hasefer (Romanian),
Universitas (Polish), Chikuma Shobo (Japanese).
LA CAUSALITÉ DIABOLIQUE (1980/1985/2006)
“Diabolical Causality”
Part 1 : Essay on the origin of persecution :
Here Poliakov examines the principal groups that have, like the Jews, been
scapegoats in European history – who have been held responsible for epidemics,
wars and other disasters.
Part 2 : From Mongol domination to Lenin’s victory :
Poliakov describes the October revolution. He retraces the origins of Russian
history, marked by the division – civil and religious – between the people and the
authorities and analyses the manner in which, over the centuries, this divide gave
birth to the idea that “conspiracy” could explain all conflicts.
Foreign Sales : Munchik Editores (Spanish), Perspectiva (Portuguese).
47
LA CRITIQUE ET LA CONVICTION – Criticism and Conviction
Paul Ricœur
A lesson in philosophy, Criticism and Conviction is a witness to Ricœur’ stunning ability to bring
knowledge and culture together.
For the first time, one of the major philosophical minds of the 20th century, known for
his discretion, chooses to reveal his personal and intellectual evolution to two fellow
philosophers, Marc de Launay and François Azouvi.
Criticism and Conviction is not only an introduction to the life and work of Paul Ricœur,
covering all of the philosophical schools of interest, from metaphysics to
psychoanalysis, from hermeneutics to ethics, from the history of philosophy to religion.
It is also a long and inspiring thought process which explores a few questions that have
rarely or never been touched upon in his other books : aesthetics, for example, or
current events. This work is also a thought-provoking meditation on existence and
death.
November 1995
Essay/Interview – 290 p.
Paul Ricœur is one of the major philosophers of the 20th century. His works are diverse,
abundant and continue to meet success both in France and throughout the world. His most
renowned works are De l'interprétation (Seuil, 1965 and 1995), Le Conflit des interprétations
(Seuil, 1969), La Métaphore vive (Seuil, 1975), Temps et Récit (Seuil, 1983-1985), Soi-même comme
un autre (Seuil, 1990).
François Azouvi and Marc de Launay, researchers at the prestigious French CNRS, were
the editors-in-chief of the Revue de métaphysique et de morale, under Ricœur’s direction.
Foreign Sales : Editoriale Jaca Book (Italian), Columbia UP (English/US), Polity Press (English/UK), Edicoes 70 (Portuguese), KRC (Polish),
Karl Alber Verlag (German), Yapi Kredi Yay (Turkish), Association Apokalipsa (Slovenian), Greenbee Publishing (Korean).
DICTIONNAIRE INTERNATIONAL DE LA PSYCHANALYSE
International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis
Alain de Mijolla
Seven years of work, 500 international contributions from all horizons, 2000 pages, 1600 entries.
The first dictionary of its kind, written by internationally known analysts from France
and abroad. It defines and describes the development of the different theoretical and
clinical psychoanalytical notions, as well as the principal actors, works, events and
institutions in the history of psychoanalysis and of the psychoanalytical movement in
the world since their origins.
The entries are presented alphabetically. The terms are translated into five languages
and are followed by a short bibliography which is completed at the end of the volume.
Besides a great number of Freudian and post-Freudian notions, this dictionary is the
only one to provide entries such as : biographies of the world’s principal
psychoanalysts, their most remarkable works, events which have marked the history of
the psychoanalytical movement and its various evolutions, and the principal institutions
which have illustrated its development, not to mention the contribution of certain
movements derived from psychoanalysis such as Analytical Psychology (Jung) or
Individual Psychology (Adler).
Neuropsychiatrist and psychoanalyst Alain de Mijolla is a member of the Société
Psychanalytique de Paris, the International Psychoanalytical Association and Archives and
the History of Psychoanalysis Committee. Founder and president of the International
Association of the History of Psychoanalysis, he is the director of the Institute of the
History of Psychoanalysis of the EHESS Research Centre on Europe.
Foreign Sales : Gale Thompson (World English), Akal (World Spanish), Imago (Portuguese).
48
April 2002 – Reference book
2 volumes of 950 pages each
BOHÈMES – The Bohemians
Dan Franck
They were and always will be the heroes of the Bohemian period : a magnificent era whose influences and
movements still reverberate at the turn of the twenty-first century.
Dan Franck's book covers the first thirty years of the 20th century, when Montmartre
and Montparnasse were filled with glorious subversives who were inventing modern art
and the literary language of the century : Picasso the gentle anarchist, Apollinaire the
eroticist, Modigliani and his women, Max Jacob and his men, the fiery Aragon, the
solitary Soutine, Man Ray, Gertrude Stein, Henri Matisse, Andre Breton and many
others.
They came from many different countries. They were painters, poets, sculptors,
musicians, and began seminal movements such as fauvism, cubism and surrealism.
Their lives were as flamboyant as their work ; they were hedonists, believed in free love
and broke all the rules of conventional Parisian society.
Dan Franck has written many books and his work has been published in over twenty-eight
countries.
Foreign Sales : Grove Atlantic (World English), Clio Publishing (Korean),
Psichogios (Greek), Dals (Romanian), Garzanti (Italian), Wydawnictwo Iskry (Polish),
Renmin UP (Simplified Chinese), SonM (Bulgarian), Sel Yayincilik (Turkish),
Parthas Verlag (German),Sluzbeni Glasnik (Serbian), L&PM (Portuguese/Brazil).
German
translation
available
x
1998 – Essay/Art – 570 p.
DE FREUD À KAFKA – From Freud to Kafka
Philippe Réfabert
Reading Kafka enlightened Freud decisively. That’s the bet the author makes in this beautiful text in the form
of a meditation and case histories. A never-before published confrontation of Freudian discoveries with
Kafka’s writing.
Philippe Réfabert, while asking himself along with us the meaning of uncovering the
unconscious, continuously comes back to the question of origin to demonstrate that
being a parent means allowing the child to envisage their mortality. Here, death is all that
limits desire. Without the support of his parents, the child risks sacrificing either his
sexual prowess, or his capacity for initiative or judgement.
Freud supposed that the child naturally possessed this unconditional support making him
or her a tragic hero in the making, a little Oedipus, i.e., a hero capable of criminality
without killing himself or going crazy.
When the child (or the child as an adult) finds the freedom to think that the price he must
pay to survive is too high, he calls upon a psychotherapist and asks to be released from
the deal he is made with himself. During the treatment, if the patient finds himself, and in
the presence of the therapist, the resources to attack the walls he has built, and if he
succeeds in the changing, then the therapy can be called psychoanalysis.
Philippe Réfabert is a psychatrist and psychoanalyst. He has participated in many symposiums and collective works. A renowned
clinician, he has given seminars on the book’s theme.
Foreign Sale: Karnac Books (English World rights).
49
PASCAL QUIGNARD
Pascal Quignard was born in 1948. He won the Prix Goncourt in 2002 with Les Ombres errantes (Grasset). He is the
author of numerous novels, including Tous les matins du monde (1991, Gallimard), Terrasse à Rome (winner of the Grand Prix
du Roman de l’Académie Française in 2000, Gallimard) and Villa Amalia (2006, Gallimard), and essays : Petits Traités
(1981, 1983, 1984, Clivages), La Leçon de musique (1987, Hachette), Le Nom sur le bout de la langue (1993, P.O.L), Le Sexe et
l’effroi (1994, Gallimard). Passionately fond of music since his childhood, he plays cello and has founded the Baroque
Opera and Theatre Festival in Versailles.
RHÉTORIQUE SPÉCULATIVE (1995)
“I call speculative rhetoric the antiphilosophical literary tradition that runs throughout the western history
since the invention of philosophy. I date its theoretical advent back to 139, in Rome. Its theorist was
Fronto.”
“Literature is language seen as a throwing weapon. (…) Human life relies on language like the arrow
relies on wind. (…) The archer’s target is the aiming eye. The whole book aims at a final point. The final
point is the only moment when the writer and the reader meet : they meet to say farewell. The final point is
the moment when they kill each other. The final point is the punctured eye. Then, imagination gives the
reader’s body back to reality, like the sea would leave a dead body on the shore.”
Foreign Sale : El Cuenco de Plata
(Spanish World rights).
Pascal Quignard explains through five short tracts that it is better to show rather than
demonstrate, that images are stronger than thoughts ; that obviousness exempts from
conviction and language from philosophy. Passionately fond of literature, an
unashamed literary-minded person, Quignard relies, among others, on the
conversations between Marcus Aurelius and Fronto and undertakes to rehabilitate the
latter. Marcus Cornelius Fronto, Marcus Aurelius’ private tutor, hated philosophy and
religion and has been criticized throughout the history of literature, when he was not
simply forgotten. Beyond a mere reinstatement, this is a brilliant literary analysis by
Quignard, to whom, as well as to Fronto, literature is impervious to rationality, to
predictable.
With Speculative Rhetoric, Pascal Quignard immerses the reader in what he
calls, right from the dedication, “a defence of literary-minded people”, clever
and sincere.
LA HAINE DE LA MUSIQUE (1996)
A surprising and fascinating essay that guides us through a bright analysis on
music, our relation to sounds and to silence.
This book is composed of ten little tracts that calls on “the connections between
music and the pain from the constantly surrounding sounds”. It may seem paradoxical
from Pascal Quignard, in whose work music has a great significance. To explain this
paradox Quignard analyses several founding myths, among which Saint Peter whose
remorse was called up by a rooster’s crow or the sirens’ song in Ulysses’ odyssey ; but
also the very origins of instruments, from their name to their production. He chooses
the example of the zither, or khitara, made out of tortoise shell, sheep guts and cow
skin, just like Ulysses’ killing bow.
From the darkness of the first men’s cavern to the darkest pages of our history, the
author shows us how music can be a source of pain. It can even become a slavery tool
for, as Quignard explains, “musical rhythms captivate the body’s rhythms. (…)
Hearing and obedience are connected. A conductor-leader, performers-subordinates,
obedient people, such is the structure that is built by the execution of music.
Wherever there is a leader and subordinates, there is music.” He reminds us that in
the death camps during the Second World War, prisoners went in gas chambers
listening to music. Some conductors who came back from the camps, like Simon
Laks, but also other people who had always loved music, like Primo Levi, have
explained how music has become a suffering or related to the memory of this
suffering. Thus, “the phrase Hatred of music is used to express how loathsome music
can become even to who loved it most”.
50
Foreign Sales : El Cuenco de Plata
(Spanish World rights), Seido-Sha (Japanese),
Yale University Press (English World rights),
EDT (Italian).
SUR LES TRACES DES CHRÉTIENS OUBLIÉS
Among the Forgotten Christians
Charles Guilhamon
An uncontroversial yet extremely lively account of the Church's position in the world today, exploring both
the difficulties facing Christians in a number of countries and the vitality of their faith. An adventurepacked travel narrative full of extraordinary – and at times tragic – encounters, as well as an inspirational
questioning of mankind.
“An extraordinary travel account attesting both today’s disturbing rise of intolerance and
fanaticism and – through inspirational encounters – the inexhaustible power of dreams
of fraternity.” – L’Est-éclair
Right after graduation, Charles and Gabriel decide to ride their bikes around the world.
They give themselves a year and a very tight budget : 1€ per person, per day. They will
cover 11,000 kilometers, finding refuge among Christians in countries where they are a
minority, barely tolerated and even persecuted.
Thus do they visit communities who practice their faith the way the first Christians did.
We will stay with the Baghdad Chaldeans in Iraq, encounter the Christians of Nepal
immediately after a church bombing, be admitted to a clandestine Catholic community in
China and meet the new inhabitants of the Tibhirine monastery in Algeria, as well as a
priest without parishioners in Mauritania and parishioners without a priest in the heart
of the Amazon.
September 2012 – Travel literature/
Religion – 450 p.
Charles Guilhamon is a recent graduate of the prestigious ESSEC business school. He is
the head of a company dedicated to the social and solidarity economy.
French Sale : Book-club edition (GLM).
BLIND DATE. Sexe et philosophie – Blind Date. Sex and Philosophy
Anne Dufourmantelle
Blind Date imagines this meeting between sex and philosophy, not as a real tête-à-tête, but as it has always been
happening, that is to say indirectly, blindly, in areas that are common to neither : love letters, thought, eroticism,
writing…
Blind date is said of a rendez-vous between two strangers, organized by an absent third
party who knows them both.
Philosophy – starting with astonishment (Aristotles), declaring itself the science of being,
hoping to be the curer of the soul, finding its etymology as “love of wisdom”, seeing itself
as a spiritual education, rectifying itself as logic of statements, delivering itself at length in
textbooks, written in all languages but supposedly thinking in one... – is slowly vanishing.
Sex – it finishes when explanations become necessary, it is commented upon only at its
disappearance, it upsets all theory trying to circumscribe its effects… It is present
everywhere, all the time, and is perpetually missing.
It is said that the rendez-vous was made three thousand years ago. Officially, that is. But it
has been postponed ever since.
Born in Paris in 1964, Anne Dufourmantelle is a philosopher and psychoanalyst. She is the
author of several books including La Sauvagerie maternelle (Calmann-Lévy, 2001), La Femme et le
Sacrifice (Denoël, 2007) and Éloge du risque (Payot, 2011).
Foreign Sales : Donzelli Editore (Italian), Illinois University Press (English).
51
September 2003 – Essay – 220 p.
KRACH MACHINE – The Crash Machine
How high-frequency traders are undermining the stock market
Frédéric Lelièvre & François Pilet
WINNER OP THE PRIX DUMUR 2013
Both a meticulous investigation and a pedagogical tool for the general public exploring the stakes of
financial markets today, which can be read as a thriller.
In the past ten years, a new sort of speculator has taken control of financial markets : highfrequency traders. These mathematics and physics virtuosos, hired by hedge funds and
major banks, develop algorithms able to execute trading instructions at the speed of light.
The resulting software navigates financial markets on automatic pilot, turning profits and
manipulating markets in split seconds – with complete impunity.
Backed by a wealth of previously unpublished legal documents, the present investigation
reveals the hidden face of high-frequency trading.
Against a backdrop of tax evasion and industrial espionage, the book also looks at the
FBI's exposure – at the behest of Goldmann Sachs and the Société Générale – of
ambitious traders accused of circumventing banking regulatory codes. Financial
enforcement authorities know perfectly well that traders using these “hot rods” are
manipulating the market but they don't have the means to pursue them. Do new rules
therefore need to be put into place ? The United States has chosen not to intervene. Will
Europe be able to hold out against today's all-powerful finance lobbies ?
Frédéric Lelièvre heads the Economics & Finance Section of the Swiss daily Le Temps and François Pilet heads the
Economics Section of the weekly Le Matin Dimanche.
French Sale : Paperback edition (Points Seuil).
Foreign Sale : Beijing Hauzhang Graphics & Information Co. (Simplified Chinese).
UN FLÉAU SI RENTABLE – A Highly Profitable Scourge.
Emmanuelle Grundmann
Focusing on both health and environmental issues aroused by palm oil, Emmanuelle Grundmann gives us the
first thoroughly documented and impartial investigation on this latest “green” gold, and sifts through the
truths and falsehoods that have clouded the debate for the past twenty years.
Palm oil is everywhere, distributed by supermarkets around the world, found in an
ubiquitous array of agribusiness foods and household products, including cookies,
cakes, pastries and powdered milk, condiments, ready-made meals, ice cream and pizzas,
cosmetics and soaps...
Indeed, its mechanical and thermal properties give it a “hold” infinitely more stable than
any other vegetable oil, no matter what the temperature. Numerous NGOs and public
health agencies have sounded the alarm, repeatedly challenging its high content in
saturated fatty acids, synonymous today who have the obesity of consumers with little
access to fresh produce.
Criticisms don't stop here, however. The oil palm,is being intensively farmed in some of
the world's most valuable rainforests, with devastating effects on habitat, biodiversity
and indigenous peoples. Yet the issue is virtually taboo, as both “agro” concerns and
governments condemn any overly curious journalist who may rub consumers the wrong
way and interfere with “business”.
September 2013 – Document – 264 p.
Emmanuelle Grundmann is a biologist, a naturalist and a primatologist. She has published a number of books examining animal
and human interaction, including Ces forêts qu'on assassine (2007) and Demain, seuls au monde ? (2010), both of which were published
by Calmann-Lévy.
52
FEMEN – Femen
By Femen
The first book published by the founding members of FEMEN, explaining the goals of popfeminism and giving us their incredible story, in four-part harmony.
During the Euro 2012, their war cry was heard all around the world :
“Ukraine is not a brothel !” Inna, Sasha, Oksana and Anna, the
founders of the FEMEN activist movement, grew up in ordinary
families in two small Ukrainian towns. Each showed signs of unusual
independence early on, refusing to succumb to the overriding
hopelessness of life in post-Soviet Ukraine, determined to amount to
something in life.
Since 2008, the “gang of four” came up with a new kind of feminism,
a more radical and spectacular movement they would call “popfeminism”. Thus FEMEN, or “thigh” in Latin, was born.
Topless, and sporting floral crowns and high heel shoes, the four
women's slight frames were turned into vehicles of ideological
expression, placards for painting slogans and images. Humor,
dramatic staging, physical daring and the shock factor soon became
part of the foursome's highly-effective repertoire.
First in Ukraine, and then the world over, the four women have taken
on issues of gender inequality as well as poverty, discrimination,
dictatorships and religious dictates.
In Italy, they protested against the conduct of Silvio Berlusconi ; in France – dressed like housekeepers – against
that of Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The Ukrainian activists have climbed steeples and embassy walls, have burst in
on TV studios and polling places and – as the movement has radicalized – each of the four women has spent time
in prison. They have been sued for hooliganism in Ukraine and banned from entering countries abroad. Yet thanks
to unprecedented media coverage, FEMEN has found branches in over a dozen countries and their movement is
very strong in France, Germany and Brazil. According to them, this is just a beginning.
This is their story, told in their own words to journalist and Russian specialist Galia Ackerman.
Anna, Inna, Oksana and Sasha are the founder members of the FEMEN. Inna and Oksana fled to Paris to
escape persecution in Ukraine.
Journalist, translator and writer, Galia Ackerman, is a specialist of post-Soviet countries. She has published
numerous works, including Tchernobyl, retour sur un désastre (“Folio” Gallimard, 2007) and Le Roman du Juif universel,
by Elena Bonner and André Glucksmann (interviews and remarks collected by Galia Ackerman).
Foreign Sales : Polity Press (English World rights), Arachne Publishing Co. (Korean), Malpaso (Spanish World rights).
53
MÉMOIRES D’UN FILS À PAPA – The Memoirs of a Daddy’s Boy
Marcel Ophuls
The name Marcel Ophuls will forever be associated with the film The Sorrow and The Pity, a
landmark documentary that brought to the public eye France’s ambivalent stance during the
German Occupation – that of massive collaboration and sporadic episodes of resistance.
The now eighty-six year old filmmaker decided to write his Memoirs, a
personal epic propelled by the winds of History: Born in Frankfurt in 1927,
he leaves Nazi Germany with his family in 1933. The German Jew becomes
French in Paris. War breaks out and he is exiled again. In Hollywood
during the 1940s, he becomes an American citizen then goes to war in
Japan. Most of his historical documentaries will retrace in one way or
another, the remarkable course of his life. For example, The Sorrow and The
Pity is an account of the exodus of Mendès France interwoven with
memories of Ophuls’ own exodus, in his father’s convertible, from Paris to
the south of France.
Today he tells his story with outspokenness and a hint of mischievous glee,
admitting that his great career as a documentary film maker was in reality a
second choice. The son of Max Ophuls was raised to revere “Cinema” with
a capital C, the “real cinema” of Capra, Lubitsch, Hitchcock and his father,
of course. He would only turn to making documentaries after an aborted
attempt in the field of fiction.
His first feature film, the screwball comedy Banana Peel, is a commercial hit,
but the next, the Eddie Constantine series Fire at Will, is a box office failure
that will sign his death warrant in the field. A fortunate demise for
documentary film buffs: Marcel Ophuls would go on to direct one
masterpiece after another in the genre, and would be awarded an Oscar for
his 1989 film, Hotel Terminus, about the life of Nazi war criminal Klaus
Barbie.
January 2014 – Memoirs – 312 p.
The Memoirs of a Daddy’s Boy, with guest appearances by Bertolt Brecht,
François Truffaut, Marlene Dietrich and François Mitterrand, is a lighthearted yet melancholic work , the story of a son struggling to come out of
his father’s shadow: “The trouble is, I am the son of a genius…”
The work includes a wealth of previously-unpublished photographs.
Foreign Sale : Ullstein – Propyläen (German).
54
English
samples
translation
available
x
PIERRE CARDIN
By Sylvana Lorenz
Pierre Cardin’s call emerged early, at the age of 8 and his vital need for creation never left him
since. At now 92, the last emperor of haute couture hasn’t lost any of his glory or power. His
secret: “To keep open, alert. To stay available to welcome what destiny brings him, destiny which
has kept all its promises but which has denied him the most beautiful and precious of creations: a
child.”
More than the fashion designer and the internationally famous
businessman, it’s the private side of Pierre Cardin’s life that Sylvana
Lorenz, artistic director and PR of L’Espace Cardin, wishes to unveil in
this book; and this is especially difficult since Pierre Cardin is such a
secretive person. He has always been very careful to hide his
weaknesses and wounds. Straight as an “i”, born in the Venice region,
Pierre Cardin, never shows his feelings or successes; over the years he
has managed to turn his solitude into an ally and to keep his thirst for
life intact. He never shows any of the tantrums known to Hollywood
stars, preferring to keep the Viandox beverage which has warmed him
up when he first arrived in Paris in 1944, on the menu of his famous
Maxim’s restaurants.
Confidences, anecdotes, shared moments which Sylvana Lorenz has
kept away in her diary year after year, has enabled her to paint the
portrait highly intelligent and very private workaholic conqueror. The
last child of a family with seven children, the son of an old Italian
immigrant, transforms everything he touches into gold. He has always
lived and still lives for the love of Art.
March 2006 – Biography – 204 p.
Sylvana Lorenz has been working closely with Pierre Cardin for over 35 years. An art gallery director, who also
works for Match TV, she is part of the jet-set and has been around the world with Cardin several times.
Foreign Sale : Surugadai Shuppan Sha (Japanese).
55
ADOLFO KAMINSKY, UNE VIE DE FAUSSAIRE
Adolfo Kaminsky, the Life of a Counterfeit Artist
Sarah Kaminsky
“...I’ve got to stay awake, as long as possible. Fight off sleep. The math is simple. In one hour I can make
false papers for thirty people. If I sleep for an hour, thirty people will die...”
This is the incredible story of Adolfo Kaminsky’s life as a counterfeit artist, active
from 1943 to 1971. His convictions lead him to spend his entire life in hiding, guided
by survival instincts, necessity and danger alone. A race against the clock – and against
death – in which every minute truly counted.
A genius forger, he devoted his life to aiding the great opposition movements of the
20th century, working for the French Resistance and the Algerian FLN, providing
false papers for Jews emigrating to Palestine, teaching counterfeiting techniques to
the combatants of repressive regimes in Spain (under Franco) and Greece (during the
Regime of the Colonels), and aiding the freedom movements of Latin America and
Africa.
September 2009
Non-fiction narrative – 208 p.
French Sales : Book-club editions
This book questions the notions of commitment, destiny, free choice and
consequences. When Kaminsky, at the age of 17, begins making forgeries for the
Resistance, little does he realize that he is already caught up in an inexorable
mechanism : that of his own sense of duty towards fellow man. This is also a dialog
between a father and a daughter. Sarah, born in 1979, attempts to understand her
father's unusual destiny, giving us the account of a man whose very existence was a
secret and who accepts, at last, to speak of the past.
(GLM & France Loisirs).
Foreign Sales : Angelo Colla Editore Sarah Kaminsky was born in Algeria and has lived in France since she was three. Today,
(Italian), Kinneret Zmora Dvir (Hebrew), she is both an actress and playwright. Adolfo Kaminsky, une vie de faussaire is her first book.
Antje Kunstmann (German), Capital
Intelectual (Spanish), Belge Yayinlari (Turkish),
Casbah (Arabic & French for Algeria only).
MOI PIERRE SEEL, DÉPORTÉ HOMOSEXUEL
I, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual
Pierre Seel
Pierre Seel remained active until late in life in his personal crusade, publicly airing the long-overlooked
tragedy of the homosexual holocaust. His account of his suffering and his plea for justice are heartrending
in their dignified restraint.
On a 1941 fateful day, in Nazi-occupied Strasbourg, 17-year-old Pierre Seel was
summoned by the Gestapo. He had made the mistake of reporting a theft that had
occurred in a gay area of town. The police added his name to a list of suspected
homosexuals that was soon turned over to the occupying Germans. To attempt escape
would have meant the arrest and deportation of his family, so young Seel chose instead
to report to Gestapo headquarters, starting out on a journey that would take him from
the safety and innocence of his teenage existence to the horrors of the war.
In this brief, powerful memoir, he recalls the details of his arrest and torture by the
Gestapo and his horrific experiences at the Schirmeeck-Vorbruch concentration camp
in Alsace, where homosexuals were the most despised of prisoners. Inexplicably
released in 1941, he was drafted into the German army, saw action on various fronts
and managed to survive the war. In 1981, outraged by a prominent bishop's
characterization of homosexuals as “sick”, he became inspired with a sense of
obligation to obtain recognition for what had happened to some 350,000 homosexuals
during the war, and his public statements became a famous cause in France. Pierre Seel
April 1994 – Autobiography – 264 p.
passed away in 2005.
Foreign Sales : Basic Books (English/US),
Text (Russian), Cassara Editora
(Portuguese/Brazil).
56
LES SŒURS BEAUVOIR – The Beauvoir Sisters
Claudine Monteil
Great historical moments, such as Jean-Paul Sartre’s funeral and the feminist struggle for legalizing
abortion are relived through the eyes of these incredible women.
One was blond, the other was a brunette. One a painter, the other a writer. One
was docile, the other was a rebel. Despite their differences, Hélène and Simone
de Beauvoir were united by an indestructible love. Neither time nor diverging
aesthetic or political opinions ever managed to shake it. But their correspondence
and memories reveal an equivocal relationship in which love is tainted with
condescendence on Simone’s part, and with jealousy on Hélène’s, Hélène being a
less talented artist and eternally in the shadow of her world famous elder sister.
Beyond the ambiguities of this attachment, we discover the lives of two women
who passionately dreamed of a life different from that of their mother and from
that of all the submissive and virtuous women who came before them – those
women who always spoke in terms of duty. To exist as women and as artists : such
was the parallel struggle of the Beauvoir sisters.
Claudine Monteil is a historian focusing on women of the 20th century and a specialist
on Beauvoir sisters, whom she knew personally. She is the author of several works
including Simone de Beauvoir, Mémoires d’une jeune fille rebelle (Ed. du Rocher, 1996), and
two novelistic biographies, Les Amants de la liberté, on Sartre and Beauvoir (Éditions n°1,
1999) and Les Amants des temps modernes on Charlie and Oona Chaplin (Éditions n°1,
2002).
March 2003 – Biography – 300 p.
Foreign Sales : The Seal Press (World English), Circe (World Spanish), Silcheonmunhak (Korean),
Langen-Müller (German), People’s Literary Publishing House (Simplified Chinese), Castelvecchi (Italian).
UN HOMO DANS LA CITÉ – On Being Gay in the Projects
Brahim Naït-Balk
The inspirational story of a young man of North African descent coming to terms with his homosexuality.
Brahim Naït-Balk grew up ashamed. Ashamed of himself, ashamed of his
sexuality, ashamed of the difference isolating him from the rest of his family :
homosexuality. How does a Muslim, a Berber, the eldest of a large Moroccan family,
reconcile his particular nature with his cultural background ? How can he construct
his identity with an absent father and an overly possessive mother ? And above all
how is he to find happiness in the projects, where virility is a badge of honour, boys
are programmed to dominate and the law of the jungle rules ? The sensitive and
romantic Brahim dreams of love only to be subjugated to violence, sexual aggression
and the daily humiliations of neighbourhood bullies.
For years he lived in fear, hugging the walls, trying not to be noticed. And then one
day he decided he'd had enough. At the age of 30, he comes out of the closet and
declares his sexual preference. Many hurdles must be overcome, but he is ready for
them, ready to bear with pride the burden of being different. Today at the age of 45,
he hosts a radio program on homosexuality and coaches the Gay Paris Football
team.
October 2009 – Non fiction narrative
200 p.
Un homo dans la cité is a story of transformation, of one man's choosing freedom over
fear to come into his own.
Un homo dans la cité is Brahim Naït-Balk’s first book.
57
STALINE, VIE PRIVÉE – The Private Life of Staline
Lilly Marcou
The man behind the legend and the shadow of the legendary figure of Joseph Stalin fell over most of the 20th
century.
This work attempts to shed light on the mystery of the man behind the legend, to
understand the inner-workings of his personality based on previously unpublished
archival information, as well as accounts from surviving family members and close
friends.
Author Lilly Marcou dives into the large quantity of Soviet documents available to
Western researchers in order to question established notions and bring the shadowy
areas of Stalin’s life into light. She distinguishes hearsay from truth, analyzes certain
controversies and reveals little-known facts.
It is easy to think that a dictator under whose regime so many atrocities were
committed can be nothing other than a monster. By looking at him as a whole human
being, he becomes all the more vulnerable before the judging eyes of history.
March 1996 – Biography
Born in 1936, Lilly Marcou headed a research group working on the international
Communist movement for the Centre d’études et de recherches internationales (1975 –
1981) before teaching at SciencesPo in Paris from 1982 to 1988. She has written
numerous works including Les Défis de Gorbatchev (Plon, 1988), Ilya Ehrenbourg, un homme
dans son siècle (Plon, 1992) and Elsa Triolet, les yeux et la mémoire (Plon, 1994).
Foreign Sales : Arenula (Italian), Wydawnictwo Iskry (Polish), Levne Knihy (Czech),
Duna Kiado (Hungarian), Jorge Zahar (Brazilian), El Ateneo (Spanish/Latin America),
Family Leisure Club (Russian), Vogais et Companhia Ediçoes LDA (Portuguese).
HERMANN HESSE, POÈTE OU RIEN
Hermann Hesse, a Poet and Nothing Else
François Mathieu
A complete and comprehensive biography, based on Hesse's twenty volumes Complete Works as well as the
four volumes of his Correspondence and the writer's numerous accounts of his family and friends, explores
both the profoundly human values and the artistic devotion of a man who was “a poet, and nothing else”.
By the time he was twelve, Hermann Hesse (1877-1962) had already decided he would
be a poet, and nothing else, a decision his unbending family took as a sign of madness.
Hesse would persevere, however, and in 1946, he would be awarded the Nobel Prize in
Literature. The poet's philosophy of perseverance as the path to self-fulfillment is
reflected in all of his literary creations. Indeed, Peter Camenzind, Knulp, Demian,
Siddhartha, Harry Haller, the “Steppenwolf”, and Joseph Knecht in The Glass Bead Game
all convey the same message : rise up against yourself, free yourself from the constraints
that prevent you from living, dare to break with the old and to start anew.
The author gives us a vivid portrayal of the writer, starting from his childhood. He
examines, in particular, the subtlety of Hesse's thought, influenced by the teachings of
Nietzsche and Eastern philosophies, and recounts the author's slow and definitive retreat
to the Swiss village of Tessin. François Mathieu sets out to encounter the writer,
uncovering along the way a universal body of work rooted in the depths of the human
soul and in a love of nature.
August 2012 – Biography – 550 p.
Former journalist, François Mathieu is a translator, literary critic and author. He has
translated numerous German literary greats, including Grimm, Kafka, Brecht and
Wassermann. He also edited, translated, and introduced a collection of texts by Hermann
Hesse, Brèves nouvelles de mon jardin (Calmann-Lévy, 2005).
58
Foreign Sale : Shanghai Century
Literature (Simplified Chinese).
SERIES « UNE VIE DE PINTADE »
Directed by Layla Demay & Laure Watrin
Written by female journalists living on-site and set up like an advice column, the authors go behind the scenes
of major world cities to give an insider’s view of the different slices of life with funny and inspired illustrations.
A pintade, which translates as “guinea fowl”, is neither a chick nor a turkey, not even a pheasant and definitely not a
birdbrain. There’s nothing demeaning about this bird name. This fowl, native to Africa, symbolizes liberated women
(contrary to chicks, a guinea fowl knows how to fly, though not very well !) and is the perfect representation of today’s
woman : both serious and light, feminine and feminist. A woman who wants it all, who tries to juggle home and work life
and stay on top of everything while claiming the right to indulge in frivolous things once in a while ! The guinea fowl is an
attractive bird who is fierce, gregarious, unruly, independent, and who makes a lot of noise…
Across the globe, whether in Paris, Buenos Aires, Beirut or Tokyo, women ask themselves the same questions, but the
answers differ according to culture and geographic location. Love, seduction, sex, male-female relations, women’s place in
society, in the working world, political freedom, children, body image, beauty, shopping, fashion. All of these themes are
present in this series and are addressed with multicultural flair, humour and a light spirit.
You can also visit the dedicated website including news, quizzes and good places all over the world : www.lespintades.com
French Sale for all titles : Paperback edition (Le Livre de Poche).
Foreign Sales for Une vie de Pintade à Paris : Business Weekly Publications (Complex Chinese),
Time Books (Korean), Lijiang Publishing House (Simplified Chinese).
The imprint is published in Russian by Ripol-Classic
LES PINTADES PASSENT A LA CASSEROLE
A “3 in 1” book : a culinary expedition into Paris and New York, a foodie’s guide
and a gourmet cookbook.
“Tell me what you are eating, and I'll tell you what kind of Pintade you are.” Such is the adage of
Layla Demay and Laure Watrin who take to the kitchens of fellow chicks in Paris and New
York.
In a thorough investigation of a number of themes – families and mealtime, cooking and
socializing, feelings and food – our feathered reporters meet with renowned chefs, amateur
cooks, supermarket managers, VIP food gurus, cheesemakers and fishermen alike, to reveal
their favourite recipes.
To top it all off, ten great chefs from Paris and New York (including Daniel Boulud, Mario
Batali, Wyllie Dufresne, Inaki Aizpitarte, Adeline Grattard and William Ledeuil) join the
fellowship of the fowl, offering up their own recipes, which all include pintade (or guinea fowl) in
their list of ingredients.
October 2010 – Lifestyle / Travel
Foreign Sale : Ripol-Classic
(Russian).
59
PETITES PHILOSOPHIES – A Dose of Philosophy series
Catherine Rambert
We all know it is difficult to discern our happiness amongst the stress, the noise and worries of every day
life. With one thought per page and one philosophical tale for every season, this collection brings together
365 thoughts, aphorisms, or hints to help the reader take a step back and acquire more wisdom, appreciate
inner peace’s silent presence, develop it through simple actions and share it with others.
PETITE PHILOSOPHIE DU MATIN – A Dose of philosophy in the morning
Do you wish you be calmer, more balanced and happier in your day-to-day life ? This title suggests simple
daily strategies that everyone can use to succeed and maintain peace of mind when dealing with the day’s
hassles. What better time than the morning, with its promise of a fresh, new start, to make good resolutions?
(2001)
French Sales : Book-club edition (GLM), Paperback edition (Le Livre de Poche).
Foreign Sales : Random House (German), Armenia (Italian), L&PM (Portuguese / Brazil).
PETITE PHILOSOPHIE DU SOIR – A Dose of philosophy in the evening
What valuable lessons can we learn at the end of each day ? Can we avoid repeating today’s mistakes
tomorrow ? Did we seize the day ? A Dose of philosophy in the evening offers advice and stratagems to reflect
upon at the end of the day, and what better moment than the nighttime to review the hours gone by and
make simple resolutions for tomorrow. (2002)
French Sales : Book-club edition (GLM), Paperback edition (Le Livre de Poche).
Foreign Sales : Ripol (Russian), Armenia (Italian).
PETITE PHILOSOPHIE DE LA PAIX INTÉRIEURE – A Dose of philosophy for Inner Peace
The search for inner peace is the eternal quest of all human beings. To be in peace, to live as well as possible
with one's self and with others. To seek harmony in all things and be aware of one's luck, to love, share and
exchange, and taste the pleasures of the moment... (2004)
Foreign Sales : Armenia (Italian), L&PM (Portuguese / Brazil).
PETITE PHILOSOPHIE POUR CEUX QUI VEULENT ATTEINDRE LE
SOMMET DE LA MONTAGNE – A Dose of philosophy for those who want
to reach the top of the mountain
Getting to the top of the mountain, fulfilling one’s dreams, or fully succeed, to lead a happy private and
professional life, to be in harmony with oneself, to surpass oneself, to reach for the stars… who hasn’t
dreamt of this ? (2006)
Foreign Sale : Armenia (Italian).
PETITE PHILOSOPHIE POUR SURMONTER LES CRISES
A Dose of philosophy for Overcoming Difficulties
With the world economic crisis hitting home, how are we to maintain a positive outlook ? How are we to
keep our spirits up and put things into perspective – or even see cause for hope – when everything seems to
be pointing to gloom and doom ? Catherine Rambert has the answers. (2009)
Catherine Rambert is a journalist, and editor in chief of a major television magazine, Télé Star. She has also written La Fête des
maires, published by Lattès, Femmes d’influences, published by Hachette/Carrère, and has penned her first novel Impostures sur papier
glacé, published by Éditions n°1 in 2007.
60
HENRI BRUNEL
LES PLUS BEAUX CONTES ZEN – The Most Beautiful Zen Stories
These three volumes of Zen tales, stories and anecdotes offer a wide range of
traditional material from Japan, China, Tibet, and India. A few of these pieces
are new accounts of parables by Zen masters, but they are mostly based on oral
traditions that go back to early Buddhist sources.
Varying in length from half a page to half a dozen pages, these 70 delightful
short stories, have at least one thing in common : they are all designed to break
ordinary expectations, to surprise and charm the reader into fresh ways of
thinking – whether they transport us to a world of animals who think and speak
like scheming humans, a romantic realm of heroes and princesses, or the downto-earth everyday life of monks, beggars, robbers, courtesans, and greedy nobles.
Also exists in an illustrated version (2002)
Foreign Sales : Diogenes (German), La Campana (Catalan), Sic ! Publishers (Polish),
November 2001 – Tales
Pro Print Publishers (Romanian), Ripol Classic (Russian), Garamond (Czech).
CONTE DU CHAT MAÎTRE ZEN – The Tale of the Zen Master Cat
Entrusted to a Zen leader, Koyabashi the cat, an old tomcat all covered with
scars, has dedicated his youth to learning and serving. As he became a leader
himself, he carried on with his spiritual quest travelling the length and
breadth of Japan, accompanied by his only disciple, a little monk cat, naive
and a bit undisciplined. Wandering from temple to temple, the two pilgrims
discover all the different stages of Zen wisdom.
Thus the story of their trip is both a tale in which you can find all the
qualities (especially the sense of humour and poetry) that made Les Plus beaux
contes zen a success and a real introduction to the key concepts of Buddhism :
“the Four Noble Truths”, “the Noble Eightfold Path”, “the Six
Perfections”… These teachings have never been presented in such a brilliant
and lively way.
September 2004 – Album
Thanks to Christian Roux’s numerous illustrations, inspired by Henri
Brunel’s text, The Tale of the Zen Master Cat will delight the eye and the mind
of the readers of all ages.
Foreign Sales : Soshi-Sha (Japanese), Eurasian Press (Complex Chinese), Sic ! Publishers (Polish),
DTV (German), Solbaram Publishers (Korean), Garamond (Czech).
French Sale : Paperback (Points Seuil).
Calmann-Lévy also published Henri Brunel’s Humour zen (2003) and L’Année zen (2003).
61

Barbara Constantine - Calmann-Lévy

Transcription

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