French Press
Recent books we have discussed with their authors, and where to find them.
Lucie Bérard
Les Intranquilles·2026
A first novel. After her grandmother’s death, Paula left everything behind for the sea; she wanders with her dog, thinking back on the women of her family and their bottle-blond hair.
Buy it from: Leslibraires.fr Place des Libraires
Laure Martin
Double Ponctuation·2025
An autobiographical first novel: the journey of a woman rebuilding herself after sexual violence and incest, in raw, breathless language.
Buy it from: Leslibraires.fr Place des Libraires
Anna Haillot
Les Avrils·2026
Anna Haillot’s first novel: daily life in the factory and the Zone, its violence and absurdity, and the light in spite of everything.
Buy it from: Leslibraires.fr Place des Libraires
Raphaël Doan
Passés composés·2023
What if the steam engine had been invented in the first century? A Roman alternate history written in dialogue with artificial intelligence, in text and images.
Buy it from: Leslibraires.fr Place des Libraires
Karyn Nishimura-Poupée
Tallandier·2026
A French journalist based in Tokyo, Karyn Nishimura-Poupée explores the paradoxes of women’s lives in Japan: behind the image of a safe, democratic society lie the constraints of a patriarchal social order.
Buy it from: Leslibraires.fr Place des Libraires
Patrick Modiano
Gallimard·2026
Van Walle, confined to a few streets of Paris, watches the windows of the building opposite and thinks he recognizes faces from the past: a short text in which Modiano holds an entire life.
Buy it from: Leslibraires.fr Place des Libraires
Jérôme Schmidt
Les Éditions Noir sur Blanc·2026
Why did John Coltrane’s 1966 tour of Japan move its audiences so deeply that they still cherish its memory today? A melancholy investigation across Japan.
Buy it from: Leslibraires.fr Place des Libraires
Christine Angot
Flammarion·2026
Christine Angot traces the history of her father’s name and of the one she chose to take back, Schwartz: a family genealogy in which immeasurable violence hides beneath the surname.
Buy it from: Leslibraires.fr Place des Libraires
Guillaume Nail
Denoël·2026
To prevent new epidemics, the State separates humans from nature: meat is forbidden, animals banned. Augustin, an orphan, crosses paths with Vadim and his community beyond control.
Buy it from: Leslibraires.fr Place des Libraires
Neige Sinno
P.O.L·2023
A devastating account of incest and of what literature can say about it, presented in French Press – En Bref.
Buy it from: Leslibraires.fr Place des Libraires
Hervé Le Tellier
Gallimard·2020
The 2020 Prix Goncourt–winning novel, presented by Adrienne in French Press – En Bref.
Buy it from: Leslibraires.fr Place des Libraires
Antoine Vigne
Christian Bourgois·2026
In Arles, Damien comes to place his father in a nursing home and meets Saïd, a Syrian refugee: a clandestine desire, between grief, memory, and passionate love.
Buy it from: Leslibraires.fr Place des Libraires
Laure Gouraige
Les Intranquilles·2026
It all begins with the death of a cat, after eighteen years of shared life. What becomes of grief when we don’t dare give it its rightful place?
Buy it from: Leslibraires.fr Place des Libraires
Robin Josserand
Mercure de France·2026
The genealogy of an original wound: the story of Mireille and Gaston, two great Resistance fighters destroyed by their deportations.
Buy it from: Leslibraires.fr Place des Libraires
Charlotte Monsarrat
Le Tripode·2026
Both a human dystopia and an ecological fable: born in the heart of the Ronciers, Sève escapes her prison of plants to free her sister Duramen.
Buy it from: Leslibraires.fr Place des Libraires
Jeanette Winterson
Buchet-Chastel·2026
Somewhere between memoir, essay, and the tales of the Thousand and One Nights, a dense book on the liberating power of literature.
Buy it from: Leslibraires.fr Place des Libraires
Benjamin Hoffmann
Denoël·2026
In the late nineteenth century, two American scientists, Charles Marsh and Edward Cope, wage a merciless competition to unearth dinosaur skeletons and rule over the young science of paleontology. Theft, corruption, espionage, violence: anything goes, in the days of the conquest of the West and the Gold Rush. Illustrated with period documents, a gripping account of the birth of science and of modern America.
Buy it from: Leslibraires.fr Place des Libraires
Pia Petersen
Plon·2026
In Los Angeles, Yoda, a stray dog with a human face, becomes the center of a scientific experiment: a contemporary fable about what makes us human.
Buy it from: Leslibraires.fr Place des Libraires
Olivier Sebban
Rivages·2026
From the plague of Marseille in 1720 to the forests of the New World, a great adventure novel about flight, exile, and loss.
Buy it from: Leslibraires.fr Place des Libraires
Audrey Jougla
Stock·2026
An essay on the joy, new and vibrant, of life as a mother, and on the transformation a child brings.
Buy it from: Leslibraires.fr Place des Libraires
Camille Bordas
Denoël·2025
Translated from the English (The Material) by the author. Over one day in Chicago, a choral novel about a class of master’s students in stand-up comedy getting ready to go on stage: a reflection on the relationship between art and life.
Buy it from: Leslibraires.fr Place des Libraires
Émilie Lanez
Grasset·2025
The secret behind “Vipère au poing”: an investigation into Hervé Bazin and his mother, presented by Mattéo Jung in French Press – En Bref.
Buy it from: Leslibraires.fr Place des Libraires
Laïna Hadengue
Douro·2026
In May 1968, a mother abandons her five children. The story of that absence and the silence that follows.
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Mathieu Simonet
Philippe Rey·2026
An autobiographical novel about the years following the death of Benoît, the author’s husband: a book about love tested by illness and loss.
Buy it from: Leslibraires.fr Place des Libraires
Patrick Bray
Station Zapata·2025
Patrick Bray’s essay on Stendhal, presented in his interview with French Press.
Buy it from: Leslibraires.fr Place des Libraires
Stephene Gillieux
Phébus·2026
Stephene Gillieux’s first novel, presented by Estelle Normand in her column “Je lis la nuit.”
Buy it from: Leslibraires.fr Place des Libraires
Bérénice Pichat
Les Avrils·2024
Bérénice Pichat’s novel, presented by Estelle Normand in her column “Je lis la nuit.”
Buy it from: Leslibraires.fr Place des Libraires
Sandra de Vivies
Cambourakis·2025
Sandra de Vivies’s first novel, presented by Estelle Normand in her column “Je lis la nuit.”
Buy it from: Leslibraires.fr Place des Libraires
Laure Coromines
Gallimard (L’Arpenteur)·2023
In St. George, Utah, the summer of 1957 will never be forgotten: to support the nuclear tests in the nearby desert, the town holds the Miss Atomic beauty pageant. A first novel.
Buy it from: Leslibraires.fr Place des Libraires
