Audiovisual rights A Selection of French Titles Professional

Transcription

Audiovisual rights
A Selection of French Titles
Professional meeting
French publishers and German producers
13th & 14th of June 2013
2013
1
ALBIN MICHEL
www.albin-michel.fr
Marie Dormann
marie.dormann@albin-michel.fr / +33 (0)1 42 79 10 00
2
Take This Man Alice Zeniter
Drama
A m a rri a g e of co n v en i en ce : A l i ce i s g o i n g t o m a r r y M a d , h er
c h i l d h oo d f ri en d f rom M a l i , to pr ev en t h i m f r om b ei n g
d ep o rt ed . A w el l - pa c ed p o rt ra i t of a g en era ti on , f ro m 2 0 to
2 5 y ea rs - ol d .
Setting
Paris, or another big town
/ now
Main characters
Alice, 20’s, female
Mad , 20’s, male
Mad is from Mali. Alice is half-Kabyle, half-French, from
Normandy. They have been best friends since childhood; they
played in the same sand pit, went to the same high school
and the same university. They are enthusiastic, committed
and rebellious; they grew up together despite all opposition.
Today Alice is getting married to Mad. But their wedding is a
marriage of convenience.
Looking back from that day, Alice writes about Mad and their
friend l’Arabesque, the threesome they formed together year
after year; the Daddymum: Alice’s parents, a considerate
entity who always agreed; the careful training, alternatively
comical and nerve-wracking, that the bride and groom
Find out more
received to evade the administration, who could betray them
French Porte Dorée literary (they finally come across a plump, benevolent council
prize (2010)
worker).
Belgian Laurence Tran
Because it’s the only thing Alice can do to save her friend and
literary prize (2011)
prevent his departure, because it’s tangible proof of her
commitment, her friendship and the final stage of her
adolescence.
Film and foreign rights
Film rights available
Edition available in French
/ English / Italian
Novel
A sharp, strong, committed, utopian generation, poetic, but
determined to achieve their aims.
The words, the references, the rebellion, the helplessness in
warding off the injustice faced by young adults everywhere.
Contact
Albin Michel / www.albin-michel.fr
Marie Dormann
3
Kamal Jann Dominique Eddé
Thriller - Drama
A young American–Syrian lawyer at the heart of this amazing portrayal of
the Middle East, where the machinery of repression is being deployed; and
of the all-powerful relation between families and power.
Setting
Damascus, Beirut, New
York, Paris / in 2010 – a
few months
The Jann family is at war. Jann is an American corporate
lawyer of Syrian origin and has just set up an association for
human rights in Syria. He is close to leading figures of the
Manhattan art and finance circles and to intellectuals.
Main characters
Kamal, 40’s, male
But a dark secret is devouring this sombre, mysterious,
attractive man: Kamal wants to get back at his uncle, Sayf
Eddine Jann, the head of the Syrian intelligence service, the
“snake with no face”, a relentless manipulator who had his
parents killed when he was young during the Hama
massacres; an incestuous uncle who raped him throughout
his childhood, but who paid for his New York studies.
Edition available: French /
English
Find out more
Between Hitchcock
John Le Carré
At a party, he meets John Red, a CIA agent, who asks him to take
and part in rescuing Kamal's young brother, Mourad, an Islamist
jihadist about to commit a suicide attack against the Syrian
president who is visiting Paris, an attack ordered by his uncle.
Red puts a deal to him: if Kamal manages to convince his aunt
Riwaya to poison her husband (and therefore spare her in
Syria, where the Government wants to get rid of her), then the
French secret services will turn a blind eye to Mourad’s acts.
Kamal accepts, but all is treason and sham. While his uncle
agonises in Damascus, the secret service hands Mourad over
to the Mossad, who torture him to death without getting any
information. Kamal is devastated, but “even if death is a
Novel
solution, he is going to try and live for a long time…”
Kamal Jann is an impressive mosaic of places and characters,
of cynicism, violence and treason.
The damned lineage of the Jann family is condemned, like the
Atrides, to kill each other, while the crushed people starts
dreaming of freedom…
Between Hitchcock and John Le Carré
Contact
Marie Dormann
4
The Woman in the Row Behind Françoise Dorner
Drama
“In order to save our marriage, I had the idea
of offering him another woman.
He started to fantasize about her. He doesn’t
know it’s me. And she is destroying us…”
Setting
Paris, or another big town
/ now
Main characters
Nina, 40’s, female
Roger, 40’s, male
Edition available French /
English / German /
Hebrew / Vietnamese
Find out more
Goncourt du Premier
Roman (2004)
Novel
Men have always been able to see right through Nina.
Brought up by her mother, she never knew her father. When
Roger, the only man who ever paid any attention to her, asks
her to marry him, Nina says yes.
Love-making – in the morning – brief and unexciting, the
hum-drum days spent in their Parisian newspaper kiosk,
evenings spent in front of the telly…. the marriage begins to
founder.
But then an affair with a regular kiosk customer awakes her
senses, and Nina decides to put an end to her husband’s
indifference. She discovers that Roger, who goes out a lot,
spends his free time at the movie theatre, watching Chinese
films. One day Nina, extravagantly made-up to look like an
Asian femme fatale, takes the seat behind his, in order to
regain his attention.
Roger falls head over heels for this mysterious stranger… but
has less and less time for his wife.
Imprisoned in her false identity, Nina becomes jealous of
herself.
The slightest communication between them becomes
impossible. In a desperate attempt to show him that she is in
fact the woman he’s crazy about, she throws herself in the
Seine.
But that still doesn’t stop her husband leaving for China…
Contact
Marie Dormann
5
The Paris Lawyer Sylvie Granotier
Thriller
In charge of defending a young woman, who seems by all the evidence to be guilty,
a young lawyer is confronted with another unsolved crime: her mother’s murder.
Setting
Paris (or another big town)
and country / now – a few
weeks
Main characters
Catherine, 25, female
Find out more
French prize: Sang d’Encre
du roman (2011)
English version of the text
available
Novel
Catherine: a young Parisian lawyer is confronted for the first
time of her life with a crime case. It’s the launching of her
career, under the severe, impressive, caring eyes of her boss,
Renaud. She goes to the scene of the crime, in the province of
Creuse, (charming and rural but inhospitable in a disturbing
manner…), where she spent her first years, before the murder
of her mother, which has of course haunted her all her life.
Myriam, her client, is an illegal African immigrant accused
of having poisoned her husband, a farmer she married 6
years ago. While Catherine is working on the ambivalent
Myriam’s case, she is dumbstruck to discover that her lover,
Cédric, was once her mother’s lover.
She had thought for a while that Cédric was guilty, but he
knows who the murderer is and lets her discover the truth.
Catherine’s father, jealous enough to kill, overprotective of
the child he brought up on his own, taking care to never
mention this painful past.
Catherine contributes to the outcome of the two cases in the
space of a few hours: she has Myriam discharged, even
though she has proof of her guilt.
The same night, in the middle of the countryside and under
pouring rain, her father and Cédric physically confront each
other in the local stream. The father does not survive.
Catherine nurses Cédric and they split up.
With time, can Catherine settle old scores and construct her
life at last?
A young lawyer’s challenges (in court, in her professional
relations).
A young woman who can be brilliant, appealing, fragile,
combative.
The main characters and subordinate roles that can be
complex, surprising, fascinating.
Contact
Marie Dormann
6
Noah’s Child Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt
Drama
A priest takes in and protects young Jewish and Christian children, including the young
Joseph. The spiritual awareness of a child, the wisdom of a man amid the commotion and
fury of war.
Setting
Belgium (or another
European country) / 19421945 (during WWII)
Main characters
Father, 40’s, male
Joseph, child, male
Film rights available.
Edition available French /
English / German /
Bulgarian / Castilian /
Chinese / Corsican /
Finnish / Georgian / Greek
/ Hebraic / Hungarian /
Italian / Dutch /
Norwegian / Polish /
Romanian / Russian /
Czech / Turkish /
Ukrainian
Find out more
More than 1.5 million
copies sold
Novel
1942: 7 year-old Joseph Bernstein is the only child of a
Jewish family threatened with internment. His mother, afraid
that arrests will begin in her neighbourhood, takes him to the
Countess of Sully before trying to warn her family.
For his protection, Joseph is left under the name of Joseph
Bertin at the Villa Jaune, an orphanage run by Father Pons, a
rural priest, one of the “righteous among the nations” who,
with the help of the villagers, saves Jewish children by
concealing their identities, in complicity with Miss Marcelle,
who delivers fake papers to the children. With him and
young Rudy, a sturdy but clumsy boy (and cleverer than it
seems), Joseph learns to keep his name, his history and his
emotions secret; he experiences fear, investigations and
denunciations. He learns about friendship but also discovers
Christianity and Judaism by reading sacred texts. Under his
church, in the crypt, Father Pons has installed a secret
synagogue. At night, he studies the Torah, the Cabbala and
collects objects of worship…
He teaches them Hebrew, considering these Jewish children
to be the future witnesses of massacres, and responsible for
the perpetuation of the Jewish language and religion.
He says he is a “collector” and, just like Noah, wants to save
human beings threatened by history’s Flood.
What will become of him?
At the end of the War, Joseph is lucky enough to see his
parents again, but the reunion isn’t an easy one:
“One doesn’t reunite by simply kissing each other. In three
years, they had become strangers to me, probably because I
had changed. They had left a child and found an adolescent.”
Fifty years later, Joseph is in Israel. He shows us that history
is a constant succession of new beginnings and encourages
tolerance: “Being in favour of Israel does not mean
approving all of Israel’s decisions. We must make peace with
the Palestinians. It is their territory too. The very history of
our persecution should lead us to deliver the words that we
ourselves have been waiting for, over the centuries.”
And Joseph himself starts a collection…
Children, human beings in a constant state of flux,
wonderfully captured.
Humour, tenderness, mixed emotions.
Contact
Marie Dormann
7
L’ATALANTE
www.l-atalante.com
Annette Werther-Médou
a.werther-medou@l-atalante.com / +33 (0)2 40 89 14 41
8
The Secret of the Rabbi Thierry Jonquet
Adventure-Historical
The secret of the Rabbi, a gripping thriller with
an historical background leads us - not without a
generous sprinkling of humour - along a path of
picaresque fantasy.
Setting
1920 in Poland
Main characters
Moses, 40’s, male
Léon, 40’s, male
Rachel, 40’s, female
Find out more
The english translation
of the entire novel is
available
There are four of them: Moses, the New York gangster; Léon the
dashing officer from French “high society”; David the new
builder of the “Promised Land”; and Rachel, the fervent
Bolchevik.
They have, all four, been invited to a little Polish village, to take
possession of their uncle's legacy. He is a poor, old and rather
eccentric rabbi. It is an invitation they treat with disdain,
forgetting to take into account fate, circumstances, chance and
the author’s sense of mischief.
They end up in Poland, where war is raging in the summer of
1920. At the end of the trail, there is a mysterious “treasure”
which will not be the only surprise in store for us.
On the surface, it is a rather straightforward “adventure” story,
built around an obscure episode of 20th-century history; but the
“adventure” is also a very well-thought-out and well-executed
dramatization of an important theme in the Jewish experience
during the first half of the 20th century.
Novel
Contact
L’Atalante/ www.l-atalante.com
9
Narcogenesis Anne Fakhouri
Psychological- Fantasy
Narcogenesis is a morbid tale on the theme of lost childhood, (a disturbing
variation of the Wizard of Oz), which will captivate lovers of the supernatural.
What is so striking about this story is that we enter a universe cleverly
balanced between the imaginary world (with Louise's gift, the Sandman), and
our real world (a child disappears, a police inspector leads the investigation).
Setting
Contemporary, several
flashbacks to the
beginning of the 20th
century / In a small town
in Northern France and in
the park of a mansion
nearby
Main characters
Louise Gaucher, 30’s,
female
Simon Larcher, 30’s, male
Claude Gaucher, 60’s,
female
Louise Gaucher, whom everyone calls Zette, works in intensive
care. When she can, she dozes off at the bedside of patients
deep in coma and travels in the "world of dreams" so that she
can accompany them in their choice between life and death. In
order to enter, she visualises a yellow brick road... from the
Wizard of Oz.
When she isn't working, Zette goes home to Chais, a huge
family mansion where discretion and mistrust of the outside
world are the rule - indispensible considering their success in
the pharmaceutical industry.
One night in January, while she is travelling in the mind of a
child in a deep coma, Zette finds herself face to face with an
evil creature, the Sandman. A few days later, a child that
disappeared while under the protection of the social services is
found in the Chais gardens.
Find out more
English sample translation Captain Simon Larcher, dismissed from the investigation under
of the first three chapters pressure from the Gaucher family, finds himself with his back
to the wall when his nephew also disappears: should he
available
persuade Saul, the son of the Gaucher family, who has also
"disappeared", to come out of the shadows...?
Novel
Contact
10
Mimosa Vincent Gessler
Action- Sci-Fi
Part philosophical contemplation, part highly-charged action,
in Mimosa we travel through an improbable saga where
clones, virtual doubles, artificial intelligence and legendary
characters from crime and the cinema all intermingle.
Setting
In Santa-Anna, a virtual
cosmopolitan city,
sometime in the future
Main characters
Tessa, 30’s, female
Ed Harris, 30’s, male
Corcodile Dundee, 30’s,
male
What do Lambert Wilson, Adolf Hitler, Doctor Snuggles, Jesus
Christ, Philippe Katerine and James Brown all have in
common? They are all part of a crazy adventure that takes
place in Santa Anna, a cosmopolitan town in a completely
vegetarian world, where the latest trend is to be the look-alike
of a famous person, real or fictional. Except for Tessa. Tessa
prides herself in being an authentic original. And, at the head
of the Two Guns Company & Associated Agency, she is leading
an enquiry into human organ trafficking.
During the investigation, she makes some curious discoveries
about her past and sets off in search of her memories,
Find out more
The beginning of the story accompanied by Ed Harris and Crocodile Dundee. Mindblowingly crazy and subversive.
is available in English
Novel
Contact
11
The Quest for the World-Books Carina Rozenfeld
Adventure Fantasy
If you discovered at the age of 16 that you were a
superhero, what would you do: accept your dangerous
mission or stick to your secure, everyday teenager's life?
Setting
Contemporary in Paris,
New-York and the
Peruvian mountains
Main characters
Zec, teenager, male
Eden, teenager, male
Louis, teenager, male
Find out more
This trilogy was awarded
three literary prizes:
Prix des Incorruptibles 2010
Prix littéraire d'Issoire 2010
Prix Imaginales des
Collégiens 2009
Detailed English synopsis
available
The Book of Souls:
Zec is a sixteen-year-old teenager, who is worried that his
results won't be good enough for him to get into the science
class in high school, for his dream is to become an airline pilot
one day. He is in love with Lea, the prettiest girl in the school,
who won't even deign to look at him. So everything is normal
until the day, or rather the night, that changes his life: wings
start to grow on his back. Then Zec soon learns that he comes
from a planet called Cheberith that has vanished into the ether
because of the Ingurgitator of Worlds, and his mission is to
bring it back to life. Helped by Eden, a young girl with wings
like him, Zec has to find the three World-Books, hidden
somewhere on Earth, in which have been registered the Souls,
the Places and the History of this lost world. But this quest is
likely to become highly dangerous because the Ingurgitator has
decided to finish what he began...
The Book of Places:
The Ingurgitator of Worlds is on Earth and has found Zec and
Eden, who have meanwhile learnt that the second World-Book
is hidden in the Saint Jacques Tower, an old church steeple in
the heart of Paris. Aware of the danger threatening them, they
go there all the same only to discover that the tower has been
completely renovated and the book is no longer there. They
find it on eBay, put on by Lenny, a builder’s labourer who had
been working on the site. Lenny is trying to make a bit of
money to pay off his gambling debts. And despite the teenagers'
warnings, he is sticking to his idea. By opening the book several
times, he draws the Ingurgitator to him. So, at the end of a
frantic race against time to get the Book of Places back, Zec and
Eden are confronted with two opponents: the Ingurgitator and
Lenny.
The Book of Time:
The teenagers have been contacted by an unknown Cheberian
living in Peru. He is a member of a scientific team who came to
Earth before the disappearance of Cheberith to study the Nasca
12
designs that were also to be found on their home planet. A few
years before, they had worked with Larchael, the Cheberian
responsible for hiding the last Book, who turns out to be…
Lea’s father.
So they leave for Peru to find the third World-Book, and,
helped by other Cheberians, they manage to enter the vortex
leading to the location of the planet Cheberith in order to
recreate it. This is where the Ingurgitator of Worlds joins them
for his final attack. Luckily, the saviours of the vanished world
have planned everything, but not, however, without huge
sacrifice and loss.
Novel - Trilogy
Contact
13
Exodus Jean-Marc Ligny
Thriller - Sci-Fi
Exodus is an ecological anticipation thriller - hard-hitting, dark and disheartening where both the human and economic stakes are high. The touching, eminently
human characters are utterly credible in their absurd quests and we naturally warm
to them. Jean-Marc Ligny condemns the destructive folly of our free-market world.
Setting
In 2100, after a climate
explosion
Main characters
Pradeesh Gorayan, 50’s,
male
Paula Rossi, 40’s, female
Fernando Sanchez,
teenager, male
Find out more
A previous novel of the
same author Aqua TM
was awarded the
following prizes:
Prix Bob Morane 2007
Prix Rosny Aîné 2007
Prix "Une autre terre"
2007
Prix Julia Verlanger 2007
and is optioned for a
movie adaptation.
English translation of the
first three chapters
available
Detailed synopsis in
French available
Novel
2100: global warming has taken off exponentially, and the
entire Earth has become a planet hostile to life. Civilisation is in
collapse everywhere, human beings have not much longer to
live and they know it.
In a world with no possible future - at least for humanity - how
would we react? Would we, like Pradeesh Gorayan and his
family, go to Geneva and shut ourselves up in an Enclave beneath
a dome and carry on our daily life as if nothing had happened?
Would we, like Mercedes Sanchez in Spain, take refuge in
religion and wait for angels from heaven to take us to the Garden
of Eden? Would we, like Fernando, Mercedes' son, join the
Blasters and provoke destruction in an orgy of fire and violence?
Would we, like Paula Rossi and her children, leave Italy to try
and reach an Enclave in the hope of sheltering there? Would
we, like Melanie Lemoine, a hermit in the Forez Mountains, use
our final efforts to save the remaining animals?
Would we, like Olaf Eriksson the sailor and his wife, flee the
Lofoten Isles and look for a slightly less inhospitable land,
unsullied by human presence?
It is the time of exodus, and like ants on a burning log, the last
humans are running in all directions to escape hellfire - but
there is no escape. Except perhaps, towards the stars... But how
and for whom?
Structure: Four parts made up of six quite short chapters (one
per character) that mix and intermingle according to the
encounters between the different protagonists. Between each
part, a descriptive short story that presents the situation in a
symbolic region, emblematic of the on-going climate changes.
For example: the Tuvalu Islands (Pacific Ocean), Greenland,
Bangladesh, Amazonia, Siberia, Indonesia, Sahel, New York,
Beijing... These visions do not necessarily have any link with
the main story; they are inserted between the different parts
rather like "postcards".
Contact
14
CAL
www.calfrance.fr
Nathalie Carpentier
carpentier@calfrance.fr / +33 (0)6 25 89 25 06
15
Business Hours Francis Ryck
Comedy- Investigation
When "Marie Chantal" catches two villains redhanded, a hilarious comedy ensues.
One of France’s crime novelists most often adapted
for the screen: "Le Silencieux", "Le Sécret", "La Peau de
Torpedo", "Conseil de famille" …
Setting
Contemporary
Main characters
Lucille, teenager, female
Francis, over 40’s, male
Francis and Marcel, two small-time burglars, are caught redhanded by Lucille, a young woman from a comfortable
background. Bored and keen for some excitement, she makes a
bargain with them: she will keep her mouth shut if they accept
her as an associate. Lucille becomes the brains of the outfit,
planning burglaries and other ill-deeds, which always end up
in catastrophe with nothing to show for their efforts.
First film version in 1964
Audiovisual rights free for
a remake or a telefilm
Ideal material for a series
Find out more
First version with De
Funes, Maurice Biraud
and Dany Saval, dialogues
by Michel Audiard
Book in French or DVD of
the first version
Noir Graphic Novel
Contact
CAL/ www.calfrance.fr
Nathalie Carpentier
16
The Giant Michel Lebrun
Investigation - Saga
The ‘Pope’ of thriller writers takes us behind the scenes of a hypermarket: a
boss with delusions of grandeur and a sadistic security supervisor run the
place with an iron fist, as a pretty employee and her gang plan a robbery.
Setting
Today / a city
Main characters
Jean Montescourt, 40’s,
male
Spada, 30’s, female
Pierre, 20’s, male
Find out more
Could be adapted for
different genres: disaster,
social focussing on
violence, unemployment
A veritable citadel at the heart of the suburb, the Giant is a
model hypermarket. Its manager, Jean Montescourt, takes
himself for the captain of a liner and the security supervisor,
Spada, disciplines with a dose of sadism. Order reigns on
board until the day Pierre, a pretty girl despite her first name,
decides to rob the Giant with her gang, the crew declares
mutiny, things go from panic stations to shipwreck... As the
rats leave the ship, the Giant’s victims can be counted. Michel
Lebrun draws us into a breath-taking pursuit while revealing
what goes on behind the scenes in hypermarkets. You name it
- the Giant has it! Even your destiny, at a price.
Could be adapted for TV:
2x90’ or 3x54’
More than 80,000 copies
sold (3 editions)
Detailed synopsis in
English available on
request
Novel
Contact
CAL / www.calfrance.fr
Nathalie Carpentier
17
DENOEL
www.denoel.fr
Judith Becqueriaux
judith.becqueriaux@denoel.fr / +33 (0)1 44 39 73 76
18
Romance-Drama
Mr Emma Becker
An intense, raw love affair between a female student
and a married man in his fifties. The erotic vertigo
experienced by a modern day Lolita.
Setting
Paris / nowadays
Main characters
Ellie, 20’s, female
Mister, 50’s, male
Translation rights sold to:
Germany (Piper); United
Kingdom, World
English(Constable &
Robinson);
Netherlands (De Bezige
Bij); Italy (Baldini
Castoldi); Castilian, world
rights (Planeta); Czech
Republic (Mlada Fronta);
Hungary (Athenaeum);
Ukrain (Folio); Poland
(Bukowy Las); Turkey
(Ceres Yayinlari); Taïwan,
complex characters
Chinese (Ecus); Japan
(Hayakawa); Russia
(Hemiro)
Ellie is eighteen and leads a carefree life until the day she
comes across Mister, a married surgeon nearing fifty. At first
epistolary, their affair finally takes off in a Parisian hotel
room. Ellie goes through several months of feverish waiting,
punctuated by clandestine, intense get-togethers and brief
phone conversations. An emotional vicious circle she tries to
break, unsuccessfully.
“Bewitching cruelty.” Tatiana de Rosnay, Journal du
Dimanche.
“A raw, delicate, kind of novel, of the ‘Colette meets Catherine
Millet’ genre.” Frédéric Beigbeder, Le Figaro Magazine
Find out more
More than 10,000 copies sold
Novel
Contact
Denoël / www.denoel.fr
Judith Becqueriaux
19
Steel Knots Sandrine Collette
Thriller - psychological
An intense, nightmarish and disturbing survival tale.
Setting
French countryside /
nowadays
Main characters
Théo, 30’s, male
Basile, over 70’s, male
Joshua, over 70’s, male
Translation rights sold to
Japan (Hayakawa)
Find out more
more than 12,000 copies
since January
Theo, a tough guy just released from jail, is ready for a brand
new life. But his hopes are shattered when he is brutally
abducted by two crazy old farmers. The nightmare begins
when he finds himself locked in their damp basement, a
nightmare that will only end after months of suffering, when
Theo manages to turn one brother against the other. The two
old men eventually kill each other, and Theo breaks free at
last.
“This excellent captivity thriller measures up to the classics of
the genre. Particularly reminiscent of Stephen King's Misery."
Figaro Magazine
“A novel that keeps well off from the beaten tracks of the Noir
genre and delivers a most unsettling, huis-clos type pageturner" Le Matricule des Anges
Novel
Contact
Judith Becqueriaux
20
The Crossings Solange Delhomme
Drama - Romance
Love will not save you. The power of love, and the
damages that ensue.
Setting
France at seaside /
nowadays
Main characters
Clara, 20’s, female
Marie (the mother), 30’s,
female
Gabrielle (the grandmother), over 70’s, female
After the demise of her grand-mother, Clara finds out the
truth about her mother who supposedly ran away after her
birth. A box of letters reveals a whole new story: her father’s
true behaviour, her mother’s unbearable loneliness and even
her grandmother’s failed love story. Clara retreats to her
house by the sea and hopes to find the strength to return to
life and love, and escape from her family’s fate.
"With her scalpel-like writing, Solange Delhomme dissects
dark pages punctuated by brief luminous passages where
love, although seemingly within reach, deserts the ill-fated
protagonists" Ouest France
"The heroine plunges into the heart of secrets and unpicks the
tangles of fate. A debut novel that never runs out of steam,
both a breeze and a tornado" Télé 7 Jours
Novel
Contact
Judith Becqueriaux
21
A Sensitive Chord Aurore Guitry
Romance-Drama
What if a magical opera score had the power to
save or destroy lives?
Setting
Rome / nowadays and in
the XVIth century
Main characters
Nicolas, 30’s, male
Eléonore, 30’s, female
Giovanna, 30’s, female
Translation rights sold to
Germany ( Aufbau)
Eleonore is in a coma after a car accident. Her husband
Nicolas finds out about a magical opera score that has the
power to heal the dying. Determined to save his wife at any
cost, Nicolas flies to Rome, and, with the help of Giovanna,
unravels the story of the score, and the curse attached to it.
Ultimately, although he could not save Eleonore, Nicolas
chooses life with Giovanna over death.
"Written to the rhythm of a piece of music and the memories
of life before the accident, this novel is a desperate cry of love
from a man to a beloved woman. Passionately romantic and
melodious." Libération Champagne
Novel
Contact
Judith Becqueriaux
22
Our Dear Marcel Died Tonight Henri Raczymow
DramaHistorical
Marcel Proust’s last days.
Setting
Paris / 1922
Main characters
Marcel Proust, 50’s, male
Céleste Albaret, 30’s,
female
A subtle, elegant account of Marcel Proust's last days, his
never-ending struggle to finish his masterwork, and a colorful
portrait of literary and artistic Paris in the 20's.
"A funny yet deeply moving book" Le Point
Narrative non-fiction
Contact
Judith Becqueriaux
23
FAYARD
www.editions-fayard.fr
Carole Saudejaud
csaudejaud@editions-fayard.fr / +33 (0)1 45 49 82 48
24
Just Like Tomorrow Faïza Guène
Dramedy
A story for anyone who has ever experienced living on the outside
and looking in, especially from that alien place called adolescence.
Setting
The suburbs of Paris /
nowadays
Main characters
Doria, teenager, female
Hamoudi, 20’s, male
Yasmina (Doria’s mother),
40’s, female
A number of offers have
already been made for the
novel's film rights, but the
author was reluctant at
first to have her story
modified. Today she is
ready and would be
particularly interested in
her novel being adapted by
a foreign director
Translated and published
in over 20 languages
(including German and
English)
Find out more
More than 150,000 copies sold
Full text and press reviews
available in the abovementioned languages.
Doria is a fifteen-year-old high school student living with her
mother in a working-class Paris suburb. Her father
abandoned them just a few months earlier, returning to
Morocco to find a younger “more fertile” wife.
Doria isn't lost, however. On the contrary, she's the center of a
world that is all her own: first of all, there's the TV, in front of
which she spends most of her free time. Then of course,
there's the real world. But there is also Doria’s mother, with
her ever sunny disposition, and her pal Hamoudi, a survivor
and a poet who has been in and out of juvenile detention; he
and Doria have lengthy conversations in the downstairs
lobby. There is also Mrs. Burlaud, Doria's social worker who
“wears garter belts and smells of delousing shampoo, but
who’s really nice”; and Nabil, her “nobody” tutor who
manages to give Doria her first kiss. Not to mention Aunt
Zohra, who has a son in jail, and Mohamed, the small-time
grocer and crook on whom Doria has set her sights for her
mother – but who marries someone else without even inviting
Doria and her mother to the wedding. But it doesn’t really
matter. “In any case, my mom and I, we couldn’t care less
about not being in the jet-set”…
A comic novel about growing up, a sharp satire on
contemporary society and a witty and insightful account of
everyday life in the French suburbs.
Novel (debut novel, a 19year-old author)
Contact
Fayard / www.editions-fayard.fr
Carole Saudejaud
25
The 7th Woman Frédérique Molay
Thriller
7 days, 7 women, 7 murders. Who’s next?
Setting
Paris / nowadays
Main characters
Nico Sirkis, 30’s, male
in German, English,
Japanese, Turkish, Spanish,
Russian, Vietnamese,
Estonian
Find out more
Winner of France's
prestigious Prix du Quai
des Orfèvres for best crime
fiction, named Best Crime
Fiction Novel of the Year,
and already an
international bestseller
with over 150,000 copies
sold
Full text available in the
above-mentioned
languages
Novel
The brilliant and intuitive Nico Sirsky is obsessed with his job:
he is the youngest ever commander of La Crim, the Paris
Criminal Investigation Division. A super cop with a host of
modern-day problems—including a wise and beloved mother
(Anya), an overprotective sister (Tanya), a depressed and
suicidal ex-wife and a teenage son (Dimitri)—his worldview
has been tainted by certain horrific cases combined with
insufficient sleep, questionable eating habits and an
unfortunate divorce. Moreover, his incredibly stressful job has
taken a toll on his health. After suffering from persistent
stomach pain for three whole months, he finally makes time
to see Dr. Caroline Dalry, who also happens to be a real
knockout. Before long, the two have started dating.
Then the killer strikes, and Sirsky is put on the case. MarieHélène Jory, an assistant professor at the Sorbonne, has been
brutally tortured and killed. At first, everything seems to point
to a highly-organized killer, perhaps even a professional. The
murderer had taken his time both during and after the
horrific crime, carefully staging the crime scene to remove all
traces of his presence but leaving a message scribbled in blood
on the victim’s mirror: “Seven days, seven women.”
Thus begins a race against time to stop the slaughter—before
it’s too late. As the bodies start piling up, it becomes clear that
the killer is targeting victims somehow related to the chief
investigator. The killings are a twisted, personal taunt of sorts:
“You can't protect the women in your life, can you? I am God
and you are nothing, Nico!”
Time is ticking away. The murderer is closing in on Nico's
innermost circle. Will the super cop be able catch the monster
in time?
Contact
Carole Saudejaud
26
The Accident Ismaïl Kadaré
Thriller - Political
The mysterious death of a pair of mysterious lovers
Setting
Vienna (Austria) /
nowadays
Main characters
Bestfort Y., 40’s, male
Rovena St., 30’s, female
in English, German(to be
released), Italian, Spanish,
Dutch, Korean, Turkish,
Portuguese, Slovenian,
Polish, Hebrew, Catalan,
Norwegian, Romanian (to
be released)
Find out more
Ismail Kadare is the winner
of the Man Booker
International Prize (2005)
and of the Prince of
Asturias Award of Arts
(2009)
available in the abovementioned languages
Novel
Vienna, Austria. The present day. A taxi swerves. Two people
on their way to the airport are killed. Two lovers, a man and a
woman, both Albanian emigrants living in Vienna. The driver
survives but is unable to say exactly what happened. Could
the accident have something to do with what he saw in the
rear view mirror? Perhaps, yet he is in no shape to explain
either what he saw or why the couple had seemed so
mysterious.
What we do know is that the man, Besfort Y., was a Balkan
Affairs analyst for the Council of Europe; his companion,
Rovena, was an intern at the Archaeological Institute. For the
past twelve years they had been having an affair in hotels
across central Europe. Their deaths—an accident, a double
murder, a suicide pact?—attract the interest of both Serbian
and Albanian secret services, who turn up all sorts of
interesting leads: Besfort may have been implicated in the
decision to bomb Serbia; and he was getting ready to go on a
secret mission (something to do with war crimes) in The
Hague; he had also made certain disturbing remarks about
Israel in the past. Rovena turns out to be equally enigmatic:
Obsessed with Besfort yet punitively rebellious, she was
involved in two other love affairs at the time of her death, one
with a woman.
Although the deceased couple's affair seems have some
mysterious tie to Balkan politics, the secret services abandon
their investigations. The case is then picked up by an
anonymous researcher whose wild conjectures add to the
already questionable facts surrounding the couple's death.
So what's really going on? Is it a love story or a crime story?
Or something of an altogether different nature—a smoke
screen, perhaps? The reader will keep guessing right up to the
very last page.
Contact
Carole Saudejaud
27
Cancer Ward Alexandre Soljénitsyne
Drama - Political
The story of a small group of people in the cancer ward of a
provincial Soviet hospital in 1955, two years after Stalin's death.
Setting
A hospital in USSR (Soviet
Uzbekistan) in 1955
Main characters
Oleg Filimonovitch
Kostoglotov, 50’s, male
in English, Spanish,
Hungarian, Estonian,
Czech, Lithuanian, Danish,
Romanian, Chinese,
Finnish, Polish, Korean and
Albanian
Admitted to a Soviet hospital somewhere in the USSR, Oleg
Kostoglotov has been undergoing cancer treatments for
several months. Through exchanges with both his fellow
patients and attending physicians, he has come to better
understand both who he is and what the future holds. After
years in prison camps and exile, Oleg is surprised to discover
he still has the capacity to love. He also learns that even the
strongest of men can be brought down by disease—and the
overwhelming cruelty of the Soviet system.
Who are these cancer-ridden patients? Exiles, an ex-prisoner,
a concentration camp guard, and a secret police bureaucrat
whose denunciations have sent dozens of others to prison.
Find out more
Alexandre Soljénitsyne was
awarded the Nobel Prize in
Literature in 1970
Novel, partly
autobiographical
Contact
Carole Saudejaud
28
Museum Véronique Roy
Thriller
“Come back, Darwin, they are going mad!”
Setting
The researchers at the Museum of Natural History in Paris are
Paris - the Museum of
all in a flutter. A meteorite, dated prior to the creation of the
Natural history / nowadays solar system, has been discovered, proving the extraterrestrial
origins of life on Earth. The age-old quarrel between
Main characters
Darwinists and Creationists surfaces once again: Is Man the
Leopoldine Devaire, 20’s,
accidental product of evolution or the fruit of a divine
female
project?
Peter Osmond, 40’s, male
Marcello Magnani, 30’s,
The famous American paleontologist, Peter Osmond, and
male
Marcello Magnani, Italian astrophysicist and priest, are
dispatched to the Museum in order to shed light on the affair.
Their investigation takes a disturbing turn, however, when
the meteorite disappears and a series of macabre ritualized
crimes starts taking place in the museum's remotest corners,
amongst formaldehyde-filled jars and stuffed animal
in German, Dutch, Greek,
Hungarian, Italian, Korean, specimens...
Portuguese and Russian
Find out more
sold in France ; more than
40,000 copies sold on
Germany
7 days, 6 murders. All the victims are brilliant scientists. The
French police investigate to no avail. The killer’s modus
operandi eventually reveals that he is determined to mock
every postulate of Darwin’s theory.
With the help of the Museum's plucky librarian, Leopoldine,
Peter and Marcello set out to uncover the truth and to put a
stop to the barbaric acts terrifying the institution.
The only novel mentioned in the French National Research
Center’s online bibliography on evolution
Novel
Contact
Carole Saudejaud
29
FLAMMARION
www.groupe-flammarion.com
Laure Saget
lsaget@flammarion.fr / +33 (0)1 45 49 82 48
30
Kafka in Love Jacqueline Raoul-Duval
Historical - Biopic
The life of Kafka, seen through the prism of his catastrophic love life,
offers a new vision of his work and life. A romantic, more human
and emotional approach to one of literature’s most enigmatic figures.
Setting
Prague, Berlin, Vienna /
between 1912 and 1924
Between 1912 and his death in 1924, Franz Kafka was
engaged four times but never married. Here, we follow the
key relationships of his romantic life, all of which were
initially long-distance, through the love letters Franz
Main characters
exchanges with his fiancées Felice, Julie, Milena and Dora.
Kafka, 40’s, male
Here, between Prague, Berlin and Vienna, the literary genius
Felice Bauer, 20’s, female
becomes a man - flawed, scared, funny and always ironically
Dora Diamant, 20’s, female
and cruelly aware of his own limitations. Beyond the tragedy
of his life and the depth of his writing, Kafka is a modern
lover, seducing women, often too scared to get close to them,
comical in spite of himself and always ready to make fun of
French and English version himself. One of the most influential authors of the last century
becomes the uniquely charming lead of a surprising romantic
Find out more
dramedy.
A European coproduction
would be perfect for this
A lively and dramatic biopic on Franz Kafka
film
Novel
Contact
Flammarion / www.groupe-flammarion.fr
Laure Saget
lsaget@flammarion.fr / +33 (0)1 40 51 29 21/ 20
31
GALLIMARD
www.gallimard.fr
Frédérique Massart
frederic.massart@gallimard.fr / +33 (0)1 49 54 42 98
32
Ladivine Marie NDiaye
Drama - Fantasy
3 women, 3 generations, a story about secrets, love and memory.
Setting
France and Germany /
nowadays
Main characters
Ladivine (the servant), 50’s
60’s, female
Clarisse (Malinka), 30’s
40’s, female
Ladivine, under 30’s,
female
Translation rights sold in:
German (Surhkamp),
English (US – Knopf UK MacLehose Press), Estonian
(Eesti Raamat), Hebrew
(Keter Books), Italian
(Giunti)
Find out more
Marie NDiaye’s previous
novel Trois femmes
puissantes won the
Goncourt Prize in 2009
She was awarded the
Grand Prix du Théâtre
2012
Novel
Every month, Clarisse Rivière secretly goes to Bordeaux where
her mother, Ladivine (also called The Servant), lives. The
Servant is a former house cleaner and her daughter’s visits
bring her as much pain as they do happiness. The reason is
that Clarisse - whose real name is Malinka - keeps her mother
at a distance from her life because she is ashamed of her, and
suffers from her stifling, maternal love, despite all the
sacrifices her mother has made for her.
However, Clarisse loves her mother, and betraying her like
this causes her suffering. The only way she can find to escape
from her poor and sad childhood is to invent a happy and
bright new life with her husband, Richard, and their
daughter, Ladivine. She tells them she is an orphan.
One day, Richard leaves Clarisse. Even after many years of
living together, he still doesn’t know the real woman beneath
the smooth surface. She is shattered by the break-up. Later,
she seems to have found happiness again with Freddy
Moliger, a broken man, tired of life.
Her daughter, Ladivine, now lives in Berlin with her husband
Marko and their two kids, Annika and Daniel. She has a bad
feeling about her mother’s lover and thinks this man can’t
give her anything but a sad and chaotic life. Nevertheless,
Freddy is the only person Clarisse tells about her mother; she
even introduces him to her. The Servant appreciates this
broken man. But during a fight, Freddy Moliger, in a fit of
jealousy, kills Clarisse with a knife.
As she awaits a trial she doesn’t want to attend, Ladivine tries
to keep her daily routine going in Berlin. She notices a dog
hanging around the place, that seems to be looking after her.
During a disastrous trip to a far-off country, she sees a forest
and is irresistibly attracted to go walking in it, and never
comes back. Marko, Annika and Daniel go back to Berlin
without her. In this city, they bump into a dog, in which
Annika seems to recognize her mother. The dog stays with
them, peacefully looking after the family.
During the trial, her first husband Richard discovers the truth
about The Servant. While he is visiting her in Bordeaux, a dog
joins them. It fills The Servant with joy because she sees in this
dog the unexpected return of her daughter Malinka.
Contact
Gallimard / www.gallimard.fr
Frederique.massart@gallimard.fr / +33 (0)1 49 54 42 98
33
The Erotic Potential of my wife David Foenkinos
Comedy
Hector is a compulsive collector. The day he decides to give up this
bad habit, which is like a drug, he meets Brigitte. With her, he
starts collecting just one thing: his wife’s erotic moments.
Setting
Paris / nowadays
Main characters
Hector, 30’s, male
Brigitte, 30’s, female
Translation rights sold in
over 15 languages
(including German - Beck
Verlage, English - Telegram
Books, Korean, Spanish,
Russian, Portuguese, etc)
Find out more
This book was awarded the
Roger Nimier prize in 2004
David Foenkinos’ previous
novel, La délicatesse, was
adapted for the screen in
2012, starring Audrey
Tautou
Novel
Hector is a compulsive collector of everything and anything,
from camembert labels to the first pages of novels. But one
day, he fails to impress at a famous collector’s championship.
After his crushing defeat, he decides to give up collecting,
which, to him, means giving up life. Which is why he tries to
kill himself.
After his suicide attempt, Hector is sent to a psychiatric
hospital for six months. Not wishing to worry his friends and
family, he tells everybody he is leaving for the USA on a long
visit.
To make his lie more convincing, Hector goes to the library to
study a map of America: he needs to know the country’s
geography perfectly to avoid making mistakes.
In the meantime, a woman, Brigitte, has the same idea: she is
also studying the map of America to support a lie. She
recently pretended she had been in the US for six months
when she was, in reality, at home, all alone, working on a
thesis about loneliness in urban areas. That is how, one day,
the two meet, while sharing the same atlas. They fall in love.
Soon they marry and open a travel agency for mythomaniacs.
They live an indolent life together, occasionally visiting
friends or family (some of whom are also collectors or
compulsive liars).
One day, while Brigitte is cleaning the windows of their flat,
Hector realizes that watching his wife doing this is incredibly
exciting. In this particular posture, he finds his wife’s body –
her calves, to be precise - very erotic. To ensure regular
repeats of this floor show, Hector starts to dirty the windows
deliberately. And so begins a collection: “Brigitte cleaning
windows”. One day, it’s impossible to be at home to watch, so
he hides a video camera in the living room. A few hours later,
when he watches the video, he sees his wife with another
man, in their living room.
For the next few days he is devastated and depressed until
Brigitte confesses that she doesn’t have a lover: when she
found the video camera, she was so upset that she decided to
take revenge by making him believe she was cheating on him.
Hector is relieved and Brigitte accepts her husband’s fantasy
about her cleaning the windows.
They soon decide to have a baby and nine months later, he is
the “young collector” and father of… triplets!
Contact
34
The Ogre’s Laugh Pierre Péju
Drama - Historical
Staying with his German pen pal for the holidays, Paul discovers how the violence of
war leaves scars on human beings – deep scars, hidden, never referred to. And they
never heal, remaining despite love affairs and life’s occupations, blending with
memories such as the unexplained death of his own father.
Setting
Germany, Ukraine, France
/ from 1941 to 2037
Main characters
Paul, from 16 to 70’s, male
Clara, from 15 to 40’s,
female
Jeanne, from 20 to 50’s,
female
over 10 languages
(including German - Piper,
English - The Harvill
Secker, Chinese, Dutch,
Spanish, Russian, etc.)
Find out more
This book won the ‘Roman
Fnac’ prize in 2005
The author’s previous
novel, La petite chartreuse,
was adapted for the screen
by Jean-Pierre Denis in
2007, starring Olivier
Gourmet
In the early 1960s, Paul, a young 16 year-old Frenchman,
travels to Germany to improve his German, which he is
studying at school. Solitary, introverted, he passes his time
sketching in notebooks that he always keeps with him. Peace
and serenity seem to reign in this little mountain village,
Kehlstein, spared by the bombings. No one talks about the war
of 1940.
The doctor’s daughter, Clara Lafontaine - short hair, black
clothing, an independent spirit who always has a video
camera in her hand - immediately attracts Paul. She seems to
be attracted to him as well since she films him very often.
Clara shows her movies to Paul. He realizes that they express
a terror close to that expressed in his own sketches.
During an excursion to a lake with other teenagers, Paul splits
from the group and is astonished to discover, at the end of a
narrow path, a vase of fresh roses suspended in a tree. He
doesn’t mention it to anyone. What he doesn’t know is that
Clara’s father - Doctor Lafontaine - and another villager Lieutenant Moritz -, members of the Wehrmacht, witnessed
the massacre of Ukrainian Jews in 1941 (after having tried to
save the children, Moritz even led them to the place of the
execution). Clara explains to Paul that it is her father who
leaves roses in the forest, in memory of his war companion,
Moritz, who strangled his two children under this tree two
years ago in an outburst of insanity.
At the end of his stay, Paul goes back to school in Paris. He
still draws, without forgetting Clara, or the unexplained
killing of his own father, a former resistant from Lyon. The
solicitude of his rich uncle Edouard, who gave him and his
mother an apartment on the top floor of his private hotel,
makes Paul uncomfortable. His friend Maxime takes him to
their philosophy teacher, Kunz, a former soldier in Algeria
who fascinates his students.
Paul meets Clara again in Paris, while she is staying with her
French pen-pal. Clara is still as mysterious as ever, close to
him yet still unpredictable. To meet with her, he skips classes
more and more often but finally graduates from high school.
35
Everything leads him to think that Clara, whom he introduced
to Kunz, has become the philosophy teacher’s mistress. Paul
takes up studies at Art School when the events of May 1968
erupt, and participates in the rebellion. “Finally something is
happening”, he remarks.
He gets involved with a young nurse, Jeanne, who takes care
of him and who turns out to be Clara’s pen pal. She is hurt
when she realizes that Clara has forgotten about her. Seduced
by her serenity and sensuality, Paul becomes her occasional
lover, abandons his studies and works at the local hospital,
doing odd jobs.
Having decided to travel, Paul leaves for Vercors with his
mother who is going there to join her new boyfriend. Paul
stays a while to study sculpture with Philibert Todds, who has
settled in this area. Back in Paris, Paul rents an old garage on
the edge of the city with the money he gets from his father’s
inheritance. He has enough space there to work on his
sculpture. He sees Clara again once. She calls him for help
when an abortion goes wrong. A little later, he asks Jeanne to
marry him.
Novel
Paul soon becomes a well-known sculptor. He moves to
Vercors with Jeanne, near Todds’ house. He leads a peaceful
life with his wife, who has become a mid-wife, and their two
children. But his sculptures express the same anxiety that he
finds one day in the photographs of former soldiers in
Vietnam that Clara just published in a magazine. From time to
time, she contacts Paul. He agrees to meet her but always with
a certain anxiety. During one of their meetings, she tells him
she has found out that his father was killed on the orders of
his uncle Edouard, who was a collaborator during the war.
Paul cannot stop himself from going to confront his uncle.
Many years later, Paul’s children have grown up and left
home. Jeanne died of cancer. Kunz killed himself. Clara was
shot during an armed conflict she was covering. Paul is now
alone, thinking of the past, awaiting death.
Contact
36
Nocturnal Senses Nicolas Bréhal
Thriller - Psychological
A police officer who lets his intuition guide his investigations, a
great fan of Baudelaire, starts a nocturnal chase in search of a
serial killer whose victims are women.
Setting
Paris by night (or in any
other big city) / nowadays
Main characters
Superintendant Achille,
50’s, male
Gaspard, 40’s, male
Marge, 20’s, female
German (Klett-Cotta),
Greek (Fytrakis) and
Turkish (Dogan Kitap)
Find out more
Nicolas Bréhal’s previous
novel, Les corps célestes,
won the Prix Renaudot in
1993
Novel
Gaspard, who works for the town hall, is a serial killer. His
nickname is ‘Gaspard of the night’. He is a regular visitor to a
peepshow in the red light district, where he admires the erotic
contortions of Sabine, a girl he has fallen in love with.
Gaspard had a blind father for whom he used to describe
women in detail, and with whom he identified strongly. As for
Sabine, she only lives for the incestuous love of her brother,
Léo, who is killing himself with drugs and alcohol. Sabine also
gets money from old Mr Louis, a smuggler in Africa, whom
she thanks by giving him her panties.
Sabine’s best friend is Marge, a twenty-year old professional
thief. Marge subjugates Thomas, who drives her around on
his motorcycle. She refuses to have sex with him, which
drives him crazy. But Marge is ready to give herself to Marius,
a taxi driver and amateur photographer who spends his
nights driving and taking pictures of Paris night life.
The photos he takes are of great interest to a police
superintendent, Achille, who knows all of Baudelaire’s work
by heart. ‘Gaspard de la Nuit’ has started killing the girls of
Pigalle, cutting them into little pieces. With the help of a
young prostitute, Jenny, Achille enters into his own interior
world of darkness in order to place a trap for Gaspard.
Meanwhile, Thomas goes mad with jealousy and kills
Marge…
Contact
37
Vango Thimothée de Fombelle
Adventure
Paris, 1934. 19 year-old Vango Romano is an orphan who knows
nothing of his origins. When he is wrongly convicted of murder, he
decides to escape. So begins a breath -taking chase which,
hopefully, will bring answers to his questions and let him discover
who he is.
Setting
Italy, France, USA, Russia,
Scotland / in the 1930s
Main characters
Vango, 20’s, male
Ethel, 20’s, female
over 15 languages
(including German –
Gerstenberg & dtv, English
– Walter books and
Candlewick, Italian,
Turkish, Polish, Dutch,
Chinese, etc.)
Find out more
Vango won many prizes:
‘Livre entête’ prize 2011, ‘Les
mordus du polar’ prize
2011, ‘Prix Jeunesse des
Libraires’ in 2011 (Québec),
‘Ado-Lisant’ prize 2012
(Belgium)
In Germany, it was
nominated for the ‘Deutscher
Jugendliteraturpreis’ in 2012
Film rights to Tobie Lolness,
Timothée de Fombelle’s
previous book, are already
under option
Novel in two parts
Paris, 1934. In the square in front of the cathedral NotreDame de Paris, begins a race between the police and 19 yearold Vango, who was about to be ordained a priest. Hunted by
the police for murder, Vango succeeds in escaping.
Vango is a mystery. He was found at the age of 3 with
Mademoiselle, his nanny, on an island close to Sicily. He grew
up there, with Mademoiselle, in a far-off, isolated place. At
10, he discovered a secret monastery on a neighbouring
island and shared his time between his beloved nanny and the
monastery. Sent away from the monastery by Father Zephiro
in order to discover the world, he made a worldwide trip on a
Zeppelin, as a kitchen boy. On board he met with the
beautiful Ethel. He finally entered a seminary in Paris, when
the murder he is accused of was committed.
Vango has always felt himself threatened, and at this time, as
well as the French police, he is being chased by Russian spies.
During his flight from his pursuers, he meets some strong and
unforgettable characters: Eckener the Commander of the Graf
Zeppelin, the Superintendent Boulard, the enigmatic Mole, a
young girl.
As the rumble of war draws near, Vango travels from Paris to
New-York. In this fabulous adventure, he has to face danger
and cruelty while discovering the truth about his origins. At
the end, Ethel joins him and they form a lasting couple.
Contact
38
GLENAT
www.glenat.com
Véronique Philibert-Philbois
vpp@glenat.com/ +33 (0)1 41 46 11 35
39
Destinies Franck Giroud, Michel Durand
Suspense - Saga
Every day, life obliges us to make choices. After choosing one direction, who
can say they have never thought, ‘What if I had…’ Destinies explores that
arborescence of possibilities, setting the main character in multiple lives.
Setting
USA, Africa
Main characters
Ellen, 20’s to 40’s, female
Jane, 20’s to 40’s, female
Published in Dutch, Spanish,
English (now being
translated)
Find out more
All the tomes have been
published, hard copy or pdf
available
Graphic Novel
14 tomes (all published)
Ellen, a young and militant student, is in love with the
rebellious Greg. Out of love, she gets involved in a hold-up
that leaves Greg and a security man dead. Ellen manages to
flee and it’s Jane, Greg’s girlfriend, who is accused. At the
last minute, Jane provides an alibi and is freed.
Seventeen years later, Ellen, an executive in an influential
NGO, learns that Jane’s alibi has been broken and she has
been condemned to death. Ellen has to make a choice: give
herself up and face possible capital punishment? Or stand
by as Jane is put to death for her crime?
From this first dramatic choice, several possibilities ensue,
all of which lead inevitably to a similar end:
Option 1: Ellen gives herself up and faces her
responsibilities. In this option, her husband Richard, an
influential politician, pulls strings to overturn her
confession. In spite of this, Ellen is judged and jailed in an
experimental prison where she loses her sanity.
Option 2: Jane is executed before Ellen gives herself up.
Ellen’s son, Dylan, a rebellious teenager, accidentally kills a
friend, Victor. Ellen takes refuge in the arms of Lu-Pan, an
esoteric medium. Just as she appears to have found
serenity, she loses her mind when Victor’s parents capture
her and, now assumed to be dead, Ellen witnesses the
destruction of her family.
Option 3: Ellen doesn’t give herself up and flees to Africa to
escape her past. Captured in a country at war, she is
condemned to atone for the deeds of her slave-trading
ancestors, and is obliged to wander in an insane limbo
under the influence of psychoactive drugs.
Whatever choice she makes, Ellen finds herself in an
isolated asylum in Australia where she remains a mystery
for the director of the establishment. Ellen tells him her life
story which is none of the three versions, but a fourth.
Ellen is not mad; she has deliberately set herself apart from
society to study the arborescence of possibilities, and verify
that no other life would have worked out better. Ellen
finally attains serenity.
Whatever choices we make, life follows its course.
Contact
Glénat / www.glenat.com
vpp@glenat.com / +33 (0)1 41 46 11 35
40
The secret Triangle Didier Convard
Mystery
When two researchers discover a legendary manuscript, The Madman’s
Testament, a perilous quest begins. We discover that it was not Jesus who died
on the cross, but his twin brother. Two secret societies battle to reveal or to
protect history’s best-kept secret.
Setting
France
Francis Marlane and Didier Mosèle, two researchers in
codicology, make a discovery when reading a very old letter
they received from a certain Hertz: that an enigma was left by a
Main characters
Francis Marlane, 40’s, male scribe in the ‘madman’s testament’, a legendary document of
which only one copy exists and is kept in the Vatican. Marlane
Didier Mosel, 40’s, male
goes to the Holy See, only to discover that the document in the
Hertz, 60’s, male
Vatican is a copy, without the hidden enigma!
Find out more
All the volumes have been
published, hard copy or
pdf available
More than 1 million copies
sold
Spin offs, prequels and
sequels have been
published
While Marlane goes to Troye in search of the original, the
Vatican is warned about their search and alerts its own secret
army, The Guardians of the Blood, because the founding
principles of the Church are in danger. Three days later,
Marlane is found dead.
An X-ray of Hertz’s letter reveals a triangular watermark: a
code! When Mosèle and Josiane (Marlane’s wife) go to see
Hertz they are followed by a mysterious vehicle. Hertz, an
erudite, informs them that the Madman’s Testament is a
Gospel written by Jesus, whose twin brother was sacrificed so
that he could continue to spread his message. Since that time,
the secret order of the First Brothers has been protecting the
manuscript. Hertz decodes the watermark, revealing the exact
location of Jesus’ tomb: in France!
When his wife Léa is attacked, Hertz knows that the
Guardians of the Blood are at work. He welcomes Mosèle and
Josiane and presents his treasure: the original of the
Madman’s Testament! When the Guardians of the Blood set
fire to the Library, the three 3 companions just manage to
save the Testament in time.
Graphic Novel
7 tomes (all published)
They decode the enigma in the Testament and identify the spot
where Jesus was buried in a Lake near Troye. With diving
equipment, Mosèle manages to enter the immersed tomb.
Meanwhile, Hertz and Josiane are murdered by the Guardians.
Trapped in the underwater maze of a tomb, Mosèle discovers
Jesus remains but does not manage to get out.
Sometime later, when it was believed that the First Brothers
had been eliminated, hope springs again. Several people meet
in the ruins of Hertz’s library. The First Brothers still exist.
Their leader is: Lea (Hertz’s widow)! The fight goes on…
Contact
vpp@glenat.com / +33 (0)1 41 46 11 35
41
The Third Testament
Xavier Dorison, Alex Alice
Fantasy - Adventure
When the Grand Inquisitor Conrad de Marbourg sets off in search of the Third
Testament, a document capable of shaking the Church to its roots, he engages
in a fight to the death with the Templars and the forces of evil.
Setting
Europe
Main characters
Conrad de Marbourg, 50’s,
male
Elisabeth d’Elsenor, 20’s,
female
Spain, Germany, Portugal,
Brazil, Korea, Poland,
Denmark, Slovenia,
Lithuania, Sweden, Iceland,
Turkey
End of the 13th century : Conrad de Marbourg, the grand
inquisitor, and Elisabeth D’Elsenor, niece of the archbishop of
Paris, set off in search of a manuscript: it’s the “Third
Testament”, which proclaims the existence of a thirteenth
disciple, a relative of Christ, probably his brother. The
Templars, who are also searching for this precious
manuscript, make sure their quest - from the Pyrenees
mountain range to the Scottish moors, passing through Spain
– is as difficult as possible. The two main characters make
discoveries that shake their faith in the Holy Scriptures. This
fantastic saga in four episodes concludes with a fabulous
combat between the bloody Sayn, Guillaume De Beaujeu,
Conrad de Marbourg and Élisabeth: all of them ready to fight
to the death to obtain possession of this Testament, which is
likely to trigger a second Apocalypse.
The masterpiece that initiated the esoteric graphic novel!
Find out more
The printed books and pdf
files in French and in
English available
More than 1 million copies sold.
Graphic Novel
4 titles published
Contact
vpp@glenat.com / +33 (0)1 41 46 11 35
42
A wild Childhood Maria-Djalla Longa
Biopic
In the 1980s, in the heart of the Ariège mountains, the Maisonnier family
chooses to live without running water or electricity. Lala, one of the eight
children, has never been to school and works on the land with her parents. A
testimony about a unique childhood in the country.
Setting
Ariège, France
Main characters
Djella-Maria, aka lala,
Teenager, female
Barbara, 30’s, female
Patrice, 30’s, male
Find out more
Tip Sheet in English
Prix Littérature Pyrénéenne
2012
1 reprint
Barbara, a 22-year-old German girl, moves in with Patrice,
whom she met on an isolated farm in the mountains of Ariège.
No running water, no electricity, nothing plastic – none of this
selfish world that alienates humans and exhausts the planet.
The couple have 8 children: Sébastien (Patrice’s first son, born
in 1977), Taï (Barbara’s daughter, born in 1978), Anao (the
couple’s first child, 1979) Djella-Maria, aka Lala (1980), Sahel
(1982), Manou (1984), Mira (1986) and Souhanne (1995).
A rustic life but a happy one. Days are long and filled with
work in the garden, washing clothes in the lavoir, looking after
the animals and doing housework in a foyer of 10 people.
This is a diary of their life with its hardships and moments of
happiness, the constant battle between Patrice and the
authorities to have the right to educate his children at home,
the steadfast fraternity between siblings, the games in natural
surroundings… This chronicle of daily life is quite unlike any
other.
The crushes of children who are totally free and without
prejudices, the visits from Mamie-Claire (a Brittany woman of
the bourgeoisie), Patrice’s mother, the trip to Morocco in a
lorry (a concession to modernity accepted on this occasion)…
so many anecdotes that become totally unique because of their
unusual life style.
Novel
312 pages + photo section
However, as the children grow up, the influence of the ‘world
down there’ intensifies. Lala increasingly challenges family
life. Against her mother’s advice, Lala becomes a trainee
baker. Exploited by her boss, she studiers for a diploma to be a
nature guide. Her academic shortcomings are more than
balanced by her keen knowledge of nature, her natural
behaviour and creative approach.
Lala goes to Peru where she meets Sébastien, a French
voluntary worker. Today, they run a mountain bike rental in
Ariège and often visit her parents. Her brothers and sisters
also live in the mountains of their birth, remaining close to
nature. But their own children all go to school!
Contact
vpp@glenat.com / +33 (0)1 41 46 11 35
43
Silas Corey Fabien Nury, Pierre Alary
Adventure - Investigation
In 1917, the mysterious Aquila, head of a network of saboteurs,
attacks the French nation. Only one man can unmask him: Silas Corey.
Setting
Paris / 1917
Main characters
Silas Corey, 30’s, male
Nam, 30’s, male
Marthe Betenfeld, 20’s 30’s,
female
Dutch, German, Croatian
Find out more
20,000 cps. of each tome
sold in less than 5 months
May 1917, Georges Clémenceau, retired war hero, member
of parliament and boss of a daily in opposition to the
government, is enraged by how the President of the Council,
Caillaux, is handling the war. One of Clémenceau’s
journalists disappears: his name is H. Casella, and he was
investigating the links between Caillaux and an arms dealer,
Mme Zarkoff. Clémenceau has no choice but to call in a
detective.
He chooses Silas Corey, ex-journalist and former spy,
discharged from military service because of an allergy to
lead, a metal to which he much prefers gold.
Corey’s former boss and head of the secret services, Colonel
Ledoux, gets to hear about this mission. He is also hunting for
Casella and a stamp containing microfilm that the missing
journalist had discovered during his enquiries. On it,
information about Aquila, the head of a fearful network of
German saboteurs.
Silas has no choise: he must work for Ledoux. He interviews
Mme Zarkoff, who also asks him to find Casella and the
stamp. But Zarkoff has another card up her sleeve; she is also
the employer of Marthe Betenfeld, an experienced pilot, exgirlfriend of Silas, and double agent for the French
intelligence service.
With the help of his Indochinese valet, Nam, Silas manages to
find Casella. They arrange to pick up the stamp in a big Paris
store. Just as they are handing it over, an attack is organised
by Aquila which allows him to kidnap Marthe.
Graphic novel in 2 volumes
Silas then discovers that the stamp contains a proposition of
France’s surrender signed by Caillaux. Aquila offers to
exchange it against Marthe’s freedom.
After they complete the deal, Silas follows Aquila as far as the
front lines. After a terrible duel, he kills him and recovers the
stamp.
Between Clémenceau’s patriotism, Mme Zarkoff’s fortune
and the coercion of the secret service, Silas decides to give the
stamp to Clémenceau, overthrowing the government and
changing the course of the war.
Contact
Véronique Philibert-philbois
vpp@glenat.com / +33 (0)1 41 46 11 35
44
GRASSET
www.grasset.fr
Heidi Warneke
hwarneke@grasset.fr/ +33 (0)1 44 39 22 14
45
The Suitors Cécile David-Weill
Comedy
Two sisters from an incredibly rich family learn that their father has decided to sell
the family home on the French Riviera. They organize casting sessions for “suitors”
in order to find a husband rich enough to take care of the house’s expenses…
Setting
French Riviera (Cap
d’Antibes) / Two months in
nowadays
Main characters
Laure, 30’s, female
Marie, 30’s, female
Several characters, 30’s,
males
This novel is set in a sublime house, “The Agapanthus”, on the
Cap d’Antibes. Two sisters in their thirties – Laure, the
narrator, and Marie – will go to any length to keep their
father from selling this house where they’ve always spent
their summers. And so they organize casting sessions for rich
suitors in the hope that one of them will marry one of the two
sisters and thereby save “The Agapanthus”. Over the course of
four weekends that same summer, a parade of suitors try their
luck.
This is the starting point of Cécile David-Weill’s comedy of
manners that portrays the world of the extremely rich, where
the old elite collides with the nouveau riche. The trader, the
actress, the couturier, the swindler, the joker, the sponger, the
English (USA) and in socialite, and the scoundrel follow one after the other in a
tender and acerbic human comedy. Russians get involved, we
German (Piper Verlag, not
catch glimpses of Madonna, Penelope Cruz, and others –
yet published)
many others – who are easily recognizable beneath their
Find out more
borrowed surnames… Will “The Agapanthus” stay in the
Complete translation in
family? Which “suitor” will prevail? It doesn’t really matter,
English available
because, over the course of their casting sessions – each more
improbable than the last –, Laure and Marie come to
Chosen as “Book of the
week” by Oprah Winfrey
understand that “The Agapanthus” belongs to a time and a
world that no longer exists. And likewise, the lifestyle and
Film reference : Match Point
values of their parents’ generation are no more. Despite
(W. Allen), Easy Virtued
themselves, the two sisters accept to let go of “The
(S. Elliot)
Agapanthus”…
Novel
An impertinent and lucid novel set in the world of the rich.
Contact
Grasset / www.grasset.fr
Heidi Warneke
hwarneke@grasset.fr / +33 (0)1 44 39 22 14
46
Six Months, Six days Karine Tuil
Thriller
A German billionaire falls under the spell of a gigolo who becomes a
blackmailer. The swindler knows quite a bit about her family, which was far
from perfect during the war.
Setting
Germany, From the Third
Reich till now
Main characters
Juliana Kant, 40’s, female
Herb Braun, 40’s, male
Karl, over 70’s, male
Find out more
A strong press kit with a
great deal of praise
Listed for the Prix
Goncourt in 2010
Listed for the Prix Interallié
in 2010
Juliana Kant, heiress to an incredibly wealthy German family,
abandonned all her desires and repressed all her feelings in
order to be the perfect daughter to her father, a captain of
industry in Germany. But then she falls head over heels for a
handsome war photographer and former gigolo. Their torrid
affair turns to sordid blackmail, the erotic atmosphere gives
way to revelations about the past. But could this be about
vengeance – that of a man whose Jewish father was the victim
of the Kant family under the Third Reich?
The narrator, Karl, is the Kant family’s right-hand man. After
forty years in their service, devoting himself to the point of
being “devoured”, Karl knows all the Kant family bank
account numbers, but what’s more, he knows their secrets
and infamies. It is precisely because he has become the man
who knows too much that Karl is discarded like the lowly
servant he never wanted to be. His pride wounded, he decides
to tell all, exposing Juliana’s downfall to the public.
A powerful novel pitched between reality and fiction.
Novel
Contact
Heidi Warneke
47
The Man from Lyon François Guillaume Lorrain
Historical
A son dives into the past to find out more about his father. We discover a
fascinating Lyon, whose back alleys are as impenetrable as the secrets of the
Resistance and as winding as family histories.
Setting
Lyon, Berlin, Paris, Menton
/ contemporary times and
during WWII
Main characters
The narrator, 30’s, male
Guy, over 70’s, male
Find out more
Film references: A Secret
(Claude Miller)
Seven (David Fincher)
Eight years after the death of his father Guy, the narrator
receives a parcel Guy had prepared for him prior to his death.
In the package are six photos and a number of letters.
Starting from these clues, he attempts to reconstitute his
secretive father’s past. Following the rules of the game as laid
out by his father, the narrator tracks down the murky past by
setting out for Lyon and Berlin to meet strangers and old
neighbors.
Who is that German in the third photo? What is Jean Moulin
doing in this paper chase? What happened to Guy’s little
sister? What happened in that schoolyard on the rue Jarente?
And what exactly does the eighty-year-old Mr. Maillard
know?
From a personal quest to police investigation, the narrator is
drawn into a family saga that will enable him to get to know
his father, the man from Lyon, at last.
“This well-documented novel maintains a continual dialogue
between personal experience and history, whose importance
only comes to light after the events.” L’Histoire
A fascinating plunge into a man’s past.
Novel
Contact
Heidi Warneke
48
Gaddafi’s Harem Annick Cojean
Drama
The Story of a Young Woman and Abuse of Power in Libya
Shocking and moving, Gaddafi’s Harem tells the story of a young Libyan girl,
Soraya, who at the age of fifteen was taken from her family by Gaddafi’s
regime and forced, along with many other young women, into sexual
servitude.
Setting
Libya / 1990-2012
Main characters
Soraya, teenager, female
Muammar Gaddafi, 50’s,
male
Annick Cojean, 40’s,
female
10 languages including
English, German (Aufbau
Niemand hört mein
schreien), Italian, etc
Find out more
Winner Grand Prix de la
Presse Internationale, 2012
Winner Club de las 25 Prize
(Spain)
100,000 copies sold in
France in three months.
Film References: The Last
King of Scotland (K.
MacDonald), JFK (O. Stone)
Available translations:
German, English, Italian,
Dutch, Arabic, etc.
International press kits
(including an excellent
German press kit)
Novel
A young woman in her twenties, she is at the height of her
beauty, and yet life hasn’t spared her sorrow and hardship.
Soraya was only 15 years-old when the Brotherly Leader and
Guide of the Revolution Muammar Gaddafi spotted her
among the young girls of her high school and decided to
make her his sex slave. She was beaten, drugged, and raped
several times a week for nearly seven years. Seven years that
seemed an eternity.
Now, the young woman wants to tell all, no matter what the
risk. She met with journalist Annick Cojean, who heard her
testimony and wrote a book that takes us behind the scenes of
a dictatorship and into the lair of a megalomaniacal,
bloodthirsty tyrant constantly under the influence of drugs.
How many young women suffered the same fate? Hundreds,
probably, but the subject is such a taboo that nobody knows
for sure. In this unprecedented piece of journalism, Annick
Cojean, who risked her life conducting an investigation in the
prison of Tripoli, open to the skies, unveils a system that
combined prostitution, corruption, terror, rape, and crime.
She gives voice to its victims, the young girls whose lives it
destroyed forever.
Senior reporter for the newspaper Le Monde and president of
the jury for the Prix Albert Londres, which she herself won in
1996, Annick Cojean is one of the greatest figures in French
journalism today. She is the author of several books.
An exceptional journalistic investigation.
Contact
Heidi Warneke
49
Trifling Love Affairs Virgine Carton
Comedy
In this spirited debut novel, reminiscent of the enchanting world of an author
such as David Foenkinos, Virginie Carton paints the compelling portrait of a
generation, and an era full of contradictions. Or, how to love at 30.
Setting
France (Paris Countryside)
/ 4 or 5 years in nowadays
Main characters
Vincent, 30’s, male
Marine, 30’s, female
Raphael, 30’s, male
Spain (summer 2014) and
Germany (Paris, Die Liebe
und ich,
UllsteinBuchverlag)
Find out more
Film references:
Four Weddings and a
Funeral (M. Newell)
Love Actually (R. Curtis)
Delicacy (S. and D.
Foenkinos)
Vincent wanted to be a cartoonist, but ended up an architect.
He and his best friend Raphael, whom he met in college, have
managed to keep their dreams: one day, they’ll design a house
for a celebrity. But Vincent knows that it’s time to grow up. So
when he meets Marine at a zoo, he overcomes his habitual
shyness and starts up a conversation. It’s the founding event
in a story that goes on in the same vein: absurd, abstract, bold,
and reckless. Unfortunately, the first sparks never last for very
long. Vincent, whose time has not yet come, soon realizes this.
Flings, disappointments, celebrations, weddings, highs and
lows: Vincent turns out to be pretty lucky when it comes to
games of love and chance… By his side, his group of friends –
David, Juliette, and Pierre – move to the same songs, consume,
aspire to comfort and lightness, and waver between desire for
stability and freedom.
A delicious novel about love and friendship.
Novel
Contact
Heidi Warneke
50
ODILE JACOB
www.odilejacob.fr
Pauline Buisson
Buisson.rights@odilejacob.fr / +33 (0)1 44 41 64 80
51
The Lost German’s Blockhouse Jean-Claude Hazera
Thriller Historical
A young policeman’s first investigation in France during the
Liberation, in the autumn of 1944.
Setting
A town on the Atlantic
coast, Paris / Autumn
1944
After a storm, the bodies of 10 French hostages are discovered
under the foundations of the blockhouse in Brest. To punish
the French after the unexplained disappearance of Hans Esser,
the Germans took revenge by killing 10 hostages.
Main characters
Mathurin, young man,
male
Grolardi, 40’s, male
Lucette, young woman,
female
Mathurin, a youth who kept his father’s farm during the war,
has just joined the police and is in charge of the investigation.
He doesn’t have the necessary experience, but he’s the only
one who isn’t implicated in the on-going purge of
collaborators. During his investigation, Mathurin makes
friends with Werther, the German who took over from the
missing Hans Esser.
Novel
The Atlantic Wall wasn’t built only by Germans; there was a
lot of money at stake. In spite of various threats, Mathurin
tries to find his way through the maze of another kind of
purge - the economic one.
Grolardi, an Italian immigrant, is one of the builders who
took part in the wall’s construction. With Hans as an
accomplice, he overcharged for his work, making a little
fortune for both of them. Is Hans in hiding with the booty? Or
was he killed because of it?
Lucette, a young tax inspector with a taste for adventure and a
fancy for Mathurin, assists him and Werther in their
inspection of Grolardi’s accounts. Not an easy man to attack
head-on, Grolardi has political ambitions and is about to
become the Christian Democrat candidate for the first town
council elections. Mathurin goes to Paris, to the founding
congress of the MRP where he witnesses Grolardi’s demise at
the hands of the press.
Finally Hans is found dead, buried alive in the old French
fortification where he had tried to hide, terrified of the TODT
inspection a few weeks before D-Day.
The author has drawn from previously unpublished archives
of the economic history of WW2 to write a thriller with
original characters, unexpected events, and secrets to reveal.
Contact
Odile Jacob / www.odilejacob.fr
Pauline Buisson
buisson.rights@odilejacob.fr / +33 (0)1 44 41 64 80
52
The Grey Gold Soldiers Sébastien Bohler
Thriller – Sci-fi
What if the real aim of research on the human brain were
the manipulation of minds on an international scale?
Setting
Today, in the context of
cyber-warfare between the
US and China.
China and the USA are engaged in a cyber-war. The Chinese
have developed a sophisticated computer project, ‘Kylin’. This
innovating new system has made traditional methods of
infiltration seem useless.
Main characters
Fabian Hassler, 30’s, male
Mai Fang, 30’s, female
Fernand Demongel, 60’s,
female
Fabian Hassler, a young researcher specialized in
nanotechnologies, has created a revolutionary new
technology that means sick neurones can be treated from a
distance, thanks to the insertion of nanoballs that make their
way towards the neurones.
The American secret service orders Professor Fernand
Demongel of the Institut Curie in Paris to attract the young
researcher to his institute, in order to use his revolutionary
technique to geostrategic and military ends.
In the Institut Curie, Hassler’s project is difficult to start up
and he considers leaving. But thanks to a behavioural study
carried out unknown to him, the US secret services have
realized that Hassler is in love with Mai Fang, a young intern
at the Institute, who seems to be under the spell of a rich
Swiss banker. The Americans use their discovery to
manipulate Hassler by urging him to become the banker’s
rival for her affections. It works: Fabian gets a much better
paid job as a researcher in nanotechnology and manages to
seduce Mai Fang. What he doesn’t know is that the firm he’s
now working for is controlled by the US Army. Very soon, his
research on Parkinson’s disease takes a back seat when they
tell him to concentrate on ‘emotional’ nanoballs that can act
on feelings of fear, anger, disgust and sadness. Hassler, a
researcher with an unwavering code of ethics, refuses to
cooperate.
The Americans manage to manipulate the young man yet
again. With the help of Demongel, they hide cameras and
microphones in Fabian and Fang’s home, and so discover his
weakness: the couple’s lack of sexual relations. Then,
Demongel persuades Fabian that the ‘emotional’ nanoballs
could serve to awaken the female erogenous zone. In this way
he convinces Hassler to produce them.
53
Fang reveals her true identity to Fabian, she is a mole working
for the Chinese government and has guessed that the
emotional nanoballs are an order from the US Army. She also
tells him that her friends work for the Chinese government.
These friends turn out to be utterly ruthless and they too force
Fabian to produce nanoballs capable of changing any human
being’s opinion. This desire to manipulate human minds turns
against the Chinese spies when Fang and Fabian persuade
them to abandon their plan... thanks to the nanoballs.
The author has based his story on true research which was
published over the last few years in specialist journals. How
unusual - and enjoyable! - to find annotations in a detective
story that are in fact state-of-the-art articles referenced on the
scientific site Medline, such as The Role of the Anterior
Cingulate Cortex in Women’s Sexual Decision Making!”
Le Monde
Novel
Contact
Pauline Buisson
54
Rosewood, the Last Enigma of the Cold War
Michel Meyer
Thriller Historical
Approaching the subject from a new angle, Rosewood unveils
the secrets that lie behind the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Setting
2014, three weeks from the
25th anniversary of the fall
of the Berlin Wall
Main characters
Craig Portman, 40’s, male
Edda von Kleist, 40’s,
female
Slim Arcand, 40’s, male
Find out more
‘A privileged, first-hand
witness of the East-West
confrontation, Michel
Meyer had access to many
State secrets, especially the
mystery of the murder,
three weeks after the fall of
the Berlin Wall, of the boss
of the Deutsche Bank. In
Rosewood. The Last Enigma
of the Cold War, he
backtracks the events,
leading him to those who
gave the orders for that
attack, which was
attributed to terrorists.’ Le
Figaro
Novel
On holiday in Agadir, Craig Portman, a journalist for the Wall
Street Journal and occasional CIA agent, runs into Ludwig
Leinen, a former member of the Stasi. But their reunion
doesn’t last long because Leinen gets himself killed. The third
murder, after those of Calderon and Laborit.
Slim Arcand, member of the US secret services, meets with
Craig Portman in Paris for lunch. During their meal, Portman
learns he must go to Berlin to clear up the links between
Calderon, Laborit and Leinen. Slim persuades Portman that
the answer is to be found in Berlin because in the 90s,
German politicians had complained about the Americans’
refusal to hand over the Rosewood file.
The US secret services and Admiral Wineyard, with the help
of the archive software Platform II, are looking for
information about Leinen. They become aware that certain
facts are missing.
In Berlin, Craig meets up with Edda, a former lover. He
convinces her he needs information for a historical survey
and he must access the SIRA database. Thanks to her research
on the database, Edda discovers that Leinen, Laborit and
Calderon all took part in Operation Napola, which led to the
killing of Karl Ritter (director of the Deutsche Bank). Portman
then meets Vadim Misharin, a Russian former journalist who
tells Craig that Gorbachev and Kryuchkov (director of the
KGB) decided just to disregard the Napola attack.
Edda manages to destroy the Rosewood archives and the Sira
database. But in the high ranks of the US secret service,
several people, including Wineyard, start to feel the
approaching danger in view of Craig and Edda’s discoveries.
Slim Arcand and a CIA agent go to Berlin to put a stop to
Craig’s investigations and take Edda hostage. Intimidated by
Slim’s techniques and threats, Craig understands that it’s in
his own interest to forget the Napola business and deplore the
destruction of Rosewood and SIRA. As for Edda, she soon finds
her freedom and her jailer, a CIA agent, and informs him that
in the Kremlin, as in the White House, the triptych SIRARosewood-Napola is a secret for no one.
Contact
Pauline Buisson
55
Run for Your Life, It’s Calling You ! Boris Cyrulnik
Biopic Historical
Boris Cyrulnik is a French doctor, ethologist, neurologist,
psychiatrist and the author of international best -sellers.
Setting
France / Second World
War till today.
Main characters
Boris Cyrulnik, child, male
Germany (Ullstein), Italy
(Mondadori), Spain
(Debate), Netherlands (De
Arbeiderspers), Denmark
(Gad Forlag), Poland
(Czarna Owca), Rumania
(on-going), Brazil (Rocco),
Israel (Modan) China
(Guangxi), Taiwan
(Psygarden), Japan
(Yoshida)
“I was born twice. At my first birth, I wasn’t really there. My
body came into this world on July 26, 1937 in Bordeaux – or
so I’ve been told. I’m obliged to believe it since I have no
personal recollection. But my second birth, I remember very
well. One night, I was arrested by armed men who were
standing around my bed. They had come to take me in order
to kill me. My story was born that night.”
This poignant story is told in detail by Boris Cyrulnik for the
first time in this book. The survivor’s emotion combines with
the author’s talent, the tragic narrative intertwines with the
construction of memory, the intimate evocation of a
childhood broken by war exalts the author’s determination to
overcome tragedy and respond to the call of life.
An intimate account of an existence that could have been
shattered: an extraordinary testimony, sincere and inspiring.
More than ever, Cyrulnik shows us that in the shadow of
adversity, we can survive but above all, become stronger.
“Cyrulnik has healed people and countries”, The Times
“The most moving of true novels: the incredible but authentic
Find out more
story of a little boy condemned to death for the sole crime of
Number 1 on the best seller being born”, Le Nouvel Observateur
list for the year 2012
First chapters available in
An extraordinary testimony, sincere and inspiring.
English
Novel
Contact
Pauline Buisson
56
Sharing the Land Bernard Besson
Thriller - Adventure
A b reath -taking es pi on age th ril ler ab ou t an econ omi c war
a roun d val uabl e min ing land , th e exploitation of ore, h igh f requ en cy tra ding an d in tern ationa l corru pti on.
Setting
Paris, Malaysia /
Nowadays
Main characters
John Spencer Larivière,
40’s, male
Victoire Augagneur, 40’s,
female
Luc Masseron, 40’s, male
English rights of the
author’s previous work
sold to lefrenchbook.com.
Negotiations for this title,
forthcoming in June 2013,
are on-going
A former French president, Pierre-André Noblecourt, is found
hanged in his home. ‘Fermatown’, a private intelligence outfit
that works unofficially for the intelligence services is in
charge of the investigation. Working for them: John Spencer
Larivière, an ex-serviceman; his superb Eurasian mistress,
Victoire Augagneur, and Luc Masseron. Luc and Victoire lead
the enquiry in Paris as John leaves for Malaysia, from where it
seems Noblecourt had just returned.
Bérénice Noblecourt, the disquieting widow, gives Victoire her
husband’s laptop. More of a curse than a blessing: the French
police, and Malaysian killers who commit various crimes and
attacks throughout the book, are also looking for it.
On the laptop, Victoire discovers 40 photos of a game of chess
in Asia, an atomic clock and one of a young man: Julien
Lanfrey, the boss of Chronosphère, a Parisian firm that makes
such clocks. Luc learns that this firm was saved from
bankruptcy by the bank belonging to Titus Polycarpe,
Bérénice Noblecourt’s brother. An attack against the
Chronosphère premises is prevented, and a counter-espionage
Find out more
Economic intelligence, with agent reveals suspicious links between the bank and the firm.
its manner of thinking and Polycarpe is accused of embezzlement and insider trading.
acting, is perfectly suited to In the business district of La Défense in Paris, one of G. Terres’
fiction. Players in the
trading rooms, where financial operators work on the mining
economic, administrative
land market, also comes under attack.
and political world make
The Fermatown agents’ investigation reveals irregular links
characters who – without
between the president’s family, the governments of two
violating legal and
countries and the mining land market. Insider trading, before
contractual obligations –
the information reaches the trading rooms, permits the
are outspoken, frank, and
redistribution of corruption money and pays off politicians
take action
and civil servants.
Novel
Finally, the 3 agents discover that it’s the chess game itself that is
interesting. It is a code, by which 2 players communicate the
exact height of the tower in which G.Terres’ trading room is
situated. And these 2 players are the Malaysian Defence Minister’s
son and Béatrice, the deceased president’s granddaughter, a
precocious 9 year-old. Béatrice and her Malaysian friend dreamt
up a diabolical method, based on Einstein’s relativity theory, to
divert the system for their own gain.
Contact
Pauline Buisson
57
PLACE DES ÉDITEURS
www.placedesediteurs.com
Louise Quantin / Grégory Messina
louise.quantin@placedesediteurs.com / +33 (0)1 44 16 07 46
gregory.messina@placedesediteurs.com
58
From Fever and Blood / The First Blood
Sire Cédric
Thriller - Investigation
Two captivating investigations take us into a unique world,
somewhere between nightmare and reality…
Setting
Paris and Toulouse (but
could be anywhere) /
Nowadays
Main characters
Eva Svarta, 30’s, female
Commissionner Vauvert,
40’s, male
Poland and Turkey
Find out more
The First Blood is the
sequel of From Fever and
Blood but the two books
can be adapted separately.
From Fever and Blood won
the Polar Prize at the
Cognac Festival and the
first Cinécinéma Frissons
prize
An English translation of
the book is available
Novel
From Fever and Blood is a terrifying, supernatural thriller
which begins at the end of an investigation. Inspectors
Vauvert and Eva Svärta, an albino profiler, solve a series of
sadistic, ritual murders and the supposed culprits, the Salaville
brothers, are killed in the stand-off.
However, one year later, the killings start all over again, but
this time in Paris. All the forensic evidence points to the
brothers, but how can that be?
Their investigation leads Svärta and Vauvert to Judith SaintClair, a deathly ill patient in a mental institution that also
housed the Salavilles. They discover the incredible truth:
Saint-Clair had manipulated the Salavilles into killing young
women in order to accomplish magic rituals to stave off her
own death.
Nothing and no one will stop her from reaching her goal of
eternal life… death is not an option.
In The First Blood, Eva Svärta assists her colleague Erwan
Leroy with a murky drug affair. They find the burned body of
a cocaine dealer. However, they discover that the case is more
sordid than expected - someone cut off the victim’s tongue
and tore out his heart in a procedure echoing the punishment
reserved for witches in the Middle Ages. But even worse,
when seeking clues in the victim’s apartment, they discover
the dead body of a newborn baby…
This dark investigation reminds Eva of her own tragic past:
she witnessed the murder of her twin sister at the hands of
their father when she was only 6. In fact, she was in the
process of trying to find her father when she became fully
involved in this new case.
She soon discovers that there have been similar murders in
other French towns. With the help of Commissioner Vauvert,
Eva tries to resolve this strange murder investigation linked to
sorcery, black magic, the sacrifice of the first born… and her
own dark past.
Contact
Place des éditeurs / www.placedesediteurs.com
Louise Quantin
Louise.quantin@placedesediteurs.com/ +33 (0)1 44 16 07 46
59
The Free World David Bezmozgis
Dramedy - Historical
The Krasnanskys, a Jewish family emigrating from Latvia to the
West in 1978, must spend 6 months in Rome while waiting to
obtain their visas for Canada. During this time, they are
confronted with obstacles that come from both the outside world
and from within their own family.
Setting
Rome / 6 months in 1978
Main characters
Alec, 20’s, male
Polina, 20’s, female
Samuil, over 70’s, male
USA, Canada, England,
Germany, the Netherlands,
Italy, Israel and Spain
Find out more
One of the ten books
selected for Books at
Berlinale 2013
Book available in English
and in German
Novel
1978. Soviet Jews have escaped to freedom through a crack in
the Iron Curtain. Among the thousands who have come to
Rome to secure visas for the West are the three generations of
the Krasnansky family.
There is Samuil, the authoritative and embittered patriarch;
Emma, the timid matriarch; Alec, their 26-year-old son, an
unfaithful charmer married to Polina who is not Jewish and
has risked most by leaving her own family; Alec’s older
brother Karl with his wife and two young sons.
The family hopes to keep their stay in Rome short and reach
Canada quickly. However, they soon realize that it will take
several months for the visas to come through.
While waiting, Alec and Polina settle in the city and share an
apartment with Lyova, a Russian Jew who earns his living by
dealing in small-time illegal activities. The rest of the family
crowds into a small apartment in the suburbs.
Alec finds work as an advisor for other immigrants. Shortly
after beginning this new job, he is targeted by a sort-of Jewish
mafia which seeks to take advantage of the immigrants’
disarray by renting them shabby apartments at high prices. He
becomes obsessed with Masha, a young woman also waiting
for a visa. Their affair lasts for several weeks until, in front of
Polina, Masha accuses of Alec of having forced her to have an
abortion. Polina, humiliated, throws Alec out of the apartment
and spends the night with Lyova.
Samuil has a hard time dealing with this transitory situation.
He never wanted to leave the Soviet Union but did so for his
family. After he passes away from a heart attack, the family
finally receive their visas for Canada.
The family that arrived in Rome united, ready to face the
challenges that lay ahead, embarks on a new life in the free
world, changed forever.
Contact
Louise Quantin
60
The Gold of Remaining Days Caroline Vermalle
Drama
A strange inheritance transforms the life of a young Parisian
and forces him to make radical choices.
Setting
Paris / Nowadays
Main characters
Frédéric, 30’s, male
Pétronille, 20’s, female
Jamel, 40’s, male
Frédéric is a rich, handsome lawyer who owns a collection of
Impressionist masterpieces. One day, he receives a strange
inheritance: a sort of treasure map and four tickets for a train
journey, a boat journey, and entry to a garden and a museum.
His benefactor is a complete stranger... and a homeless man
named Fabrice Nile.
Germany
Frédéric’s father left him when he was 7 years old, a few days
before Christmas - sent to prison for a crime no one would
talk about. For 30 years, Frédéric did not want to know what
his father had done. But since the stranger’s inheritance, the
memories of his childhood become more and more vivid.
Find out more
Book available in German
Novel
Frédéric decides to take the train with the first ticket and
meets Jamel, a poor immigrant who was also given a train
ticket following Nile’s death. Nile was his friend and Jamel
had promised him that he would help him to give a painting
to a lawyer - Frédéric. But Nile died before Jamel saw that
painting, and he knows nothing else about it...
Frédéric throws himself into the hunt as he uses the other
tickets. As the mystery deepens, so does his friendship with
Jamel. But the mystery unearths all manner of memories he
would have liked to bury: not just of his father, but of his lost
love, Marcia, who left him because he did not want any
children and who is now pregnant.
Petronille, Frédéric’s personal assistant, who has been asked to
investigate the dead man, finds out the truth about Ernest,
Frédéric’s father. He never went to prison. Ernest met Simon
Offenbach, a philanthropist and gardener who was one of the
first to restore Monet’s garden at Giverny. They became lovers
- and Ernest was ostracized by his family. He was ordered to
leave, and despite sending Christmas presents every year, he
was barred from having any contact with his son, and his gifts
were returned.
Father and son are reunited long enough for the essential
things to be said. Ernest tells his son that his child is being
born now, in his hospital - and in a few words, convinces him
to embrace fatherhood. Frédéric sees his son being born on
Christmas day and promises him that he will be there forever.
He is impatient to show Ernest his grand-son, but Ernest has
passed away.
Contact
Louise Quantin
61
The Man of Their Lives Françoise Bourdin
Saga - Romance
A forty-something widower and a young divorcée decide to give love a second
chance…but will their respective families and obligations keep them apart?
Setting
Contemporary setting
Main characters
Louis, 40’s, male
France, 40’s, female
Find out more
English translation
available
When Louis, a seductive musician in his forties searching for
true love, meets France, a young divorcée who immediately
falls in love with him, everything seems simple.
However, although Louis Neville is a widower, he still has to
contend with his son Frederic, a troubled teenager, and his
twin sister Alix, who - not content with running his career also tries to meddle in his private life.
What’s more, France is Frédéric’s French teacher and the
mother of a boy he hates…inevitably, things quickly become
problematic for Louis and France. It will take all of France’s
stubbornness and a little help from Fate to allow her to finally
win over the love of her life.
With characteristic ease, Françoise Bourdin explores very
topical themes: the difficulties in starting over at forty and the
day-to-day worries of mixed families.
Novel
Contact
Louise Quantin
62
The White Tigress Theresa Révay
Drama - Historical
This epic novel traces Xénia’s remarkable and heroic path from her
teens, during the Bolshevik Revolution when she was responsible
for her family’s survival, to their exile in France.
Setting
Paris / Between 1917 and
1945
Main characters
Xenia, 20’s, female
Max Von Passau, 30’s,
male
Germany, in Poland, in
Spain, in Czech Republic,
in Russia, in Portugal, in
Hungary and in Serbia
Find out more
Book available in German
France
Germany
Novel
Following her father's assassination and her mother's death,
Xenia, a young woman from the Russian elite, finds herself
alone to take care of her sister and baby brother. Like many of
her compatriots, the young woman flees the Bolsheviks and
moves to Paris, where she faces the tragedies and destitution
of exile.
Determined to support her family, Xenia finds work as model
for a French fashion designer who makes the most of her
extraordinary beauty. When she meets the dashing German
photographer Max von Passau, she knows her life will be
changed forever, and they engage in a passionate relationship
between Paris and Berlin.
But Xenia is reluctant to give in fully to her love for Max, as
she values her independence and her family too much to risk
losing them.
The events of history also contribute to separate the lovers
further. Horrified by the rise of Hitler, Max enters the
Resistance movement, partly to shield a former lover who is
Jewish.
Xenia, who finds herself pregnant hides the fact from Max
and marries a Parisian politician who will provide for her and
her family and protect them.
Will their love emerge unscathed from the darkness of a
merciless era?
Contact
Louise Quantin
63
PLON
www.plon.fr
Nathalie Carpentier
64
A Black Heart Olivier Ka
Drama - Psychological
In the course of his crimes, a small -time hooligan accidentally
discovers a world he never suspected.
Setting
In the Provinces, a
dormitory town, the
Mountains / Nowadays
Main characters
Melkior, teenager, male
François, over 50’s, male
Tonton, teenager, male
Find out more
5-page detailed synopsis
available on request
Published in May 2013
17-year-old Melkior is a welder with Tarn Metal: a
humdrum, grey existence. He passes his time with a gang of
thugs, but he has to prove that he’s really one of them.
During a burglary, he runs into the owner of the house:
François, a recluse who lives with his personal ghosts.
François makes a deal with the boy: he won’t go to the police
if he accepts to read a book, and come back to discuss it with
him. From that moment on, the young man’s life takes an
unusual direction. All around him, people reveal their true
motivations. Between the small-time crooks who think he
hasn’t got it in him for a life of crime, his boss who is
constantly harassing him, his parents who have stopped even
listening… and François, who opens the doors to another
world, Melkior has no choice but to explore his own dark
heart.
Novel
Contact
Plon / www.plon.fr
Nathalie Carpentier
Carpentier@calfrance.fr/ +33 (0)6 25 89 25 06
65
Dictator’s Wives Diane Ducret
Biopic-Documentary
From Lenin to Bokassa, Hitler to Salazar, how nine of the 20 th century’s great
dictators included their women in their game, and the results of their actions.
A series of highly original and well-researched articles revealing what went
on in behind the scenes in history, written in a simple and direct style that
makes this acerbic study accessible to a wide public.
Setting
Contemporary
They were called Nadia, Clara, Magda, Jiang Qing, Elena,
Catherine, and Mira. Their last names were Lenin, Mussolini,
Stalin, Hitler, Salazar, Ceausescu, Bokassa, and Milosevic.
Spouses, companions, muses, admirers, their common trait is
that they were all in love and triumphant; all fooled, foiled
and sacrificed, sometimes losing their lives in return for their
Poland (Znak), Bulgaria
loyalty. The men at the centre of their respective existences
(Riva), Spain (Aguilar),
were cruel and tyrannical—these women made them feel that
Portugal (Casa das Letras),
Brazil (Nova Fronteira), Italy they were handsome, charming, omnipotent. Sex is a source
(Garzanti), Germany
of absolute power: dictators need their women to play a role
(Ecowin), Russia (Hemiro),
in their struggle for domination.
Turkey (Yelda), Netherlands
Diane Ducret reveals details of the encounters, seduction
(De Bezige Bij), Czech
Republic (Jota), Korea
strategies, love relationships, the role played by politics, and
(Seedpaper), Slovakia (Ikar) the diverse and often tragic destinies of these women who
Romania (Curtea Veche),
crossed the paths, and ended up in bed with the world’s
Japan (Kashiwashobo),
greatest dictators.
Croatia (Skolskaknjiga),
Hungary (Kossuth), the
Arab world (Jarrous Press),
Lithuania (Baltu Lanku) and
Sweden (Lind)
Find out more
and German
250,000 cps. sold in France
and abroad (80,000 cps. in
Poland) for the first volume. A
second volume exists
Novel
Contact
Plon / www.plon.fr
Nathalie Carpentier
66
I’d Rather Have Lived Thierry Cohen
Romance
The startling destiny of a young man who dies for love, only to find himself lost
somewhere between the afterlife and the word of living. A philosophical tale.
Setting
Anywhere in Europe /
Nowadays
Main characters
Jeremy, 20’s, male
Victoria, 20’s, female
Germany ( BTB Verlag –
Random House), USA
(Amazon), Spain
(Ediciones B), Italy
(Edizioni Piemme),
Poland (Bertelsmann
media), Russia
(Azbooka), China
(Thinkingdom Media
Group), Corea
(Balgunsegang),
Hungary (Ulpius Haz),
Serbia (Laguna), Turkey
(Dharma), Taiwan
(Business Weekly
Publications), Vietnam
(Nha Nam)
On his twentieth birthday, Jeremy declares his passion to the
love of his life. And is rejected. In the depths of his despair,
Jeremy decides that God, the giver of life, is responsible for his
pain; in an irrevocable gesture, he takes his life, challenging
the God he feels has tricked him.
Against all odds, he survives. As he wakes up, suddenly,
Victoria, his beloved, is right there, overcome with love.
Deliriously happy, Jeremy lives through a day of bliss,
refusing to seek any answers as to how this miracle happened.
That night, overtaken by a strange torpor, he sinks into a deep
sleep. When he wakes, a year has passed and Victoria is
carrying his child.
This is only the beginning of an infernal cycle. Every year, on
his birthday, Jeremy comes to; and every year he discovers
some new disaster in his life, for while he hibernates for the
year, another Jeremy, this one unbearably cruel and
egotistical, has taken his place and wreaked havoc. His alter
ego remains a stranger, but it is he, in fact, who is leading
“their” life, and Jeremy is helpless. Behind this inexplicable
and uncontrollable mechanism is a haunting question: where
is the line between dream and reality? Or life and death? Is
Jeremy insane, the victim of a sort of selective amnesia, or
cursed by the God he has defied?
Find out more
and German
sold in France
Novel
Contact
Plon / www.plon.fr
Nathalie Carpentier
67
LE SEUIL
www.seuil.com
Joëlle Bouhout
jbouhout@seuil.com / +33 (0)1 41 48 82 75
68
Theo’s Odyssey Catherine Clément
Dramedy
A spiritual love story, in which the love of family, a
girlfriend, and God sustains and heals a 14 -year-old dying
boy who goes on a tour through the world's religions.
Setting
All around the world /
Nowadays
Main characters
Theo, teenager, male
Aunt Martha, 50’s, female
Published in German by
Hanser under the title
Theo, a bright 14-year-old boy who loves computer games
and ancient mythology is diagnosed with a mysterious
terminal illness. His rich, eccentric and enlightened Aunt
Martha decides that they must travel round the world to find
a cure and she takes him on a pilgrimage to learn about the
world's greatest religions. From an aging sheik to a Shinto
priestess, Theo and his aunt crisscross the continents, delving
into branches of Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam...
Along the way they uncover a family secret that may be tied to
Theo's sickness.
Theos Reise
Published in English under
the title Theo’s Odyssey by
Arcade and Harper Collins
Find out more
About 250,000 copies sold
in France
Novel
Contact
Le Seuil / www.seuil.com
Joëlle Bouhout
jbouhout@seuil.com/ +33 (0)1 41 48 82 75
69
The Village of Idiots Max Monnehay
Dramedy
The story of an impossible paradise, a fable about exclusion, about all those
who, far from being “idiots”, are simply incapable of living like others.
Setting
A village in the countryside
/ Nowadays
Main characters
Pierrot, 30’s, male
Elisa, 20’s, female
Bastien, 20’s, female
Eichborn under the title
When Pierrot decides to found a “village of idiots” where he
and those like him can live peacefully, without being
ostracized, he ignores that many will follow him in this
adventure. Bastien is one of the dozens Pierrot assembles on a
hair-raising journey through France. But happiness draws
envy, and this miniature Garden of Eden attracts men and
women who are anything but idiots. To counter this threat,
Pierrot imposes on each new arrival a special exam, an
inverted IQ test, which Bastien fiddles so that Elisa, the
woman he loves, can enter the village and his life.
Dorf der Idioten
Novel
Contact
Joëlle Bouhout
70
Death from the Woods Brigitte Aubert
Thriller - Investigation
A mute and blind quadriplegic, Elise Andrioli is approached by a girl who
claims to have witnessed one of the recent child murders in the community.
But, trapped in her own body, Elise cannot warn anyone - or protect herself.
Setting
Suburbia / Nowadays
Main characters
Elise Andrioli, 30’s, female
Yvette, 60’s, female
Commissaire Yssart, 40’s,
male
Goldmann under the title
Elise Andrioli had it all: she was managing a bustling movie
theater, engaged to be married, surrounded by friends. But
when a terrorist bomb shattered her world, leaving her blind,
mute, and quadriplegic, she was taken back to her family
home near Paris.
Lately, life in this suburb has been less than tranquil – a series
of grisly murders has shaken its residents. Young boys keep
disappearing in the woods, only to be discovered days later,
dead and horribly mutilated.
One morning, while waiting in her wheelchair outside a
supermarket, Elise is approached by a strange little girl named
Virginie, who confides to her that she was present when
Im Dunkel der Wälder
Death from the Woods murdered Michael, a little boy
Published in English by reported missing several days earlier. Later that afternoon,
Welcome Rain under the Michael's death is confirmed on the local news. All too soon,
title Death from the Woods Virginie will inform Elise that she herself is a target.
Who is this girl, and how will Elise ever find her again? Why
is someone trying to kill her? And how in the world is she
going to convey what she knows to those around her?
Novel
Elise is plunged into a dizzying universe. Virginie, her parents
and the investigator, commissaire Yssart, in pursuit of the
killer, all confide in her. As Elise makes physical progress from
her single method of communicating-lifting an index finder to
signal "yes"-to regaining some dexterity in her left hand and
arm, the plot becomes increasingly complicated. One after the
other, Elise suspects the adults in Virginie's world of
committing the heinous crimes, and finally she herself
becomes a target.
Contact
Joëlle Bouhout
71
The Immortals Thierry Jonquet
Thriller
(Ad Vitamn Aeternam)
The tale of a vici ous reveng e.
Setting
Paris / Nowadays
Main characters
Anabel, 30’s, female
Mr. Jacob, 60’s, male
Ruderi, over 70’s, male
Hoffman und Campe
under the title Die
Unsterbichen
Anabel is a former drug addict who spent three years in
prison and now works as an assistant to Brad, a piercing and
tattoo artist. During her lunch break, she meets Mr. Jacob, an
elegant, respectable and discreet man of a certain age. He
offers her a job in his company – he is an undertaker – but
also invites her to stay at his villa on the outskirts of Paris. She
soon discovers that Mr. Jacob, like Brad, has an obsession with
bodies, devoting himself to the art of mummification.
Meanwhile, a very wealthy woman, trapped in a wheelchair
with nothing to lose, asks a top hit-man, the Russian Oleg, to
get rid of a certain Ruderi who’s about to be released from
prison after a 40-year sentence and who seems to be related to
Mr. Jacob in some way…
Find out more
Many of Thierry Jonquet's
novels have been turned
into films, among them,
Pedro Almodovar's La piel
que habito
Novel
Contact
Joëlle Bouhout
72
Black Uniforms Dominique Manotti
Setting
Paris / 1944
Main characters
Domecq, 40’s, male
René Deslauriers, 40’s,
male
Dora Belle, 30’s, female
Argument Verlag under
the title Das Schwarze
Korps
Thriller - Drama
For two months – from the Allied landing in Normandy until
the eve of the Paris liberation - the German SS and the French
Gestapo maintained a state of terror in France, its population
shocked by murders, robberies and corruption. Turning the
situation to their advantage, industrialists, bankers, artists and
writers… get rich and celebrate. But some of them foresee the
wind of change and prepare their future.
6 June 1944: The beautiful Dora Belle– lover of an SS
Hauptsturmführer and second-rate actress –holds court in the
elegant décor of her apartment where she entertains SS and
Wehrmacht dignitaries along with representatives of French
industry, finance and the arts. In anticipation of the German
defeat, occupiers and collaborators make plans to save their
money and reputations. Among them, vice squad Inspector
Domecq – an agent from the Resistance movement working
under cover – tracks down collaborator René Deslauriers and
his gang.
Novel
Contact
Joëlle Bouhout
73
UNIVERS POCHE
www.universpoche.com
Julie Buffaud
julie.buffaud@universpoche.com / +33 (0)1 44 16 08 29
74
The Seventh Templar
Eric Giacometti, Jacques Ravenne
Thriller - Historical
2011. A group of seven templars have survived through the
centuries. What is the secret that binds them still, shedding
blood even in our times?
Setting
France and Vatican /
Nowadays and in the 14th
Century.
Main characters
Antoine Marcas, 40’s, male
She-Wolf, 50’s, female
The Templars
Brazil (Objetiva), Bulgaria
(Millenium), Czech
Republic (Dobrovsky),
Denmark (Cicero),
Germany (Rowohlt),
Hungary (IPC), Italy
(Newton Compton), Japan
(Kodansha), The
Netherlands (De Boekerij),
Norway (Cappelen
Damm), Portugal (Europa
America), Russia (Veche),
Spain (Random House
Mondadori), Turkey
(Pegasus), Poland
(Publicat)
1307. Pope Clement V gives orders to annihilate the Order of
the Templars.
2011. Freemason Detective Antoine Marcas is on the tracks of
the Templars’s long-lost treasure, which is held by a
mysterious brotherhood that has been protecting their secret
for centuries. But the treasure also interests the Catholic
Church, on the verge of bankruptcy, who will stop at nothing
to lay their hands on it...
Freemasonry, united with the Knights of the Temple and their
modern descendants, are pitched against the Vatican and the
Catholic Church in a breathtaking race to crack codes, find
long-buried hideaways and discover a precious secret. This
enthralling treasure hunt reveals the compelling intrigues
between the Templars and the Church, drawing its sources
from historical fact. This new adventure is the setting for
Marcas to encounter a merciless killer-lady, She-Wolf, as he
finds love in the arms of a masonic sister...
Find out more
Sample Translation (100
pages) + Reader’s Report
available
Over 1 million copies of
the series sold in France
7th volume in a series of 8
Contact
Univers Poche / www.universpoche.com
Julie Buffaud
Julie.buffaud@universpoche.com/ +33 (0)1 44 16 08 29
75
Murder on the Eiffel Tower Claude Izner
Suspens- Historical
Embark on a wonderful Journey through the Paris of La Belle
Epoque, bustling with authors, artists, new inventions… and
exquisite murders.
Setting
Paris / The end of the 19th
century.
Main characters
Victor Legris, 30’s, male
Kenji Mori, 50’s, male
Tasha, 20’s, female
USA (St Martin’s Press), UK
(Gallic Books), Italy
(Nord),
Germany (Pendo), Russia
(AST/Astrel), Sweden
(Kabusa Böcker), Brazil
(Nemo)
Victor Legris, a bookseller in the Latin Quarter, unwillingly
gets involved in the investigation of a strange series of
murders committed with a bee sting. All of his friends and
colleagues have at some point crossed the victims’ paths, but
there is no apparent logical link between the murders. Victor
suspects all his acquaintances in turn, in particular young and
beautiful Tasha with whom he has recently fallen in love, and
his business partner and lifelong friend, Kenji Mori.
The final scene takes place at the official opening of the Eiffel
Tower, when its engineer, Eiffel, makes a speech. Victor
attends the ceremony as he knows the killer will be there. He
finds the right person only when an attempt is made on his
own life...
Find out more
English Translation of the
first 6 volumes available
Nearly 800,000 copies of
the series sold in France
First volume in a series of 12
Contact
Julie Buffaud
76
Puzzle Franck Thilliez
Thriller - Psychological
First rule: Nothing you’re about to experience is true. This is a game.
Second rule: One of you will die
Setting
Paris and the Alps /
Nowadays.
Main characters
Lucas Chardon, 40’s, male
Ilan Dedisset, 30’s, male
US (Penguin), Spain
(Destino), Spain Catalan
(Columna), Italy (Nord),
Germany (Goldmann), The
Netherlands (Sijthoff),
Brazil (Intrinseca), Russia
(Atticus), Taiwan (Eurasian
Publishing Group),
Portugal (Sextante), Turkey
(Pegasus), Japan
(Hayakawa), China
(Hachette Phoenix)
Find out more
Sample English translation
(100 pages) + Reader’s
Report available
To be published in October
2013
Eight dead bodies are found in a mountain hut, each one
killed with a screwdriver. 4 months later, Lucas Chardon, the
killer, is found hanged in room 27 of a psychiatric unit for
difficult patients.
When the phone rings suddenly, Ilan Dedisset is surprised to
hear his ex-girlfriend, Chloé. She says she has found the
entrance to Paranoïa, a mythic role-play that every treasurehunter is looking for, but whose rules are unknown.
After a disturbing selection process, Ilan and Chloé, together
with 6 other candidates, are gathered in a mental hospital
isolated in the mountains, very similar to the one in Ilan’s
nightmare.
The game starts, with candidates playing alone or against each
other, going through the game challenge by challenge. Two
players soon disappear although no corpses are found. Hour
after hour, night after night, the plot thickens: how did Ilan
dream of a place he’d never been to? Where does fiction start?
What is reality?
Film rights for the series by Franck Thilliez (Le Syndrome E,
Gataca, Atomka published by Fleuve Noir and La Chambre des
Morts, La Mémoire Fantôme previously published by Le
Passage) have been optioned by Indian Paintbrush, the
producer of many films such as Wes Anderson’s (Moonrise
Kingdom, The Darjeeling Limited…) and Jason Reitman’s
(Juno, Young Adult…).
Le Syndrome E will be the first title adapted by the scriptwriter
of Black Swan and should be co-produced by Paramount.
Novel
Contact
Julie Buffaud
77
Vertigo Franck Thilliez
Suspense - Survival
Some secrets are shameful. But would you be willing to die
to keep them hidden?
Setting
Annecy and the Alps /
Nowadays.
A man wakes up at the bottom of an abyss, in a hostile
environment, with two strangers and his loyal dog as his only
unfortunate companions. He is chained at the wrist, one of the
other two men is chained at the ankle and the third is free but
Main characters
his head is covered by a horrible mask that will explode if he
Jonathan Touvier, 40’s,
moves away from the others. Who brought them there and
male
why? Relationships become tense, each of them thinking the
Farid Houmad, 30’s, male
others know more than they say. Little by little, the 3 men lose
Michel Marquis, 40’s, male
their bearings, hallucinations appear and paranoia sets in.
Another urgent question rapidly arises: how far will they have
to go in order to survive?
Film rights for the series by Franck Thilliez (Le Syndrome E,
US (Penguin), Spain
Gataca, Atomka published by Fleuve Noir and La Chambre des
(Destino), Spain Catalan
Morts, La Mémoire Fantôme previously published by Le
(Columna), Italy (Nord),
Passage) have been optioned by Indian Paintbrush, the
Germany (Goldmann), The
producer of many films such as Wes Anderson’s (Moonrise
Netherlands (Sijthoff),
Kingdom, The Darjeeling Limited…) and Jason Reitman’s
Brazil (Intrinseca), Russia
(Atticus), Taiwan (Eurasian (Juno, Young Adult…).
Le Syndrome E will be the first title adapted by the scriptwriter
Publishing Group),
of Black Swan and should be co-produced by Paramount.
Portugal (Sextante), Turkey
(Pegasus), Japan
(Hayakawa), China
(Hachette Phoenix)
Find out more
Sample English translation
(100 pages) + Reader’s
Report available
Over 110,000 copies in
France
Novel
Contact
Julie Buffaud
78
VIVIANE HAMY
www.viviane-hamy.fr
Maylis Vauterin
maylis.vauterin@viviane-hamy.fr / +33 (0)1 53 17 16 03
79
Bed of Nails Antonin Varenne
Investigation
Bed of Nails does for Paris what James Ellroy did for vintage America, shining a
light as never before on the seedy underbelly of “La Ville Lumière”.
Setting
Paris / Nowadays
What do these two suicides have in common?
First case: a young man, naked and arms raised to the sky runs
up the highway. The cars swerve to avoid hitting him and
scooters crash into the security rails, until a speeding truck
plays the role of the executioner.
Main characters
John Nichols, 30’s, male
Commissaire Guérin, 40’s,
male
Alan Mustgrave, 30’s, male Second case: in the Natural History Museum, a man jumps
from a height and smashes into the skeleton of a sperm whale
below. He is pierced by a two meter-long piece of bone. More
TF1 International bought the horrific suicides follow.
cinema rights but was
Lieutenant Guérin is responsible for the Suicide Department at
unhappy with the scenario.
the HQ of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Paris.
Film rights are now
completely free.
Accompanied by a shy and incompetent warrant officer,
Foreign rights sold: Finland
Jérôme Lambert, he is constantly trying to put together a plot
(WSOY), Germany (Ullstein), theory on certain suicides he finds highly questionable.
Italy (Einaudi), Turkey
(Dogan), United-Kingdom
When John Nichols, a Franco-American living in the woods of
(McLehose Press).
the French countryside, arrives to identify the body of an old
friend in one of these spectacular suicides, he immediately
Find out more
30 000 copies sold in France. gets caught up in the wreckage of his dead friend’s life. What
On the best-sellers list in Italy. can he expect from a man who bled to death in his own
Michel Lebrun Prize 2009 &
excruciating S&M stage performance?
Grand Prix du Jury Sang
d’Encre 2009
This is the side of Paris the tourists don’t see, where everyone
has a past but very few count on a future.
The English edition by
Quercus/McLehose Press
A hemophiliac fakir, a Franco-American who practrices
(the British publisher of
Stieg Larson) is available as archery in the Jardins du Luxembourg, a lesbian alcoholic bar
manageress, suicides, Mesrine the dog, an ex-con who looks
well as the Italian edition
like Edward Bunker: a whole range of eccentric characters
by Einaudi and German
edition by Ullstein (Fakire) who are deeply anchored in a sombre and morbid reality. A
dark novel for a sordid and hopeless world.
Novel
Read the first pages in French on http://www.vivianehamy.fr/catalogue/collections/chemins-nocturnes/fakir
Contact
Viviane Hamy / www.viviane-hamy.fr
Maylis Vauterin
Maylis.vauterin@viviane-hamy.fr/ +33 (0)1 53 17 16 03
80
The French Sisters François Vallejo
Drama - Historical
Little Women meets Virgin Suicides against a European historical backdrop.
We follow the three women and their destinies through the 20th century.
Fascinating and mysterious, they choose the life they want, standing for or
against things rather than enduring them. Life does not separate them.
Setting
France (Paris, Vichy) and
Germany (Berlin) / End of
the war in the 1890s
Main characters
Judith Brelan, teenager,
female
Sabine Brelan, 20’s, female
Marthe Brelan, 20’s,
female
Foreign rights sold:
Germany (Aufbau Verlag),
Italy (Del Vecchio Editore).
Find out more
15,000 copies sold in Hard
Cover. Paperback edition to
be published in June 2013.
German, Italian and
French editions available
Marthe, Sabine and Judith Brelan, three sisters with the same
grey eyes, are being heard by the family council. They are
orphans. Before the judge, they cunningly avoid being placed
in care, which was what had been in store for them. They
incur the wrath of their aunt Rosie Ledru, a battle-axe who
covets the family property and who will ruin the sisters at the
first opportunity. The Brelan sisters can live together, alone
and free, in their big outlandish house.
Their 80-year-old grandmother, Madeleine, carefree and
starting to lose her mind, gives them advice and whatever is
left in her purse each week. Together, the four of them go on
glorious drives to Paris in the old luxury Renault Monasix.
Judith, the ‘most awkward of the three’, decides to leave
school and get her own education. A social rebel who cannot
hold her tongue, she refuses to work and spends her time in
anarcho-syndicalist reunions at night, in secret.
Marthe, the eldest, finds a little job in their late father’s
architectual firm with Monsieur Cicéro, who is 50 years-old,
a little man of power. But she falls ill with tuberculosis and
has to go into convalescence. Relieved of the burden of her
sisters, she sleeps with Charles Coutelle, another patient in the
convalescent home, under the gaze of her traitorous room
mates.
The relations between the three become tense as Sabine
replaces her older sister in the firm and has to look after the
youngest one alone. But she also manages to climb the social
ladder and moves to Germany, where she marries one of
Monsieur Cicéro’s clients, whom she manipulates. Her sisters
hold the fact that she has chosen such a life against her:
Markus, her potbellied husband, is interested only in money
and business.
Judith falls in love with the ‘Chevreuse killer’, on trial for
murdering women. She follows his trial, visits him in prison
and employs him as a gardener when he is released eight
years later.
81
But all hell breaks loose: the ‘Chevreuse killer’ commits
another crime and the finger is pointed at the Brelan sisters.
Aunt Rosie, years later, is still vengeful and blathers to the
press that they are ‘still sleeping together’. The architectural
firm collapses and the house is sold, but the three sisters are
reunited; and a trip to Berlin seals their regained alliance.
Read the first chapter on http://www.vivianehamy.fr/catalogue/collections/litterature-francaise/lessoeurs-brelan/article/les-soeurs-brelan
Novel
Contact
Maylis Vauterin
82
Arab Jazz Karim Miské
Investigation
In the 19th arrondissement in Paris a young woman is assassinated
in a macabre mise en scène, surrounded by symbols of impurity. Two
charismatic police officers find themselves confronted with an
investigation in the form of a multi-ethnic puzzle.
Setting
Paris / Nowadays
Main characters
Ahmed Taroudant, 30’s,
male
Rachel Kupferstein, 40’s,
female
Jean Hamelot, 40’s, male
Strong interest from a
French Production
company. The author is
writing the scenario and
would like to adapt the
book
Foreign rights sold: United
Kingdom (McLehose
Press), Germany (Lübbe),
Italy (Fazi), Greece (Polis),
Argentina (Adriana
Hidalgo)
Find out more
French edition and Italian
edition are available.
German edition to be
published in 2014
The 19th arrondissement in Paris: the body of a young woman
is found hanging from a balcony. This crime scene is part of
an appalling mise en scène. A bloody roast pork has been laid
next to her body, her sex has been brutally mutilated. Rachel
Kupferstein and Jean Hamelot, police officers in the crime
squad for the 19th arrondissement, are leading the
investigation. Together they hold all the cards to decode the
symbols of this mysterious crime. Ahmed Taroudant, the
victim’s neighbour, has the ideal suspect profile: a chronic
depressive who is crazy about crime novels. Yet, Jean Hamelot
and Rachel Kupferstein cannot be persuaded of his guilt. The
victim is called Laura Vignola. She was an air stewardess and
lived in the area, surrounded by her best friends Rebecca,
Bintou and Aïcha. Born into a family of Jehovah’s Witnesses,
Laura left her parents’ home when she was eighteen years old.
By getting closer to Bintou and Aïcha, Rachel Kupferstein
discovers that a few days before the murder, Rebecca left to go
and live in New York and that Laura had travelled with her.
Laura was killed, therefore, upon her return from New York.
Leaving Rachel Kupferstein and Jean Hamelot to their
investigation, the author takes us to Brooklyn a few months
earlier. There the reader meets Susan Barnes, a young
American woman and daughter of a great Jehovah’s Witness.
She befriends the great Rebbe from Brooklyn in order to set up
an international drug trafficking network. In France, she is in
contact with three corrupt police officers, Frédéric Enkell,
Aïssa Benamer and Francis Meyer, who work for the force in
the 18th arrondissement in Paris and share the same station as
Jean Hamelot and Rachel Kupferstein. Frédéric Enkell, Aïssa
Benamer and Francis Meyer are responsible for distributing
the drug. To take the drug between the USA and France, Susan
Barnes has used her connections with the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
On a trip to New York, she managed to meet Laura Vignola’s
father, a hot shot among the Jevohah’s Witnesses in France. As
predicted, he fell madly in love with Susan Barnes and
accepted to become her mule between New York and Paris.
The trafficking has been running smoothly for several months.
When she went with her friend Rebecca to New York, Laura
83
by chance recognised her father in the arms of Susan Barnes.
Laura had now become a bothersome witness, and had to be
got rid of. Rachel Kupferstein and Jean Hamelot discover the
truth thanks to Ahmed Taroudant who is carrying out his own
investigation in the area, and thanks to the information given
by Laura Vignola’s friends, Bintou and Aïssa.
Check the author's website: http://karimmiske.com/<br
/>Read the first pages on: http://www.vivianehamy.fr/catalogue/collections/chemins-nocturnes/arabjazz/article/arab-jazz?foreign=1212&lang=en
Novel
Contact
Maylis Vauterin
84
The Madonna of Notre Dame Alexis Ragougneau
Thriller
It is the day after August 15 in Notre -Dame cathedral in Paris. A
beautiful young woman, clothed in white, is kneeling in one of the
side chapels. She does not go unnoticed. The sexton and the
warden are keeping an eye on her. But when an American tourist
knocks against her, her body collapses: she has been murdered.
Setting
Paris / Nowadays
Main characters
Père Kern, 40’s, male
Lieutenant Gombrowicz,
40’s, male
Nadia, 20’s, female
Find out more
French manuscript
available in June 2013
Novel
Commanding officer Landart and lieutenant Gombrowicz,
together with the young and sensitive acting prosecutor,
Claire Kauffmann, are leading the inquiry. When they arrive
at the scene of the crime the witnesses have fled. The autopsy
reveals that the victim’s sex had been sealed with wax, as if to
reconstruct her virginity. Who committed such a crime?
Was it one of the religious fanatics with an obsession for the
Virgin Mary who, the day of the feast of the Assumption, took
part in the traditional procession with a statue of the Virgin
on l’Ile-de-la-Cité? Perhaps he was shocked by the presence of
this provocatively dressed young woman, who marched next
to the statue of the Virgin, defying and disturbing the men in
the procession?
Or was it one of the staff members or one of the ‘strayed souls’
who wanders around the cathedral and knows its dark corners
well? To be able to set up the macabre scene with the body, the
murderer must have known where the keys were kept.
Father Kern, substituting as he does every summer in the
Parisian cathedral, is questioned from all sides: the police and
his superior, the bishop Monseigneur de Bracy, who is
annoyed by the bad press surrounding the cathedral.
Commanding officer Landart and lieutenant Gombrowicz
have their suspicions about Thibault, a young man with blond
hair and the face of an angel. When his mother’s house is
searched, he is revealed to have an erotic obsession with the
Virgin Mary. While he is being held in custody, under
pressure put on him by Landart who is known for his harsh
methods, he commits suicide by jumping from a police station
window…becoming the perfect scapegoat.
But aside from the official inquiry, Father Kern attends the
funeral of the victim. He discovers that this young girl, of
North African origin named Luna Hamache, was a sometime
prostitute and that her flat mate knew that one of her clients
was a priest. Hence another turn of the screw. Working
together, lieutenant Gombrowicz, an atheist solicitor, and
Father Kern will manage to solve the crime.
Contact
Maylis Vauterin
85
The sufferer’s Laugh Cécile Coulon
Sci-Fi - Drama
Stadiums packed with people starved of intense emotions: in an
unidentified future, the authorities in power use entertainment
literature as a new way of controlling the individual. A man, with
a mere number for a name, 1075, works within the security
department. To fulfil his task, he himself undertakes to read
nothing, not on any account.
Setting
Unspecified place in a
contemporary society /
In the near future.
In a disquieting world, with overtones of 1984 and Aldous
Huxley’s Brave New World, the authorities have found a way
to ensure social order: public readings have become an
ideological tool to manipulate the masses.
Main characters
1075, 20’s, male
Lucie Nox, 50’s, female
We follow the lightening career of a young man who is a
force of nature. He is from a modest background and grew up
in an environment where reading did not exist. For him, as for
many others, the only way to exist and receive social
recognition is to become part of the elite body of guards who
work for the system.
Find out more
French edition to be
published in September
2013
The first novel from the
author sold around 20,000
copies and received the
Prix Mauvais Genre 2012
Novel
Trained in excessively extreme conditions, our protagonist,
who henceforth goes by the name of 1075, has been
instructed to never learn to read and to rid from his existence
all contact with all forms of the written word. 1075 thus
becomes one of the most efficient and respected Internal
Security agents.
To contain people’s neuroses, the authorities have applied the
research and theories of the expert psychoanalyst, Lucie Nox.
“High-risk Events” are public readings organised in football
stadiums to launch the new works of the “writing people” in
one of the various state-authorized genres: thriller, horror,
drama or romance.
The life of 1075 takes a new turn the day he is bitten by a
guard dog set loose on a hysterical spectator, whom the
guards were unable to control. Confined to hospital, he is
immersed in boredom until he attends, by chance, a reading
lesson given in the paediatric department. Caught in his own
trap, he is to develop a taste for reading.
Back in his apartment, he is compensated with many luxuries
for his service to duty. He is served by a team of domestic
helpers who, while they might be assisting him, are
monitoring and ensuring that he has no contact with the
written word. He must divert from and subvert the system to
continue to learn to read.
86
When he is called up by Lucie Nox, the system’s high
priestess, 1075 thinks he has been found out. He has been
called up by her, however, because she has noticed that he is
the only security agent who has never made an appointment
with her. Lucie Nox discovers that he is reading, but covers
for him, as she has been surpassed by the invention of the
authoritarian system that is the fruit of her scientific research.
1075 reads more and more. He progresses from reading
authorized works to forbidden literature that is considered
subversive. He becomes head of the agents and supervises his
disciples more closely than he himself has ever been
supervised.
A rising talent of French literature: young, provocative and
talented. Cécile Coulon brings lively debate back to literature:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzihTolWL_k
Contact
Maylis Vauterin
87

Audiovisual rights A Selection of French Titles Professional

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