Prophet in his countryGilles Kepel
“During my fall vacation, I bought the latest book by the eminent French Islamologist at the Marseille airport. It is the autobiographical account of his academic career, spanning 40 years, since he fell in love with the Middle East at the start of his doctoral studies in the 1980s. This book fascinated me because I have just left university teaching after 20 years and I myself once did my doctorate in France; I therefore recognized a little of the environment that I frequented in his story. Kepel recounts, without putting on white gloves, the austerity, the ostracism, the dirty tricks, the schemes that he suffered in the French university environment when he began to map Islamist networks. I found this book extremely interesting. »
Prophet in his country
Observatory Editions
296 pages
Immortal hike – Compostela in spite of myselfJean-Christophe Rufin
“I decided, with my wife, to make the Camino de Santiago. I am not particularly religious, although I have respect for the religious phenomenon. For me, doing Compostela is a pure pretext to explore the north of Spain, a region that I love. However, making the journey requires fairly sustained preparation. So I started doing some research and came across the wonderful book by the French novelist. Rufin recounts his own journey and he makes it a fun, light story, full of self-deprecation. I found it to be a tasty, charming book, but also full of useful advice for the future walker that I hope to be. »
Immortal hike – Compostela in spite of myself
Folio
277 pages
No Country For Old MenCormac McCarthy
“ This summer, in June, Cormac McCarthy died, who was, in my humble opinion, until his death, the greatest living American writer alongside Philip Roth. I’ve read quite a bit of McCarthy, but his death made me want to reread it [en anglais]. It’s funny because it’s a novel that I first discovered through its film adaptation. The film is absolutely wonderful and it was afterward that it made me want to read the book. It is an absolute masterpiece, while being, it must be said, one of the most violent books I have ever read. He is a writer who has a rhythm, an evocative power, an economy of means, a certainty in the narration that really knocked me to the ground. »
No Country For Old Men
Penguin Random House
320 pages