Literary return | Ten French novels to read this winter

This winter return marks the return of big feathers that it will be good to find again. Here are 10 must-watch novels over the next few months.

Angry girl on a stone benchVeronique Ovalde

Family, regrets, unforgivable faults, broken ties… These are just some of the themes that the French writer probes through the story of a woman who returns to the island of her childhood, after the death of her father and years of estrangement. Through the reunion between sisters, we gradually discover the tragedy that caused their clan to implode. A captivating foray into the excesses of sibling rivalry.

Flammarion (January)

In the most beautiful country in the worldTahar Ben Jelloun

The one who won the Prix Goncourt in 1987 (for The sacred night) offers us here a trip to his native country, Morocco. Between Casablanca, Tangier and Fez, the Franco-Moroccan writer paints the portrait of a polyglot and multicultural country, where characters and stories follow one another to build a vast social fresco that spans several centuries.

Threshold (January)

Malaussene TerminusDaniel Pennac

This is the last part of the Malaussène saga, which the author has chosen to erect into a hilarious apocalypse for fans of the famous tribe. Benjamin Malaussène and his band of brothers and sisters will once again have to deal with Queen Zabo, as well as a panoply of incomparable characters. A final point which is intended to be grandiose, to conclude a mythical work begun more than 30 years ago.

Gallimard (February)

Franz Kafka does not want to dieLaurent Seksik

This novel follows the crossed destinies of three key characters in the life of Franz Kafka. There is his partner, Dora Diamant, his sister Ottla and the medical student who became his friend, Robert Klopstock. The author of Last Days by Stefan Zweig thus retraces the paths they have taken, in parallel with the great story, to return to the existence and work of the great writer.

Gallimard (February)

An archiveMatthew Lindon

The writer and journalist is here the living archive of his father, Jérôme Lindon, who was director of the editions of Minuit from 1948 until his death in 2001. If we discover above all his family of authors – Samuel Beckett, Marguerite Duras, Jean Echenoz… – it is also the childhood of a son who grew up surrounded by books that takes shape. An intimate family portrait, sometimes funny, about the love of writers and literature.

POL (February)

women around the worldMelissa Da Costa

After achieving great success for his three previous novels (including All the blue of the sky), Mélissa Da Costa takes us to New Zealand. A Parisian in search of redemption takes refuge in a campsite run by a mother and her daughter. At the heart of wild nature and Maori mythology, she will learn to free herself from the weight of the past.

Albin Michel (March)

OffensesConstance Debre

The previous novel by Constance Debré, Last name, had signed the end of an autobiographical cycle by telling the story of his parents. The former lawyer, who dropped everything at the age of 40 to write books, recounts here a murder, committed by a young man in a French suburb – a pretext to address the question of the other, how we make it and what he says of ourselves. A powerful voice, which has become essential in the French literary landscape.

Flammarion (March)

silence and angerPierre Lemaître

Pierre Lemaitre continues his exploration of the XX^e century with a social novel in line with Big world. It is about, among other things, a concrete ogre, an ugly fall down the stairs, a relaunched legal case, the death of a village, a problematic pregnancy… and also three love stories. An ambitious story on a par with its precedents.

Calmann-Lévy (March)

DuskPhilippe Claudel

In an anonymous village, the priest is found dead, his head shattered by a stone; a policeman investigates, surrounded by characters who seem to be playing the main role in a tragedy. The ghosts of the past wake up as a plot between suspense and twists unravels, coupled with a great reflection on our contemporary wanderings – and signed with a great pen.

Inventory (March)

Without countingPhilippe Djian

Philippe Djian is unparalleled in guiding us through troubled waters, with his twisted characters who find themselves in inextricable situations. Between a woman who disappears, a man who dies strangely and a character who turns out to be much more dangerous than he looks, a game of dubious collusion looms as we dive into the trap we tends the novelist. Intriguing.

Flammarion (April)