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English Latest June 07 |
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Dear All,
We are proud to announce the release of two of the books chosen by the French Voices committee, a grant program launched in 2006. This program, aimed at contemporary texts published after 2000, provides grants to fiction and non-fiction works. Each book becomes part of the “French Voices” collection, and though released by different publishers, all are identified by a logo designed by Serge Bloch and introduced by a great American writer.
We are also very thrilled about the latest edition of The Literary Review. For its 50th anniversary edition, it chose to introduce "French Voices" by publishing abstracts from the first 7 books to have received grants. Statements by the publishers, translators, and members of the committee precede each of the abstracts. In turn, each explains his / her "coup de coeur", what seduced him / her in the book, and the kick and/or challenge of translating and publishing those books.
The first of the two books being published is a novel by Véronique Ovaldé, Kick the animal out. Published by MacAdam Cage, it relates the story of a shy and forlorn teenager trying to make sense of her mother's disappearance. Convinced that she might be in danger, Rose lets her imagination wander and invents her own truth. Part dream, part reality, it is an idiosyncratic work and a tender journey into a teenager's mind. The book is introduced by Siri Husvedt.
The second is Ravel, a novel by Goncourt winner and one of the most translated French authors, Jean Echenoz. Published by The New Press, and introduced by Adam Gopnick, it is a beautifully crafted imaginary account of the last ten years of the French musician Maurice Ravel as he embarks on the ocean liner to America. It is one of those exquisite reads full of humour that leaves you hungry for more.
A few other novels that just came out include:
Anna Gavalda's, Hunting and Gathering (Riverhead Trade). This feel-good book has sold half a million copies in France and is being published in 30 countries. A movie adaptation by Claude Berri, featuring Audrey Tautou and Guillaume Canet, has been on the screens in France since March. In the book, Camille, the artist and part-time cleaning lady, Franck, the roommate and chef, Paulette, the elderly woman, and Philibert, the aristocrat, end up living under the same roof and finding strength in each other's company.
Maryse Condé, The Story of the Cannibal Woman (Atria) is also a story of disappearance but this time an adult takes center stage. Rosalie Thibaudain's husband goes out for a pack of cigarettes and is brutally murdered. Rosélie reconstructs her life in South Africa while investigating her husband’s death using her clairvoyant's powers. The thriller is set in Cape Town, in a post-apartheid South Africa, and revisits the multicultural themes of Maryse Conde's previous books featuring Rosalie Thibaudain.
In Death in the Truffle Wood, by Pierre Magnan (St Martin's Minautor), renowned crime writer and winner of numerous prizes in France. The Commissaire Laviollette investigates the murder of one of the outsiders who just arrived in a village and he stumbles upon more victims. The atmosphere of the book reminds one of Fred Vargas, another crime writer who receives raving reviews in France and whose book, Pars Vite et Reviens Tard, was recently adapted for the screen. A French version of Columbo, it stages a marginal / unusual character as the (anti-) hero of this mystery book.
In a slightly different format, we wanted to bring to your attention the lovely graphic novel Aya (Drawn and Quaterly) by Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie (illustrator). The author, a guest of the Pen World Voices Festival this year, has been writing books for young adults. Aya, is a lovely story of a teenager set in the Ivory Coast in the 1970's. It is an unusual and welcome account of life in Africa; the drawings are very charming and warm.
We continue with a work of poetry by Nicolas Boileau, a French poet and critic (1636-1711).
Yale University Press brings us Selected Poems, some of the works of the exponent of French classicism, who mastered the art of satire and parody.
In the non-fiction sector, a series of works by or about influential French philosophers and thinkers have been published. Among them:
Leo Strauss: An intellectual Biography, by Daniel Tanguay (Yale University Press). It is an essay on the legacy of Leo Strauss and what was at the heart of his work, i.e. God and Politics. It restores Strauss' work, casting aside misinterpretations.
Reflections on The Just, by Paul Ricoeur: It is the second volume of the philosopher's work published by the University of Chicago Press. A collection of fifteen essays on justice and law in which he considers the work of other great philosophers and their contributions to the concept of justice.
We take this opportunity to salute the translation prize awarded by the French American Foundation to Bruce Fink for his translation of Ecrits by Jacques Lacan (WW Norton). The prize for fiction went to Sandra Smith, for her translation of Irene Nemirovsky's, Suite Française (Knopf).
And lastly, we wanted to introduce you to the publication by Dalkey Archives: As You Were Saying: American Writers Respond to Their French Contemporaries. "It started as an idea: What would happen if seven of France's best contemporary writers wrote stories that were then sent to seven equally talented Americans who responded with stories of their own?": A little book by Marie Darrieussecq and Rick Moody, Camille Laurens and Robert Olen Butler, Jacques Roubaud and Raymond Federman, Lydie Salvayre and Rikki Ducornet, Grégoire Bouiller and Percival Everett, Philippe Claudel and Aleksander Hemmon, Luc Lang and John Edgar Wideman!
We hope you enjoyed this selection,
Bonne lecture !
Fabrice Rozié, Anne-Sophie Hermil, Anne-Sophie Simenel, Aurélie Delage.
A special thanks to Amaury Laporte and also to the members of the French Voices Committee. We have had the pleasure of welcoming three new members this year and are looking forward to the publication of the next titles. We are very grateful for the work accomplished by all.
For further information about the French Voices program please visit: www.frenchbooknews.com , (grants/publishers/American).