For Holly
Having lost her mother, seventeen year old Lola has been living with her grandmother, slowly slipping away from the person she was. Sent to stay with her father in Paris, she is determined to go back to her life in…
Reader for Hire
Marie-Constance has a wonderful voice and a love of reading. One day a friend suggest to her that she should offer a service reading to people in their homes. So she places an ad in the local paper and waits…
The Islanders
Following the death of his mother, Olivier is stranded in a snowy Versailles over Christmas. When he goes to ask his neighbour for the phonebook, an old flame opens the door. He hasn’t seen his high school love Jeanne in…
Nagasaki
Only eight centimetres of juice remained, compared to fifteen when I had left for work. Someone had been helping themselves to it. And yet I live alone. Fifty-six year old Shimura Kobo lives alone in the suburbs of Nagasaki. His…
Plague and Cholera
The history of science is often rolled out as a broad avenue leading straight from ignorance to truth, but that is false. The history of science is a network of dead ends in which thought loses its way and ties…
The Panda Theory
When Gabriel steps off the train in a small Breton town, he is a complete stranger. Nobody knows where he came from or who he really is. Yet his small acts of kindness make an impression on the locals and…
The Confidant
When Camille receives a letter describing events from pre-war France, she is sure that the writer has got the wrong address. When the letters continue to arrive, she starts to suspect one of her authors, pitching a new novel in…
Catalogue Spotlight: Gallic Books
Gallic Books is a small, independent publisher dedicated to bringing French fiction to an English reading audience. They also run the wonderful Belgravia Books (where you can often pick up their titles for a bargain price). 2013 will mark their…
Popcorn Moment: Untouchable
I went to see a French film. At the cinema. And it’s not even July! Intouchables is based on the true story of Abdel Sellou and Philippe Pozzo Di Borgo (also available in books form; You Changed My Life). It…
Someone I Loved
Chloé’s husband has left her and their children for another woman. She is angry and confused but her father-in-law (or would that be ex father-in-law?), Pierre, comes to the rescue and whisks her away from it all. They have never…