AUGUST 2008

Meet Poppy: she's 30, single, works as a teacher. Her wardrobe? Eye-popping. Her accessories? Loud and proud. She loves her roommate Zoé, adores her students, can't get enough of trampolining. What makes her tick? An unshakeable good mood. Poppy made a decision long ago to stay positive no matter what life throws at her...

Fall literary season 2008. August 25, 1988: Lisbon burns. Flames erupt from a department store in the city's oldest district. Firefighters race to contain the blaze, evacuating everyone in their path. Everyone except old Carneiro, who flat-out refuses to leave his home...

This is a family story. An ordinary French family, people like you and me. Dad drives a taxi, mom stays home, three kids complete the picture. The narrative unfolds across twenty years, told through five snapshots—five pivotal days that will change each of them forever...

Fall literary season 2008. "Every loss kills us a little. We've all lived through it. There's a joy, a freshness that fades as grief accumulates... We die a bit more each time we lose someone close to us..."

This novel is basically the Scottish answer to Tales of the City, as the author himself admits in his preface. After meeting Armistead Maupin, Alexander McCall Smith decided to craft his own serialized fiction following the lives of residents in an Edinburgh apartment building...

I used to think only Woody Allen films showed gorgeous creatures falling for worn-out, slightly broken guys. Turns out this improbable love story sits at the heart of Pixar's latest animated feature...

Ghosts, immortals, werewolves—Fred Vargas never stops probing folklore and myth. In her latest mystery, she drags us into vampire territory. At a conference in London, Adamsberg and Danglars witness a gruesome presentation...

I've finished reading all eight novels selected for the Prix Landerneau. Big thanks to Elodie Giraud for letting me join this literary journey that introduced me to eight previously unknown authors. I hadn't even heard of most of them before...

Here's the eighth and final novel from the Prix Landerneau selection. I saved it for last since it won the official prize. 1970s Lebanon, a big white house by the sea—sounds idyllic, right? Could be paradise...

After Les Cannabis, we're now at Les Bégonias—another retirement home. Apparently greenery and old age go hand in hand. But this time there's no escape plan. We're settling in, touring room by room, quarter-hour by quarter-hour...