French titles I devoured: Justine Augier's "Son absence" — Christophe Bataille's Machiavelli dream — Frédéric Ciriez diving under neon lights — Jean-Paul Enthoven reflecting on what mattered most — Georges Flipo channeling Ulysses — and more doors opening into stories...
"Like echoes that meet across distance / In darkness deep and vast as light, / Scents, colors, sounds — all correspond." That's Baudelaire talking. Weird how my recent reads started mirroring each other. Different books, different writers, same wavelength somehow.
Fall 2008 release. Ariane bombed out of science studies, picked up a camera instead. That's how she meets Gabriel Barthomieux — botanist obsessed with deserts. They click. But friendship shifts when Gabriel asks her to photograph emptiness itself.
Fall 2008 release. Sonia is thirteen. Lives in Nice. Spends way too much time at her grandmother's place. Baboutchka's apartment feels suffocating — old Russian ladies gathering around the samovar, gossiping in a language Sonia barely understands.
Fall 2008 release. "Our country used to be a zoo. Clean, organized, everyone in their cage and happy. Goldsmiths here, herdsmen there." That's how Adiga's narrator sets up modern India — a place where breaking out means breaking everything.
Matilda lives on a Pacific island. Paradise until war hits and soldiers they call Redskins invade. All the white people flee. Except Mr. Watts. He stays behind with his Dickens novel and teaches the kids about a character named Pip.
In my "there's more to life than books" series: Been meaning to tell you about rowing. Started about a year ago. Friend challenged me. Figured why not. Now it's how I spend Saturday mornings — out on the water before most people are awake.
Fall 2008 release. I discovered Bataille two years back with "Quartier général du bruit" — completely hooked me. Now he's tackling historical fiction. 1527: plague tears through Florence. Machiavelli watches his city burn while dreaming of power and permanence.
Fall 2008 release. Early 1946. War's been over for months. Deportee convoys trickling back. Solange waits for her father Isy. She used to be Sarah — before being Jewish became dangerous. Before everything changed.
Fall 2008 release. Is it me or was this season particularly dark? Felt like every other book dealt with war and loss. This debut fits right in. After the music stops, after the soldiers arrive — what's left to hold onto?