SPRING Jean-Claude Kaufmann
La fille qui rêve
Quand il se réveille dans un cercueil fermé de l’intérieur, Paul Andrieu croit être en plein cauchemar. Mais sa lancinante crampe au pied est bien réelle. À côté de lui, une lampe de poche et le plan de son évasion. Il s’extirpe du caveau de famille sur lequel on vient de graver un nom. Le sien ? Devant le cimetière l’attendent une voiture de luxe et à son bord une jeune femme sublime qui lui propose de monter. Sa femme ? Le problème c’est que Paul Andrieu ne sait pas qui il est. Quand la voiture franchit la grille d’une somptueuse propriété, bien que reconnaissant vaguement les lieux, il ne se sent pas chez lui. Tout comme il reste indifférent devant Soustelle, l’ami de toujours avec lequel il aurait monté un plan machiavélique pour extorquer l’argent d’une assurance vie. Commencent alors pour Paul Andrieu une vertigineuse quête de soi et une course contre la montre pour déjouer les pièges de ses prétendus alliés. Mais comment retrouver son chemin dans la nuit opaque de l’amnésie ? Un thriller psychologique magistralement construit et au dénouement totalement surprenant.
XAvIer CouTure et pourtant j’étais mort
Roman
Foreign Rights :
Xavier couture eT PourTANT j’éTAIS MorT
12.03.52 6402 3 prix valable France ISBN 978-2-7024-3701-8
Conception graphique : WE-WE Couverture : © L. Clarke / Corbis
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developpe_et pourtant_ok.indd 1
LIST 2012
22/02/12 14:43
Eva Bredin-Wachter 17, rue Jacob, 75006 Paris, France e-mail:
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FICTION
THE BEST WAY TO LOVE La meilleure façon de s’aimer By Akli Tadjer
Ultimate dialogue between mother and son against a background of secrets.
Novel 290 pages January 2012
In the hospital after a stroke, Fatima silently revisits her past, a life filled with secrets, disappointing love affairs, violence and betrayal. Yet, deep within the folds of her memory reawakens the vision of a shining star, a little girl in a yellow dress, her one true love that she left behind in Algeria ages and ages before… At her bedside, her son Said, born in France, wonders why his mother was never able to tell him she loved him while his love for her overflows. Between his job as an insurance salesman and his erratic relationships with women, Said feels helpless faced with his mother’s illness. Words of love are meaningless, he tells himself, only acts of love are real. Said decides to prove his love by delivering his mother from her suffering. Akli Tadjer’s unique blend of tenderness and humor shines through in this moving and very personal novel.
Akli Tadjer was born in Paris. He is the author of seven novels, three of which have been adapted to television: Le Passager de Tassili, Le Porteur de cartable and soon to be broadcast on France 3, Il était une fois… peut-être pas.
“This funny, moving story makes you want to gobble it up in one piece. Lovely!” – Version Femina/JDD English excerpt available.
SECOND ROUND
Second tour ou les bons sentiments By Isabelle Monnin
A political novel and a romance, or maybe the other way around. May 5th 2012, the following day, the second and final round of the French presidential election will take place but tonight, in the midst of feverish suspense, Jipé is celebrating his 50th birthday. He has invited all the friends of his youth, the ones with whom he celebrated Mitterand’s victory on May 10th 1981, thirty years before. Among them, Pierre and Jeanne, who haven’t seen each other since that time but never forgot the passion they shared. Pierre became a war photographer, travelling the planet like a nomad, trying to forget his shattered family and the stubborn memory of Jeanne. And Jeanne, prisoner of her decision to marry young and abandon her youthful dreams of becoming a political activist. Both thought they could re-enchant the world. At fifty, their lives are already fraught with disillusion. As the day dawns where the course of history could change once again, will they be capable of feeling the hope and romanticism of their youth? Isabelle Monnin’s first novel, Les Vies extraordinaires d’Eugène (Lattès, 2010) was a finalist for the Goncourt Prize for a debut novel. She is also the co-author, with Doan Bui, of Ils sont devenus français (Lattès, 2010). She is a news reporter for the Nouvel Observateur.
Novel 224 pages February 2012
“Isabelle Monnin extracts the ingredients for a splendid novel from an apparently ordinary fiesta. The reader devours this book, desperately anticipating an answer that won’t come. There are echoes of the baroque craziness and tragic-comedy of her first novel, Les Vies extraordinaires d’Eugène.” Le Nouvel Observateur
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FICTION
MY WISH LIST
La Liste de mes envies By Grégoire Delacourt
The amazing destiny of a humble sewing shop owner of Arras whose life was transformed by chance.
Jocelyne, nicknamed Jo, works in a sewing shop in the small town of Arras but dreams of being a fashion designer in Paris. She admires women with sleek figures but does not quite have a model’s figure herself. She enjoys reading and has a blog on lace making. She misses her dead mother and her father who suffers from Alzheimer’s and has to be reminded every six minutes who he is. “Prince charming” arrives in the form of Jocelyn whose nickname is also Jo. Together they have two children and lose another baby at birth. This tragedy shakes the foundations of their marriage. Mrs. Jo keeps telling herself her life is beautiful in spite of all. But her love and patience soon get the better of her husband’s lack of attention. Novel 220 pages January 2012
Until one day, thanks to the pretty twins who work at the hairdresser’s next door, she wins 18,547 301 euros at the lottery. That day, she wins big. Or does she?
Grégoire Delacourt works in advertising. L’Ecrivain de la famille (Lattès, 2011), his first novel, sold 10,000 copies and won several awards, among which the Prix Marcel Pagnol and the Prix Rive Gauche.
La Liste de mes envies is a best-seller in France and rights have been sold in 14 countries: UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Brazil, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Poland, China, Korea, Israel and Iceland. “A literary jewel. (…) One feels unbelievably happy reading this tale of letting go in comfortably familiar territory.” – Le Point
“Gregoire Delacourt’s second novel is wonderful: sensitive, beautifully written and a much deeper reflection on life than it seems. What more can we ask for?” – Version Femina /JDD
GRACE
Grâce By Delphine Bertholon
The second I crossed the threshold, I knew something wasn’t quite right.
1981. Grâce Marie Bataille is a beautiful young housewife, living in the Beaujolais region of France, whose life is centered around her husband’s comings and goings as a travelling salesman of household appliances. The foundations of what promised to be an ordinary existence are shaken with the appearance of a young au-pair of Polish origin.
2010. Grâce’s son, Nathan, comes to celebrate Christmas with his children but this year everything changes. Nathan learns that his father, who disappeared without a trace thirty years before, has suddenly reappeared. Simultaneously, some very strange phenomena have begun to take place in the family home. Through the voices of mother and son, Grace unearths skeletons and family secrets and releases long suppressed feelings in this chilling novel.
Delphine Bertholon is a novelist and screenwriter, praised by the critics. She wrote Cabine Commune, Twist (awarded the Prix Ciné Roman Carte Noire) and L’Effet Larsen. Rights sold in Germany, Spain and the Netherlands.
Praise for L’Effet Larsen : “In this intelligent and compassionate psychological novel, Delphine Bertholon deftly combines all the elements of a thrilling mystery.” – Elle
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Novel 360 pages April 2012
FICTION
AN EXTRAORDINARY GARDEN Un jardin extraordinaire By Sophie Bassignac
The vivacious portrait of a woman full of life who stops at nothing Whether travelling to the ends of the earth or simply working in her extraordinary garden, Maud provokes chaos wherever she goes. Nothing can resist the tyranny of her incredible energy, certainly not the good sense and friendly lethargy of the small French town where she lives.
Novel 250 pages March 2012
Her chance encounter in a train with a tall and thin man named Fox who reminds her of a bishop, awakens a flame of desire she thought had long gone cold. Tightly ensconced in her colorful flowered dresses, Maud begins to wonder if her age is not quite adapted to her sexual fantasies. On top of that she must deal with her medievalist husband’s existential ruminations, her son’s problems, her younger brother’s moods, not to mention the appointments with her future sister-in-law’s naturopath, or the grumpiness of her precious gardener. Drunk with the heavy scent of her sweet peas and hollyhocks, Maud is a whirlwind, determined to knock asunder all those outrageous impediments to happiness such as age, boredom, violence and stupidity.
Sophie Bassignac has written several novels. Her last one, Dos à dos (Lattès, 2010), was warmly praised by critics and the public. “A novel that is at once eccentric, humorous and profound.” – Livres hebdo
WHERE THE SECRET BEGINS Là où commence le secret By Arthur Loustalot
A collection of stories which portray the intimate tragedies and hardships of life. Beneath the hardened clay of his troglodyte home in an Andalusian village, the ex flamenco dancing star, Nino, is alone in the company of his memories, his cane and a donkey. An accident shattered his dreams and his career.
Wu, an elderly Chinese man carries around a small stone in his pocket. Soon he will pay the most touching tribute to his dead son. George, age 76, energetically pedals around Paris on his bicycle.
In this cosmopolitan collection of stories, Arthur Loustalot illustrates both the violence and sensitivity of men who have found the strength to overcome the misery life has handed them. Their solitude resonates in harsh and troubled landscapes, it speaks of love, sacrifice and grief. But it also speaks of imagination and the miracle of hope, of where the secret begins…
Arthur Loustalot is 23. After studying literature at the Lycée Louis le Grand, he published his first novel, Nos Fils aimés, well received by the press, in 2010.
Novel 190 pages January 2012
“Five portraits of men haunted by their devastated intimate lives give this collection of stories a unity, color and harmony capable of reducing unhappiness to a dull roar.” – Le Monde
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FICTION
Jean-Claude Kaufmann
La fille qui rêve Roman
THE DREAMING GIRL La fille qui rêve By Jean-Claude Kaufmann
One rendez-vous, two stories.
A charming romantic comedy that relates the parallel, contrasting lives of Sami and Charlene who meet through the internet. Charlene is the modern cynic, Sami the sensitive, romantic artist. A reversal of roles? Not quite…
Sociologiste Jean-Claude Kaufman’s detailed analysis of the lives of couples through the objects they use has earned him a wide reputation. In The dreaming girl, his first novel, the sociologist’s eye is clearly evident in his meticulous observations but we also discover his rare talent for storytelling. An exceptional performance that will certainly gain this author an even wider following. Jean-Claude Kaufman is a sociologist and director of research at the CNRS. His previous book Le Sac (Lattès, 2011) was sold in Germany, the Netherlands, Greece, Korea and Turkey. Novel 160 pages May 2012
BENEATH THE WIND
Sous le vent By Joe G. Pinelli, Jean-Bernard Pouy An astonishing voyage where Gauguin-like landscapes conceal a world animated by fire. In a small grammar school in Bothoa in the heart of Brittany, young Pol is bored. Contemplating the maps that hang in his classroom, he dreams of far-away places where the color green is just one of many, where fruit grow huge and are picked ripe and juicy off the trees and the wind is warm. He resolves that the day he must leave home, fate will decide his destination. He’ll hang a map of the world on a wall and blindly throw a dart, swearing to himself that wherever the metal tip punctures the paper will be where he will go.
Years later, it is time for Pol to leave. The tip of the dart has landed in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Once there, he meets Maeva. “He didn’t know if he loved Maeva. In this place, love cannot handle a change of season. Spring did not exist in the Islands, the rise of sap in the trees did not parallel an increase of sentiment. There was only the rainy season, full of tears, and the dry season that stopped their flow.”
Joe G. Pinelli lives in Liege, Belgium, where he teaches drawing at the Beaux-Arts Academy. Jean-Bernard Pouy is the author of over seventy noire novels.
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Illustrated Novel 190 pages February 2012
HISTORICAL NOVELS
TREE OF NIGHT L’arbre de nuit By François Bellec
François Costentin is a French cartographer’s assistant, fascinated by India and the city of Goa. Jean Moquet is an apothecary and surgeon in charge of the King’s Cabinet of curiosities. His unique obsession is to grow herbs in Goa. Dona Margarida de Fonseca Serrao, age 24, is a widow and a Portuguese noble, whose presence is requested in Goa. All three are certain they are making the right choice in following their dreams when they set sail from Lisbon on March 29, 1608. But none could ever imagine the horrors of a fourteen-month voyage and the difficult life in the hostile and highly coded society of Goa.
After a career as a Navy officer, François Bellec was named director of the Musée national de la marine. Speaker and consultant on the history of the ocean, navigation and exploration, he is a member of a group of naval writers founded by Jean-François Deniau. L’arbre de la nuit is his first novel.
Historical novel 670 pages March 2012
THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION L’enquête russe By Jean-François Parot The 10th investigation by the famous Commissioner of Chatelet whose stories have sold over a million copies.
Historical novel 500 pages January 2012
In 1782, France and the American revolutionaries are about to win the war against England. The tsarevitch Paul is staying in Paris incognito and Versailles wishes to solicit the favors of the heir of the Russian Empire. Nicolas Le Floch’s mission is to devise a subterfuge that will allow him to gain the confidence of Catherine II’s son. At that same moment the tsarevitch is organizing the assassination of his mother’s ex-lover, Count de Rovski. During the delicate investigation that follows, Nicolas Le Floch goes from one surprising discovery to the next as he ventures into the Parisian circles of espionage, gallantry, gambling and illicit commerce. Will he succeed in unraveling the mysteries tied up in these affairs? What discovery will lead him to a search that may once again cause him to doubt his convictions?
Diplomat and historian, Jean-François Parot lives in Brittany where he continues his writing. His books have been translated in numerous countries and been successfully adapted to television.The Russian Investigation was number 1 on the best-selling list in France during several weeks in the beginning of 2012.
MURDER IN THE BOUDOIR Meurtre dans le boudoir By Frédéric Lenormand
The second volume of the adventures of detective Voltaire.
Voltaire finds himself once again mixed up in crimes that he certainly hasn’t committed. The real assassin seems prone to attack individuals in their most simple apparel, preferably in illicit company, and stages his murders to resemble scenes from books of ill repute. In order to hunt down the elusive killer, our dear Voltaire is forced to compromise himself in the murky underworld of Paris, where houses of disrepute abound, as well as clandestine book stores and offices of the official Library where forbidden works disappear into mysterious hands. The killer, contrary to the times, despises libertinage above all.
Specialist of the 18th century and the French revolution, Frédéric Lenormand has published, among other works, La baronne meurt à cinq heures (Lattès, 2011), which was awarded the prix Arsène Lupin 2011.
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Historical novel 320 pages February 2012
NON-FICTION ABUSE OF THE VULNERABLE AND OTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL MANIPULATIONS Abus de faiblesse et autres manipulations By Marie-France Hirigoyen
« Manipulation is part of life, intention makes the difference. »
In this brilliant essay, Marie-France Hirigoyen analyses situations in which one individual “profits” from another’s vulnerability or credulity. A con artist who exploits a woman’s weakness in order to gain access to her money; an elderly woman who declares her young protégé heir to her fortune; an abandoned wife who persuades her children that their father doesn’t love them; a rich and powerful man who forces sexual relations on a subordinate; and, generally speaking, the emotional blackmail that we all deal with at one time or another in our lives. All these situations demonstrate that abuse of the vulnerable exists in every domain of human relationships. What constitutes normal, healthy influence on children, the elderly, or adults in a state of psychological weakness, and where does manipulation begin? Backed by her clinical experience, Marie-France Hirigoyen explores the notion of consent, and behavior deviances commonly called “inappropriate”, a word whose vagueness suggests the difficulties our society faces in defining limits.
Essay 284 pages March 2012
Marie-France Hirigoyen is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and victimologist. She teaches ethics and medical ethics at the University of Paris-Descartes. Her best-seller, Le Harcèlement moral (over 500,000 copies sold and translated into 24 languages) was the catalyst for the law against moral harassment.
GIRLFRIENDS Le livre des copines By Laurence Caracalla
A joyous ode to friendship.
Document 160 pages May 2012
“My friends are exemplary. Gifted, funny, sensitive, shrewd, generous and loyal. A loyalty that will withstand anything. They will never know how much I owe them. All I have to do is be there when they need me, but not only that. There are also times where we just laugh, chat and gossip for the pure pleasure of being together. Each friend plays a role in my life. One has the best shoulder to cry on, one makes me laugh at such silly things I’m not sure the others would find funny… I don’t discuss the same things with all of them. This book is for those who, like me, could not survive without their girlfriends.”
Journalist with Elle and Figaro, Laurence Caracalla writes self-help essays.
HOUSECLEANING, MUCH MORE THAN A CHORE Apologie des petites corvées By Anne de Chalvron
You love cleaning your home, you just don’t know it yet!
Do you hunt down dust bunnies in the smallest corners? Does the sight of a greasy stove make you break out in a rash? Would you like your house to clean itself painlessly while you sleep? For all those who would gladly exchange their feather duster for… just about anything, think again and read this book. We all complain about the drudgery of household chores but, deep down, we really do need them. Having a clean house is important but it also shows a positive side of ourselves, the fact that we invest time in the well-being of those we love. Housecleaning reconnects us to the generations before us who dusted, swept and scrubbed their living space. Cleaning is a constantly renewed opportunity for starting over.
Free-lance journalist and specialist in culture and society, Anne de Chalvron has written articles for several magazines (Elle, Madame Figaro…).
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Document 230 pages January 2012
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AND YET I WAS DEAD Et pourtant j’étais mort By Xavier Couture
Xavier couture eT PourTANT j’éTAIS MorT
When he wakes up inside a closed coffin, Paul Andrieu thinks he’s in the middle of a nightmare. But, when he finds a flashlight and a written plan on how to escape, he doesn’t waste a minute in extricating himself from the family tomb where he sees his name freshly engraved in stone.
At the gates of the cemetery, a luxurious car is waiting for him as well as a beautiful woman whom he realizes is his wife. The problem is Paul has no idea who he is. When the car enters the gates to a sumptuous home, he certainly doesn’t recognize it as his own. He is also indifferent to his supposed best friend, Dr.Soustelle, with whom he apparently devised a Machiavellian plan to inherit a large sum of money.
: WE-WE e / Corbis
22/02/12 14:43
Crime novel 300 pages April 2012
Thus Paul Andrieu begins a dizzying search for his true identity and a race against the clock to escape the traps set by his so-called friends. But how can he find his way through the chilling darkness of amnesia?
Xavier Couture’s first novel, Coma, was published in 2002. He has also written a critical essay on television entitled La dictature de l’émotion (2005). And yet I was dead is his first crime novel.
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