2024 MyFrenchLife™ Book Club reading list of recently-translated French novel
As we celebrate our sixth year at MyFrenchLife™ Book Club, Judy and I have decided to resume a previous habit of sharing a list of books we could be reading in the coming months, before Summertime 2024.
2024 First 4 Reads MyFrenchLife™ French Book Club
1.January – February: ‘The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. ‘ by Sandra Gulland <-
Through January and February, there are quite a significant number of members following us on different media channels – Judy’s le Bulletin, Substack, and Facebook- all of whom are currently reading ‘The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B.’ by Sandra Gulland.
This novel comes as an exception to our rule ‘of recently translated French novels’ since it was first published in English in 1995. Last December, after seeing ‘Napoleon’, the film by Ridley Scott, I wrote a review for MyFrenchLife™ Magazine in which I recommended reading this book to have a better understanding and knowledge of Josephine, who, for me, was the true heroine of the movie!
The author of the novel Sandra Gullard has recently agreed to answer our questions, so we couldn’t be happier and honored for choosing to delve into Josephine’s life!
2.March – April: ‘ The Postcard’ by Anne Berest, translated by Tina Kover <-
Original title ‘La Carte Postale’
Description : ( from Europa Editions) January 2003: The Berest family receives a mysterious, unsigned postcard. On one side was an image of the Opera Garnier; on the other, the names of their relatives who were killed in Auschwitz: Ephraim, Emma, Noemie, and Jacques. Years later, Anne sought to find the truth behind this postcard. She journeys 100 years into the past, tracing the lives of her ancestors from their flight from Russia following the revolution, their journey to Latvia, Palestine, and Paris, the war, and its aftermath. What emerges is a thrilling and sweeping tale that shatters her certainties about her family, her country, and herself. At once a gripping investigation into family secrets, a poignant tale of mothers and daughters, and an enthralling portrait of 20th-century Parisian intellectual and artistic life, “The Postcard” tells the story of a family devastated by the Holocaust and yet somehow restored by love and the power of storytelling.
This book was awarded many prizes (Renaudot des Lycéens, Prix des lectrices de Elle,Prix Goncourt américain).
A few years ago MyFrenchlife™ organized a French-themed book exchange between members which was extremely rewarding and friendly. On the theme of postcards, beyond this reading, we wish to suggest our members send one another postcards from the places they live.
3.May – June: Second Best by David Foenkinos, translated by Megan Jones <-
Original title : ‘ Numéro Deux’
Description (from Amazon.com): ‘It’s about time British readers discovered the wit and originality of David Foenkinos’ Jonathan Coe, author of Bournville. A magical imagining of the fate of a fictional boy whose life is shaped forever when he loses out on the role of Harry Potter. It’s 1999. Martin Hill is ten years old, crazy about Arsenal, and has a minor crush on a girl named Betty. Then he makes it to the final two in the casting for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
In the end, the other boy is picked for the role of a lifetime. A devastated Martin tries to move on with his life. But how can he escape his failure, especially when it’s the most famous film series in the world? Foenkinos’s smash-hit Second Best is a playful, poignant story about fate, loss, and how the lives we wish we’d led might not be all they’re cracked up to be . . .
David Foenkinos is considered by many as one of the major French contemporary authors.
4.Fall: Mirror of our Sorrows’ by Pierre Lemaître, translated by Frank Wynne <-
Original title : ‘Miroir de nos Peines’
Description (from McLehose Press): April, 1940. Louise Belmont runs naked down the boulevard du Montparnasse. To understand the traumatic scene she has just witnessed, she will have to plunge headlong into the madness of the Phoney War, as France, seized by the panic of a new European conflict, descends into chaos.
Louise navigates this period of enormous upheaval in parallel with her fellow citizens – including Maginot Line conscripts Raoul and Gabriel, bistro-owner Monsieur Jules, and confidence trickster Désiré Migault. The looming threat of German occupation uncovers long-buried secrets and makes for strange bedfellows, as one extraordinary twist of fate follows another.
With characteristic wit and verve, Pierre Lemaitre chronicles the fall of a nation crushed by circumstance. The final novel in his award-winning trilogy is an incandescent tale that veers from the tragic to the burlesque.
Pierre Lemaître is also the author of books that have been adapted successfully to the screen like ‘Au Revoir Là Haut’ and ‘Couleur de l’Incendie’.
This brings us to the end of our current ‘defined’ list, now let’s look at books we’re considering reading next.
Our ‘Under Consideration’ List
2024 Titles under consideration
The following are other possible recently translated novels that may be selected later:
Original title ‘‘Le Banquet annuel de la confrérie des fossoyeurs ‘
Description: (from MITpressbookstore) From the winner of the Prix Goncourt, an exciting comic masterwork rooted in the French countryside. To research his thesis on contemporary agrarian life, anthropology student David Mazon moves from Paris to La Pierre-Saint-Christophe, a village in the marshlands of western France. Determined to understand the essence of the local culture, the intrepid young scholar scurries around restlessly on his moped to interview residents.
But what David doesn’t yet know is that here, in this seemingly ordinary place, once the stage for wars and revolutions, Death leads a dance: when one thing perishes, the Wheel of Life recycles its soul and hurls it back into the world as a microbe, human, or wild animal, sometimes in the past, sometimes in the future. And once a year, Death and the living observe a temporary truce during a gargantuan three-day feast where gravediggers gorge themselves on food, drink, and language.
Brimming with Mathias Énard’s characteristic wit and encyclopedic brilliance, The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers’ Guild is a riotous novel where the edges between past and present are constantly dissolving against a Rabelaisian backdrop of excess.
Original title ‘Une Heure de Ferveur’
Description: (from Europa Editions) From the best-selling author of The Elegance of the Hedgehog comes a story of one man’s promise to keep a secret that will keep him at a remove from the greatest joy in his life. One night at a party of artists and intellectuals in Kyoto, Japanese art dealer Haru encounters a woman who unsettles him more than anyone else ever has and he is compelled to know her. Maud, a French woman passing through Japan, is distant. Her cold gaze challenges any exchange, yet she is drawn to Haru. After spending ten intense nights together, Maud leaves without a word. When he learns that she is carrying his child, Haru is determined to find her. But his advances are unwelcome. Maud wants to raise the child alone and extracts a heartbreaking promise from him to stay out of their lives.
In her poetically precise prose, Muriel Barbery explores beauty and the deep love of a father, but also captures the darkness that pushes people apart.
Original title ‘L’Enigme de la Chambre 622’
Description : (from Amazon) It all starts with an innocuous curiosity: at the Hotel de Verbier, a luxury hotel in the Swiss Alps, there is no Room 622. This anomaly piques the interest of Joël Dicker, Switzerland’s most famous literary star, who flees to the Verbier to recover from a bad breakup, mourn the death of his publisher, and begin his next novel. Before he knows it, he’s coaxed out of his slump by a fellow guest, who quickly uncovers the reason behind Room 622 erasure: an unsolved murder. The attendant circumstances: a love triangle and a power struggle at the heart of Switzerland’s largest private bank, a mysterious counter-intelligence unit known only as P-30, and a shadowy émigré with more money than God.A Russian doll of a mystery crafted with the precision of a Swiss watch, The Enigma of Room 622 is Joël Dicker’s most diabolically addictive thriller yet.
This author is not French but Swiss. His thrillers are perfect for beach reading!
2024 French Book Club – are you ready to read with us?
- Reading flexibility:
– In this club, you can read the books the French are reading now – immerse yourself and learn more about contemporary French literature, culture, and thinking.
– You can read with us in either English or French!
– Our pace is designed for your busy lifestyle, as we read at a rate of only one book every two months>
– Your reading suggestions are also welcome. Perhaps you’ve heard of these authors already? Let us know below. - Engagement:
You too can participate in our French online book club, as we have multiple ways we help members engage.
You can find us on:
– Facebook (and we have a book club member live chat too) and
– you can also find us on Goodreads and
– Substack (also with a book club live chat). - If you are in Paris or just visiting, we’ll do our best to hold meetings while you are there, no matter when that is.
– NOTE: And following the Josephine B. read, we can announce that a visit to Château Malmaison is envisaged along with a meeting at the nearby Brasserie du château.
– Be sure to let us know your Paris dates in advance. - Join us in Paris: Below is a collage of a few of our intimate gatherings in Paris to discuss recently translated French novels.
– This could be you…
Paris intimate gatherings – MyFrenchLife Book Club
Here’s how to JOIN
Here you’ll find all you need to know about our French Book Club and how to join.
Are you in?
Please feel free to ask questions below or to make suggestions of translated Contemporary French Fiction for us to consider.
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About the Contributor
Jacqueline Dubois Pasquier
