Publications
Article reserved for subscribers
A girl with blue hair, an invasion of pests, a kaleidoscopic view of feminicide, “a new friend born by [un] accident”, the first cold case, fathers alone, the Norman bocage and the breath of divine vengeance.
Novels
Nagui Zinet, An exemplary trajectory
Joëlle Losfeld, 110 pp., €15.50 (ebook: €9.99).
Given that the so-called “N.”, misguided hero who goes wrong, tinkers with news on his computer, it’s difficult to sort things out. The investigating judge, whose point of view frames that of the offender, thinks that it is a newspaper, “a web of lies, of delusions, where sometimes the truth has managed to cling”. We are therefore going to follow in Lille and Paris the wanderings of a guy without a profession or connections, who only thinks about downing beers and whiskey if they come along. He is not without qualities: he loves literature and French songs, knows phrases from Gatsby, associates Carver with Michel Berger. He only has harmful thoughts, crosses “a crazy fucker”, a girl with blue hair and another who he kills. Previously, he met a music teacher and his life changed. Momentarily. “She plays the first notes of Mistral winner and you think: here I am with a forty-year-old woman who has money, I’m twenty-five and I don’t have any. These are things that don’t exist. Later, you will tell yourself that if things do not exist, it is often because there is an excellent reason for that.” A disconcertingly fresh and effective first novel. Cl.D.
Guillaume Collet, hands full
Christian Bourgois, 112 pp., €17 (ebook: €12.99).
Grandma and Grandpa have a lot of money and don’t need anyone. Despite everything, Family sends Grandson to observe what is going on because Grandmother reports the invasion of pests
