Discover our reading recommendations for the week.
“11 quai Branly” by Mazarine M. Pingeot (Flammarion)
For the birth of “Retour chez soi”, a new literary collection, at Flammarion, which invites writers to spend twenty-four hours in the place of their childhood, Mazarine Pingeot returned for the first time to the Parisian apartment where she lived “in secret”, from the age of 9 to 16 with his mother, Anne Pingeot, museum curator, and his father, François Mitterrand, President of the Republic. In 1983, they moved into this staff accommodation near Alma, in the 7th arrondissement.
The little girl, whose existence is not known to the general public, will never feel at home there. At the dawn of her 50th birthday, she agrees to face the ghosts of this clandestine life. She remembers the kitchen, the most pleasant room, where the three of them ate breakfast while listening to the radio, where people talked about her father. There is also the bungee game with the chairs in the hall, his dissertations left for his father to see. Arrivals and exits were made in a car with his two bodyguards. No guests, no games in the yard with the other children, whom she observed hidden behind the curtain. Years later, the feeling of confinement was such that the author refused to sleep there. She is no longer this “good little soldier”. She is free. She goes back the next day, calls her mother to show her each room and they compare their memories. Then she leaves the keys and leaves, without running away like she did at 16. Mazarine M. Pingeot removed the words from her memory to engrave them forcefully on paper and understand the ills of her life as a woman. His story, dedicated to his mother, is modest, touching and brilliant.
“The color black does not exist” by Greta Olivo (Phébus)
Passionate about running, Livia is a very talented young woman, despite her vision problems and her thick-lens glasses. With the world darkening and objects fading around her as her retina degenerates, how can she continue to enjoy life to become an adult? With her tutor, Emilio, but above all thanks to her will, her energy and her courage, Livia will manage to transform her dark fog into a brilliant force. In this first book constructed as a learning story, the Italian novelist breathes luminous hope into a subject that is nevertheless difficult. Gorgeous.
“French-style divorce” by Eliette Abécassis (Grasset)
In the midst of a divorce, Margaux, the novelist, and Antoine, the surgeon, defend themselves to the judge. Both so convincing that we don't know who to believe. The reader looks for signs of blindness, for flaws. In this “War of the Roses” with its clinical style, bleeding social satire, who is responsible? If the testimonies of mothers, friends, lovers and mistresses reveal the dark sides of the couple, those of the torn children tug at the heart. At the end, Eliette Abécassis enters, also a witness to the affair. A vampire, like her beautiful Margaux, she succeeds here in a high-level thriller.
“Infinite Life” by Jennifer Richard (Philippe Rey)
Forty-somethings in love, happy parents, rich and passionate about their profession, everything succeeds for Céline and Adrien. If the hyperconnected businessman works on a project for eternal and dematerialized life, Céline, a documentary filmmaker, struggles to mourn the loss of her recently deceased father. In this world saturated with apps supposed to make life more beautiful, how can we hold on to true values and deep emotions? In this captivating and skillfully constructed dystopia, the Franco-American writer invites us to reflect on the ethical limits of the technology that conditions our society. Exciting.
