Here are the first four titles in the running for our Heroine Grand Prix, which will be awarded in June in Paris.
n.d.
French novel: Sleep your brute sleepby Carole Martinez
The author. After having been a French teacher, Carole Martinez became a full-time writer following the success of Sewn heart (2007), winner of multiple awards.
The story. Eva and her daughter flee the capital – along with a violent husband and father – for the Camargue, while, on the planet, all the children have the same dreams, starting a strange countdown…
We love it. The novelist approaches the contemporary era without losing any of her dreaminess, with a work that mixes the Bible, the tale and the thriller. M. T. H.
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Bio : Without knowing where the sled will stop, by Bernard Chambaz
The author. History professor, novelist and poet, he won the Goncourt prize for the first novel in 1993 for The Tree of Life, and the Paul-Verlaine poetry prize, in 2023, for his collection Soon to be silent.
The story. For two years, Bernard Chambaz supported his wife who was suffering from cancer. They had three sons, one died in an accident, so today only one intends to live the present against all odds, and he modestly describes this fabulous love story.
We love it. It's like a long poem, the breath of life that a man addresses to the woman he loves with passion, and of whom he paints a magnificent portrait. B. B.
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Comics/graphic novel: Madeleine, resistant , tome III, by Madeleine Riffaud, Dominique Bertail and Jean-David Morvan
The authors. Jean-David Morvan collected the confidences of Madeleine Riffaud, 99 years old, to stage her colorful story, to which Dominique Bertail lends his feature.
The story. 1944. Madeleine, code name Rainer, is arrested after shooting a Nazi officer. Tortured by the Vichy police and the Gestapo, she was imprisoned in Fresnes…
We love it. The art with which Morvan carved out Madeleine's existence, the panache of a resistance fighter who was not yet 20 years old, the drawing and the superb shades of blue by Bertail. M. T. H.
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Foreign novel: Missed lovesby Susie Boyt
The author. Daughter of the painter Lucian Freud, great-granddaughter of the inventor of psychoanalysis, Susie Boyt is the author of seven books, Missed loves is the first to be translated in France.
The story. A failed love, that of a mother, Ruth, for her daughter, Eleonor, who cannot free herself from drugs. When she gives birth to Lily, Ruth will take hold of her and raise her. Failed love becomes full, shaky and luminous love.
We love it. No judgment, no explanation, no response, this novel only offers tenderness and humor. C. S.
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