♦ The Universe of Trees D'Eryck de Rubercy
Trees of cities or tall forests, they fascinate with their vital energy, the irresistible deployment of their branches, their movement in the wind. Neither dictionary nor forestry manual, Eryck de Rubercy's work aims to convey a passion. And this begins through letters, devoting around a hundred pages to the writers' view of trees.
Premonitory: “The only providers of shade and coolness, calm and reason, trees are absolutely necessary in the new conception that men have of cities”, writes Jean Giono. Moving: “You know well, my Tree, that at dawn I come to kiss you,” murmurs Paul Valéry. Solidarity: “They live in families, the oldest in the middle and the little ones (…). They flatter themselves with their long branches to ensure that they are all there, like blind people,” tells us Jules Renard.
Living in the heart of a two-century-old forest park in the Loiret, the author brings together years of observations and wonder in this book. From the almond tree to the lime tree, it tells the story of each of the trees of France, the oak after the chestnut, the hackberry before the white mulberry. Who still doesn't know that the locust tree from America is often mistaken for an acacia? Among the threatened trees, the beech is particularly victim of global warming, while the plane tree is affected by colored canker.
To these arboreal family stories, Eryck De Rubercy adds a more scientific approach, describing for example the sap process capable of supplying the highest branches of the giant American sequoia, or even the root system. He still travels from the druid forest to the equatorial forest, all inhabited by myths and legends. Pragmatic, the author describes the various techniques useful for logging, from floating to schlittage. Deforestation, deforestation, fire are all contemporary events which draw attention to the richness of forests and the place of trees in the natural balance of the planet.
These instructive chapters are complemented by other more poetic ones, such as the one devoted to the music of the trees. “It's not that difficult to recognize the voice of the trees. We learn to distinguish their songs as we learn with those of birds,” confides researcher Jacques Tassin. And Peter Brook invites meditation: “The presence of silence between the trees is magnificent. » A trip to the forest is essential.
Bouquins, 1 536 p., 33 €.
♦ On the Amazon River by Jean-Christophe Rufin
For two months, Jean-Christophe Rufin traveled 3,000 kilometers down the Amazon River, using the waterbuses of local populations. Mixing story and watercolor, the academic traveler keeps a travel diary “born from the desire to let time pass (…). I wanted to be free enough from all constraints to devote myself entirely to observing. »
Fascinated by the luxuriant nature and won over by the welcome of the inhabitants of the banks, the author of Goncourt 2001 with Red Brazil (Gallimard) travels from fishermen's huts to the charmless hotels of Manaus. “What would remain of these weeks spent drifting on this river? A small pile of sheets loaded with ink and colors. Memories and regrets. »
Calmann-Lévy, 150 p., €29.90.
♦ A Parisian literary alphabet book. From Aragon to Zola by Jean-Noël Mouret
From Aragon to Zola, Jean-Noël Mouret recounts literary Paris in twenty-six writers. It evokes both the addresses of some, such as the Véron de Prévert city, and the favorite places for others, such as Hemingway and the cafés of Montparnasse. We are following in the footsteps of Éluard, Yourcenar, Queneau or Modiano of course, who find their place in this Parisian wandering.
More than a geography of Paris according to the writers, the book is an immersion into the literary society of the 20th century. An atmosphere particularly well rendered by the numerous photos taken from the collections of the Roger-Viollet agency. “To cross Paris is to wander through literature”, warns academician Antoine Compagnon who signs the preface.
Gallimard/Roger-Viollet, 120 p., €26.
♦ Leader of the rope by Roger Frison-Roche
This mountain novel by Roger Frison-Roche (1906-1999) is a great classic of adventure literature. If the first edition dates from 1941, the title is published these days in a new edition, with archive photos, on the occasion of the centenary of Arthaud editions. In Chamonix, Pierre Servettaz wants to become a mountain guide, like his father. But the latter is opposed to it, even though he is going into the mountains with a client. The expedition goes wrong, young Pierre climbs to help. A tribute to the mountains, to courage, to challenge. In this beautiful centenary collection, we can also find the stories and travel diaries of Jules Verne (When traveling, Arthaud, 640 p., €28).
Arthaud, 304 p., €20.
♦ Eternal Japan by Amélie Nothomb
While in September, she expressed a failed reunion in her latest book The Impossible Return (Albin Michel, 2024), Amélie Nothomb brings together in a thick book everything she loves about Japan. “I believed myself to be Japanese for a very long time, with a deep conviction,” she admits. Abundant and complex, Japanese culture is rendered with grace and poetry. Taking traditional “paths”, whether Buddhism, the warrior spirit or even the path of elegance, the author evokes Noh theater, temple architecture or the eternal and the ephemeral captured in haikus. With, for example, that of Kôda Rohan:
In the moonlight
I leave my boat
to enter the sky.
♦ The true story of Moby Dick by Nathaniel Philbrick
Translated from English (United States) by Gerald Messadié,
As in the 19th centurye century that of Herman Melville, Nathaniel Philbrick's story takes up the terrible attack, in 1820, of the whaler Essex by a gigantic sperm whale in the middle of the Pacific. But the resemblance ends there. As the historian that he is, Nathaniel Philbrick, lulled by his father's story about “the whale that attacked a ship” and installed in Nantucket, the American island and home port of the ship, traces the drift of the crew based on testimonies from survivors and meticulous research.
With a sense of storytelling, he places the disaster in its time, analyzing social relations on board, the whaling economy… A captivating and instructive exploration of a myth.
Paulsen, 352 p., €28.
♦ Rimbaud is alive by Luc Loiseau
Arthur Rimbaud's photos are not that numerous. Only eight are listed to date, starting with the one taken by Étienne Carjat in 1871, which remains the best known to the young dreamer. Using new digital tools, Luc Loiseau recreates a complete album of the poet in a frock coat. Taking up the back and forth of Rimbaud, reconstituting the known scenes of his existence – such as the meeting with Verlaine – Loiseau takes us back to the 19the century.
Scrupulously retracing through the text the journey of the penniless poet, the author manages to illustrate portraits and scenes of Rimbaud's daily life in the streets of Charleville, Paris or London. A credible, disturbing and touching digital double.
Gallimard, 272 p., 39 €
♦ Dance of death de Stephen King
Translated from English (United States) by Jean Esch
Stephen King's legendary collection is reissued in a luxury version. The text happily benefits from a valuable new translation. Indeed the first edition, in 1980, had undergone some serious cuts, and we therefore find here the complete version of the twenty short stories by the master of horror and fantasy.
In very different tones, the stories spring from the most everyday settings, and the horror sets in: “The greatest successes of fantasy literature often present the same syndrome: let's slow down to watch the accident”confides the author of Shining in the preface to this collection. Thrills guaranteed.
JC Lattès, 352 p., €25.90
♦ 100 life-changing books by Maïté Defives
The novel by Bérengère Cournut Of stone and bone (Le Tripod) invites us to travel on the ice floe. Mr. Ibrahim and the flowers of the Koranby Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt (Albin Michel) teaches us to live together. The author of 100 life-changing books brings together texts that open us to the world and make us dream.
Host of a blog, followed by more than 100,000 followers on Instagram under the nickname MademoiselleLit, Maïté Defives is a reference. From Anne Frank to Neige Sinno, via Gaël Faye or Grégoire Delacourt, it presents both contemporary classics and recent novels, with a summary, a quote, a presentation of the author… A fun and enthusiastic collection: a book that makes you want to read!
Éditions Jouvence, 240 p., €22.95.
♦ Bernard Pivot, The Taste of Others by Agnès and Cécile Pivot
Cécile has become a novelist, Agnès is the family photographer: Bernard Pivot's two daughters pay tribute to her in a book illustrated with numerous family photos. They also share with readers the passion of the man of letters. From 1960, the literary journalist, press card 17,316, went to meet writers. Very quickly, he will talk about books on TV.
With a first broadcast – Open the quotes -, Then Apostrophesand finally Culture broth. But Pivot is also sport and more particularly football, cuisine and wine, the Goncourt Academy… “Luck almost always accompanied him, he never stopped thanking her”confides Cécile Pivot. A tenderly nostalgic family album.
Calmann-Lévy, 180 p., €22.90.
♦ Chronicles of New York. Novels, short stories d’Edith Wharton
Translated from English (United States) by Marc Chénetier, Sarah Fosse, Claire Malroux and Suzanne V. Mayoux
It is such a joy and pleasure that Gallimard offers us by giving such a beautiful place to Edith Wharton (1862-1937) in its beautiful “Quarto” collection. Here in the same volume are some of his greatest novels, including The Age of Innocence, TheBeautiful Weddings, with the added bonus of a new translation of his novel The House of Mirth provided by the Americanist Marc Chénetier. All complemented by news from Old New Yorka file on Edith Wharton and cinema, another on the history of the Big Apple. Far, far from Donald Trump's America.
Gallimard, « Room », 1,280 p., €36
