The journalist and literature specialist Nicolas Julliard offers his favorite 2024 novels. Between discoveries and confirmations, from France, Switzerland, Belgium and Quebec, here are ten voices that counted.
Gabriella Zalapì, “Ilaria or the conquest of disobedience”, ed. Zoe
Gabriella Zalapì’s third novel, “Ilaria” is a revelation. Present on numerous prize lists, the Italian-Swiss author has won, among others, the Prix Femina des Lycéens and the Prix Blù Jean-Marc Roberts.
With this story inspired by her own childhood, Gabriella Zalapì composes, at a child’s level, a tender and cruel Italian road trip, a sensitive homage to Italy in the 1980s.
>> Also read: “Ilaria” by Gabriella Zalapì, a moving ride on Italian roads
Lorrain Voisard, “At the heart of the beast”, ed. from below
A crimson cover for a book soaked in blood. The blood of the “production” animals that Arthur Jolissaint, narrator and double of the author, takes to the slaughterhouse. An embedded intellectual as the “established” of the post-May 68 era could be, the young man describes with precision the smells, the fluids, the carcasses and the acts that this small society, overwhelmingly male, carries out to feed the meat industry.
An accuracy recognized by the RTS 2024 Public Prize.
>> Also read: Lorrain Voisard wins the RTS 2024 Audience Award with “At the Heart of the Beast”
Julia Deck, “Ann of England”, ed. of the Threshold
Author of unusual fiction, Julia Deck testifies with “Ann d’Anglais” of the hospital support of her mother, victim of a stroke. The novel was awarded the Prix Médicis.
Interweaving the daily story of medical worries and the biography of her father, the author constructs an intimate and subtle investigation, following the trail of a mysterious family secret.
>> Also read: “Ann of England” by Julia Deck, her mother’s book
Miguel Bonnefoy, “The Dream of the Jaguar”, ed. Shores
Crowned by the Femina and the Grand Prix of the French Academy, “The Dream of the Jaguar” recognizes the baroque pen of the Franco-Venezuelan novelist.
By retracing the incredible life of his maternal grandfather, Miguel Bonnefoy creates a marvelous tale that crosses 20th century Venezuela, in the grip of violent changes.
>> Listen to the interview with Miguel Bonnefoy in the show Quartier Livre:
Perrine Tripier, “Conque”, ed. Gallimard
Second novel by Perrine Tripier, “Conque” invites us into an imaginary empire, following in the footsteps of a historian called to document the exhumation of a mythical civilization.
A splendid and terrifying tale about power and its little arrangements with History, served by a pen of rare virtuosity.
>> Also read: “Conch” by Perrine Tripier, when power holds the pen of the national novel
Célestin de Meeûs, “Mythology of the .12”, ed. of the Basement
One of the best surprises of the fall season. In the spirit of the black comedies of Belgian cinema, Célestin de Meeûs tells the story of the explosive encounter, during a scorching evening, of two young losers with a doctor whose manhood has been abused.
A first novel stretched like a bow, a relentless micro-thriller punctuated with descriptions of remarkable poetic intelligence.
>> To listen: the book debate on the Vertigo show on the novel “Mythologie du .12” by Célestin de Meeûs:
Louise Bentkowski, “Constellucination”, ed. Values
Les Inrockuptibles Prize for the first novel 2024, “Constellucination” explores, in a series of eighteen songs in the form of rhizomes, the origins of the author’s last name, from a place called the Austrian Empire. Hungarian.
Scenographer, performer and now novelist, Louise Bentkowski deploys a brilliant art of digression, offering a unique, playful reading experience, crossed by a thousand other lives, a thousand other voices.
>> Also read: “Constellucination” by Louise Bentkowski, fragmentary and original story
Sébastien Dulude, “Asmiante”, ed. The People
Poet, performer and editor, Sébastien Dulude seduces well beyond his native Quebec with this masterful first novel. Embroidered from his childhood memories, the story recounts two summers in the childhood and adolescence of Steve, a sensitive and timid boy encountering the brutalities of a mining campaign where boredom festers.
A funny and moving story, a portrait of the period carried by a language with a playful orality.
Catherine Safonoff, “La Fortune”, ed. Zoe
In “La Fortune”, the Geneva novelist Catherine Safonoff tells how, forced to leave her historic home, she immersed herself in writing to find her place in a world devoid of reference points.
Woven from memories, haunted by the figure of Mr. B, her ex-husband, the story travels in zigzags between the small miseries of old age and the great emotions of a life in which luck and literature advance hand in hand. hand.
>> Also listen: Interview with Catherine Satonoff in the show Quartier Livre:
Christian Kracht, “Eurotrash”, trad. Corinna Gepner, ed. Denoël
Star beyond Sarine since his first novel “Faserland” (1995), Christian Kracht remains little known to the French-speaking public. Maliciously autobiographical, this picaresque story follows the Swiss wandering of the narrator and his mother, a whimsical octogenarian alcoholic, touchy and well-read.
From the Zurich Goldküste to the Glacier 3000, taken by a taximan paid with thousands of bills, the duo seduces with their tender humor and the view, always brilliantly caustic, that Kracht casts on his native country.
Nicolas Julliard/sf
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