The cold weather is just around the corner, it’s the perfect opportunity to enjoy a good book, snuggled up with a hot drink. For the occasion, our literary collaborator Chrystine Brouillet offers you 10 perfect suggestions!
1. The Ritz bartender, Philippe Collin
Available at QubLivre
During the Occupation in Paris, only one palace remained open: the Ritz where bartender Franck Meier served Arletty, Cocteau, Guitry and the new German leaders including the monstrous Goering and his Gestapo henchmen. Who should never suspect that the young Luciano whom Meier protects is Jewish. Like the sublime Blanche Auzello who lives in the hotel with her husband. Who counts on Meier. Because everyone is counting on this bartender who knows so many secrets, who seems to collaborate with the enemy while helping those who want to escape abroad.
Inspired by real events, this captivating novel is full of information distilled with great skill and brilliantly captures this troubled era in French history thanks to its extremely vivid portraits of all these enigmatic characters. A total success!
2. On the verge of wandering, Valérie Fontaine
William, 15, has an unpleasant surprise when he returns home: his mother has just learned that they will have to leave their apartment. He quickly discovers that the situation is even worse than he feared, the housing shortage is very real and despite all her efforts, Julia cannot find a place for her family. And for their little dog…
We devour this extremely moving novel while crossing our fingers that things will work out for these characters who are so endearing, so authentic, so courageous and we salute the talent of the author for denouncing with terrible accuracy the reality that so many are currently experiencing. people, the lack of resources which bogs down parents in shame and guilt and which causes their children to age too quickly. Outstanding!
3. Free swimming, Pierre Gagnon
He has been alone for a long time, is perhaps a little bored, decides to reconnect with the water which has not left him with good memories and goes to the swimming pool every day. Where he enjoys the game of observing the other bathers, his neighbors in the corridors. And then Lucienne arrives and helps to tame the waves. Lucienne who draws more easily than she speaks, Lucienne who has a painful secret, Lucienne who illuminates the narrator’s life.
A novel of extreme sweetness which rocks us, caresses us with infinite tenderness, where hope poetically rubs shoulders with nostalgia.
4. Fracture, Johanne Seymour
Florence would never have imagined that a family afternoon with friends would end in pain: what happened to Samuel that caused him to almost faint while the children were playing baseball nicely? Why has he been so irritable, so hard since that day in May? What is happening to her husband? And to Nicole’s, Nancy’s? What abominable secret connects these men and destroys them?
A gripping novel which explores the suffering of victims of abuse from all its angles, which shows the extent of this destruction and all the collateral damage of the attacks. Which will perhaps help some to break the silence and seek help.
5. Small town, Mélikah Abdelmoumen
A body is found in the park built on the ruins of the Zone: Simon James, a famous journalist, was brutally killed. Who did he bother so much by carrying out his investigative investigations? Her adoptive sister, Mia, wants to discover the truth at all costs, refusing to allow this death to sink into oblivion, and to allow the guilty to escape with impunity.
This dark novel sounds like an alarm signal, warning us against the excesses of a society corrupted by power, racism, the blindness encouraged by certain media: the injustices suffered by the inhabitants of the Zone really exist in many metropolises…
Find more suggestions in the video review above!
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