books by Poitevin authors for an up-to-date Christmas

Heritage

follow the leader

Historian, delegate of the Heritage Foundation and lover of Poitou, Isabelle Soulard has created a valuable guide to visiting the department. Views of Viennaedited by Michel Fontaine, invites you to discover or rediscover more than 150 sites, from Loudunais to Civraisien and from Montmorillonnais to Vouglaisien and the Pays Mélusin. Each of these places, public or private, is presented by a photo and a short text which summarizes its history. An invitation to stroll, from the Berry fortress to the Fontevrist priory of Lencloître, passing by the Norée mill, the Prémarie washhouses and the Blossac theater in Châtellerault.

“Views of Vienne”, by Isabelle Soulard, Michel Fontaine-Editions, 160 pages, €12.

Roman

Slice of life
intimate

José, Marie, Paul and Julien talk about each other and meet each other. They express their solitude, their desires, their doubts, their emotions. Intimate slices of life. They flow like soft music whose chiselled writing by Jean Renaud delicately orchestrates the melodies, harmonies and silences. The former prep teacher at the Camille-Guérin high school juggles with words and atmospheres. It suggests budding loves, depicts failed encounters and flirts with eroticism… On the borders of the new novel and Perec's writing games, The Rosehips can be read in one breath. That of time which passes but which erases nothing of the fleeting moments where the brambles and roses of life grow.

“Les Églantiers”, by Jean Renaud, PhB Éditions, 128 pages, €15.

Militant

Today's fights

and words of tomorrow

Emeritus research director at the CNRS, anthropologist Gilles Boëtsch is one of the scientists well known in Poitiers for his work on the Great Green Wall, a strip of vegetation designed to slow down the advance of the Sahel, from Senegal to Djibouti. He also provided scientific direction for a dictionary of words that address the struggles of our time. Published by Atlande, The words of tomorrow brings together the contributions of more than eighty researchers. Feminism, gender, discrimination, ecology, bodily sociability: they analyze the new vocabulary that is emerging in our societies as well as the concepts and struggles that it conveys.

“The words of tomorrow, a dictionary of today's struggles”, under the scientific direction of Gilles Boëtsch and Bernard Andrieu, Atlande editions, 508 pages, €25.

History

The resistant clergy
in Vienna

Many priests and religious people resisted the Vichy regime and the Nazi occupiers, between 1940 and 1944, in Vienne. Many paid for it with their lives. The association of historians Vienne internally deportation resistance (Vrid) does them justice, under the direction of Jean-Marie Augustin, professor emeritus at the University of Poitiers, in a book intended to be a reference. The Resistant Clergy in the Department of Vienne traces the journey and commitments of several dozen members of the clergy during these dark years. Some were smugglers, like the priest of Chatain. Others came to the aid of Gypsies and Jews, like Father Jean Fleury, the first Frenchman to be declared Righteous Among the Nations. Twelve were involved in the Louis Renard network, one of the first in France. Another, André Têté, was chaplain of the maquis… So many faces, too often forgotten, of the resistance.

“The Resistant Clergy in the Vienne department”, by the historians of Vrid, under the direction of Jean-Marie Augustin, La Geste, 304 pages, €25.

Economy

On the trails
of the economic war

University professor and teacher-researcher at the Institute of Business Administration in Poitiers, Nicolas Moinet is a specialist in economic intelligence. At the end of 2024, he is signing a new work in the series The paths of economic warfare. From competition to confrontationsuch is its title, analyzes the methods of states and multinationals to impose their interests. Merciless battle for sovereignty where economics and geopolitics are intimately intertwined. Nicolas Moinet explains behind the scenes.

“From competition to confrontation, the paths of economic war”, by Nicolas Moinet, ValeurAddé éditions, 180 pages, €18.