“For around fifteen years, there has been increasing recognition of French crime writers such as Franck Thilliez or Maxime Chattam. We can even cite Pierre Lemaitre because he originally wrote detective stories. »
“The thriller is always a pretext to evoke society”
Anne-Laure Billon could talk about this literary genre for hours. Employed at the Librairie de Paris, she is even at the origin of the creation of the Les Gueules Noirs du polar festival: “When Alexandra Charroin-Spangenberg (1) and Rémi Boute (the co-managers of the establishment) entrusted me with this department, I suggested that we put energy into a single event dedicated to detective literature.”
An appointment with a strong identity: “By choosing this name, we wanted to highlight the human and collective side of Saint-Étienne. This is very important to us. Besides, we always take the authors to visit the Mining Museum. »
Since 2018, every November, authors have come one after the other in the store on rue Michel-Rondet: “The thriller is always a pretext to evoke society,” says the bookseller. This year (November 22 and 23), we are focusing on comics. »
A “taste and literary” experience
The 7th edition will open with an exceptional round table around the work of Georges Simenon. And who could speak better of the Belgian novelist than one of his sons? Accompanied by the illustrator Jacques de Loustal (co-author of the comic strip Simenon, l’Ostrogoth and illustrator of All Maigret ), John Simenon will immerse the public in the world of the famous pipe commissioner (Friday at 6 p.m.) (2): “A film and television producer, he is a true conveyor of stories who carefully watches over the stories of his father. »
To complete this evening dedicated to the creator of the famous investigator played in the cinema by Jean Gabin and Bruno Cremer, the Librairie de Paris called on the creativity of the École hôtelière Renouveau (Saint-Genest-Lerpt): “We have established a partnership with BTS 2e year. The students will adapt their reading of Simenon culinaryly. For the public, the experience will be gustatory and literary,” explains Anne-Laure Billon.
The thriller and humor
On Saturday, the police literature festival has scheduled two round tables. At 10 a.m., Jacky Schwartzmann (Shit !) and Sylvain Vallée ( Once upon a time in France) will present their project in two volumes, We have Bastard ( Necessary Being et A Heart under a cassock).
At 2:30 p.m., the subject “humor, thriller and dark novel? » will be invited to “Gueules Noirs” with Pascale Dietrich ( L’Agent et The Mafia girls) et Jacky Schwartzmann.
As for the tribute to the creator of Maigret, it will continue on the screen of the Saint-Étienne cinema library from November 26 to 28 with the screening of adaptations of his works (The Widow Couderc by Pierre Granier-Deferre, Maigret and the Saint-Fiacre Affair by Jean Delannoy, Three of a kind by Henri Verneuil…).
(1) In September, Alexandra Charroin-Spangenberg was elected president of the French Bookstore Union.
(2) Les Gueules noirs du thriller at the Librairie de Paris (6, rue Michel-Rondet in Saint-Étienne), Friday 22 and Saturday 23 November. Book signing sessions after each round table, access to which is free but by reservation on the bibliographydeparis.com website.
