Mireille magnified by Gustave Fayet
With its beautiful binding and Italian format, the new publication of Mireille by Frédéric Mistral, by Actes Sud (€45) will delight bibliophiles. The new translation of the Provençal poem by Claude Guerre is prefaced by the musician Jordi Savall and the fashion designer Christian Lacroix. Above all, it is accompanied by the boards of Gustave Fayet. At the end of his life, the patron, who died in 1925, drew 72 plates with a pen and calamus. Between the Alpilles and the Camargue, with the volutes and hatchings dear to Van Gogh, he happily exalts this unique blend of elements and offers, in the words of the designer, to immerse body and soul in this “golden triangle, crucible of so many spells and legends.”
Book Bouquine, the latest addition to Nîmes publishing houses
Created last April by Stéphane Gin, Book Bouquine is the latest arrival on the local literary landscape. She notably published the collection of short stories The World of Tomorrow (€18), the novel of emancipation The voice of the mango treeby Stéphane Gin (€15) and three children’s books by author and illustrator Audrey Timar (€14). Information bookbouquine.fr
“To the city and to the world” and news of the Hemingway Prize
Nîmes Fabien Penchinat won the latest Hemingway Prize with his short story To the city and to the worldwhere he imagined the first Vatican feria, organized in St. Peter’s Square in Rome by a Colombian pope, who had taken holy orders after a career as a novillero. His text is at the heart of the collection published by Au Diable Vauvert (€17), with other short story finalists by Jaime Llopis, Francis Zamponi, Aïssa Lacheb, Bruno Paternot, Caroline Chemarin, Laurent Aussel, Jérémie Gallon, Nathalie Burel, Pierre- Marie Baux, Diniz Galhos, Fabiola Flores López, Iván de Santiago González.
“Wunderland”, a story by Pauline Clavière
Originally from Nîmes, writer and journalist, Pauline Clavière remains faithful to non-fiction literature with her third book, Wonderland (€21.90) published by Albin Michel. In this story, she returns to Cantal, to the village of her mother whose life was turned upside down by the arrival in the 1970s, by the arrival on the evening of a July 14 ball of two mysterious young German women, Brunhilde and Mariella. Little by little, the secrets and ghosts of the war will resurface…
Through the Cévennes with Robert-Louis Stevenson
THE Travel with a donkey in the Cévennesby Robert-Louis Stevenson, popularized hiking at a time when there were no tourists… His story, published in 1879, today gives birth to a comic strip, the first published by the Alcide house, with drawings by Marlène Merveilleux and a script by Alexandre Cot (€20).
Furthermore, the Gardois are not the only ones to be interested in this epic, brought up to date in particular by the film Antoinette in the Cévennes. Thus Gallimard has just published in its Voyages collection, On the paths of Stevenson: Cévennes & other European itineraries (25 €).
Françoise Sagan behind the screen
Jean-Noël Grando from Nîmes explores a little-known angle in the career of the author of Hello sadness. With Sagan behind the screen published by Un Autre Reg’Art (€24) and prefaced by Laurent Delmas, he discusses his relationship with cinema, from the adaptation of his novels to his participation in screenwriting, from his forgotten passage to directing at his presidency of the Cannes Film Festival. New and full of discoveries!
The Cévennes in the war, told to children
In the Alcide jeunesse collection, appears The Cévennes, refuge and rebel mountain, 1939-1945 (€14), signed by the historian specializing in the Cévennes Jean-Paul Chabrol. To introduce young audiences to the importance of resistance and the role of the Cévenols in the protection of thousands of Jews threatened with deportation by Nazi Germany and French collaborators.
With Alcide, the beauty of the Cévennes in pictures
Faithful to the Cévennes, Yann Cruvelier and the Nîmes publishing house Alcide continue to invite photographers to explore this always fascinating territory. Two beautiful books enrich the catalog, Journey to the Cévennes (€29) by Jean du Boisberranger, who traveled the world before becoming passionate about the South of France with compositions that are both graphic and attentive to detail.
At the same time, photographer Thierry Vezon publishes Cévennes lights (€29). From the blue line on the summits to the fog on the Causses, via the undergrowth, the photographer celebrates the fragile beauty of nature. His images are accompanied by a few pages in counterpoint, in a bilingual French-English edition by Patrick Cabanel, retracing in broad strokes the history and geography of the country of the Camisards.
At Atelier Baie, rooted books
When Bruno Doan and Atelier Baie are interested in the territory, it is always through humans. The latest publications from the Nîmes house allow you to meet those who bring the region to life, with three books written by Midi Libre alumni.
Specialist in wine and viticulture, Marc Médevielle looks back on three centuries of history of wine-growing regions with The Feeling of Languedoc (€20), from the creation of the Canal du Midi in the 17th century to recent revolutions in the art of understanding taste and terroir.
After an immersion in Ponteils-et-Brésis, Agathe Beaudouin publishes the travel diary A corner of land in the Cévennes (€20). Finally with A peasant ambition (€15), Gil Lorfèvre speaks at length with winemaker Denis Verdier and recounts fifty years of commitment to serving the rural world.
