Winter literary return/1. It’s back to school! On the program and on the shelves of bookstores, by the end of February, no less than 507 novels and stories. In a first selection, in all subjectivity, We Culte has selected seven that are as sensational as they are essential… Happy reading to all!
Winter literary return : 507 novels and stories are expected by the end of February 2025
THE FAVORITE
“When the earth was flat” de Jean-Claude Grumberg
In a recent interview, he confided: “My mother never asked for anything. So, I wanted to pay tribute to him”. Thus, storyteller, playwright and screenwriter, bringing together the rare memories of his mother, his childhood and his brother’s stories, Jean-Claude Grumberg wrote “When the earth was flat”a magnificent text dedicated to Suzanne, a strong and free woman.
Certainly, so many books have been written about mothers, but here, we are with Grumberg and that changes everything. Another confidence from the author: “I realize how difficult it is to tell a true story, especially when you don’t know it”.
What Grumberg knows about his mother: she was born in Paris in 1907 to parents from Galicia (today Ukraine). Married to Zacharie who will never return from“we don’t know where”she raised her two sons alone, Maxime the eldest and Jean-Claude, worked, learned to read.
In this tribute also to his brother Maxime, Grumberg recounts two world wars, the time of suspicion and horror, the forced exile of his Jewish family from Eastern Europe, the pogroms, the Shoah… A confession signed Jean-Claude Grumberg: “In storytelling, we invent to tell the truth” who also writes: “When you don’t know how to start, start at the beginning”. And this is how “When the earth was flat”a title referring to words from Yahweh to Moses, is the favorite of this winter 2025 literary season!
- “When the earth was flat” de Jean-Claude Grumberg. The Bookstore of the 21st Century / Seuil, 180 pages, 19 €.
AND ALSO
“Living low” by Jeanne Benameur
At the seaside, a woman, Marie, appears. His son, gone forever after crossing “the great suffering”entrusted it to his faithful friend Jean. He accompanies her, always at a respectful distance, to the village. She meets a child there – which will prove to be a crucial encounter and makes all the charm and magic of “Living low”the new novel by Jeanne Benameur.
In these sensitive pages, there is tragedy, love, transmission with this mute little girl. The novel of all these silent lives, of Marie, this woman “mother and saint” who goes to meet another version of herself, for a liturgy which will only remain in the memory of others. A text moving with emotion(s) and elegance.
- “Living down » by Jeanne Benameur. Actes Sud, 210 pages, €19.50.
“Not from here” d’Espérance Garçonnat
On lit : “I had a name for a long time that I no longer remember”. Or again: “I fell from my life like others fall by twisting their ankle. I can’t say what brought me so far from everything”.
The man who said these words chose exile in Fermagina, a remote village on an Italian island. He no longer wants to be just a presence. Hero and narrator of “Not from here”the first novel ofEsperance Boynat26 years old and born in Nancy – she reports the daily life of this man who is on the margins, wishing only to be forgotten and to escape.
In this ode to joy, the question is asked: how to survive oneself without being able to become another? The editor of Pas d’ici is categorical: “Not from here”it’s the new “Hello sadness”…
- “Not from here” of Esperance Garçonnat. Shores, 258 pages, €20.50.
“The Love of Singular Men” de Victor Heringer
The beautiful and great discovery of this winter 2025 literary season. A novel, the second, by the Brazilian writer, poet and photographer Victor Heringer nicely titled “The Love of Singular Men”.
Born in 1988 and celebrated in Brazil for his work, he ended his life in 2018. In his novel, he features Camilo, a 13-year-old kid who lives in Rio.
White and the son of a doctor, he is on the right side of the fence – except that he suffers from a leg disability and has difficulty communicating with his parents. One day, without giving the slightest explanation, the father brings home a “street child”– Cosme, handsome, poor and strong… A love-hate relationship ensues between the two kids. A text floating between Cortazar and Nabokov.
- “The Love of Singular Men” by Victor Heringer. Translated by Hélène Mélo. Denoël, 210 pages, €20.
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“Your promise” by Camille Laurens
She asked him: “I would like you to promise not to betray me”. He makes her promise never to write about him. She says: “In my eyes, it was easy to keep this promise, very easy. (…) For what ? Because happy people have no story”.
Claire Lancel is a novelist, Gilles Fabian is a puppet specialist – she is better known than him, no matter, together, they live in love and happiness. He is jealous, she goes out without him… She is sitting in her garden in Hyères when the gendarmes come to pick her up, she is covered in blood – Gilles’ blood.
“Your promise”the new novel by Camille Laurenshas the allure of a thriller – and more than that: the novelist offers us an implacable text on influence, this new form of domination…
- “Your promise” by Camille Laurens. Gallimard, 370 pages, €22.50.
“Hidden treasure” by Pascal Quignard
One of the great joys of this winter 2025 literary season. A new novel that is always stunning Pascal Quignard. The simple title: “Hidden treasure”. It could be banal, it is delicately exciting.
A woman buries her cat in her garden, she finds a treasure there. She is going to travel. In Italy, she meets a man. In one year, his life was transformed from top to bottom. It could be banal, a novel by a specialist in the written word. But here, we are in the company of Pascal Quignard.
Dazzling is guaranteed on every page, on every floor! And this “hidden treasure”who is it ? Who knows, perhaps a garden of wonders, a river of beauties… or even old age and its sweetness. Maybe even love.
- “Hidden treasure” by Pascal Quignard. Albin Michel, 306 pages, €21.90.
“A magnificent loser” by Florence Seyvos
The 1980s in Le Havre, Abidjan, Rome. There was a time when girls drank gin while watching the movie ” Rocky ». It was also a time when we met Jacques. He was absent for a long time, he is back, very ill – which does not prevent him from setting up life plans and other projects. He talks about it to his daughter-in-law. Jacques is, as they say, a “character”, an “original”.
In “A magnificent loser”– the new text from the novelist and screenwriter Florence Seyvoshe does some business and above all with his life, he invents a permanent spectacle. One Christmas evening, he arrives in Le Havre, imposes his rules of life on Anna’s family, his daughter-in-law. Is he a gentleman? a tramp? What if he was just an illusionist heading inexorably toward bankruptcy?
Serge Bressan
