Catch-up guide | Our favorites elsewhere

Among all the French novels and translations that we discovered this year, some have left indelible traces. Here are 10 titles that particularly made us vibrate.

On the wild side, Tiffany McDaniel

Tiffany McDaniel is one of the hottest talents in America right now. This young author who made herself known with Betty manages to make even the greatest darkness shine with a thousand lights. This third novel of stunning beauty is inspired by a series of feminicides which targeted young drug-addicted prostitutes, all found near the river which runs through a small town in Ohio. A moving and unforgettable novel.

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The children of the sea, Virginia Tangvald

In this poignant story, director Virginia Tangvald recounts her quest for identity, sometimes in the footsteps of her father, the great navigator Peter Tangvald, and sometimes in those of her brother, Thomas, who followed him in his shipwreck at sea. in itself is extraordinary, but the author's captivating pen plunges us headfirst into the depths of this family drama. A dizzying journey into the heart of the waves and mirages of freedom.

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How to love, Lisa Moore

Along with Ann-Marie Macdonald and Miriam Toews, Newfoundlander Lisa Moore is part of a trio of English-Canadian authors whose novels manage to move us deeply. This one is about love – starting with a mother's love for her son, in critical condition after an assault in St. John's. All in a surreal setting, while the city is paralyzed by the storm of the century.

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Crying at the supermarket, Michelle Zauner

This first novel evokes the mourning of the author who, upon losing her mother, realizes that a whole part of her identity has just collapsed. Between the culinary heritage left by this Korean mother, the young singer and guitarist of the group Japanese Breakfast evokes her childhood memories, their quarrels then their fight against devastating cancer. A book that one reads with moist eyes, and which is both a cry from the heart and a proof of immeasurable love.

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Usual, Javier Zamora

Stories of irregular migrants frequently make the headlines, but it's not every day that you can read a personal testimony like this, which can also be devoured like a novel. Javier Zamora crossed borders more than 20 years ago, from his native El Salvador to the United States, where his parents were waiting for him. Alone, with a smuggler and a group of strangers. He was 9 years old. It is this incredible journey that we discover, his fear and his worries throughout the journey, accurately carried by his child's voice.

Interlude, Sally Rooney

If you like bittersweet sentimental stories, this fourth novel from the author of Normal People is a must. With a finesse that only she has the secret, Sally Rooney finds a way to talk about mourning, the weight of choices and the difficult transition to adulthood that two brothers experience in completely opposite ways. While bringing us into the intimacy of their pillow conversations, alongside old or new flames.

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Besides, David Chariandy

Toronto author David Chariandy transports us in this novel to the suburbs of Scarborough, where two brothers grow up in a neighborhood where we learn too early to fear the police, and where the worst unfortunately ends up happening. It is an entire invisible youth that he describes, in the end, and which recalls the reality of many cities in North America. A book of great sweetness, despite the sadness that emanates from it.

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Jacaranda, Gail Faye

Renaudot Prize of the Year, this second novel by the Franco-Rwandan author is touching with its narrator's candid view of his mother's Rwanda. Over several decades and generations, the young man takes us into the after-effects of the genocide and the social fractures that still divide society. But he also reveals in passing a country of unsuspected vitality, which we discover from the inside with him.

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The Jaguar's Dream, Miguel Bonnefoy

Winner of the Femina Prize and the Grand Prix du roman from the French Academy this fall, The Jaguar's Dream is a fabulous epic through Venezuela in the 1930s and 1950s, from Maracaibo to Caracas. The author retraces the grandiose destiny of his maternal grandparents, both born in great poverty before becoming true monuments, famous throughout the country. An extraordinary family fable, tinged with wonder.

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Back to Belfast, Michael Magee

Michael Magee is certainly an author to follow among the first-time foreign novelists translated this year, and here he tells of a Northern Ireland that we rarely hear about. His characters are young, from poor neighborhoods and completely disenchanted with their chances of escaping the poverty imposed by their environment. And yet, a glimmer of hope remains as we follow the narrator through his downfalls and failures, in the aftermath of the Northern Irish conflict.

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