laa fbf2014 fictionlist

8/10/2019 LAa FBF2014 Fictionlist

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Frankfurt Bookfair 2014Fiction

Tables 5i&6i



2

Frankfurt Bookfair 2014Fiction list

HOW I AM A BIRD

Paul Ardenne 3

THE UNTAMEDNathalie Bauer 4

WE WERE THE SALT OF THE SEARoxanne Bouchard 5

BUNYIPLouis Carmain 6

MOONLIGHT DRINKERSPierre Chazal 7

MY BEAUTIFUL WOUNDMartin Clavet 8

LIQUIDATIONLaurent Cordonnier 9

NO MEMORY OF CAESAREAMarie-Ange Guillaume 10

RAVIOLI FRACTALPierre Sauvage 11

THE ANGUISH OF GOLD FISHMélissa Verreault 12

THE CLOUDS’ SHARE Thomas Vinau 13

SHADOW GAME

Ivan Zinberg 14

CHERRY BLOSSOM Aline Apostolska 15

THE CANARY ISLANDSClaudia Larochelle 16

S.A.S.H.A.Martin Michaud 17

SHE WAS SO LOVELYPierre Szalowski 18



3

F - Literary

HOW I AM A BIRD

Paul Ardenne

Paul, from the moment he could think, develops a love for birds. Not only does he want to be anornithologist but his belief that they are superior sacred beings forms his conviction that he is one of

them. At school, at home, in the countryside, later as a student in the city, Paul organizes his life aroundthis idea. He waits impatiently for his first feathers. He mingles with real birds. He builds nests. He keepsa watchful eye on predators. But the world soon grows hostile: for the human world is not a bird’s world.

How I am a bird is a timeless tale about a young soul dreaming of being something other than what heis. The metamorphosis that takes place, while trying to live like a bird, reveals a singular truth: beyond ourregrets and beyond our sense of failure, we are also made up of what we could not be.

Paul Ardenne is an art historian, novelist and regular contributor to such reviews as Art Press and Archistorm. His last novel, Sans visage , was published by Grasset in 2012.

Le Passage – Paris – September 2014 – 288 pagesForeign rights: L'Autre agence - Corinne Marotte/Marie Lannurien

[email protected]



4

F - Literary

THE UNTAMED

Nathalie Bauer

Masterfully written, well researched and terribly human, this greatliterary and historical novel is a tribute to women in the twentiethcentury.

Sisters Noelie and Julienne and their cousin Gabrielle are on the verge of bankruptcy, and desperatelytrying to save their family estate. At their ripe age, their options are a bit limited, so Noelie decides to writea novel about her family, in the absurd and naive hope of it becoming a great success. Told in the past and

present, the Randan family saga is one of landowners in the Aveyron region whose fate espouses the ebband tide of the 20th century: the horrors of the Great War, the troubled period of reconstruction, thedepression… Dreams of wealth, love and emancipation come to fruition for some and fail for others.

While Noelie is hard at work on her novel, the three women agree to have their niece Zoe come live with them. None of them could have imagined that this 24-year-old depressive, alcoholic and slightlynymphomaniac girl would bring such turmoil to their lives.

In a sweeping style, Nathalie Bauer tells the story of the rise and fall of a family. Among thenumerous endearing characters, the Randan family women emerge as pillars despite all of the obstacles

and prejudice in their paths, as women who never abandon their freedom and remain untamed.

“An ode to life; passages filled with emotional intensity” Page

“This book is a delight and an upheaval. An achievement!” Version Femina

Nathalie Bauer is a writer as well as a translator from Italian to French. She holds a PhD in History andThe Untamed is her fourth novel.

Philippe Rey – Paris – August 2014 – 496 pages

Foreign rights: L'Autre agence - Corinne Marotte/Marie [email protected]

(Italian, Dutch,Spanish and German rights excluded)



5

F – Contemporary

WE WERE THE SALT OF THE SEA

Roxanne Bouchard

It’s Vital. Looks like he caught a corpse in his net. That’s what hesaid on the CB radio. You’d like to hear some stories about thesea? Stay with us and you’ll hear plenty of them, my dear!

After a series of existential questions has caused her to feel aimless, Catherine Day travels to theseaside on the Gaspé Peninsula in search of answers. While she is exploring the shore, she is greeted by

some fishermen who have no expectations. They speak a language that is rough and they know thatbeyond the horizon there is nothing but waves that will come and eventually leave again. Cyrille, VictorFerlatte and Vital Bujold know that Catherine is looking for Marie Garant, but they do not tell her.

They know that she won’t find her. When Vital returns from a fishing trip with a drowned man in his

net, silence turns to anger, for the fishermen of La Baie see it as a sign of bad things to come. Or a trace,perhaps, of terrible secrets buried at sea that are now resurfacing. Detective Moralès, on the other hand,has just been transferred to the Gaspé Peninsula from Montréal. He is waiting for his wife (who will notcome) when he suddenly gets caught up in a case that is as inscrutable as the surrounding landscape andthe people who inhabit it.

Roxanne Bouchard won the Robert-Cliche award in 2005 for Whisky et paraboles and her collection ofletters, En terrain miné , was met with great success. She also won the Desjardins Grand Prize for literaturein the Lanaudière Area in recognition of her life’s work.

VLB Éditeur – Québec – August 2014 – 248 pagesForeign rights: L'Autre agence - Corinne Marotte/Marie Lannurien

[email protected]



6

F – Literary

BUNYIP

Louis Carmain

By the author of Guano , winner of the Collégiens award andfinalist for the Archambault literary award. Chosen as a favouriteduring ADP’s day dedicated to booksellers.

After the success of Guano, his first novel (finalist for the Robert-Cliche and Archambault literary awardsin 2012, winner of the Collégiens literary award in 2014), Louis Carmain returns with BUNYIP , a story set

in Tasmania in the 1980s that is told with the author’s abrasive sense of humour in a highly visual style.

Timothé, a photojournalist who is on a mission to find the wreck of a famous ship, meets a seductive Taiwanese militant during his travels. When the two characters visit a mine that has been occupied by aband of guerrillas fighting for their island’s independence, they are made prisoners and are forced to

follow the rebels’ bloody path. The secretary who works at the same magazine as Timothé is troubled by

his prolonged absence. She decides to track him down in the hope of bringing him back alive and, mostimportantly, unattached.

Louis Carmain holds a master’s degree in literature from the Université Laval. Today, he lives in

Gatineau, where he is a civil servant. His first novel won the prestigious Collégiens award and was met with considerable critical acclaim.

VLB Éditeur – Québec – September 2014 – 128 pagesForeign rights: L'Autre agence - Corinne Marotte/Marie Lannurien

[email protected]



7

F - Novel

MOONLIGHT DRINKERS

Pierre Chazal

The passion of Le Grand Meaulnes in the time of squats, Ecstasyand trance music? After Marcus , Pierre Chazal creates a moving portrait of modern love and friendship against a backdrop ofeconomic crisis and urban drift.

Autumn 2011. It’s raining in Paris. Balthazar, 26 years old, drunk and lonely, son of a psychoanalysist, wanders the streets of the capital after his break up with Mélanie. Chain-smoking and drinking, eating inbars, Balt only feels at home in his music and the nightlife. He’s looking for any trace of his much-lovedolder brother, Stan, who was put into detox for psychiatric evaluation after a fight one night outside aconcert. But Stan has escaped, no one knows where, and Bart won’t give up until he’s found him.

Built around this trio of offbeat characters, Drinkers of Moonlight is a moving portrait of love in Parisand its suburbs in the 21st Century. Pierre Chazal describes with equal facility the plight of the workingclass and a bourgeoisie who, subjected to crisis after crisis, is losing its bonhomie. Chazal gives voice to anew generation, disgusted with the future but lost in the here and now.

“The irreverent wit of Pierre Chazal perfectly evokes the frustrations of isolation, violence and injustice.

Between Audiard and Gavalda, a novelist is born.” Marianne Payot, L’Express

Pierre Chazal was born in 1977. He studied and lived Lille, then England, before moving to Paris. Heteaches French as a Foreign Language. His debut novel, Marcus (2012), was awarded the prix René Falletin 2013. It has been translated into Italian and German.

Alma – Paris – August 2014 – 476 pagesForeign rights: L'Autre agence - Corinne Marotte/Marie Lannurien

[email protected]



8

F – Debut

MY BEAUTIFUL WOUND

Martin Clavet

This book received the 2014 Robert-Cliche award for new literary voices in Quebec. A surprising novel with a strong evocative power.

The child who sits down to write this personal diary is innocent. Having recently moved into a new

neighbourhood, he looks forward to meeting his classmates. On the first day, however, he comes face toface with a bully in the schoolyard. The child’s sunny interior gradually grows dimmer when insults

become punches that eventually lead to torture. The lively sentences at the beginning of the book give wayto a style of writing that seems less naive. In the end, the beaten-down child decides to fill the pages of hisdiary, his only friend, his “paper brother.”

Martin Clavet lives in Montréal, where he studies translation. This is his first novel, winner of theRobert-Cliche award in 2014.


[email protected]



9

F – Science-fiction

LIQUIDATION

Laurent Cordonnier

In a fictionalized account, Laurent Cordonnier deconstructs themadness of modern society, trapped under the rod of marketeconomy and financial institutions.

Stuck in insolvency proceedings and on the verge of bankruptcy, Smithski, an unwilling hero, isplummeting towards decline, as is the destiny of all “Wibankacs”, or “without bank accounts.” His fall is

the metaphor of what awaits the world around us.

Yet, in this totally disenchanted world where children are no longer wanted and where banks have allthe control, a world where the only point of reference is the implacable precision of economic calculation,something has got to give and Smithski’s path is filled with many surprises along the way: who would have

expected resistance from a few active residents of Lumières Tower in the neighbourhood of Poor Venice?Or the commitment of Laurene, Smithski’s girlfriend and very devoted president of the Union of Ladies

of the Evening? On the other hand, who would have expected so much corruption within thegovernment? Or within the bank itself?

This dark but witty and learned novel delights in twisting Orwellian theory and setting it in a worlddictated by financial markets. To the reader, it all appears to be one huge conspiracy but it becomes clearlate in the game that, though there is indeed a conspiracy, it is not at all the one he imagined. The authorattacks Orwell’s dark prophecies from a new angle, leaving open a glimmer of hope for real change.

Laurent Cordonnier is a French economist and senior lecturer at Université Lille 1 as well as a lecturer atthe Political Science Institute in Lille. His research centres around microeconomics (growth, employment,revenue sharing...) with a particular focus on the dynamics of financialised capitalism. He is a regularcontributor to the monthly liberal Le Monde diplomatique and the author of Pas de pitié pour les gueux ( No Pity

for Paupers — over 12 000 copies sold) and L'économie des Toambapiks ( The Economy of the Toambapiks — 6000

copies sold).

Les Liens qui Libèrent – Paris – May 2014 – 368 pagesForeign rights: L'Autre agence - Corinne Marotte/Marie Lannurien

[email protected]



10

F - Literary

NO MEMORY OF CAESAREA

Marie-Ange Guillaume

“Marie- Ange Guillaume knows how to communicate what’sessential, simply and directly. She understands the great power ofhumour when used well, with modesty, but ignoring any taboos.She leaves us with tears in our eyes and a smile on our face.”Benjamin Fau, Le Monde des livres

Her memory is little more than a long period of amnesia. She has forgotten everything from her

childhood, except fear and ennui. She remembers nothing after the age of 20. She has even forgottenCaesarea. She remembers only Racine’s verse, “I will remain a long time wandering in Caesarea.” Luckily

her mother kept a journal about the time they spent there, the mother she has just lost and who felt sodifferent from her.

She arrives to clean out her mother’s old home. There are old friends to help her, through tears andlaughter. She arms herself with her mother’s journal and meets head on the strange disappearance of her

memories. She attempts to reconstruct her old life, as well as her mother’s, even if this means tampering with the facts – but that doesn’t matter for, by and by, the truth emerges, shifting and vague. And she

finds she gets to know her mother again while giving us to see the images of a time.

Marie-Ange Guillaume is the author of Tout le cimetière en parle , Ils s’en allaient faire des enfants ailleurs ,L’Odeur de l’homme , La Dernière nuit and Ça m’énerve . She has also written biographies on humourist PierreDesproges and graphic writer René Goscinny as well as children’s books.

Le Passage – Paris – August 2014 – 192 pagesForeign rights: L'Autre agence - Corinne Marotte/Marie Lannurien

[email protected]



11

F - Debut

RAVIOLI FRACTAL

Pierre Raufast

She wanted to kill her cheating spouse with a bowl of poisonedravioli, but at the fatal moment, the plan takes an unexpectedtangent… The fatal moment becomes a fractal moment.

Enough is enough. Her husband Marc has cheated on her yet again. This time, she’s going to put an

end to it with a little poisoned ravioli, his favourite dish. But at the very moment the cheat is about toingest his poisonous pasta, the plan is foiled. A memory surges up. A new plot develops, she plans thepoison dish again, another chance moment intervenes, a new story interlopes, another plan to poison thatcheat, Marc, is developed, only to be foiled by another interloping story…

Before knowing the ultimate destiny of Marc (has he finally eaten the deadly raviolis?), the plotdevelops story upon story: a Sacred Virgin impossible to catch on camera, the life of the boy-who-sees-infrared, a recipe for ridding oneself of moles, the story of a simple sheep-herder who just might be ableto end the war in Iraq…

This joyful and inventive debut novel links together half-dozen story lines. Developed with thrillingprecision and lightening speed, they create an astonishing picture of a short but decisive time in one’s life.

Pierre Raufast was born in Marseille in 1973 and grew up nearby. He studied engineering at l'École desMines in Nancy and currently lives in Clermont-Ferrand, where he works as a Computer Engineer.


[email protected]



13

F – Contemporary

THE CLOUDS’ SHARE

Thomas Vinau

At once beautifully and simply written, this novel tells a lot aboutthe contemporary man.

Joseph, 37 years old, manages his boat as best he can. Like everybody else, he waits for the eveningto come, then tomorrow, then the end of the month, then the next vacation – until each day is just like thenext, and has been since he was a child. But Joseph is no longer a child, he has one of his own, Noé, andhis boat is taking in water.

The mother and child leave for the holidays. Lost, Joseph retreats. Like Calvino’s rampant baron,

standing at a distance to survey the world, like Blissful Alexander in his bed, Joseph seeks solace in a tree-fort he built at the back of his garden. He retreats there to reinvigorate his dreams. And he finds there asecond refuge: in the stories of others – a young girl, a bourgeois, a drifter.... As slow and stubborn as aturtle seeking out its first dandelion greens, Joseph pushes through his night, clears away the storms in hislife and looks up at the clouds. Ready, now, for anything.

“All the mornings of the world sing in his short sentences.” Yann Plougastel, Le Monde magazine

Thomas Vinau was born in Toulouse in 1978 and currently lives in the Luberon Massif. Nuages is histhird novel and fifth book with Alma.


[email protected]



14

F - Thriller

SHADOW GAME

Ivan Zinberg

A first novel, written by a policeman. Sophisticated but tight, fast- paced and effective writing, with a plot that never lags. A new typeof serial killer.

Seattle. A young IT genius is involved in the murder an eminent Genetics researcher on a universitycampus. He tips off the police and helps the murder investigation while hiding his identity behindincreasingly sophisticated communication platforms.

Several hundred kilometres away, the Portland police are called after the grisly discovery of a burntcorpse in the middle of the forest. Forensics show, the body had been buried for years, and nobody caredfor it. Yet the burning was a mere hours old. Only the original killer could have known where to find thecorpse again.

Why has the killer returned to the scene of the crime? Why burn a body that has already beensuccessfully disappeared? Police lieutenant Paul Lorenzo and his men set out on the trail of a terriblekiller, with an insatiable bloodlust, capable of donning mask after mask after mask in an endless game ofshadows.

Ivan Zinberg is the pseudonym of a 33-year old French police lieutenant working at the heart of aFrench Bureau of Investigations. Shadow Game , his debut novel, is a masterful thriller, full of twists andturns, introducing a terrifyingly new kind of serial killer.

Critic – Rennes – May 2014 – 512 pagesForeign rights: L'Autre agence - Corinne Marotte/Marie Lannurien

[email protected]



15

F – Thriller

CHERRY BLOSSOM

Aline Apostolska

FLIGHT 459 : the series following L’ORPHÉON . Media launchand extensive promotional tour. Well-known writer with a veryhigh media profile.

Following the success of the series of books published under the title of L’Orphéon , Flight 459 is acollection of four novels written by different authors that can be read separately, but which all focus on

the same event: a plane crash over the ocean.

Mark Nguyen leads a team that makes missiles for the American air force. When his wife tells himthat she is pregnant, he decides to travel to Vietnam to learn more about his origins. He manages to tracehis family history and find his biological parents, who sacrificed everything during the war to offer theirchildren a better life. He even meets his twin sister. She is scheduled to land in Montréal that very day,though she doesn’t know that Mark is waiting for her…

In this suspense novel, which is also partly a sociological one written in a poetic prose style, wefollow a man who has reached a crucial point in his life, when he must learn to face himself.

Aline Apostolska is a French writer and journalist living in Quebec. She has published several novels with Leméac and hosts a talk show focused on the art of dance, a subject about which she is passionate.She won the Governor General’s Award for French-language children’s literature in 2012.


[email protected]



16

F – Contemporary

THE CANARY ISLANDS

Claudia Larochelle

FLIGHT 459: the series following L’ORPHÉON, featuring well-known writers with very high media profile. It will have a stronglaunch and extensive promotional tour.



Louisa Vanier, a wife and mother of two children, is a flight attendant aboard flight 459. After thefatal crash, her loved ones fear for the worst. Everyone, in turn, deals with grief as they must come togrips with the tragedy. They remember their dear Louisa, and when they open her closets, they find herskeletons.

We all have something to hide, of course… What remains of us when we disappear? In this intimateand touching novel, we discover an unforgettable female character through the eyes of the people who shehas left behind.

Claudia Larochelle is a journalist and the host of the television show LIRE. She is the author of acollection of short stories, Les bonnes filles plantent des fleurs au printemps (Leméac, 2011).


[email protected]



17

F – Thriller

S.A.S.H.A.

Martin Michaud


Following the success of the series of books published under the title of L’Orphéon , Flight 459 is acollection of four novels written by different authors that can be read separately, but which all focus onthe same event: a plane crash over the ocean.

Elias and little Sasha are wandering around Trudeau international airport in Montreal. They havecome to greet Luana, the child’s mother, who has returned from a long stay abroad. But is that the whole

story? Three days earlier, the cabin deep in the woods where Elias lived with the boy was burned down. Isthis why Elias always has his guard up , or does it have something to do with the boy’s premonitions? This

complex and mysterious thriller is the work of a great admirer of Cormac McCarthy and Stephen King.

Martin Michaud is the undisputed master of the detective novel in Quebec. His books sell in the tens ofthousands. S.A.S.H.A. is his first novel published with VLB.


[email protected]



18

F – Thriller

SHE WAS SO LOVELY

Pierre Szalowski




Having once dreamed of becoming an actor, Daniel Bellanger is a real estate agent in Trois-Rivières.Suddenly, his life is turned upside down when an octogenarian in a Parisian suburb 6000 km away causesan accidental explosion in his apartment, revealing human remains and a strange, airplane-shaped broochthat had been hidden behind a wall some years earlier. When Daniel receives an invitation via Facebook tomeet with a woman he hasn’t seen in twenty years, he is forced to come to terms with a part of his pastthat had remained buried…

A thriller which explores the theme of guilt in a manner that is both touching and entertaining.

Pierre Szalowski was once and all at once a press photographer, a journalist, a graphic designer and anartistic director. He worked in advertising and created an educational software… His first novel, Le froid

modifie la trajectoire des poissons (Hurtubise, 2007), was met with great success. He also wrote the script forthe movie Ma fille , mon ange.


[email protected]



FRENCHCLIENTSLIST - FRANKFURT BOOKFAIR 2014

FRANCE / WORLDR IGHTS

FICTION

Critic

NON-FICTION

Les Liens qui Libèrent (LLL)

Tallandier

FICTION& NON-FICTION

Alma

Carnets Nord

Galaade (selection of titles)

Le Passage

Le Tripode

Philippe Rey

CANADA& QUEBEC/WORLDR IGHTS

FICTION

Alto

Guy Saint Jean (a selection of their titles)

FICTION& NON-FICTION

Québec Amérique (selection of titles)

VLB

La Peuplade

[email protected]

laa fbf2014 fictionlist

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