The Last of the Aldinis by George Sand
Translated by George Burnham Ives Review by Rob Spence Opposite the title page of this new edition of George Sand’s novel is a list of her works of fiction. It…
Dear Dickhead by Virginie Despentes
Translated by Frank Wynne Review by Annabel I would never have predicted that Virginie Despentes, creator/director of the 2000 rape-revenge novel and film Baise-moi, author of the superb ‘State of…
What Do I Know? by Michel de Montaigne
Translated by David Coward Review by Karen Langley The essay as a form of writing has existed for centuries, and one of its pre-eminent practitioners was the French author Michel…
The Man With Miraculous Hands by Joseph Kessel
Translated by Helen Weaver and Leo Raditsa Reviewed by Rob Spence If you were asked to suggest which real-life character was to be played by Woody Harrelson in his next…
Devils and Saints by Jean-Baptiste Andrea
Translated by Sam Taylor Reviewed by Harriet You know me. Just think, and you’ll remember. The old man who plays those public pianos that you see in various transport hubs….
Three by Valérie Perrin
Translated by Hildegarde Serle Reviewed by Harriet My name is Virginie. I’m the same age as them. Today, out of the three, only Adrian still speaks to me.Nina despises me.As for…
The Inseparables by Simone de Beauvoir
Translated by Lauren Elkin Review by Karen Langley Simone de Beauvoir is probably best recognised nowadays for her ground-breaking feminist work The Second Sex, as well as her connections with…
A Single Rose by Muriel Barbery
Translated by Alison Anderson Review by Annabel We’re delighted to be featured in the blog tour for Muriel Barbery’s new novel today – do see the other stops on the…
The Country of Others by Leïla Slimani
Translated by Sam Taylor Reviewed by Harriet Back in 2018 I read and reviewed Leïla Slimani’s best-selling, Goncourt-Prize-winning novel Lullaby [here]. Soon afterwards I also read her 2014 Adèle, which…
No Touching by Ketty Rouf
Translated by Tina Kover Review by Annabel Italian-born novelist Ketty Rouf won France’s Prix du Premier Roman 2020 (First Novel award) for her debut No Touching, written in French and…
Narcisse on a Tightrope by Olivier Targowla
Translated by Paul Curtis Daw There’s a scene late in the story where Narcisse is out on day release, wandering the streets of Paris. He’s due to visit his family…
Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga
Translated by Melanie Mauthner Review by Dorian Stuber The title of Scholastique Mukasonga’s Our Lady of the Nile refers to both a statue of a Black Virgin Mary poised precariously…
At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop
Translated by Anna Moschovakis Review by Tony Malone David Diop’s At Night All Blood Is Black takes the reader back to the battlefields of the First World War, but anyone…
Painting Time by Maylis de Kerangal
Translated by Jessica Moore Reviewed by Annabel Maylis de Kerangal is a novelist whose primary focus is not the characters that people her books, but the subject they’re involved with….
Civilisations by Laurent Binet
Translated by Sam Taylor Review by Max Dunbar Reviewers of fiction, trying to make sense of Laurent Binet’s Civilisations, have reached for video game metaphors. In the Literary Review, James Womack…
Summertime, All the Cats are Bored by Philippe Georget
Translated by Steven Rendall Review by Terence Jagger He moved cautiously forward through the tall grass, following a trail of broken stems. And it was there, in a miniscule clearing…
A Long Way From Douala by Max Lobe
Translated by Ros Schwartz Reviewed by Annabel I have a personal goal to increase diversity in my reading and am glad to have discovered the indie publisher HopeRoad. Founded in…
Revolutionary Women from Gallic Books
Reviewed by Karen Langley French literature doesn’t lack a wide range of great women writers; the names which spring most readily to mind are those like George Sand, Colette, and…
The Lost and the Damned by Olivier Norek
Translated by Nick Caistor Reviewed by Gill Davies This is the first novel by Olivier Norek to be translated into English. It was first published in France in 2013 and…
King Kong Theory by Virginie Despentes
Translated by Frank Wynne Reviewed by Annabel I write from the realms of the ugly, for the ugly, the old, the bull dykes, the frigid, the unfucked, the unfuckable, the…
I Remember by Georges Perec
Introduced, Translated, Annotated, Edited and Indexed by Philip Terry and David Bellos Reviewed by Karen Langley Regular readers of Shiny New Books may recall the Bookbuzz piece earlier this year…
The Mystery of Henri Pick by David Foenkinos
Translated by Sam Taylor Reviewed by Harriet Back in 1977, Marilyn French’s The Women’s Room was published. On the cover was the bold (and possibly correct) statement that ‘This novel…
A Long Way Off by Pascal Garnier
Translated by Emily Boyce Reviewed by Annabel For the past eight years, Gallic Books have been translating and publishing the gloriously black-humored noir novellas of Pascal Garnier. Garnier, who died…
Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin
Translated by Aneesa Abbas Higgins Review by David Hebblethwaite Winter in Sokcho is a first in several senses: the debut novel by French-Korean writer Elisa Shua Dusapin, and the first…