July 12, 2018 Retribution Road by Antonin Varenne Translated by Sam Taylor Review by Gill Davies Having become rather jaded with the predictability of the crime fiction genre and wearied by the…
February 20, 2018 Savages: The Wedding by Sabri Louatah Translated by Gavin Bowd Reviewed by Annabel This debut novel is the first volume of Louatah’s planned Saint-Étienne quartet named after the French city…
January 23, 2018 Lullaby by Leïla Slimani Translated by Sam Taylor Reviewed by Harriet Moroccan born novelist Leïla Slimani is not the first woman to win France’s most prestigious literary prize,…
November 16, 2017 Shadows and Sun by Dominique Sylvain Translated by Neil Caistor Reviewed by Terence Jagger I enjoyed this book, set amongst the French police in Paris and in Abidjan, but that’s…
November 14, 2017 A Love Story by Émile Zola Translated by Helen Constantine Reviewed by Harriet Here on Shiny we’ve reviewed several of the new Oxford World Classics editions of the novels of…
July 13, 2017 The Portrait by Antoine Laurain Translated by Jane Aitken and Emily Boyce Review by Annabel French author Antoine Laurain has already got himself an army of fans (or should…
June 13, 2017 The Santiago Pilgrimage by Jean-Christophe Rufin Translated by Martina Devis & Malcolm Imrie Reviewed by Terence Jagger Monsieur Rufin is an impressive man, having founded Médecins sans Frontières, been an…
June 6, 2017 Maigret Goes to School by Georges Simenon Translated by Linda Coverdale Reviewed by Harriet What was he doing there? A hundred times, in the middle of an investigation, he’d had the…
June 6, 2017 Checkpoint by Jean-Christophe Rufin Translated by Alison Anderson Review by Terence Jagger The first character we meet is Maud, a young and naive Frenchwoman who is apparently badly…
February 7, 2017 The Gardens of Consolation by Parisa Reza Translated by Adriana Hunter Reviewed by Terence Jagger “To the east, bare earth as far as the eye can see. To the west, hills…
October 19, 2016 About My Mother by Tahar Ben Jelloun Translated by Ros Schwartz & Lulu Norman Reviewed by Alice Farrant About My Mother is the story of a Lalla Fatma, written down by…
October 13, 2016 French Rhapsody by Antoine Laurain Translated by Jane Aitken and Emily Boyce Reviewed by Annabel I experienced the sheer joy of reading French author Antoine Laurain earlier this summer…
October 11, 2016 Night Flight by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Translated by David Carter Reviewed by Simon If the name Antoine de Saint-Exupéry means anything to you, it probably only means one thing: The…
August 23, 2016 Blood Wedding by Pierre Lemaitre Translated by Frank Wynne Reviewed by Annabel In the UK, Lemaitre has been best-known for his ‘Brigade Criminelle’ trilogy of novels featuring the detective…
August 3, 2016 Marie by Madeleine Bourdouxhe Translated by Faith Evans Reviewed by Rachel Fenn Belgian writer Madeleine Bourdouxhe’s intriguing novella, originally published in 1943, has been newly translated by Faith…
June 30, 2016 Paris Vagabond by Jean-Paul Clébert Translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith Reviewed by Karen Langley There’s a current literary trend of reissuing lost classics, and one of the most reliable imprints…
June 30, 2016 Ladivine by Marie Ndiaye Translated from French by Jordan Stump Reviewed by Kate Gardner Marie Ndiaye’s latest book could be described as a surrealist family saga, perhaps even…
June 23, 2016 The Sun King Conspiracy by Yves Jégo & Denis Lépée Translated by Sue Dyson Reviewed by Helen Skinner This fascinating and complex historical thriller is set in 1661 at the court of France’s Sun…
June 16, 2016 Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert Translated by Helen Constantine, Editor Patrick Coleman Reviewed by Victoria If you’ve read a book by the 19th century French novelist, Gustave Flaubert, the…
June 3, 2016 The Life of Elves by Muriel Barbery Translated by Alison Anderson Reviewed by Annabel If like me, you read and loved Muriel Barbery’s bestselling novel The Elegance of the Hedgehog, which blended…
April 21, 2016 Mend the Living by Maylis de Kerangal Translated by Jessica Moore Reviewed by Annabel It is easy to see why this novel (in this translation; Sam Taylor has translated it in…
April 14, 2016 Tram 83 by Fiston Mwanza Mujilla Translated by Roland Glasser Reviewed by Terence Jagger TRAM 83: BY DAY AS BY NIGHT, ETERNAL IN ITS SPLENDOUR OF A PARADISE GOING TO…
April 14, 2016 Earth by Émile Zola Translated by Brian Nelson and Julie Rose Reviewed by Hayley Anderton Regular readers of my blog might remember that I set myself the task…
January 18, 2016 The Great Swindle by Pierre Lemaitre Translated by Frank Wynne Reviewed by Annabel French author Lemaitre is best known for his gory yet gripping trilogy of serial killer novels featuring…
October 7, 2015 The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud Translated by John Cullen Reviewed by Victoria In a bar in Oran, Algeria, a lone man sits drinking. He draws his companion – the…
