wars and violence on all levels – L’Express

The war is on, particularly in our Top 20 tests for the week of May 13 to 19. No less than six works deal with the conflicts of our planet, with that between Israel and Palestine in the lead. So the test Israel/Palestine. Anatomy of a conflict (Les Arènes/France Inter) by the historian Vincent Lemire and the historian and journalist Thomas Snégaroff, presenter of Great Face-to-face on France Inter and C Politics on France 5, which takes ninth position in the best sales. Rich in maps, infographics, chronologies and biographies of personalities, the essay offers a decipherment in six key dates, from 1897 to 2007, of the Israel-Palestine clash.

Following him, in 12th place, a “new kid”, The ethnic cleansing of Palestine (La Fabrique éditions), signed by the Israeli historian Ilan Pappé. The author returns to the formation of the State of Israel, between 1947 and 1949, and to the “ethnic cleansing” of the Palestinian population.

Next comes, in 14th place, the work of one of his fellow citizens, Elias Sanbar. In “The Last War?” Palestine, October 7, 2023-April 2, 2024 (Tracts Gallimard), the Palestinian ambassador to UNESCO also returns to the roots of evil, noting, among other things, that “it is enough to go back to what has opposed Palestinian and Israeli societies since 1948 to understand what is existential, on both sides, in the conflict”.

Holocausts. Israel, Gaza and the war against the West (Plon), the title of Gilles Kepel’s latest work is most telling. Indeed, the great Arabist describes the massacres of October 7 and the slaughter in Gaza which followed as holocausts (“in the original religious sense of mass sacrifices”) which “embody the curse of the Holy Land in our tragic period “.

Bringing up the rear of observers of the Middle East conflict, Delphine Horvilleur, with How is it not going? Conversations after October 7 (Grasset, 20th rank). Deeply traumatized by the massacre perpetrated by Hamas in Israel, the famous rabbi attempts, through 10 conversations, real or imaginary, to renew dialogue with others.

Finally, François Lecointre remains in the Top 20 for the fourth consecutive week, with Between wars (Gallimard, 8th). The general, former chief of staff of the armed forces, evokes his career as a young officer and man of war (Rwanda, Sarajevo or even Iraq) in what is most concrete, unique, and sometimes indescribable. With, always, this question: “How can we maintain our humanity when, at the heart of the fight, violence increasingly takes over people’s minds?”

But there is not only war in this world, there is also fiction and dreams. Though. Diamond scratched by bloodvolume I of the series Kiria by Hazel Diaz (The Archipelago, and thousands of subscribers on social networks), which takes third place in the novels list, looks nothing like a bluette if we are to believe its summary: “Raised for kill, Kiara finds herself linked to Amir Ben Khalif, one of the most powerful mafiosi in the country. They have both been pushed to become war machines, so their meeting will spark.

As for the 10th and final part of the successful series (translated into more than 40 languages) of Department V Investigations, 7 m2, from the Dane Jussi Adler Olsen, who has just entered the Top 20 in seventh place, not sure that he will be easy. Indeed, the Department V team, Assad, Rose and the others, are responsible for saving their comrade Carl, who, trapped by a powerful drug trafficking organization, is languishing in a 7 m2 cell.

Remains the third applicant of the week, Maxton Hall (t. 1), Save me (Hachette Romans), by the German Mona Kasten, a romance (at the origin of the eponymous Prime Video series) set in a prestigious high school. SO ? So, who knows? No war on the horizon in any case.