While the world has its eyes fixed on the Paris Games and France is reaping medals, French literature is hardly flourishing abroad. As proof, the following brief overview will prove it. Let’s start with Germany, where the Spiegel informs us about the sales of the week heavily “cluttered” by German thrillers and summer novels. Thus Views by Marc-Uwe Kling, by Wind power 17of the young Caroline Wahl or even of Last summerby Stephan Schäfer.
In our pocket, we believe we have our first Frenchman in the person of Jean-Luc Bannalec, n° 1 with Breton Sehnsuchtin which Inspector Dupin investigates on the island of Ouessant. Wrong, Jean-Luc Bannalec is the pen name of the very Frankfurt Jörg Bong. The fact remains that he received the Mécène de Bretagne prize for his contribution to the cultural influence of the Brittonic region… and that he lives part of the year in the south of Finistère. On the essay side, we note the presence of the inevitable Jessie Inchauspé with The Glucose Trick (The Glucose Goddess Method).
Fred Vargas saves honor
In Italy, according to the Corriere della Seracuriously appear two Passports concocted by Hachette Education, those from CE1 to CE2 and from CE2 to CM1, to believe that the little Italians spend their holidays revising. Otherwise, the same assault of national novelists with a trio of women, Donatella Di Pietrantonio, Strega prize 2024, Francesca Giannone and Milena Palminteri. Only Fred Vargas saves the tricolor honor with On the stonethe first foreign novel on the bestseller list, while the Swiss Joël Dicker is on top with A wild animal. We also find the Helvetian in the list ofThe Cultural which gives pride of place to the saga Blackwater. As in France, the Michael McDowell wave has indeed hit Spain, placing his six volumes in its Top 10 – the French, for their part, are finding their feet on the non-fiction side with Marjane Satrapi, Amin Maalouf and Emmanuel Todd.
Will salvation come from the Anglo-Saxons? No. In Great Britain (Sunday Times) as in the United States (New York Times), not a single French author on the horizon. Indeed, on the other side of the Channel, there is only Anglo-Saxon stars such as Irvine Welsh and his inspector Ray Lennox (Resolution), Roxy Stewart, Danielle Steel, Rebecca Yarros or Richard Osman while the bios and autobios are pouring in (on the Kennedys, Taylor Swift, the Beckhams, Britney Spears, Louise Thompson…). While across the Atlantic, women are leading the dance between Deborah Harkness, Kristin Hannah, Elin Hilderstand, Rebecca Yarros and Freida McFadden.
To console ourselves, we will note, in the list of winners of Straits Times From Singapore, the strange presence of the Belgian Jacqueline Harpman (1929-2012) with the dystopian I who have not known mendating from 1995. Patience, mother of all virtues?