Daniel Herrero, Maggie O’Farrell and Neige Sinno: the books not to be missed

The Wedding Portrait

By Maggie O’Farrell, trans. from English (Ireland) by Sarah Tardy.

Belfond, 412 pages, €23.50.

The rating of L’Express: 5/5

It is a veritable literary tour de force that Maggie O’Farrell accomplishes with this fascinating tenth novel which plunges us into the heart, and into the darkness, of the Italian Renaissance. After his very successful Hamnet (2021), on Shakespeare’s wife, the Irish author is once again freely inspired by a relatively unknown historical figure: Lucrezia de’ Medici, born in 1545 in Florence, “difficult” fifth child of the Grand Duke of Tuscany and Eleanor of Toledo. Married by force at the age of 15 to Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara, twice as old, “advantageous” physique but predatory personality, she died a year later – “officially” from a dazzling illness, most likely murdered by her husband.

Although we were warned in the preamble of this tragic end, the prodigious Maggie O’Farrell manages to keep us constantly in suspense: not only by her singular sense of dramaturgy (ah, the twist last pages!) and by her fluid and flamboyant writing (remarkably translated), but above all thanks to the poignant portrait she paints of the young “Lucrè”. A “very petite girl” with a serious look, with very long light hair, kept away from her siblings because of her rebellious, intrepid, dreamy and secretive temperament; but also of her sharp intelligence, her acute sensitivity, her lack of taste for pomp and propriety, her fascination for nature, which she paints with incredible dexterity. The Wedding Portraitthat of Lucrezia – demanded by Alphonse – who became Duchess of Ferrara solely for the purpose of giving birth, recalls the sad fate of women in this 16th century with still medieval accents. Delphine Peras

Modern Day Rugby Lover’s Dictionary

By Daniel Herrero.

Plon, 256 pages, €24.90.

The rating of L’Express: 3/5

Red bandana on the head, druid beard, Occitan accent and lyrical eloquence, Daniel Herrero is, like Serge Blanco, one of the rare apostles of rugby whose notoriety goes beyond the borders of the world of rugby. . Three-quarter center of RC Toulon and former coach of the same club from 1983 to 1991, this 75-year-old child of “the ball” – he prefers this term to that of the ball – has never picked up, commenting on matches for South Radio and publishing, among other things, a dozen books on his reason for living, including one Rugby lovers dictionary in 2003, which he revisits entirely today to put it in the sauce of “modern times” on the eve of the tenth World Cup (and the second organized in France).

Since 1995 and the transition from amateurism to professionalism, everything has indeed changed in rugby, the rules, the strategies, the physique of the players, the training sessions, the staffs, the technologies… until austerity wins the oval planet. A stereotypical “realistic period”, with blind charges and footwork, against which a few players – the New Zealanders of 2015, the conductor of the Irish team Jonathan Sexton, etc. – will finally sound the tocsin. As in any dictionary, we peck, between a hymn to the children of the Pacific, the concussion protocols, the historic victory against the All Blacks of November 20, 2021, which puts an end to “a night of ten years”, and that, scathing, against England on March 11, 2023… In doing so, Herrero erects his pantheon of Blues: Antoine Dupont, “capable of playing all the instruments”, Damian Penaud, “impetuous galloper”, and the indomitable Thibaud Flament. Three of the Roosters selected by trainer Fabien Galthié. A good sign ? Marianne Payot

sad tiger

By Snow Sinno.

POL, 288 pages, €20.

The rating of L’Express: 5/5

Why write this book? Because she can. Why read it? Because it is essential. Not for her, who believes neither in resilience nor in writing as therapy, but for the others: raped children, unpinned families, “innocent” readers. An essential book, therefore, with acute intelligence, salutary questions, impeccable style and black humor, on one of the sadly hackneyed subjects of our time: incest.

Let’s start with the facts: from 7/8 years old to 14 years old, Neige Sinno suffered repeated rapes from her stepfather, a charismatic worker full of bravery in the eyes of the mountaineers, a tyrannical authoritarian within the family home (a ruin in rehabilitate) of the Hautes-Alpes. In 1999, at age 21, she lodged a complaint (in order to protect the couple’s other children) with her mother, to whom she confided the husband’s crimes a year earlier. The man confesses, is sentenced to nine years in prison. Released for good behavior after five years of imprisonment, he rebuilt his life with a young girl… Neige, she went far away, to the United States then to Mexico, and gave birth to a little girl. She has not yet finished with the deadly shadow of her predator, whose will to power has “damaged her for life”. Here, she says everything, seeks the truth, describes the hold, submission, oral sex and sodomy sessions, recalls the grounds of the trial, tries to get inside the monster’s head, debates about self-image and consent, summons Vladimir Nabokov, Annie Ernaux, Virginia Woolf, Camille Kouchner, Charlotte Pudlowski, Christine Angot, Emmanuel Carrère, Margaux Fragoso, Claude Ponti… Impressive, and fascinating. PM