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SPRING 2016
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Mariages de saison
A travers ciel
Jean-Philippe Blondel . 5
Jean-Luc Cattacin .13
Le dernier colonel
Colombe Boncenne . 6
Jean Lods .14
L'Ombre de nos nuits
Deux jours de vertige
Gaëlle Josse . 7
Eveline Mailhot .15
Loin d'être malheureux
Alain Galan . 8
Guillaume Tavard .16
Camarade Wang achète la France
Stéphane Fière . 9
Jérémie Lefèbvre .17
Le Grand n'importe quoi
Apaise le temps
JM Erre .10
Michel Quint .18
Hausse de l'abstention
Les Animaux sentimentaux
Philippe Mathieu .11
Cédric Duroux .19
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Vertige de la force
Etienne Barilier .21
Michel Tabachnik .25
Faut-il avoir peur des nanos ?
Roland Garros .22
Francelyne Marano .26
L'Odyssée du pingouin cannibale
Les Miscellanées des plantes
Yann Kerninon .23
Anne-France Dautheville . 27
Ce qu'il reste de nuit : Lokiss,
Gaetano Pesce .28
Sophie Pujas .24
MARIAGES DE SAISON
(The Wedding Season)
Jean-Philippe Blondel
Twenty-seven-year-old Corentin's seasonal job as a wedding videographer allows him to lead a comfortable life: to drink champagne, eat smoked salmon canapés, and watch loving couples toast the beginning of their lives together. Attending ceremony after ceremony, he records the joy, love, and intimacy of countless happy—and sometimes not-so-happy—couples.
He may be adept at finding and filming the optimism of others, but he can't seem to find it in his own life. He's at a standstill, both professionally and personally. With only a vague, nagging sense of discontent, he has put aside his artistic ambitions of making "real" films in favor of the safe, easy, comfortable job working alongside his godfather—the job that was supposed to be temporary. Meanwhile, all of his relationships, romantic or otherwise, quickly disintegrate due to his lack of commitment and effort.
When he meets Aline Dulong at her wedding to Christophe Célesta, his first impression is that of a little gray mouse, plainly dressed. But he changes his mind when she requests that he film her alone, talking to the camera about her feelings for her new husband. Her words flow easily and lovingly, transforming her face into something beautiful.
Inspired by Aline's willingness to open up in front of the camera, Corentin decides to film his friends and family confessing their stories and feelings about friendship, love, former marriages, and new marriages. The project allows him to rekindle old friendships and learn about his family at the same time as it renews his creative identity as a filmmaker. It soon proves to be a turning point in his life, as everything else begins to fall into place.
In a few words: Corentin, 27 years old and at a crossroads, is going back to his summer job as a
wedding videographer. Five weekends will structure this bittersweet chronicle of provincial life.
About the author: An English teacher, Jean-Philippe Blondel writes novels for adults and for young
adults. His latest novels have all been published by Buchet Chastel: The Baby-sitter, G229, Et rester
vivant, 06h41 and Un hiver à Paris. 06h41 was translated into various foreign languages (Spanish,
Italian, English, Hebrew) and entered the best-sellers' list in Germany.
Translation rights sold to Germany (Deuticke Verlag) Worldwide translation rights: Buchet Chastel
Publication date: January 1st, 2016
Number of pages: 192
Available material: finished copy
Retail price: 14 €
COMME NEIGE
(As Snow)
In an old box of books at the newsagent's in the small town of Crux-la-Ville, Constantin Caillaud comes across Black Snow, a book by Émilien Petit. Constantin has never heard of it, even though he was convinced he had read everything Petit had ever written. The discovery is all the more exciting in that it gives him an excuse to get in touch with Hélène, his evanescent lover, who introduced him to Petit's work, and helped him learn to love it. But just as he is about to see Hélène to show her the precious book, it seems to have disappeared again. Blithely googling the title, Constantin can find no trace of Black Snow on line. He contacts the publisher, who says there's no such book in his catalogue. So then he writes to the author himself, as well as to his writer friends, readers a rare and clever participation of famous figures from the French literary scene: Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Olivier Rolin, Antoine Volodine, Patrick Kéchichian and Edouard Launet all respond emotionally to the hoax. But what hoax? Constantin wasn't trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes. Yet the conclusion of the saga could well give readers the impression they've been taken for a ride! In a few words: A mystery without a body or blood that draws readers into an investigation with
subtle literary rebounds. The interplay between fiction and reality is reminiscent of Emmanuel
Carrère's La Moustache.
About the author: Colombe Boncenne was born in 1981. She started working in publishing industry
as soon as she obtained her degree in literature, in the early 2000s. For the past few years, she has also
been involved in organizing literary events. Comme neige is her literary debut.
Worldwide translation rights: Buchet Chastel ("Qui vive" series)
Publication date: January 1st, 2016
Number of pages: 120
Available material: finished copy
Retail price: 11 €
L'OMBRE DE NOS NUITS
(The Shadow of our Nights)
Gaëlle Josse
While she happens to be passing through an unnamed city, a woman, whose name we won't learn either, enters a museum. As she is wandering through it distractedly, Georges de la Tour's Saint Sébastien Tended to by St. Irene suddenly grabs her attention. The figure of Irene, radiating tenderness and compassion, brings the emotions of an old love affair back to her mind.
Alongside the woman's story, we also follow Georges de la Tour in Paris while he is working on his Saint Sébastien, which he plans to present to the King of France. Two voices – the painter's own and that of his assistant, Laurent, who is tasked with copying the master's work – play off each other.
With the painting as their connecting thread, the two stories and two eras intertwine and complement each other, bringing both stories wonderfully to life.
In a few words: How can love's blindness and dependence be expressed in words? Is devotion
enough to be loved in return? We are creatures of desire, ever waiting unreasonably for a love that will
save us. Art holds up a mirror and invites us to examine our own reflection, unceasingly exploring
our own lives.
About the author: With degrees in law, journalism and clinical psychology, Gaëlle Josse works
in Paris and lives nearby. Starting out as a poet, Josse then had three novels published by Editions
Autrement. The Shadow of Our Nights is her second novel published by Notabilia. The first one, Le
dernier gardien d'Ellis Island (The Last Guardian of Ellis Island) had a tremendous success in 2014,
won a number of literary prizes, including the European Union Prize for Literature and has been
translated into 9 countries so far (Spain, Italy, Hungary, Albania, Croatia, Macedonia, Georgia,
Serbia and Bulgaria).
Worldwide translation rights: Noir sur Blanc (Notabilia)
Publication date: January 7th, 2016
Number of pages: 192
Available material: Finished copy
Retail price: 15 €
(Furry Skin)
Alain Galan
W hat happens to life after death? Lucas was already wondering about that when we were in high school. That was when he started collecting road kill in the morning and stuffing it. First he would wash their furry hides in the river, like an old woodsman had taught him to do. But what happened next? What troubling secret did he learn, unlike most people, late in life? I decided to follow the road he had taken. I placed my feet in his footsteps. I cocked an ear to the silence of animals. And I came to feel that the border between the dead and the living was becoming ever less clear, ever more porous. And that Lucas and I were perhaps no longer exactly two… Taxidermy, painting, shamanism… This book is like a not very reassuring journey into the domain of old-fashioned magic. Between the swamps of the Brenne and Sologne, the real and the fake, the real and its reflection, the visible and the hidden intertwine. Words become bewitched: mummy brown, arsenic soap, dream-catcher and more. Why not let ourselves fall under the spell of the incantation? Is literature the only way to "challenge death"? In a few words: When Lucas dies, the narrator decides to go back over his friend's life and secrets.
About the author: Alain Galan has written some dozen novels and narratives, including Louvière
("The She Wolf's Den" 2010), L'ourle (The Edge, 2012), published by Gallimard and A bois perdu (Lost
Wood, 2014), by Buchet Chastel.
Worldwide translation rights: Buchet Chastel
Publication date: January 7th, 2016
Number of pages: 208
Available material: Finished copy
Retail price: 15 €
CAMARADE WANG ACHÈTE LA FRANCE
(Comrade Wang is Buying France)
Stéphane Fière
"He shells, she sells, why is she sore," the Chinese Under-Secretary of the Economy makes an unsuccessful attempt to recite the tongue-twister. But so what? You don't need to speak English or French properly to purchase a Bordeaux vineyard. And who needs morals when you've come to invest? Comrade Wang is visiting France with eight collaborators and six pretty bedroom comrades. Exceptional vineyards, luxury hotels, forests in Auvergne, genetic laboratories: everything is for sale in the discount store that France has become. And while the French may as smug as a "philosophical factory worker," the Asian delegation will have no trouble taking advantage of their naive greed. Until a new interpreter from the village of Lyon joins their merry crew. Comrade Wang is all sugar and spice for the lovely academic. Desire knows no borders, and their idyll could last… long enough to give us the shivers.
In a few words: Stéphane Fière offers readers an expertly written and thoroughly enjoyable satire
that takes aim at influential Chinese politicians and at French mediocrity. Playing with proverbs
and tongue-twisters, international business-speak, spoken language and more, the author creates
a singular and stunningly efficient language, that can make us laugh out loud… before we start to
shudder. But what if the novel's "exaggerations" were actually understatements?
About the author: Having studied political science at both Science-Po in France, and at Harvard,
where he also studied Chinese, Stéphane Fière spent over 20 years in China. A businessman turned
interpreter and translator, he has written four novels, published by Editions de l'Aube and Métailié.
Worldwide translation rights: Phébus
Publication date: January 7th, 2016
Number of pages: 288
Available material: Finished copy
Retail price: 19 €
LE GRAND N'IMPORTE QUOI
(Now what?)
JM Erre
The action takes place on June 7, 2042, at 20:42. During that endless minute, all sorts of characters will bump into each other in a small town in France after a flying saucer shows up and extra-terrestrials try to kidnap one of the townspeople. We will find out more about some of the characters, especially: Lucas, a refugee from Monaco who never should have gone to a costume party full of bodybuilders' with his future ex-fiancée; Alex, a science-fiction novelist with writer's block who never should have opened his door for Marilyn Monroe; Big Joel, the author of The Incredible Revelation, a modest essay that provides definitive answers to the world's great mysteries; Madeleine, the mayor, a woman who has come up with an unbeatable method for eliminating existential anguish; Bob and Douglas, the philosophers of the town's one bar, who comment on the action with the lyrical grandeur of a Greek chorus (or nearly, anyway). and Alain Delon guest-starring in a role where he plays against type … In J.M. Erre's exciting new novel, science fiction is the playing field. Here, for your reading pleasure, are the adventures of off-beat characters in a story involving quantum mechanics and fear of one's fellow men, the temporal paradox and swallowing octopi whole… All in the interest of a mystery that won't be resolved until the very last page. In a few words: 7 June 2042. 20 hours and 42 minutes past midnight. A small town in France is
stunned by the appearance of a flying saucer and by the extra-terrestrials' attempt to kidnap one of
the townspeople. J.M. Erre's hilarious new novel.
About the author: J.M. Erre is a teacher in Sète. He appears in Canal +'s weekly comedy show,
"Made in Groland". From the start, all of his novels have been published by Buchet Chastel.
Translation rights of Prenez soin du Chien sold to Korea (Jagkja JungSin) and Slovakia (Didakta)
Translation rights of Made in China sold to Russia (Inostranka) and Korea (Jagkja JungSin)
Translation rights of Série Z sold to Korea (Jagkja JungSin), Italy (Barbes Edizioni) and Russia
(Inostranka)
Translation rights of Le Mystère Sherlock sold to Korea (Moeum & Jaeum), China (Shangai
Translation Publishing House) Italy (Clichy Edizioni) and Russia (Inostranka)
Worldwide translation rights: Buchet Chastel
Publication date: February 11th, 2016
Number of pages: 304
Available material: Finished copy
Retail price: 19 €
HAUSSE DE L'ABSTENTION
(Rising Abstention)
Philippe Mathieu
Theo has put his life on hold. Not in the short term. For 20 years, his life has been nothing but work, success and alcohol. A 20-year absence of desire. Twenty years of repressed violence. Twenty years of not connecting with his son. A life without interest, spent avoiding blows that could crack a fragile dam.
But Theo has been flushed out of his den. First by Marion, who he hired recently. And then by Marie, who is new to the bar where he's a regular. Twenty years ago, the mother of his son was called Marie, too. Under the subtle pressure of a name looming up from the past, the years where he knew what desire was suddenly come back to him. But what can he hope for after 20 years of abstaining from the slightest relationship? With irony, insight and refinement, Rising Abstention, Philippe Mathieu's second novel, paints an endearing portrait of a 50-something man in the midst of a crisis.
In a few words: Ever since a break-up 20 years ago, Theo has been on the sidelines – disconnected
from life. Will the two new women in his life manage to break through his defense mechanisms?
About the author: Philippe Mathieu lives outside Paris, in Chatou. His first novel, Sprain, was
published by Buchet Chastel in January 2014.
Worldwide translation rights: Buchet Chastel
Publication date: February 11th, 2016
Number of pages: 240
Available material: Finished copy
Retail price: 15 €
(I'm investigating)
Joël Egloff
If what I'm reading here is correct,'" I then asked the sacristan, after clearing my throat, ‘You, Monsieur Beck, are the one who first noticed the theft?' He furrowed his brow. ‘The theft?'… he repeated, sounding disconcerted and turning towards the priest as though he needed him to translate what I'd said. ‘You mean the kidnapping,' Father Steiger said, trying to catch my eye in the rear-view mirror. A snowy, freezing-cold winter's night. A sleepy town. A private eye - the narrator – arrives on the scene for a very strange investigation. This shy detective doesn't like to bother his fellow men. But he's broke and isn't really accustomed to this job. He comes across more like someone who feels cornered… J'enquête is the latest novel from Joël Egloff. Readers will be thrilled to reconnect with his off-beat characters, his poetry, and his sense of the absurd.
In a few words: A man is leading an investigation. Around him, everything is opaque. He himself
seems quite strange, too… In Joël Egloff's latest novel, absurdity, poetry and humor reign.
About the author: Joël Egloff was born in 1970 in Lorraine and lives in the city of Metz.
Having studied filmmaking, he worked at various jobs in film, wrote screenplays, then his first novel,
Edmond Ganglion & Son, which was published by Éditions du Rocher in 1999 and won the Alain-
Fournier Prize.
He then chose to dedicate himself entirely to writing and produced Les Ensoleillés in 2000 then in
2003, Ce que je fais là assis par terre, for which he won the Grand Prix de l'Humour Noir (Grand Prize
for Black Humor).
In 2005, he won the prestigious Livre Inter Prize for L'Étourdissement: 62,000 copies of the hardback
edition were sold and translation rights were sold in 9 countries.
He then published another novel in 2008, L'Homme que l'on prenait pour un autre followed by a
collection of short stories, Libellules in 2012.
Worldwide translation rights: Buchet Chastel
Publication date: March 3rd, 2016
Number of pages: 288
Available material: Finished copy
Retail price: 16 €
A TRAVERS CIEL
(Across the Sky)
Jean-Luc Cattacin
I look at the village, and I see the adults working, not answering, and forcing themselves to bury the stubborn secrets that bind them. I look at the Idiot, his bed, his lady, his animals and their cruel fate, often. I hide in the fields and the forests, like the old gray boar, like the workman who went missing, and I wade waist deep into the river with two beds where the catfish sleep. And finally, I raise my face to the sky, open my mouth and drink in the rain, drink in the sun, and look beyond the infinite universe I'm a part of that the teacher points out to us, while we enjoy ourselves at school, indifferent to the tragedy that awaits us. In this extraordinarily lucid first novel, Jean-Luc Cattacin looks through a child's eyes to shed both affectionate and violent light on ordinary people. In a few words: What does it take for a debut novel to reach a state of grace? A sense of rhythm,
surely; simple, pure images that dig deep into the stuff that reality is made of; boundless generosity
for men and beasts. The chapters roll out like so many scenes from daily life that reverberate off one
another. Until the tragic denouement that ties the land of men to the eternal movement of the stars.
About the author: Born in 1962, Jean-Luc Cattacin teaches English in secondary school. In March,
Vendémiaire published his essay about Ireland: Les Libérateurs de l'Irlande. À travers ciel was inspired
by his own childhood.
Worldwide translation rights: Phébus
Publication date: March 3rd, 2016
Number of pages: 160
Available material: Finished copy
Retail price: 15 €
LE DERNIER COLONEL
(The Last Colonel)
Jean Lods
For as long as there's been a fortress, there has been a colonel in charge of it. And a colonel's daughter to dash down the hillside to the ball. Can you hear the music? It comes from the water, like the call of the sea. Who will notice that the metallic tone of the notes is starting to crack? For to the North, the shimmering surface of marshland seems to be progressing inexorably. More and more often, cavalry officers on patrol feel their horses' hooves sinking into the swampy soil. A storm is coming. And with it, elusive enemies on light steeds. They are all aspects of a more invasive disease that the old colonel is more aware of than anyone. A disease that he carries within himself to the point that he has become one with it…. Old Age. In a few words: Some parables are inexhaustible. Jean Lods sings the gesture of a man who is
confronted with the invisible enemy that is time. But unlike Dino Buzzati or Julien Gracq, he provides
his hero with a family. Which brings this tale of old age – with its legendary tone and descriptions of
suffocating nature that grant it a sensual lyricism – closer to our daily lives.
About the author: Born in 1938, Jean Lods spent his youth on Réunion Island. Encouraged by
Jean Cayrol and Raymond Queneau, in 1977 he published La part d'eau. It was the first of five
novels published by Gallimard and Calmann-Levy, including La morte saison, long-listed for the
1980 Renaudot and Femina Prizes, and Quelques jours à Lyon, which was short-listed for the 1994
Renaudot. Le dernier colonel is his first novel since then.
Worldwide translation rights: Phébus
Publication date: March 3rd, 2016
Number of pages: 208
Available material: Finished copy
Retail price: 17 €
DEUX JOURS DE VERTIGE
(Two Dizzying Days)
Eveline Mailhot
Sara, a doctoral student who is nearly 30 and has almost finished her thesis, goes to a country house for her friend Félicie's birthday. The guests are Sara's oldest and dearest friends. Suddenly, two unexpected guests, who had been part of the group in the past, upset Sara's fragile emotional balance; she is going through a period of terrible doubt and feels like she barely exists. So she gets both excited and nervous about the sudden appearance of the world traveler Hugo – a former lover who suddenly disappeared without explanation – accompanied by his best friend, Étienne, a troubled and troubling alcoholic. Desperately trapped by her own contradictions, Sara will leave things up to fate, and fall prey to her own indecision.
It's summer, Eveline Mailhot divides time in a light atmosphere, where melancholy chips away at everyone's ideals. She isn't going for precision in the relationships she captures in Deux jours de vertige, but for truth.
In a few words: Exposed to each member's individual fragilities, a colorfully diverse group of friends
comes together in a bucolic landscape with an abundance of food and liquor. Their hidden wounds
and grief run up short against frustrated desire. Amidst a litany of bad days, solemn announcements,
unexpected crises and confessions, and memories and fantasies that make themselves felt, Sara tries
to read clearly in her own heart.
About the author: Eveline Mailhot grew up in Montreal. A film-lover, she studied philosophy in
Montreal, Brussels and Paris. Since then she has held a range of different editing jobs. In 2011, she
published a collection of short-stories, L'Amour au cinéma, which was published by Les Allusifs.
Worldwide translation rights: Noir sur Blanc (Notabilia)
Publication date: March 24th, 2016
Number of pages: 192
Available material: Finished copy
Retail price: 16 €
LOIN D'ÊTRE MALHEUREUX
(Anything but Unhappy)
Guillaume Tavard
Around eight o'clock, we were in Dan's rusty old jalopy, driving like madmen, listening to NOFX with the windows rolled down to try to get some air despite the heat that was still holding on in the early evening… and also so that other people could enjoy the music too, so that just once in their boring little lives, they could hear some good music, if only for a second or two. Loin d'être malheureux is about young men, some are juvenile, others disillusioned. We tag along for a few moments in their existence; they've often just been through a break-up, and some of them are coping better than others. All the stories are set in the present day. These lively texts (short stories or brief narratives) describe key moments in their characters' lives. Guillaume Tavard's writing flows, and his gaze is affectionate and full of humor. His work calls Frédéric Berthet's elegant carelessness to mind.
In a few words: "The world is messed up, man. The world is really messed up." Being 30, and
waiting for things to look up…
About the author: Guillaume Tavard was born in 1977. He lives in Paris and is part of the literary
journal Décapage. After Le Petit Grain de cafe argenté (Le Dilettante, 2003), Loin d'être malheureux is
his second book.
Worldwide translation rights: Buchet Chastel
Publication date: April 1st, 2016
Number of pages: 224
Available material: Finished copy
Retail price: 15 €
8 P.M. news flash, Radio-Suisse-Romande, Tuesday, April 6: The situation in France is still making headlines. Scenes of violence are playing out in every major city. Reliable information is getting harder and harder to obtain […], but several eyewitnesses lead us to believe that a "People's Convention" has taken over the Palais Bourbon, where the National Assembly usually meets. […] Military patrols at the borders are keeping anyone from entering or leaving the country, and it is still impossible for anyone in France to go on line. […] The U.N. Security Council is discussing the possibility of intervening, but the U.K. and China still can't agree about the issue of protecting the nearly one million people who have been evicted from their homes by the Armed Forces. Deportation has become the new buzzword. Paris, the present day: a militia has overturned the government and is attacking big bosses and major media and cultural figures. Everything has been redistributed: the bourgeois from rich neighborhoods have been moved to the outskirts of the cities, to the so-called "martyr" projects; while factory workers, farmhands, janitors and the unemployed have moved into the most luxurious apartments in the country's capital. Everyone has suddenly been thrown into a daily life that is diametrically opposed to their old one. A political-fiction that intertwines the voices of the oppressed with those of the winners, interrupted by official declarations that read like a timeline of terror.
In a few words: A book of political-fiction (the most stunning recent example of which is obviously
Houellebecq's Submission; in which one can also recognize elements from the film The Minister, and
more)
About the author: Born in 1972, Jérémie Lefebvre is a writer, songwriter and actor. He lives in
Paris. He has had three previous novels published: La Société de consolation (Sens & Tonka, 2000),
Danse avec Jésus (Lunatique, 2011) and Le Collège de Buchy (Lunatique, 2015).
Worldwide translation rights: Buchet Chastel ("Qui vive" series)
Publication date: April 1st, 2016
Number of pages: 136
Available material: Finished copy
Retail price: 13 €
APAISE LE TEMPS
(Soothes the time)
Michel Quint
A bookstore creates debts. Financial ones sometimes, but especially sentimental ones. When Yvonne dies, Abdel, a young teacher in Roubaix, a working-class bastion in the north of France, is overwhelmed with memories. He can see himself as a child in that room full of books, with his tremendous hunger to gobble up all of Balzac even though he hardly understood a thing. He just can't resign himself to the idea that that living, breathing shop could disappear. Still, from there to agreeing to take over the store is a big step – one that his subconscious leaps right over without so much as a backward glance. So now Abdel has to deal with the economic difficulties of the bookseller's profession… and with his predecessor's dangerous photographic archives. As he sorts though dusty old boxes in the back, whole episodes of the Algerian War – when the country was torn between the FLN, the Harkis and the OAS – spring back to life. Saïd, who looked like such a simpleton hanging out at the bookstore – what was his real role? What secrets is Rosa, who works at the same school as Abdel, hiding? And how might Zerouane, the head of an organization called "Binding Together," feel about all that? So many questions. Political ones, and romantic ones, too. How will our hero choose between Zita, the fake ingénue with the marshmallow kisses, and his exuberant, fiery colleague Rosa? In a few words: Michel Quint has written a novel with strong political ideas about culture and
society. By reexamining the wounds of the Algerian War, he reflects upon the multicultural roots of
today's France. And on our vital need for solidarity.
About the author: Born in 1949, Michel Quint wrote for the theatre alongside his career as a
teacher, before trying his hand at detective novels. Winner of the Grand Prix de Littérature policière
in 1989 for Billard à l'étage, he found a worldwide audience for his best-selling Effroyables jardins (In
Our Strange Gardens), which has sold over a million copies since 2000.
Worldwide translation rights: Phébus
Publication date: April 1st, 2016
Number of pages: 112
Available material: Finished copy
Retail price: 12 €
LES ANIMAUX SENTIMENTAUX
(Sentimental Animals)
Cédric Duroux
Olivier: his on-line sex addiction, his phobias and his OCDs; David, his need to exist through the very real encounters he makes in gay bars; Lily from London, the friend and confidante who is about to make a radical change in her life; Samuel, who's really going to need his imaginary friend Anthony to get through the family reunion after his grandfather's funeral. What do feelings look like in a hyper-connected world? How does coming out affect your private life and your family? Between fantasy and reality, your blood relatives and your chosen family of friends, how are you supposed to figure out who you are and where you belong? Through the adventures of very realistic characters, Les Animaux sentimentaux presents a contemporary version of the eternal question of the interplay between sex and love. A superficial flippancy suffuses the writing, which switches back and forth between French and English and reality and fiction – readers will come across both David Bowie and Alice's rabbit.
In this vibrant ode to friendship, Cédric Duroux expresses a kind of un-mushy sentimentality and festive melancholy that is reminiscent of Maupin's Tales of the City. In a few words: A new kind of novel, "Les Animaux sentimentaux" is a barometer, equal parts funny
and confused, of love 2.0, in which there is as much contact between screens as between skin. A daring and
generous book, soul and sex, always honest, always real. Both strange and familiar. No one has ever captured
our ultra-modern world this well before.
Robert McLiam Wilson
About the author: Cédric Duroux was born in 1981. For a degree in English, he studied Robert
McLiam Wilson (Eureka Street) and Armistead Maupin (Tales of the City). He joined Villa Gillet in
2005. Les Animaux sentimentaux is his debut novel.
Worldwide translation rights: Buchet Chastel ("Qui vive" series)
Publication date: May 2nd, 2016
Number of pages: 288
Available material: Uncorrected bound proofs
Retail price: 18 €
NON FICTION
VERTIGE DE LA FORCE
(Vertigo of Might)
Etienne Barilier
The terrorist attacks in Paris in January 2015 claimed to spring from a religious duty: taking revenge for besmirching ‘God's honor". They were, therefore, murders for the sake of the sacred. The concept of sacredness is older than religion, older than all the gods. Sacredness is, above all, pure fascination for might that knows neither reason nor humanity. The might in which
Simone Weil saw the share of the inhuman in all men. The might that brings men to their knees
before a god to whom they enslave themselves, and for whose honor they will put their brethren in
bondage.
While all religions, including Christianity, have worshipped that Almighty God – often at the price of
the most blatant distortions of their original message – even its most respected scholars acknowledge
that Islam gives a prominent place to might and to religion's triumph through it.
Civilizations, and particularly European civilization, have managed to counteract that might/force
with what Etienne Barilier calls "light"– ranging from the light of humanist, universalist thought
to that of artistic and intellectual creation. After the attacks in Paris, some commentators ventured
to say that the killers' allegiance to a murderous ideal was understandable because contemporary
society was consumerist, materialist and shallow – that without beliefs, it had nothing better to offer
them. This essay shows us that our society – or more accurately, our culture, philosophy and art –
does have something to offer: an idea of humanity that takes shape in all of our intellectual creations
as well as in our works of art; one that has cost fortunes in intellectual courage and in courage, pure
and simple.
In a few words: An essay about might, the human ability to dehumanize men.
About the author: Etienne Barilier is an essayist, a novelist (Ruiz doit mourir (Ruiz Must die),
2014 and Les Cheveux de Lucrèce (Lucretia's Hair), 2015, both published by Buchet-Chastel) and
a translator. His essays reflect his involvement with the philosophical debates of our times: Contre
le nouvel obscurantisme (Opposing the New Obscurantism, Zoé, 1995), an essay written in defense of
Enlightenment philosophy as well as Nous autres civilisations (We Are Our Civilizations, Zoé, 2004), a
book inspired by 9/11.
Worldwide translation rights: Buchet Chastel
Publication date: January 7th, 2016
Number of pages: 128
Available material: Finished copy
Retail price: 13 €
MÉMOIRES
(Memoirs)
Roland Garros
Blaise Cendrars called it "the "most extraordinary document, as well as the liveliest and most picturesque text you could read about the early days of aviation." In his new preface, Philippe Forest adds: "truly novel, and a true novel". Here is the first complete edition of Roland Garros's Memoirs, which recounts how a young man of 20 falls in love with "that bit of wood and canvas that lets human thought take flight," to the point that four years later, the young man becomes the first person to complete a trans-Mediterranean flight. His story, which he wrote as a prisoner of war in Germany, proves that a man can be both a hero and a poet. Roland Garros describes his races and records with enchanting lyricism. There's a touch of cheek in his descriptions of touring the Americas, and of friendly outings amongst death-defying daredevils. And a touch of Jules Verne in these memories that pair technology with fantasy, adventurers with investors, and dandies with boxers. In a few words: The memoirs of the brilliant "flying ace" Roland Garros recount the years 1909 to
1914. They are followed by a re-transcription of the aviator's war diaries from August 1914 until he
was taken prisoner in April 1915. With a preface by the writer Philippe Forest, the book also includes
almost a dozen photographs as well as biographical information provided by Roland Garros's nephew,
Jean-Pierre Lefèvre Garros.
About the author: An aviation pioneer born on Reunion Island, Roland Garros held a world record
for altitude and became the first person to fly across the Mediterranean Sea without stopping. A
World War I hero, he helped develop deflector wedges that allowed for firing through propeller blades.
After escaping from a POW camp, he died in combat in October 1918.
Worldwide translation rights: Phébus
Publication date: January 7th, 2016
Number of pages: 448
Available material: Finished copy
Retail price: 23 €
L'ODYSSÉE DU PINGOUIN
CANNIBALE
(The Cannibal Penguin's Odyssey)
Yann Kerninon
T he Cannibal Penguin's Odyssey is both an autobiographical memoir and the true story of
Cannibal Penguin, the heavy-metal group the author founded in response to a "mid-life crisis," even though he had never planned to become a rock musician. But it is also a philosophical essay exploring the notion of "radical absurdity" and the possibilities for finding meaning where there is none. According to Yann Kerninon, radical absurdity is the contemporary version of the notion of the absurd that Camus, Beckett and Ionesco developed in the post-war period.
We all experience this conceptual absurdity in our daily lives: boredom at work, mind-blowing current events, the disappearance of any credible religious or ideological references, the impression of the world's folly… It is as though punk nihilism and Monty Python skits had become the basis of our actual lives. How can we live in an insane world? This book, which ranges from funny to tragic, is a veritable odyssey in search of lost meaning. In a few words: A punk-rock philosophical essay based on real life, the book jungles constantly
between comments of a very private nature, and universal considerations.
About the author: Yann Kerninon, 43, has already had five essays published. Tentative d'assassinat
du bourgeois qui est en moi (An Attempt to Assassinate My Inner Bourgeois) won the 2009 Essay Prize and
Vers une libération amoureuse (Towards a Liberation of Love), published in 2012, was warmly received
by the critics.
Worldwide translation rights: Buchet Chastel
Publication date: February 11th, 2016
Number of pages: 208
Available material: Finished copy
Retail price: 18 €
CE QU'IL RESTE DE NUIT : LOKISS,
UN PORTRAIT
(What's left of the Night)
Sophie Pujas
Paris, 1980s: inspired by New York, where graffiti has been around for years, teens take to an empty lot in Paris's La Chapelle neighborhood, as well as to walls around the city and subway and suburban trains to express themselves. The movement soon provides meaning to the life of Vincent, who will become Lokiss, and other characters later. In a style that matches her subject's quick-wittedness, Sophie Pujas describes the artistic and intellectual path of one of the most iconic representatives of the first generation of French graffiti artists. Uncompromising and demanding, he will choose not to surf on the street-art wave that so any of his peers benefit from, as he believes that path is a sell-out. In the end, he takes his distance from walls and brings his art to life on other surfaces. As a multi-disciplinary artist, Lokiss is an ever-evolving jack of all trades.
In a few words: A short, lively text about the life of Lokiss: one of the first French taggers, and an
icon of his generation. The book is enhanced with an 8-page photo insert that presents the artist's
visual evolution.
About the author: Sophie Pujas is a journalist. She has written two books published by Gallimard:
Z.M. (about the painter Zoran Music) and Maraudes (Marauding), as well as of Street Art, poésie
urbaine (Street Art: Urban Poetry, published by Editions Tana).
Worldwide translation rights: Buchet Chastel
Publication date: March 3rd, 2016
Number of pages: 212
Available material: Finished copy
Retail price: 12 €
MA RHAPSODIE
(My Rhapsody)
Michel Tabachnik
This book, which is overflowing with love for art and for life, obviously has a lot to say about music: the celebrated conductor and composer offers readers impassioned and precise pages about rehearsing an orchestra, and how the "ideal society" that an orchestra represents actually works, as well about the pieces and musicians that have meant the most to him– Xenakis, Boulez, Markevitch, Karajan and others. The book also has philosophical and aesthetic musings that shed new light on the musician's approach. And finally, personal anecdotes, told with the intelligence and lucidity he is known for, and which are inevitably marked by the terrible affair that affected his life so deeply.
A private, wise, tragic, moving and often funny confession from the profoundly humanist Tabachnik, who offers up an ode to life and its mysteries, that for him, only music is capable of expressing fully.
In a few words: A very personal book about music, the musician's life, and life per se, by one of the
great musicians of our times.
About the author: After studying music in Geneva, Michel Tabachnik became the protégé first of
Igor Markevitch, then of Herbert von Karajan, and above all, of Pierre Boulez, whose assistant he
was, and who confided the task of creating the Ensemble InterContemporain of Paris to him.
He has conducted the world's most prestigious orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the
Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Orchestre de Paris and more. He was the chief conductor of
the Brussels Philharmonic from 200 to 2015, when he became honorary conductor. He is also a
composer, who has written, among other pieces, an opera about the death of Walter Benjamin, which
premiered last March.
Worldwide translation rights: Buchet Chastel (music series)
Publication date: March 10th, 2016
Number of pages: 208
Available material: Finished copy
Retail price: 18 €
FAUT-IL AVOIR PEUR DES NANOS ?
(Should we worry about nanos?)
Francelyne Marano
Nanoparticles are elements whose size is between approximatively 1 and 100 nanometers (1 nanometer being 1 billion times smaller than a meter). To give an idea: a nanometer is to a meter as the height of a garden gnome is to the distance between the Earth and the Sun! Those substances are now omnipresent in our daily lives. In France, more than 400,000 tons of them were used in 2013 alone. Cosmetics, packaging, textiles, foodstuffs, medicine and more… all of those fields are now concerned by nanoparticles. Industry sees them as the solution to a wide range of problems, because these miniscule particles (nano-carbon tubes, nano-silver, nano-titanium, nano-zinc, etc.) possess specific and particularly useful physical-chemical properties that larger particles don't have: they can be found, for instance, in "self-cleaning" glass, "dirt-resistant" cement, some anti-bacterial surfaces and many ultra-resistant or ultra-light materials. Yet these particles generate legitimate concerns; while their uses are obvious, more and more voices are being raised, demanding a closer look at the possible risks to consumers and to the environment: once they are loose in our organisms, they could have toxic effects on our health. So are they really a good idea? Should we distrust them? Common sense and the principle of precaution would suggest preventing the marketing of untested products, and, at the very least, limiting their use to only the most vital products. In a few words: Cosmetics, packaging, textiles, foodstuffs, medicine and more…, nanoparticles
are now omnipresent in our daily lives. Industry has integrated them into many everyday products,
because these tiny particles possess particular physical-chemical properties (resistance, flexibility,
etc.), but without having verified their harmlessness. More and more scientists now believe that they
may indeed be dangerous to our health.
About the author: Francelyne Marano is an emeritus professor of cellular biology and toxicology
at Paris-Diderot University. She is an active participant in many national environment and health
programs.
Worldwide translation rights: Buchet Chastel (environment series)
Publication date: April 1st, 2016
Number of pages: 128
Available material: Finished copy
Retail price: 12 €
LES MISCELLANÉES DES PLANTES
(A Miscellany of Plants)
Anne-France Dautheville
How can beets be used to treat soil that has been polluted by nitroglycerin? How long do hawthorn bushes or Bristlecone pine trees live? How did Louis XIV find out about pineapple? Why do the French give people lily-of-the-valley for MayDay? Where did the term Adam's apple come from? How can you soothe a nettle sting? What can you replace salt and ginger with from the garden? This book brings together more than 200 tales, amusing anecdotes and legends from the extraordinary world of plants. There are entries from all different sources: science, history, geography, literature, myths and legends. They share lots of secrets and clever tips. Serious or entertaining, scientific or practical, useful or frivolous… the information is always accurate, but never boring.
The lively layout and illustrations make it a real reading pleasure.
In a few words: A book bursting with offbeat and entertaining information – an invitation to travel
and to see the world of plants differently. Readers can open this surprising cabinet of curiosities to
any page and find something entertaining or flip from one fascinating discovery to another.
About the author: Anne-France Dautheville is a journalist and a writer. She has traveled the world
by motorcycle on her own: her travels and the information she gleans from gardeners everywhere she
goes have inspired her articles (for Grands Reportages, Géo, and more) and books (published most
notably by Belin, Delachaux and Niestlé).
Worldwide translation rights: Buchet Chastel (environment series)
Publication date: April 1st, 2016
Number of pages: 144
Available material: Finished copy
Retail price: 15 €
(Everyday Utopia)
Gaetano Pesce
Born in Venice in 1939, for nearly 50 years, Gaetano Pesce has occupied a unique position in the world of architecture and the art of design. Reconciling mass production with one-of-a-kind pieces, he erased the border between design and contemporary art, reinventing the shape of many buildings and everyday items, while at the same time re-configuring production methods and the use of synthetic materials. He first achieved international renown thanks to the UP armchair, which he designed when he was 29. Ever since, he has divided his time between Milan, Paris and New York, ceaselessly inventing new shapes, uses and materials, for everything from bedside lamps to 15-story buildings. Based on a year of interviews with Philippe Garnier, this book is presented in the form of an A to Z. With a 100 or so entries, from Adoption to Zebra, via Bauhaus and Silicone, Gaetano Pesce shares his thoughts, describing his career, emotions and memories. He has always had a knack for discussing his own work with panache, intelligence, insolence and humor. This book is the expression of a one-of-a-kind voice.
In a few words: Gaetano Pesce is one of the biggest names in 20th- – and even 21st – century
architecture and design. In a lively A to Z format, this book of interviews offers him a chance to
express unexpected, thought-provoking ideas that will appeal to everyone.
About the authors: Born near Venice in 1939, Gaetano Pesce is one of the biggest names in 20th-
century architecture and design. He has created hundreds of objects as well as building totally atypical
office buildings, house and apartments. Major shows, at the Pompidou Center in Paris, in 1996, and
the Maxxi, in Rome, in 2014, have honored his exceptional career. Gaetano Pesce now lives in New
York.
Philippe Garnier, a writer, has worked with different publishing houses. He composed this book from a year's worth of interviews with Gaetano Pesce.
Worldwide translation rights: Buchet Chastel
Publication date: May 26th, 2016
Number of pages: 168
Available material: Complete manuscript
Retail price: 15 €
Christine Bonnard Legrand
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75 006 Paris
Tel : + + 1 44 32 05 64
Fax : + + 1 44 32 12 45

Source: http://lesteragency.free.fr/page8/files/Libella_Spring_2016.pdf