French Archives - Page 2 of 3

I Just Wanted to Save My Family: A Memoir by Stéphan Pélissier with Cécile-Agnès Champart, translated by Adriana Hunter [in Shelf Awareness]

23 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, European, French, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Syrian, Translation

The title alone is a universally resounding cry for help: I Just Wanted to Save My Family. It also proves to be French legal expert and first-time author Stéphan Pélissier's best defense to challenge a guilty verdict that demands seven years of imprisonment. Co-written with Cécile-Agnès Champart...

Best World Literature 2020 [in Library Journal]

02 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Australian, Australian Asian, Caribbean, European, Fiction, French, Japanese, Korean, North Korean, Persian, Repost, Short Stories, Translation

For three years, I've been reading along with two fabulously erudite co-horts – my Library Journal editor Barbara Hoffert and fellow LJ reviewer Lawrence Olszewski – to recognize and celebrate the best translated world literature. This year, we had well over 100 titles to discuss, debate, negotiate,...

At Night All Blood Is Black by David Diop [in Shelf Awareness]

30 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, European, Fiction, French, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Spare and devastating, At Night All Blood Is Black by French Senegalese author David Diop is a bone-chilling anti-war treatise. He chooses as backdrop a little-known chapter of World War I annals, when the French government drafted some 200,000 soldiers from its colonies, including Senegal....

Invisible Differences: A Story of Asperger’s, Adulting, and Living a Life in Full Color by Julie Dachez, illustrated by Mademoiselle Caroline, translated by Edward Gauvin [in Shelf Awareness]

23 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, European, French, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost, Translation

In her enormously affecting comics debut, Invisible Differences, French activist Julie Dachez introduces her autobiographical stand-in, 27-year-old Marguerite. Marguerite's daily life is most comfortable when she abides by her familiar rituals: wear soft clothes, depart for work at 7:30 a.m., grab her daily spelt roll...

Algériennes: The Forgotten Women of the Algerian Revolution by Swann Meralli, illustrated by Deloupy, translated by Ivanka Hahnenberger [in Booklist]

29 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, European, Fiction, French, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Repost, Translation

While reading about the Algerian War of Independence (1954–62), contemporary French woman Beatrice learns she has a specific label: she’s an “enfant d’appelé,” literally “a child of one called up” to serve in the Algerian War. Her father was such a soldier, but he’s never...

The Third Population by Aurélien Ducoudray, illustrated by Jeff Pourquié, translated by Kendra Boileau [in Booklist]

25 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, European, French, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Nonfiction, Repost, Translation

The opening is undoubtedly jarring: in a father/son conversation about an upcoming work trip, author Aurélien Ducoudray explains he’s going “[t]o a place where crazy people live.” Despite the initially shocking language (most likely not lost in translation by Penn State University Press’s editor-in-chief Kendra Boileau), the...

Igifu by Scholastique Mukasonga, translated by Jordan Stump [in Shelf Awareness]

28 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, European, Fiction, French, Repost, Short Stories, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW A Rwandan exile living in France, Scholastique Mukasonga pulled from her extraordinary life to write two notable memoirs, Cockroaches and The Barefoot Woman (a 2019 National Book Award Translated Literature finalist). Autobiographical elements continue to haunt her exquisite collection, Igifu, through five wrenching stories. Born in 1956, Mukasonga had a...

That Time of Year by Marie NDiaye, translated by Jordan Stump [in Shelf Awareness]

18 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, European, Fiction, French, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Translation

At a little more than 100 pages, That Time of Year by Marie NDiaye (Ladivine) might initially seem spare. The intriguing complexity, however, contained in her superb novel underscores again why she is one of France's most lauded contemporary writers, having received her country's highest...

Tiananmen 1989: Our Shattered Hopes by Lun Zhang and Adrien Gombeaud, illustrated by Ameziane, translated by Edward Gauvin [in Booklist]

31 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, French, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Lun Zhang was there during “the largest spontaneous gathering in all of Chinese history,” surrounded by “the joys and smiles of Beijing’s youth” hoping to achieve freedom and democracy. At 26, he was older than his student counterparts; he had “lived through the regime’s most...

The Girl Who Reads on the Métro by Christine Féret-Fleury, translated by Ros Schwartz [in Library Journal]

18 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, European, Fiction, French, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Translation

Despite living in glorious Paris, Juliette's daily life is mundane. Her real estate job isn't fulfilling, her closest friend is flighty coworker Chloe, and her love life currently nonexistent. The day's highlight is her Métro commute, when she can commune with books – both the...

Best World Literature 2019 [in Library Journal]

02 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Chinese, European, Fiction, French, Japanese, Korean, Lists, Repost, South American, Syrian, Translation

For the second year, I got to read along with two fabulously erudite co-horts – my Library Journal editor Barbara Hoffert and fellow LJ reviewer Lawrence Olszewski – to compile this 10-title list of remarkable, unforgettable, best-of translated world literature. We all read voraciously throughout the year,...

Black Forest by Valérie Mréjen, translated by Katie Shireen Assef [in Library Journal]

26 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, European, Fiction, French, Translation

This English-language debut from French writer/filmmaker Valérie Mréjen opens with a nameless suicide: a man “decides he’s old enough” and replaces the disco ball with rope. The story, however, begins with a divorced father who determines that his children are lacking suitable New Year’s Eve...

Older Brother by Mahir Guven, translated by Tina Kover [in Shelf Awareness]

18 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, European, Fiction, French, Hapa/Mixed-race, Repost, Syrian, Translation

Two brothers. Two narrators. Two type fonts: serif for "The Older Brother" chapters; sans serif for "The Younger Brother." Their family has shrunk as Mahir Guven's debut, Older Brother, begins: "...

Letter to Survivors by Gébé, translated by Edward Gauvin [in Booklist]

02 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, European, Fiction, French, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Once upon a time, they were “that happy family”: two parents, two children, one dog, living in “the house of [their] dreams.” And then they added a coastal apartment and a mountain escape – traversed via luxury car, then adventure mobile – and then...

Piero by Edmond Baudoin, translated by Matt Madden [in Booklist]

01 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, European, French, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Twenty years since its original French publication, Edmond Baudoin’s autobiographical homage to his older brother, Piero, and their shared childhood makes its English-language debut, admiringly translated by cartoonist Matt Madden. Growing up between Nice, where their father worked, and Villars-sur-Var (“our Mom’s village, our village”),...

Small Country by Gaël Faye, translated by Sarah Ardizzone [in Library Journal]

24 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Audio, European, Fiction, French, Hapa/Mixed-race, Memoir, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW French singer/rapper Gaël Faye transforms his own background into an impressive, searing coming-of-age first novel about a Burundian family's implosion during the 1990s. What seemed like an idyllic, privileged childhood for 10-year-old Gabriel – made memorable by mischievous adventures with close friends – begins...

My Beijing: Four Stories of Everyday Wonder by Nie Jun, translated by Edward Gauvin [in Booklist]

12 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Chinese, Fiction, French, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, Short Stories, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW When young Yu’er laments, “People think I’m different,” her grandfather’s immediate response, “Oh, who cares what they think!” sets her free to be just that and more. She’s different because she’s physically challenged, but Grampa ensures her mobility via push cart, wooden chair on...

You Will Not Have My Hate by Antoine Leiris, translated by Sam Taylor [in Library Journal]

19 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, European, French, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW With elegant control, narrator Gildart Jackson embodies the words of French journalist Antoine Leiris, who bears witness to the murder of his wife, Hélène Muyal-Leiris, one of the victims of the November 13, 2015, terrorist attack at Paris's Bataclan Theatre. Three days later, Leiris...

The Arab of the Future: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1978-1984 by Riad Sattouf, translated by Sam Taylor

30 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Arab, European, French, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction

By 2, he knew he was "perfect." The toddler Riad with his "[l]ong, thick, silky, platinum-blonde hair," might have been "awake for only a few hours a day, but it was enough: when it came to living, [he] was a natural." And so begins the first...

The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud, translated by John Cullen [in Christian Science Monitor]

04 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Arab, European, Fiction, French, Repost, Translation

The Meursault Investigation cleverly builds on The Stranger by Camus In a New Yorker interview this March, Algerian journalist Kamel Daoud spoke of reading the iconic 1942 classic, The Stranger by Albert Camus – in which a man arbitrarily commits murder and is tried and sentenced...

BookDragon French