The latest adventure novel by Pete Fromm, a new translation for the 20th-century Jane Austen Dorothy Whipple, a family saga at the heart of the 80s penned by Ann Napolitano… There’s plenty to fill your long weekends under the sun. The literary gems of the moment, it’s all happening right here.
An adventure in the Canadian West
The good book. A Job You Mostly Won’t Know How to Do by Pete Fromm
The pitch. Midge and Flea grew up in the heart of Montana, raised like two sisters by their fathers, Taz and Rudy, two longtime friends. The wild landscapes, the nights under the stars, the swims in the icy lake… In this unconventional family, their childhood is a happy one. The only shadow on the horizon: the absence of mothers. Midge’s mother died in childbirth, Flea’s mother deserted soon after her birth.
When Midge leaves the family nest to pursue her studies, Flea finds herself alone. Lacking bearings, she questions her origins. She sets out in search of the mother she knows nothing about and finds her not far away, in Canada. As she knocks on the door of her cabin, Flea realizes she’s reaching a decisive moment in her life: the passage to adulthood.
Why you’re going to love it. Pete Fromm, known especially for Indian Creek, an autobiographical tale recounting his solitary winter in the Rockies, or Lucy in the Sky, has a gift for crafting beautiful stories in the heart of American nature. Like Peter Heller, author of The Orchard and The Guide, one might place them in the category of outdoor literature — if it were even possible to box them in. With A Job You Mostly Won’t Know How to Do, Pete Fromm paints a portrait of characters as moving as they are endearing and offers a dazzling story of self-discovery.
A delicate novel about the metamorphoses of love
The good book. Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
The pitch. From birth, William Waters lacked love. Raised by a neglectful family who never recovered from the loss of their little girl, his childhood, marked by tragedy, is a solitary one. As he enters the University of Chicago, he meets someone who will forever change the course of his life: Julia Padavano. He is immediately adopted by her family and her three sisters: Sylvie, the bookish one, Cecelia, the artist, and Emeline, the sensitive one. William discovers a new happiness in this warm and bright cocoon.
After their marriage and the birth of their daughter Alice, William is caught up again by his old demons and unhappy youth. Depressed, he abandons his family and leaves the city. Within the Padavano family, this desertion leaves no one untouched, forever changing its dynamic.
Why you’re going to love it. With Hello Beautiful, Ann Napolitano offers a universe of a novel about love and its metamorphoses, about family and its conflicts. She brilliantly explores mental illness and childhood trauma. Bonds that are woven and broken, a tale of sisterhood and friendship, of grief and resentment, of tenderness and pain: at the heart of the American 80s, the author reinvents and modernizes Little Women, delivering a poignant and moving family saga, in which every character is filled with contradictions, doubts, and flaws. A true ode to the strength of heart-bonds!
The story of psychological control
The good book. The Whipple Sisters by Dorothy Whipple
The pitch. We are in England at the start of the 20th century. In a Victorian home live three sisters: Lucy, the eldest, Charlotte, a bit self-effacing, and Vera, the egocentric one. Since the death of their mother in their adolescence, the eldest has watched over the two youngest. Through the 1930s, they settle into marriage and each devotes herself to her home.
From her house in the countryside, Lucy continues to watch over Vera and the timid Charlotte who, despite her sisters’ repeated warnings, marries a vain man of unspeakable sadism. You grow attached, you feel outraged, you hope. A hymn to family and the power of sisterhood!
Why you’re going to love it. The book is certainly not recent — it was published in 1949 — but this new edition/translation is absolutely worth the detour! While Dawn Powell, known for Turn, Magic Wheel or Happy Island, takes on New York society with razor-sharp wit, Dorothy Whipple, on the other hand, tackles English high society. Often described as the 20th-century Jane Austen, she delights in dissecting human nature, offering an incredibly precise and modern analysis. With a style that is sometimes witty, often cruel, she brings to life characters brimming with truth and delivers a true domestic noir, a dive into the hell a family can become and the manipulative grip of a toxic husband. And it still resonates powerfully in our 21st century…
AN ODE TO LIFE AMONG WOMEN
The good book: La Pommeraie by Peter Heller
The pitch. “They are your family. Solid and fair people, except with themselves. Incapable of accepting the marvel of their own magic.” Frith grew up with her mother Hayley in a cabin at the foot of the Vermont mountains, where the two of them survive thanks to their orchard. From this childhood made of simple moments, rocked by poems, Frith retains only happy memories.
While she is pregnant with her first child, she questions her heritage and what she will pass on in turn. From her translator mother, she retains a love of words and a clear taste for poetry. From Rosie, their most faithful friend, she keeps the simple pleasures of life and the delicacy of tapestries. From the absence of a father, only distant memories remain, fruits of her imagination. Frith is at peace raising her child alone, like her mother before her. It will be a girl, she feels it...
Why will you love it? Peter Heller, "outdoor" writer, to whom we owe La constellation du chien and Peindre, pêcher et laisser mourir, has the art and the way to set a scene, an atmosphere. The cold lemonade drunk on the porch, the sudden silence that closes a long summer day, the dives into the quarry waterfall, and then the smell of itchy wool sweaters, Dr Pepper and buns just out of the oven. A moving story of natural life, femininity, friendship, mother-daughter transmission and of course poetry! In the end, this setting is so nice we don’t want to leave it.
THE STORY OF A HOTEL THAT KNOWS EVERYTHING ABOUT ITS RESIDENTS
The good book: L’hôtel by Daisy Johnson
The pitch. Place of myths and secrets, this place has a very special aura. Even before the hotel was built, when it was just an empty space, a strange atmosphere reigned. A woman believed to be a witch was drowned there, a neo-gothic hotel was built on her cursed land, many employees and other managers passed through, friends, lovers, family members were hosted, people laughed, cried, spoke loudly, whispered, but above all they were afraid.
“It is bigger inside than outside. Don’t go into room 63. Doors and windows sometimes change places.” These short stories tell of the hotel, its story of an old building become an iconic character for its visitors. We discover a gallery of unusual characters. The very ones who continue to haunt the place long after the tragedy... the mysterious fire that ravaged everything.
Why will you love it? Daisy Johnson is considered by many as the descendant of Stephen King. As a worthy heir to the master of the dark and the strange novel, she has a gift for handling words. Witness Sœurs and Tout ce qui nous submerge. At the borders of the fantastic, the imaginary and reality, with a simple, almost scathing writing, she tells fear, horror and dread. The writer is sparing with words and that’s a good thing, she thus has all the space to set up an atmosphere that permeates us and doesn’t let us go, even after closing the book. By inviting us to stay in this hotel, Daisy Johnson gives us a small masterpiece of gothic literature.
A PERSONAL STORY ABOUT WOMEN'S REALITY
The good book: L’inventaire des rêves by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The pitch. “I have always dreamed of being known, as I really am, by another human being.” So begins the story of Chia, traveling writer who enjoys taking stock of her conquests, one of the protagonists of our story. She shares the narrative with three other women, her cousin Omelogor, who made a career in finance, their mutual friend Zikora, lawyer, abandoned by her partner when she tells him she is pregnant, and Kadiatou, fine cook and expert braider, realizes her American dream by becoming a housekeeper in a luxury hotel.
Their common point? Coming from West Africa, they all immigrated to the United States and all have dreams they fully intend to fulfill: one refuses marriage to live from her pen, another wants a child whatever the cost, or wants to fight injustices done to women. When Kadiatou’s dreams collapse following an incident in the hotel itself, echoing the Strauss-Kahn affair, the destinies of the other women come together, stick together, to form a single voice that questions: are women’s dreams harder to achieve?
Why will you love it? “The purpose of art is to observe our world and be moved by it, then to engage in a series of attempts to see it clearly, interpret it and question it.” writes the author in her preface. With L’inventaire des rêves, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, to whom we owe Americanah and the text We Should All Be Feminists, proves once again her gift for telling women’s stories and the power of their solidarity. With a pen always fine and light but much more expansive and deep, the writer delivers a deeply personal narrative about women's desires. If her heroines enjoy dreaming of love, chatting, sharing tasty dishes and jokes, they are above all Black women who question the impact their skin color has on their journey, and on how others see them.
A STORY AT THE HEART OF AUSTRALIAN LEGENDS
The good book: Les Sirènes by Emilia Hart
The pitch. Australia, 2019. Following a most strange incident, Lucy suddenly leaves university to take refuge at her sister Jess’s. The latter recently moved to Comber Bay, a place of all legends since the 1801 shipwreck. But when Lucy arrives at her dilapidated house, perched atop a wind-battered cliff, she finds no one. Unable to rely on her sister, she sets off in search of her.
To better search Jess’s present, Lucy dives into the past of this town, the story of a tragic shipwreck, tales of men disappeared in mysterious circumstances and the fate of a baby found in a cave. The puzzle pieces fit together one after another, like a police investigation. But everything is upended when the voices of the women who washed ashore on this coast hundreds of years ago begin to mingle. They whisper to Lucy the story of two sisters, two centuries ago, in a world where men were masters.
Why will you love it? Emilia Hart is no stranger to this. Before Les Sirènes, there was La Maison aux Sortilèges, which told the intertwined destinies of extraordinary women separated by centuries. A fan of magical realism, the writer created a universe recognizable among all, blending myths and popular legends, referring to historical events, adding just enough strangeness and painting portraits of extraordinary women. This dual timeline tale, mixing folklore and legend, plunges us into the tragic history of some of Australia’s first settlers, women exiled and transported to New South Wales to be used as human property. From this dark and bewitching atmosphere, one does not emerge unscathed.
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