© Anoush Abrar, Astrid di Crollalanza, and Spencer Ostrander
Step out of your living room and cozy interiors! How about enjoying the beautiful weather while devouring the most anticipated novels of the moment, right from the Jardin du Palais-Royal or Luxembourg Gardens? Literary releases from beloved authors are making waves, including the pen wizards Joël Dicker, Nicolas Mathieu, and Paul Auster. The intellectual team at Do It rushed to read them to whisper what they really thought.
Highly Anticipated Landing in Geneva for Joël Dicker
The Good Read: L'Animal Sauvage by Joël Dicker
The Pitch: L'Animal Sauvage tells the story of a jewelry store heist in Geneva, a 7-minute hold-up to be precise. It's also the tale of Sophie and her husband Arpad, who reside in an upscale suburb along Lake Geneva. As Sophie approaches her fortieth birthday, their idyllic world begins to crumble: her husband is entangled in a past he can't seem to escape, their neighbor is fascinated by her to the point of obsession and spies on her most intimate life, a lurker hides in the nearby woods and offers her a gift on her birthday that will shake her to the core.
The author takes the reader on a journey, juggling past, present, and future, mastering time, skillfully distributing all the pieces of his puzzle, thus creating a thrilling suspense.
Why You'll Love It: Two years after The Alaska Sanders Case, Joël Dicker shelves Marcus Goldman and the United States and, with his restrained pen, delivers an ultra-effective psychological thriller mixing jealousy, voyeurism, and banditry. The chapters are short, the story races along, the pace is intense, and the plot is well-crafted. The downside? L'Animal Sauvage lacks the charm of The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair, which particularly struck a chord. The subsequent books were somewhat disappointing, although they still deserve a brief read. However, it's worth noting that Joël Dicker's very first novel, The Last Days of Our Fathers, is absolutely worth it.
An Autobiographical Collection by Nicolas Mathieu
The Good Read: À ciel ouvert by Nicolas Mathieu
The Pitch: Unable to express them as he would like, Nicolas Mathieu has documented his feelings for a woman, a clandestine love, under Instagram posts since 2008. Now that this clandestine affair is over, he has compiled these short texts into a book, as a final tribute to this relationship that has shaken a part of his life. In the manner of a diary, sprinkled with melancholy, tenderness, nostalgia, and delicacy, this work recounts all those mundane moments that constitute the very essence of deep love.
From secret vacations to nights spent in the frenzy of the forbidden, from long weeks of absence to endless arguments, the author has the art and manner of recounting these moments that make up the extraordinary daily life of those who don't really have the "right" to live them, for whom it was neither the time nor the place.
Why You'll Love It: Nicolas Mathieu, who made a name for himself with his novels Their Children After Them (2018 Goncourt Prize) and Connemara, presents his first collection of short stories here. The writer steps out of his comfort zone and ventures into autobiographical storytelling. Like a poet, and with the help of the talented Aline Zalko and her ultra-colorful drawings, the author narrates his story through sensitive, subtle, and profoundly poetic writing, delivering a true ode to life, love, and all those stories that will never be fully lived.
Love According to the Genius of Paul Auster
The Good Read: Baumgartner by Paul Auster
The Pitch: Seymour Baumgartner has lost his zest for life since the accident that took the life of his beloved wife, Anna Blume, nine years ago. The old man is 70 years old when he decides to unravel the thread of their story, from their meeting as students in New York to their 40 years of passionate love. From the best to the worst, from moments of sadness to memories of joy, why does the brain remember only certain moments?
When the great Paul Auster delves into love, inevitably a grand and beautiful story ensues. The reader is invited to follow the narrator's digressions, a true inner journey, the exploration of his own memory, one of the writer's favorite themes. The narrative oscillates on the border of autobiography, but the author blurs the lines and thus offers one of the most poignant stories of his career.
Why You'll Love It: 4321, Brooklyn Follies, Moon Palace,... Paul Auster is renowned for capturing New York's energy like no one else. He also has the art and manner of exploring memory, addressing these universal yet inherent memories of every human being. As in Moon Palace or In the Country of Last Things,he delivers a sensitive, profound, and meticulously researched study on attachment, memories, the twists and turns of mourning a loved one, and the phantom limb syndrome.
And Also...
Love, Rare or Medium Rare by Leslie Gogois
This debut novel presents itself as the diary of a woman who finds herself suddenly alone with her two children. Panic and hundreds of questions follow incomprehension. How to recover from such a breakup after more than twenty years of life together, and how to continue living a "normal" life for the well-being of her little ones? Her romantic life's adventures follow naturally, her experiences, her crushes, her fiascos... All told without taboo, with the naturalness, sparkle, dynamism, humor, and spontaneity that we now envy her for. While Leslie Gogois shines for her numerous cookbooks, such as Cédric Grolet's Flowers, as well as for numerous works about couples, love, and happiness, this is her first novel.
Also, discover Martine, the icon of our childhood, exhibited at the Gallimard gallery and 12 timeless love novels to read once in a lifetime.
