The Perfect Girl
, by Nathalie Azoulai
Full screen
The perfect girl
by Nathalie Azoulai Press Service
In Rachel's family, to the affirmed bourgeoisie, we like literature, so she will study literature.
On the side of Adèle, her best friend since adolescence, from a more modest background, we prefer the sciences.
Adele would become a Fields Medal-listed mathematician, and Rachel a beloved author.
There will be a drama, and Nathalie Azoulai in a rich language, of extreme elegance, goes back in time to this relationship, this kind of sisterhood made up of fusion and silences, as if in competition to be the “perfect girl”.
A murky and disturbing novel about the mysteries of friendship, the power of feelings, the role of ambition and the place of girls in our society.
POL editions, 320 pages, €20.
The Children of the Night
, by Eva Ionesco
Full screen
Children of the Night
by Eva Ionesco Press Service
Eva Ionesco, we discovered her as a little girl in Innocence, where she recounted a childhood bruised by a toxic mother.
We find her as a teenager in the 1970s, crossing the Parisian nights like a shooting star, doing the 400 blows with her meeting friends.
Le Palace, Pigalle, Montparnasse… This is the story of a city, of an era, of a girl who discovers her first love, the pleasure of freedom.
But the night is not tender.
She also discovers the dangers of a cannibal world, without taboos, forbidden pleasures.
A fiercely poetic tale that sets hearts and bodies on fire.
Grasset Editions, 448 p., €24.
Bitter Sugar
, by Avni Doshi
Full screen
Bitter sugar
from Avni Doshi Press Service
Antara's mother has Alzheimer's disease, her memories are fading.
Antara, she has all her memory, but would prefer to forget her childhood: her mother lived her life in complete freedom, leaving her husband to follow a guru, abandoning Antara to her fate.
So how do you deal with a mother who cared so little about you?
Avni Doshi addresses universal themes such as motherhood (Antara is expecting a child), illness, transmission, mother-daughter relationships, creation (Antara is an artist) in a powerful first novel that navigates between pain and love.
Globe Editions, 304 pages, €23.
Translated by Simone Manceau
The Young Woman and the Sea
, by Catherine Meurisse
Full screen
The Young Woman and the Sea
by Catherine Meurisse Press Service
For centuries, a trip to Italy was an essential stage of training for French artists.
Times are changing, designer Catherine Meurisse has chosen Japan.
In Kyoto, then on the island of Iki, she saw this as going through the mirror.
This new Alice discovers a strange world, the beauty of prints, temples, a nature that inspires her.
Between real or fantasized encounters, she is the heroine of this philosophical tale,
La Jeune Fille et la Mer
, beautifully enhanced by Isabelle Merlet's coloring.
Editions Dargaud, 116 pages, €22.50
