Which Francophile authors do you like reading?

[Editor - France Magazine]

Hello forum!

I'm just wondering if you could tell me which books you would recommend to our readers?

Do you like Joanne Harris? Or Maybe Stephen Clarke is more your cup of tea?

Let us know...

Thanks!

Carolyn

[Catalpa]

They're a bit predictable, aren't they? Which isn't a dig at you... just that I expect a lot of people already interested in France have found those authors.

A fiction author I've recently discovered is an American - Cara Black. Author, not tennis player.  Well, she may play tennis but not, I suspect, up to championship standard. [:P]

http://www.carablack.com/

Her main character is a female French private investigator (Aimée Leduc) who reminds me of Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone - but where Sue Grafton is writing a book per letter of the alphabet, Cara Black seems to be working her way through her own list of Paris locations.

• Murder in the Sentier
• Murder in the Bastille
• Murder in Clichy... etc

Each book is a standalone story but there's more than a bit of mystery about Aimée's early life, so underneath the main plot in each book, there's a theme running through the series gradually explaining how Aimée's policeman father died, what happened to her mother - and information is revealed to us as Aimée herself discovers it. I don't know Paris well so the locations feel authentic enough for me, there are occasional mostly current French expressions dotted around the text that add to the sense of a foreign place but not in a way that interrups the story. They're well plotted, well-written; I've read two so far and will probably buy more.

Hope the suggestion is of some help.

[crépuscule]

I have just finished reading the 4 Jacquot "roman policiers" by Martin O'Brien and, although I don't normally care for this genre, these are extremely enjoyable - well written and very atmospheric, being set in either Marseilles or around Cavaillon in Provence. 

[Pads]

I enjoyed C'est la folie by Micheal Wright

It was a light and easy suitable for a fun read while on holiday, he was very witty and I enjoyed his discriptions of his surroundings.

Also:

Kate Mosses two books, a bit more heavey in all ways , not suitable for popping into your suitcase but a great way to dive into the atmosphere of the areas she wrote about, with a glass of wine in front of the fire this winter !! I was entranced by both of her books      

[Will]

The Michael Wright book is, I believe, based on his column in the Telegraph on Saturdays. I personally prefer Helena Frith-Wood's books - she writes in the Sunday Times among others. She manages to provide a rather more balanced view than most of the  other France writers, who tend to be a bit 'fluffy' (but that's probably exactly what a rose-tinted glossy magazine wants). Though she still manages to present the French experience in a positive light and isn't at all off-putting.

George East does much the same, but his stories, although all loosely based on truth, are a bit too embellished and a bit too earthy for some.

My favourite France book is Signs of the Heart (subtitled Love and Death in the Languedoc) by Christopher Hope. This too is based on various press articles, and also shows the dark side of the immigrant life in France, but does it with wit and good humour.

[Dick Smith]

Georges Simenon.

[Russethouse]

Sebastian Faulks

[Renaud]

I am with Dick Smith, in that I try and find and re-read Maigret novels. They provide vivid pictures into France in the decades either side of WW2. It was interesting that they used Prague to recreate Maigret's Paris in the Michael Gambon TV series. I am a lot less keen on Simenon's other books - they too show interesting facets of France but are more one dimensional.

Last summer, whilst waiting to pick-up a daughter at La Rochelle airport, I got to chatting to a charming gentleman who had set up a tressle table and was selling a couple of self-published books. I bought one, a police procedual (sp?) about a homicide policeman in La Rochelle starting to deal with a child murder. Unfortunately the book fell victim to my absent mindedness and I am unlikely to ever know what happened next. Surprisingly there was not much sense of place which I would have thought to been a strong element of what I assume to have been a locally written book. 

I too enjoyed C'est La Folie (I read the column every Saturday) and I am greatful to Catalpa for a new author to read.

[Catalpa]

I read a Simenon book years ago and it has never occurred to me to revisit him. [8-)] The BookPeople have a set of 10 Maigret novels for the silly price of £9.99 + postage unless you choose books which total £25 or more in which case postage is free. Downside for anyone living in France is the BookPeople only deliver to the UK. Here's a link if anyone is interested. I have just placed my order so thank you Dick and Renaud for putting the thought into my head. [:D]

http://tinyurl.com/25tf7t

[Eos]

[quote user="Pads"]

I enjoyed C'est la folie by Micheal Wright

It was a light and easy suitable for a fun read while on holiday, he was very witty and I enjoyed his discriptions of his surroundings.

Also:

Kate Mosses two books... I was entranced by both of her books      

[/quote]

I think I missed talking with you re Kate Mosse on another thread Pads! Enjoyed all of the above and am just finishing "The Albigensian Crusade" by Jonathan Sumption. Not such light reading, more a text book but very informative.

[Cendrillon]

Re. Francophile authors I would recommend the following:

Ruth Sylvestre's books

• A house in the sunflowers

• A harvest of sunflowers

• Reflections on sunflowers

Michael Wright's book is also a good read.

 

I have also enjoyed the books by Joanne Harris and those written by Sebastian Foulkes but because of the subject matter these can be very dark at times.

 

 

 

[Tancrède]

Dr Smollett's Travels through France and Italy still take some beating for freshness, truth, and entertaining insight not untouched with vitriol. Unsurprisingly the inhabitants of Nice threatened him with stoning should he ever reappear there.

[Jill<br><br>Jill (99)]

I really enjoyed Kate Mosse's books and also enjoy Joanne Harris.  As French author's go, I really enjoy reading Christian Signol.  I suppose he is rather like Pagnol, but writing now, about the past.  The books give a lot of feel for old ways of life in France and an insight into various things, such as the way vineyards were run as well as various historical facts touched upon from 1870 through the wars, in Les Vignes de St Colombe and in other books, a feel for rural communities.  In Les Bonheurs d'Enfance, it is about when the old trades were dying out and I felt I could smell the places he was describing.

I wonder - has anyone read Les Rois Maudits?  Only I went to an Alliance Francaise lecture where this was discussed - not the book or the television series, but the proper history.  Or, have you seen the series?  I believe there are two available on DVD.  I had hoped to receive one at Christmas, as I thought the book might be a bit heavy going, but my husband said the DVD hadn't got very good reviews.  I'm going to France next week, and thought I might buy the DVD or book while I'm there unless anyone tells me it really is rubbish!