Fall 08

LESTER LITERARY AGENCY & ASSOCIATES

FICTION SPRING 2020

Eastern Europe Central Europe Baltic countries

CONTENTS

RECENT SUCCESSES ...... 3 HIGHLIGHTS ...... 10 UP-MARKET ...... 14 CONTEMPORARY ...... 17 COMMERCIAL ...... 19 BIO & HISTORICAL ...... 27 THRILLER ...... 29 CRIME / NOIR ...... 35 (RE)DISCOVERED WRITERS ...... 36 TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH ...... 37

RECENT SUCCESSES

Jean-Paul Dubois Luc Lang TOUS LES HOMMES N'HABITENT PAS LE LA TENTATION MONDE DE LA MÊME FAÇON (The Temptation) (All Men Live in This World Differently) Stock, September 2019, 360 pages L'Olivier, August 2019, 252 pages

à English sample chapter available. à Rights sold in 23 languages: English (MacLehose Press), German (DTV), Spanish (AdN Alianza), Dutch (De à Rights sold in : Romania (Minerva). Under offer in Italy Arbeiderpers), Italian (Ponte Alle Grazie), Greec and Israel. (Doma Books), Russian (Eksmo), Lituanian (Baltos à Awarded the Prix Médicis 2019. Lankos), Hebrew (Hakibbutz Hameuchad - Sifriat Paolim), Catalan (Edicions62), Romanian (Litera), à 37,000 copies sold. Bulgarian (Lege Artis), South Korea (Changbi), China à A powerful, disturbing masculine novel about family, (Horizon Books), Vietnam (Nah Nam), Czech Republic (Euromedia/Odeon), Slovenia (Mladinska Knjiga), transmission, death, evil and the collapse of values. Croatia (Fraktura), Serbia (Akademska Knjiga), Japan, A family’s story of violence; part thriller, part exploration of Denmark, Brazil. the origins of evil. à Awarded the Prix Goncourt 2019. François - a sporty fifty-something orthopaedic surgeon from à 558 774 copies sold. Lyon - loves game hunting. He loves the fear of his prey, the Dubois describes human relationships with concision, danger and the defilement of it; and, though he wouldn’t humor and sadness, painting the portrait of a society admit it, he may also love the power of killing. When he is where an accused murderer awaiting trial is capable of about to kill a magnificent stag, François hesitates and injures the animal in the leg. Instead of despatching it, he sedates it, showing more humanity than a cost-cutting condominium hauls it into his pick-up and puts it back together, as he would administration. a patient. When his two children bring danger into the household, which François will take the upper hand: the Paul Hansen has been in jail for two years in a province of surgeon or the hunter? Montréal where he shares his cell with Horton, a Hell’s angel incarcerated for murder. Son of a Danish pastor and of a ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Luc Lang has written a dozen books beautiful French woman who runs a cinema in Toulouse, Paul including MILLE SIX CENTS VENTRES (winner of the Prix Goncourt was already living in Canada when the dramatic incident des lycéens), La Fin des paysages, Mother andAU happened. At the time, Hansen was a superintendent at the COMMENCEMENT DU SEPTIÈME JOUR (2016), 50,000 copies Excelsior where beyound his responsibilities he helped lost sold. souls and consolated the afflicted. When he is off duty he spends his time with Winona, his companion. This half Indian “A penetrating portrait of a wounded modern man.” Le Point woman pilote takes him into the sky and above the clouds. When a new manager arrives at the Excelsior, Paul’s life is “A perfectly mastered structure.” Les Inrocks thoroughly changed, conflicts ensue and the inevitable happens. A silted church in the dunes of a beach, an asbestos “Like an ingenious puzzle, this book is a theater where the mine under an open sky, the meanders of a silver river, the characters’ intimacy echoe the violence of the time.” Les Inrocks musical waves of an organ and the white trail of a plane compose the landscapes of this novel. The story of a lifetime, “A striking story about a man willing himself to take a second chance at life.” Transfuge this text is Jean-Paul Dubois’s best accomplishment. We discover an author who possesses a great sense of fraternity “The reader thought he followed the path of a melancholic novel, and who is inhabited by a feeling of rebellion against any kind only to find himself on the rugged slope of a crime novel, and finally of injustice. comes across the clearing of buried memories.” Marianne

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jean-Paul Dubois was born in 1950 in Toulouse. He was awarded the prix France Télévisions for KENNEDY ET MOI (Le Seuil, 1996), and the prix Femina as well as the prix du roman Fnac for UNE VIE FRANÇAISE (L’Olivier, 2004). His last novel, LA SUCCESSION (L’Olivier, 2016) was a great success, 120,000 copies were sold.

Lester Literary Agency & Associates / Spring 2020 / Fiction / Central, Eastern Europe & Baltic countries 3

Louis-Philippe Dalembert Pascal Janovjak MUR MÉDITERRANÉE LE ZOO DE ROME (Mediterranian Wall) (Rome Zoo) Sabine Wespieser, August 2019, 320 pages Actes Sud, April 2019, 256 pages

à Rights sold in: Germany (Nagel & Kimche), US à Rights sold in:: Italy (Casagrande), Germany (Lenos), (Schaffner Press), UK (Puschkin Press). World English (Blackinc à Was long-listed for the Prix Goncourt 2019. à A fascinating historical exploration of the Rome zoo, à The author draws in all subtlety the portrait of three packed with fun facts and anecdotes throughout history, female characters. Dalembert’s writing is sharp, wars, politics, fashion and ideas. generous and at times delightfully funny despite the à The author stages with a sweet irony and a real human tragedy he puts into light. tenderness, a gallery of characters all linked to the zoo à The characters manifest an incredible solidarity despite for the best and the worst. their very different backgrounds. Through a century of existence of the zoo of Rome, Pascal A grand novel about migration and exil that draws its Janovjak tells the evolution of our relationship with animals, inspiration from the real tragedy of a boat of migrants taking us into the alleys of a now controversial place, which saved by the Danish oil tanker Torm Lotte in 2014. remains a place of wonder for children, but disturbing for adults. On the Libyan coast, at Sabratha, the guards break in the warehouse where the women are crammed. Among the Inaugurated in 1911, the Rome zoo owes its architectural ones the supervisors molest, Chochana, a Nigerian girl and distinctiveness to the boldness of Hagenbeck. First and Semhar, from Egypt. That evening, after half an hour in the foremost a merchant, he supplied circuses and zoos with wild trolley of the pick-up truck charging at high speed with the animals. But Hagenbeck was also one of the first champions head-lights off they finally can smell the sea nearby. A little of training animals humanely and of zoos without cages. It was earlier, in Tripoli, a Syrian family, dressed in elegant clothes as from this perspective that he conceived of a new approach if they were leaving on a business trip, settle in the climatised to zoological parks in general and to the zoo of Rome in bus that has just stop in front of their hotel. This 16th of July particular. In this book, the reader is immersed in the history 2014, it is finally the great send-off. Dima, her husband and of this extraordinary garden which takes in the story of two young girls have left the country torn by war, in order to Raffaele de Vico, the architect who created an aviary bord a ship to Lampedusa. reminiscent of an observatory, a Swiss sculptor of genius who was half- mad, Mussolini and his pet lioness, the pope, and the ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Born in Port-au-Prince, Louis-Philippe writer Salman Rushdie, as well as a host of other characters. Dalembert has published news, poetry, essays and novels in both The reader is also introduced to a man and a woman who France and Haiti since 1993. The last work to date, AVANT QUE were destined to meet each other: Giovanna, who has been LES OMBRES S'EFFACENT (2017) won the prix Orange du Livre in charge of marketing at the zoo since 2010, and Chahine, an and the prix France Bleu/Page des libraries. architect who gives up his day job after being drawn by the strangeness of the buildings which connects with his own eventful past.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Born in 1975 in Basel of a French mother and a Slovakian father, Pascal Janovjak studied comparative literature and art history in Strasbourg and then departed to the Middle East, first to Jordan as a development aid volunteer and then to Lebanon, where he teaches literature at the University of Tripoli. His books include COLÉOPTÈRES, RECUEIL DE POÈMES EN PROSE (Samizdat, Geneva, 2007), L’INVISIBLE, ROMAN (Buchet-Chastel, Paris, 2009) and À TOI, RÉCITS CROISÉS with Kim Thuy (Liana Levi, Paris, 2011), which has been translated into Slovakian, Serbian and Romanian.

4 Jean-Baptiste Andrea Cécile Coulon CENT MILLIONS D’ANNÉES ET UN JOUR UNE BÊTE AU PARADIS (A Hundred Million Years and a Day) (A Beast in Paradise) L'Iconoclaste, August 2019, 320 pages L'Iconoclaste, August 2019, 352 pages

à Full English translation available. à English sample chapter available. à Rights sold in: Italy (Stile Libero), Germany à Rights sold in: Israel (U Sifrut She’nogaat), Italy (E/O), (Luctherhand/Btb), UK/US (Gallic books). Greece (Dardanos), World Spanish (Seix Barral Mexico), World English (Europa). à 5th favorite novel of booksellers in the “Livres Hebdo” ranking. à Awarded the Prix littéraire du Monde 2019. à A gripping page-turner where the passionate pursuit of à Long-listed for the Prix Intérallié 2019 and the Grand an impossible dream leads to bitter disappointment and Prix du roman de l’Académie française. madness. à The story of women from an all-female lineage who à A poetic, mineral style that paints a portrait of the sacrifice everything for the land they pass down from enchanting and terrifying Dolomite landscape in small, mother to daughter. delicate strokes. à Intense, relentless suspense masterfully conducted by à A novel with a powerful narrative voice, reverberating Cécile Coulon, who draws the reader into a nerve- with echoes of tales from the mountains and the wracking huis clos legendary, perilous climbs of Irvine and Mallory, Maurice à Herzog, and others. Blanche, a fascinating character: hyper-sensitive and capable of absolute, murderous love à Stan’s past, which comes out over the course of the novel, allows readers to grasp his complicated A love triangle set in the French countryside where the psychology: a lonely childhood in the Pyrénées, his reader will enjoy Coulon's usual skill with words and the mother’s death, the humiliation his father and beautifully earthy descriptions of nature and the schoolmates subjected him to. countryside. A novel about a scientific quest, and a story about going back to nature, experiencing cold, physical effort, and When Blanche's high-school boyfriend Alexandre returns to their village after ten years in the city, Blanche's past feelings solitude; as well as a voyage through both madness and resurge. But Louis, the farmhand who has always had childhood. (unrequited) feelings for Blanche, is determined to keep Alexandre as far away from her as he can. A story about At the decline of his career, Stanislas Armengol, a French generational change, the city encroaching upon the paleontologist, sets off on his last crazy adventure as he countryside. A love story, consuming love, love of nature, love attempts to locate a fully preserved skeleton of a of each other, and also of course lust and desire. Brontosaurus in the Alps in the company of Umberto, an old colleague. Arduous and extremely dangerous, this expedition ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Since her first book, written at seventeen will revive some of Stanislas’ oldest fears and weaknesses years old, Cécile Coulon never ceases to surprise and amaze us. In before turning into a deathly struggle between man and just a few years, she has produced six novels, including TROIS nature. A hallucinatory climb toward the heights of madness SAISONS D’ORAGE, winner of the Prix des libraires, and a and dreams. collection of poems (Prix Apollinaire 2017).

Following the success of My Queen, this second novel provides confirmation of a prodigious talent.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jean-Baptiste Andrea was a movie director and screenwriter. Then he wrote MA REINE (22,000 copies sold, winner of 12 prizes including the Prix du Premier Roman and the Prix Femina des Lycéens, 9 foreign licenses), and for two years he traveled to more than 50 cities, in France and abroad, meeting readers, booksellers and librarians. Now he is leaving behind the cinema for literature.

Lester Literary Agency & Associates / Spring 2020 / Fiction / Central, Eastern Europe & Baltic countries 5

Thomas Gunzig Guillaume Lavenant FEEL GOOD PROTOCOLE GOUVERNANTE (Feel Good) (The Governess’s Protocol) Diable Vauvert, August 2019, 350 pages Payot Rivages, August 2019, 190 pages

à Rights sold in: Russia (Text), Italy (Marcos y Marcos). à English sample chapter available. à 12,000 copies sold. à Rights sold in: Russia (Eksmo). à A metafictional novel in which black humour and à Awarded the Prix révélation de la forêt des livres 2019. fatalism rub shoulders with a lust for life and unfailing à hope. Was long-listed for the Prix de Flore 2019. à à Alternating between hilarious passages on the literary Was long-listed for the Prix Médicis 2019. phenomenon of the moment and lucid descriptions of à Was selected for the Prix Stanislas 2019 and Prix his time, with great intelligence, Gunzig manages to Première Plume 2019. entwine his novel with that of his heroine to better poke fun at literature and depict his era. In a leafy suburb, a seemingly ideal family’s life is profoundly disturbed by the arrival of a governess whose à Hilarious passages about both a current literary phenomenon (the feel-good novel) and the publishing intentions are unclear. A hypnotic and extremely world in general, rigid with absurd literary prizes, book cinematographic debut novel with tremendous narrative fairs and rivalries, and its hierarchy between the “real” power. authors and the disdained ones. Both absolutely universal and thoroughly enjoyable. One Wednesday, a governess rings the doorbell of a house After the success of LA VIE SAUVAGE, this Belgian author’s in a tidy, quiet suburb. The well-off couple that welcomes her latest novel, a cross between realism and satire, offers an offers a few tips about their daughter, Elena, who she will be caring for. The governess smiles, folds her hands in her lap, impressively clear-eyed view of today’s world. and modulates her voice pleasantly, reassuring the couple and putting them at ease... By following the protocol dreamt up Alice, a shoe shop sales assistant, has always been by the strange Lewis, the governess soon makes herself economically insecure. But she can't take having to count indispensable. She will become the confidante, the lover, and every penny and not being able to provide a better life for the object of the whole seemingly ideal family’s repressed her son anymore. A crazy idea thus starts to form: kidnap a desires. But the governess is not alone; a number of people rich kid from a wealthy nursery and demand a ransom. have secretly infiltrated society in different places. As the Unfortunately, nothing goes according to plan and she soon veneer starts to crack, and the governess’s ascendancy grows, finds herself with a baby that nobody wants to claim on her the tension becomes more and more palpable. Until the big hands. Tom, a middling author, bumps into Alice one day and day arrives.. her kidnapping story gives him an idea: he suggests making a novel out of it and sharing the profits. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Guillaume Lavenant is an author and a director. He performs his creative, literary work in the fields of Alice, unconvinced, makes him a counteroffer: under his theatre, performance art, and narrative writing. PROTOCOLE tutelage, she will write a “feel good book”, following the GOUVERNANTE is his first novel. popular style of today, a bestseller likely to sell hundreds of thousands of copies and take her off the poverty line once « Manipulatrice en diable, la mécanique narrative s’avère redoutable and for all ... et, au fil des pages, bien plus politique qu’il n’y paraît » Lire

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Thomas Gunzig was born in Brussels in « Un livre qui secoue le lecteur et le fait sortir de sa zone de confort. 1970. He is the author of several collections of short-stories Et un projet d’une audace folle. » Technikart acclaimed by the critic. MORT D’UN PARFAIT BILINGUE won the 2001 Prix Rossel in Belgium. LE PLUS PETIT ZOO DU MONDE « Un premier roman à l’atmosphère unique, immersive et (rights sold in China and Bulgaria) followed by KURU, (finalist in the complètement opaque. » Page des Libraires Prix de Flore, 2005). LA VIE SAUVAGE (2017 sold 10.000 copies). « A l’instar du beau jeune homme dans Théorème de Pasolini, la “It is funny, spirited with a scathing irony on the book publishing gouvernante vient ravager l’équilibre bourgeois préétabli. Elle est en industry.” Voici mission, comme d’autres peut-être. Jusqu’où ira-t-elle? » Livres Hebdo

6 Odile Bouhier Philippe Amar LE BAZAR DE LA CHARITÉ LE PETIT ROI DU MONDE (The Bazar de la Charité) (The Little King of the World) Michel Lafon, November 2019, 400 pages Plon, May 2019, 432 pages

à Rights sold in: Germany (Heine), Poland (Proszynski), à Rights sold in: Italy (Garzanti, pre-empt), Spain Isrral (Kinneret). (Grijalbo-Penguin at auction), Germany (Heyne- à 10,000 copies sold. Randomhouse). à Netflix adaptation released on November 2019. à Movie rights sold. Stolen identities, forbidden love, emancipation: the à The perfect beach novel, bursting with humanity and flamboyant and outlandish story of three heroines living in happiness. Paris in the age of the Lumierè brothers. à To write this book, Philippe Amar studied adoption procedures for children who had been handed over to Paris, 1897. As the Tout-Paris is gathered at the annual Bazar Social Services, as well as immersing himself in the de la Charité Gala, a devastating fire breaks out during a world of pastry-making by taking a 3-month class at demonstration of the cinematograph, the revolutionary new Lenôtre School, and finally, meeting with both device by the Lumière brothers. Within minutes, the wooden professional violinists, and students and teachers at a Conservatory. edifice along with its elaborate wall hangings and fabrics is engulfed in flames. 126 people are left dead, mainly high- A young teen lives in a foster home. Will he be adopted society women accompanied by their ladies-in-waiting, some someday? To find the mother of his dreams, this violin of them trampled to death by men trying to save their own fanatic creates a false profile on a dating site, passing skins. himself off as an adult. Will the destiny he dreams of come The destinies of three women - Adrienne de Lenverpre, Alice true? de Jeansin and her maid Rose Rivière - are profoundly altered by the tragedy. They must now seek to reinvent themselves... Victor, 12 years old, was abandoned at birth by a woman whose name he has no way of learning. At a very young age, ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Odile Bouhier is a renowned screenwriter he was placed with “Tata,” a woman who raises him as if he and the author of critically acclaimed historical crime novels. She has were her own son. Along with his friends David and José, a thing for Charles Dickens and Donald Ray Pollock. Victor live a normal life for a boy his age: middle school, violin lessons – his true passion – and sessions with Maya, his social worker. But Tata’s health is declining, so when Social Services starts flipping through a “catalogue,” to find new parents for him, Victor decides to take matters into his own hands, and to find himself a “Mom” on his own!

With the help of his, friends, he creates a false profile on a dating site. His heart is soon set on “Lily from Les Lilas,” a woman who, in his opinion, would make a perfect mom. But although she’s touched by the boy’s request, Lily, a pastry chef in a 5-star hotel, has absolutely no intention of adopting anyone. …But it would take more than that to discourage Victor! Determined to do everything he can to convince her, he tries out a thousand ploys to achieve his goal...

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: A TV and movie scriptwriter, in 2013, Philippe Amar’s TOUS LES RÊVES DE MA VIE (Every Dream I’ve Ever Had, currently being adapted for television) was published.

Lester Literary Agency & Associates / Spring 2020 / Fiction / Central, Eastern Europe & Baltic countries 7

Didier Decoin Jacky Durand LE BUREAU DES JARDINS LE CAHIER DE RECETTES ET DES ÉTANGS (Monsieur Henri’s Secret Recipes) (The Office Of Gardens And Ponds) Stock, April 2019, 220 pages Stock, January 2017, 396 pages

à Full English translation available. à Full English translation available. à Rights still available in: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, à Rights sold in: China (Zhongyue Media), Czech Georgia, Poland, Slovenia. Republic (Albatros), Germany (Klett Cotta, at à Rights sold in: Germany (Rowohlt/Kinlder,) UK & auction), Greece (Stereoma), Italy (Ponte Alle Grazie, Commonwealth (Hodder), the Netherlands (Bezige preempt), Lithuania (Alma Littera), Netherlands Bij/Cargo), Spain (Grijalbo), Greece (Patakis), Israel (Meulenhoff), Romania (Humanitas), Russia (Eksmo), (Achuzat Bayit) Italy (Solferino), Taiwan (Chi Ming), Serbia (Geopoetika), Spain (Alfaguara, at auction), Slovakia (Albatros media), Czech Republic (Host), Taiwan (Chi Ming), UK (MacLehose Press). Lithuania (Alma Littera), Israel (Achuzat Bayit), Estonia à 50.000 copies sold. (Täpanäev), Hungary (Park Kiado), Serbia (Laguna), Finland (Otava), Iceland (Forlagid), Romania (RAO), à Decoin is a master in creating characters and Russia (Arkadia). atmosphere in original settings and time periods. à A simple but heartwarming story of a son's love for his à The writing is delicate and sensual, reminiscient of father and an unbreakable bond, forged around a mutual traditional Japanese etchings. love for food and the art of cooking. à The author worked on this novel no less than 12 years à The writing is delightful and the themes it presents in order to bring a heavily documented, perfectly universal. crafted novel. à The social class preoccupation is very interesting and Japan, around the year 1000. Shimae, a peasant village adeptly explored. on the banks of the river Kusagawa. A tender and mouth-watering story of inheritance, taking This humble village has a talent: it is home to the fisherman place in a French bistro. Katsuro, a virtuoso in the art of catching pricelessly beautiful carp and transporting them to the imperial city of Heiankyo, Monsieur Henri is an incomparable cook, one of those chefs the city of every refinement and most importantly the site of who can delight the taste buds with almost nothing. He runs the Office of Gardens and Ponds. When Katsuro dies, having Le Relais Fleuri, an unpretentious French bistro that still drowned himself in the river, which of the villagers can follow manages to give its customers everything they could wish for... in his footsteps and meet this challenge? Carrying on the on a plate. There’s one thing Henri is sure of: Le Relais will weighty responsibility of wicker baskets filled with squirming, close when he goes. Under no circumstances will his son muddy carps and encountering every danger on the way to Julien take it over. the capital? Who? If not Katsuro’s widow, the exquisite, timorous and delicate Miyuki. But will she prove capable of When Henri falls into a coma, Julien spends many hours such a task? What does she, Miyuki the little peasant, the holding his hand and using his memories to try to bring back widow who has never left her village, know of the evils along to life the culinary heritage of this very secretive father. Soon the way, of witchery and war, magical animals, priests who Julien has a single obsession: finding the notebook of recipes may not be what they seem and tea houses that sell that he thinks he’s seen so many times in his life, where his everything but tea? What does she know about the Empire’s father wrote down his mysterious tricks... But while he capital or about Nagusa Watanabe, Director of the Office of searches, he comes across another secret, a family one, and Gardens and Ponds, crouching in wait for her in his labyrinth understands why his father let his wife leave without a word. of traps and wonders? After this terrifying, sensual initiatory journey, Miyuki is sullied but free. She will never be the same ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jacky Durand is a culinary journalist. His again. Nor will her little world be the same as before. sensuous, epicurean, gastronomical columns delight thousands of readers and listeners. LE CAHIER DE RECETTES is his debut novel. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Didier Decoin wrote some twenty titles, including ABRAHAM DE BROOKLYN (Le Seuil, 1972) and JOHN L’ENFER (1977 Prix Goncourt). He is currently Secretary General of the Académie Goncourt, has been Chairman of the Écrivains de Marine since 2007 and is a member of the Académie de Marine.

8 Colin Niel Jérôme Loubry SEULES LES BÊTES LES REFUGES (Only the Animals Are Left) (The Refuges) Éditions du Rouergue, January-17, 224 pages Calmann Lévy, September 2019, 396 pages

à Rights sold in: Germany (Lenos Verlag), Spain (Atico de à The agency does not handle rights in Poland and los libros). Hungary. à 30,000 copies sold. à Rights sold in: Russia (AST), Vietnam (BachViet Books). à Movie adaptation by Domminik Moll shortlisted for the Germany (Ullstein), Italy (SEM), Japan (Bungei Shunju), César 2020 in the “Best adapation” category. Czech Republic (Metafora), Serbia (Vulkan). In this novel of multiple voices, Colin Niel orchestrates a à Offer from the Netherlands. gripping narrative in a natural setting where the world only à TV series adaptation rights sold. emerges through the prism of dreams. à Awarded the Prix du meilleur polar francophone at the Cognac Festival. A woman has disappeared. Her car is found at the beginning of a hiking trail which leads up to the plateau, where there is à A story that dwells the themes of childhood and past nothing but a few scattered farms inhabited by solitary men. wounds, very ambitious by its narrative construction. Al- though the police have no leads, several individuals know A psychological thriller structured like a game of Russian- that they are linked in some way to her disappearance. dolls… that reads straight through, keeping you in Men and women, each with a personal secret, voice their suspense, with an unexpected twist at the end. thoughts. But the truth emerges only with difficulty, stifled just as the vast expanses of sky stifle life on the plateau, because Sandrine, a journalist in Normandy, learns of the death of her the true origins of this affair lie very far from this isolated grandmother, Suzanne, whom she never knew. According to landscape. her mother, Suzanne was crazy and lived on an island that nobody could persuade her to leave. Sandrine makes her way ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Colin Niel is an environmental expert to the grey and cold island, off the Channel coast and specialising in conserving biodiversity who worked for several years discovers a handful of inhabitants who had settled there at in French Guiana. He has published three detective novels set in the end of WWII. Most inhabitants arrived on the island in French Guiana, which feature the same central protagonist, Captain 1946, to work on a holiday camp for children. The camp Anato: LES HAMACS DE CARTON (2012, Prix Ancres noires closed just following a terrible accident that killed all the 2014), CE QUI RESTE EN FORÊT (2013, Prix des lecteurs de children, but neither Suzanne nor the other employees ever l’Armitière 2014, Prix Sang pour Sang Polar 2014) and OBIA (2015, left. Sandrine realises that the inhabitants are hiding a secret, Prix des lecteurs Quais du Polar/20 Minutes 2016). terrified of something or someone that seems to be preventing them from leaving, as though they were prisoners... Sandrine understands that she too could well be the victim of this threat, of this Erlkönig from Goethe’s poem that they all talk about. The one who seems to orchestrate all the island’s woes. A few days later, Sandrine is found wandering a beach on the mainland, her clothes covered in blood, mumbling fragments of memories about her experience on the island. The police takes charge of the investigation, faced with a story that makes no sense: no island ever hosted such holiday camp, and the people Sandrine describes appear to have never existed. Only one name mirrors a real person, an old farmer Sandrine interviewed before learning of her grandmother’s death... To understand the truth, Lieutenant Damien Bouchard will have to explore Sandrine’s memories, at the risk of intermingling his own...

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jérôme Loubry wrote LES CHIENS DE DÉTROIT (25.000 copies sold), and LE DOUZIÈME CHAPITRE.

“A crazy and stunning book, devilishly well-constructed, where the reader goes from surprise to surprise, and from astonishment to nightmare.” Fnac Rosny

Lester Literary Agency & Associates / Spring 2020 / Fiction / Central, Eastern Europe & Baltic countries 9

HIGHLIGHTS

Joseph Incardona Sandrine Collette LA SOUSTRACTION DES POSSIBLES ET TOUJOURS LES FORÊTS (Substracting Possibilities) (And Always The Forests) Finitude, January-20, 400 pages JC Lattès, January-20, 366 pages

à Shortlisted for the Grand Prix RTL-LIRE 2020. à Rights sold in Italy (e/o), WE (Europa). à The late 80s was a high time for winners. Capitalism and à 15,000 copies sold. its champions, the Golden Boys of international finance, à Shortlisted for Grand Prix RTL-Lire; Prix de La Closerie had won the Grand Slam: the eastern bloc had collapsed, money was flooding around the world in all des Lilas, Prix BFM Télé-L’Express, Grand Prix des directions. Everything was merchandized: bodies, Lectrices d’Elle. women, power... even happiness. A new world was à A post-apocalyptic tale intertwining survivalism and being invented, based on algorithms and GMOs. But philosophical musings. when you dangle the possibility of joining the elite in front of the hoi polloi, it’s still an illusion. à An unstable main character who nearly loses his mind when faced with the end of the world, but who clings to In the world of finance, love has never been a safe his humanity. investment. à A poignant tale that explores human cruelty, but one that is full of hope, too. Geneva, 1989: Svetlana, an ambitious banking executive, meets Aldo, a tennis teacher and occasional gigolo. They fall After a climatic disaster, the novel recalls a man's journey in love and want more: more money, more power, more and his desperate quest to return to the place of his origins. fame. And so they prepare meticulously for a daring act that Similar to a fable, it is a novel that depicts men's violence should change the course of their lives. But they don’t realize and questions survival. that they are just puppets whose strings are being pulled by bigger, smarter, fiercer players than themselves. Coveting Child of misfortune. Nobody wanted Corentin. Neither his powerful people’s money is risky business. And for financial estranged father, nor the old ladies whose rumors feed the sharks, love is not considered a safe investment. Aldo and village, and certainly not his mother who only dreams of Svetlana haven’t got a chance. getting rid of him. Corentin was constantly wandering as a child until the day his mother abandons him to an old lady Ambitiously plotted for maximum suspense, and in a sharply from the village named Augustine. In the heart of the Forest, honed writing style; Joseph Incardona analyzes the causes and a new life begins with his “grandmother”. As a young adult, consequences of grasping for money to achieve power. From his education propels him to the city, where he plunges into Switzerland to Mexico via Corsica, he paints an epic portrait, the lights and constant partying. The world burns around him. a veritable human comedy with characters roiling with hope, The heat won't stop drying the soil and the streams from this greed, and dissatisfaction. A major book. childhood have dried up a long time ago. Trees are oddly losing their leaves in June. Something is brewing under the ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joseph Incardona, 50, a Swiss with Italian surface. One night, everything implodes. Yet Corentin roots, is the author of a dozen novels, he also writes screenplays and survives miraculously while hiding in the depths of the graphic novels, and is a playwright and filmmaker (having made a feature film in 2013 and several shorts). His most recent books, catacombs. He returns to a devastated universe where he is DERRIÈRE LES PANNEAUX, IL Y A DES HOMMES (“There Are alone. Everything has disappeared, both humans and animals. Men Behind the Signs”, Finitude 2015), Crime Fiction Grand Prix, Guided by the insane hope of finding Augustine and the and CHALEUR (“Heat”, Finitude 2017), Switzerland’s French- Forests, Corentin starts walking. A desperate quest driven Language Crime Fiction Prize, have been both critical and popular from his inner self, obsessed with the impossible rebirth of a successes. desert world, and the certainty that things never stop existing completely. “Un style sec, épuré, des phrases qui cinglent comme des cravaches, des mots qui brûlent et glacent.” Libération. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Sandrine Collette is the author of DES NŒUDS D’ACIER (2013), IL RESTE LA POUSSIÈRE (2016) which “Plus qu’une fresque, c’est un péplum contemporain qu’a réussi was awarded the Landerneau Prize in 2016, and LES LARMES Joseph Incardona. Noir, acéré, poétique.” Le Temps. NOIRES SUR LA TERRE (2017) was the Librarians’ choice for Le Livre de poche 2018. “Joseph Incardona peint avec cynisme et brio une époque où tout semble pouvoir s’acheter. Une mécanique tragique implacable.” 24 “A great noir, written in a style cutting like a knife and imbued with heures. overwhelming humanity" Télérama 10 Carl Aderhold Joseph d’Anvers LE THÉÂTRE DES NUITS JUSTE UNE BALLE PERDUE (In the Theatre of War) (Just a Stray Bullet) Stock, January-20, 320 pages Payot Rivages, January-20, 352 pages

à In a similar vein to Pierre Lemaître’s AU REVOIR LA à Shortlisted for the Prix RTL LIRE 2020. HAUT (THE GREAT SWINDLE), about the cynicism à and absurdity of World War I, and the scams working- Shortlisted for the Prix Anaïs Nin 2020 class people pull, because one has to get by somehow. In a feverishly exciting atmosphere and at a breakneck à The marvelously lyrical encounter between a soldier pace, this novel of a generation – intertwining elements and a stage actress who can’t quite bring themselves to from the Beats and a breathtaking thriller – tells the believe their luck at first, but wind up letting themselves provocative love story of Roman and Ana. get carried way, allowing hope to emerge in the midst of bleakness. One drunken evening, Roman meets Ana. From then on, à A tragic novel with a bitter, cynical ending that will leave theyre's always together. Roman moves into the seaside villa you all choked up, and determined to bring more where Ana and her gang live. “The Angels” form a joyful, humanity into relationships with others. festive community, living in their own bubble, outside the world and time. But their insouciance has a price: in exchange The love story between an actress and a frontline soldier for art thefts and complete discretion, the mysterious Igor in the Vosges during WWI. makes sure they have everything they need.

Blanche Baulieu, a Parisian beauty, has been performing in the But one day, one of their robberies goes terribly wrong: in the capital’s theatres since the beginning of the war and dreams thick of things, Roman accidentally kills someone. He knows of becoming a great actress. But times are hard and she the rules, there will be a price to pay. To escape from the struggles to make her mark, so when she’s asked to join a clutches of Igor and his henchmen, Roman and Ana run away. company to entertain the troops she doesn’t hesitate. So begins a desperate dash over back roads and an infernal spiral of violence ... Blanche arrives on the Vosges front in 1917 with a group of actors from Paris led by Sarah Bernhardt. Their objective is to ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joseph d’Anvers is an author and singer- raise morale among the troops and contribute to their songwriter, a musician and a writer. As the author of a critically country’s victory. Antoine comes to collect her at the station. acclaimed first detective story, this is his second novel. A soldier. A quiet type. A young man. Her heart is captivated but around them the snow falls quietly. And enemy soldiers watch.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Carl Aderhold is the author of two previous novels that enjoyed considerable commercial success, including MORT AUX CONS (Hachette Littératures, 2007) and ROUGE (Les Escales, 2016).

Lester Literary Agency & Associates / Spring 2020 / Fiction / Central, Eastern Europe & Baltic countries 11

Édouard Jousselin Frédéric Lepage LES CORMORANS SI LA BÊTE S’ÉVEILLE (The Cormorans) (If The Beast Awakens Homo Criminalis) Rivages, April 2020 304 pages Plon, April-20, 560 pages

à A skillfully written adventure novel that explores the à English sample available. contradictions in the human soul with masterly brio. à Currently being adapted as an 8-episode mini TV On an island off the coast of Chili in the late 19th century, series by HBO! men beat the earth to extract guano, a natural fertilizer A quadriplegic cop is assisted by a little monkey in both his composed essentially of accumulated seabird excrement. personal life and his investigations. Surrounded by a sky blocked by thick fog that seems to paralyze the world, the men’s lives depend on that muddy Quadriplegic after being attacked by a criminal, Adam Leaf, layer of soil. Joseph, one of the poverty-stricken quarrymen, 28, an NYPD cop, is cared for by Clara, a Helping Hands dreams only of marry- ing sweet Catalina, while his friend Vald Capuchin monkey who has been trained to assist the severely is consumed by ambition. On board the freight carrier trans- disabled in his everyday life. But Clara suddenly starts to hate porting the precious merchandise, Captain Moustache has and persecute him. Adam wants to understand what’s going plenty of time to hatch a nefarious plot... All three men will on in his furry enemy’s perverse mind. So he becomes an have a chance to in- flect the path of their own fates. But ethologist, and learns to decode animal behavior… nothing will go as planned. No one will rise above the guano, and there will be nothing left to do but flee. Adam Leaf decides then to apply the same interpretive framework to criminal affairs: he believes he can solve the ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Édouard Jousselin was born in 1989. His most complex cases by analyzing the animal instincts deep provincial childhood gave him a taste for nature and long bike rides. inside us. But will his method reveal the murderer’s identity He has degrees from the École normale supérieure of Cachan, the when the atrociously mutilated body of teen-aged Louise University of Nanterre, and Sciences Po Paris. Since January 2015, Geniusz is found in the Dakota, an apartment building that he has been working in the public sector. The Cormorans is his first people say is cursed? Angelina, the woman he loves – and novel. who also happens to be his supervisor – doesn’t think so. She believes that human beings are a mind and a soul more than anything else. The investigation will bring their relationship to the edge. Especially with Clara interfering between them, like an evil spirit. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Frédéric Lepage has written and produced hundreds of TV shows and documentaries. His books include novels, such as LA FIN DU SEPTIÈME JOUR (The End of the Seventh Day), LA MÉMOIRE INTERDITE (Forbidden Memory, Editions Robert Laffont), children’s literature, LE CAMP DES ÉLÉPHANTS, LA MALÉDICTION DE MARA (Mara’s Curse), LE MASQUE DU SERPENT (The Serpent’s Mask) and PIÈGE DE SANG (The Blood Trap, Editions Le Masque/Lattès), and several book-length essays. He also wrote and directed Sunny and the Elephant, an adventure film aimed at an international audience.

12 Jean-Claude Mourlevat & Anne-Laure Bondoux Jean-Claude Mourlevat & Anne-Laure Bondoux OH HAPPY DAY ET JE DANSE AUSSI Fleuve, March-20, 304 pages (Shall We Dance?) Fleuve, March-15, 288 pages

à This epistolary novel is as moving as the first, but also very funny, with great and endearing secondary à Rights sold in: Germany (Zsolnay), Spain (Planeta), characters. Italy (Longanesi), Lithuania (Alma Littera), Taiwan Life sometimes catches up with you when you are least (Ten Points Publishing), Latvia (Zvaigzne), Czech Republic (Argo), Russia (Sindbad), China (Guomai expecting it... Culture), Bulgaria (Hermes), Austria (Paul Zsolnay Verlag), After four years of silence, Pierre-Marie decides to send an email to Adeline about a black notebook in which there is à Over 150.000 copies sold. supposed to be a short sentence which would, he says, be an à Everything started as a game between the authors. and excellent beginning of a novel. This is obviously a pretext to the book is the correspondence that followed. get back in touch after a long period of prostrating after his "great misfortune" as he calls it. But Adeline has many other The game of love, email and chance.A clever, heart- projects right now. She is about to publish a book (and what warming epistolary novel in modern form – emails not a book!) and to move to Toronto with the new man who is letters. sharing her life. However, the correspondence eventually grows, dragging the two characters into an unexpected Pierre-Marie Sotto was awarded the Goncourt Prize some whirlwind. years ago but is now suffering from writer’s block. This is when he receives a large envelope with only an e-mail address ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Anne-Laure Bondoux and Jean-Claude written on it. Assuming it’s a manuscript and unwilling to give Mourlevat are two successful authors of children's books, who his opinion on someone else’s work, he tries to know where have been awarded several prestigious prizes. he could send this back.Thus begins a correspondence with Adeline Parmelan, a tall big brunette who says she isn’t a reader like others. They slowly get to know each other through their computer screens revealing their pasts, their lives, their hopes and dreams. In the meantime, the envelope is left untouched and soon Adeline doesn’t want Pierre-Marie to open it... Who knows where this could lead them?

ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Jean-Claude Mourlevat has published thirty or so children books. The rights of his novels have been sold in twenty countries. Anne-Laure Bondoux is an actress, journalist and author. She has written a dozen of children books and she has been awarded several times in France and abroad.

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UP-MARKET

Aki Shimazaki Frédérique Deghelt SUZURAN SANKHARA (Suzuran) Actes Sud, January-20, 352 pages Actes Sud, April 2020, 168 pages

The first French novel about the place of meditation in our Suzuran is the first instalment in a new cycle of novels by contemporary world confronting the most intimate aspects Aki Shimazaki, who is a past master of the minimalist of humans and interrogates inner ressources one can find with you feeling abused by the power of the media. family saga. Hélène, who is going through a rough patch with her In a small Japanese town near the coast in the shadow of the journalist husband Sébastien, vanishes the day after a violent snowy summits of Mount Daisen lives Anzu, a young ceramist row. The mother of two takes refuge in a silent retreat in the who is bringing up her son on her own. Divorced and countryside and practices Vipassana meditation for eleven independent, she is unwaveringly gentle and seems days. It is both a physical and spiritual shock to her system. impervious to the vicissitudes of life. Her secret weapon is her She has made careful arrangements for her two 5-year-old love of pottery, an art to which she devotes herself intensely. twins in her absence, but her uncomprehending husband And then suddenly her elder sister, an incorrigibly single views her abandoning of the family home as a betrayal. seducer of men, announces that she is engaged. The upshot is that Sébastien and Hélène experience the Anzu discreetly, skilfully and resolutely navigates a course chaos of 9/11 from two completely different perspectives. between her sister, her ageing parents, her ex-husband, and One has to contend with the sheer violence of the initial her (charming) future brother-in-law. Suzuran – the Japanese images and with the running commentary of his colleagues on word for that delicate flower with the heady scent, the lily of the New York attacks without having time to reflect or even the valley – evokes those snow globes containing miniature to properly relay his own take on events. The other, landscapes: shaking them suffices to stir up a storm... completely unaware of what’s happening in the news, discovers within herself a rich and hitherto unsuspected ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Born in Japan, Aki Shimazaki has lived in Montreal since 1991. The theme of her pentalogy, LE POIDS DES lucidity as to the way in which each individual determines SECRETS, is intergenerational family secrets. Her second novel cycle, collective behaviour. AU CŒUR DU YAMATO, explores the influence of professional life on private life. And the third cycle, L’OMBRE DU CHARDON, ABOUT THE AUTHOR: The author of a dozen books, novels, penetrates into the private emotions of individuals. Her works are essays and first-person accounts, Frédérique Deghelt worked as a published by Actes Sud. journalist and director before devoting herself full-time to writing. She began her career at Agence France Presse.

14 Thibault Bérard Salomé Baudino IL EST JUSTE QUE LES FORTS SOIENT LE SYNDROME DES CŒURS BRISÉS FRAPPÉ (The Broken Heart Syndrome) (It’s Only Right that the Strong Should Be Stricken) L'Observatoire, April-20, 260 pages L'Observatoire, January-20, 304 pages

à English sample available. à English sample available. à French pocket rights sold. à N°2 on Amazon's bestsellers list! à TV rights sold. à The author has succeeded in weaving a story that à This novel hits a raw nerve, a modern obsession, the constantly surprises by its freshness and absence of desire to measure everything, predict everything and fix pathos. Sarah’s voice, and her vision, are unique; always limits… and the irritating tendency we have to put our touched with humour, love and lucidity. faith in horrid statistics that destroy the beauty and the When Sarah meets Theo, as sunny and impassioned as she is spontaneity of natural charm. nocturnal and Cartesian, the chemistry is instant. Into the à With humour, finesse and a wonderful turn of phrase, joyful hullaballoo of their youth, Simon is born, the first fruit Salomé Baudino plunges us into the thwarted love story of their love; then comes the desire to give the firstborn a of an extremely likeable couple, while gently mocking – little sister. But soon the euphoria of that pregnancy is infected with mischief and insight – the downsides of our society. by fear, when the doctors diagnose Sarah’s cancer, progressing at an alarming speed. Suddenly, every moment In the near future, new software shatters the mores of the counts if Camille is to be saved, this lively baby girl Sarah gives Western world: the TimeWise computer programme birth to, before the couple throw themselves, body and soul, offers to tell users the exact date when their love affair will into a long combat which Sarah miraculously survives. But end. after a few years of restored joy, the illness sends them a cruel reminder. And this time, in spite of Theo's love of life and of Madly in love, Victor and Lola consult TimeWise. The young Sarah's strength, it gets the better of it. couple are aghast to discover that they have only two months left before the separation… Lola pays no attention: how ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Thibault Bérard is an editor in charge of could a silly machine put a sudden end to such a wonderful Sarbacane fiction list. Il est juste que les forts soient frappés is his first relationship? But Victor is reeling from the shock. Naturally novel. superstitious, he prepares for the worst, pushing his beloved to break up, to protect their already almost broken hearts. How can they go on loving each other despite the pre-set countdown?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Salomé Baudino is 25. LE SYNDROME DES CŒURS BRISÉS is her first novel.

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Hervé Bellec Liza Azuelos LULU TOUT SIMPLEMENT LA VIE EN OSE (Just Lulu) (My Life After You) Presses de la Cité, February-20, 320 pages Plon, Mai-20, 144 pages

à Exploring themes such as whether to adhere to à By the director of the French comedy film LOL with conventional lifestyles or opt for voluntary isolation or Sophie Marceau (2008). life in a community, a genuine ode to nature and adventure. à A funny and moving novel about children living the nest and women's life after 50: how do you define A comical and romantic road trip. Ludivine, who yourself once you are no longer a mother or a wife? undertakes pilgrimages on behalf of other people and à An original construction alternating the plot and a sleeps under the stars, encounters on her travels a hilarious diary that can be read separately. trumpeter who is weary of life… Every successful woman is a woman who dared! Ludivine is a ‘seeker of forgiveness’, meaning that she earns her living by undertaking religious pilgrimages on behalf of Alice, 52, has been separated from her husband for a year other people – a common enough occupation in the Middle now, and her third and last child just left home. Like her older Ages but rather less so these days. Baptiste is a renowned and brothers, her daughter has gone off to college in a small town talented musician, but can no longer face picking up his quite far from home. And as she was for the girl’s brothers, trumpet after a burnout. At the insistence of his daughters, he Alice is thrilled for her, because she knows that her daughter’s resolves to walk to Santiago de Compostela and along the admission is the reward for years of hard work. way he crosses paths with Ludivine in Brittany. After spending some time with her, he can’t quite bring himself to leave her But even though she feels proud, Alice also feels abandoned. side and so he abandons his Spanish project to accompany In the now too quite apartment, Alice is overwhelmed by her on her pilgrimages. And thus begins a road trip across sorrow. Fear of ageing heightens her distress. Worse, of France that takes them from one monastery to the next. An ageing alone, an idea that has always terrified her, but that she ambiguous sexual relationship quickly develops between can no longer escape. Alice is suffering from an intense case them that oscillates between the comical and the romantic, of empty-nest syndrome. but it seems that a tragic ending may be in store for them. Day after day, Alice will learn that children leaving home is ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Hervé Bellec is the author of some twenty more than just a loss. It is time found to take care of her, to books that recount with tenderness and humour his travels, his get to know herself. As one page turns, a new chapter opens Brittany and his encounters. His story La Nuit Blanche, published by for women who are willing to give themselves the Nil in 2000, won the Prix Edmond et Tristan Corbières. opportunity.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Lisa Azuelos is a director (LOL, Sweetheart), screenplay writer and producer. Committed to defending women’s rights, she edited the multi-author ENSEMBLE CONTRE LA GYNOPHOBIA (Together Against Gynophobia, Stock, 2016). She has also written several book-length essays and novels, including BRAS BLANC (White Arm, JC Lattès, 2005), ÉLOGE DU SILENCE PENDANT L'AMOUR (In Praise of Silence During Love, Plon, 2008) and MON JOURNAL INTIME (My Diary, JC Lattès, 2009).

16 CONTEMPORARY

Nathalie Azoulai J-M Erre JUVENIA LE BONHEUR EST AU FOND DU COULOIR À (Juvenia) GAUCHE Stock, March-20, 128 pages (Happiness Is Down The Hall On The Left) Buchet Chastel, April-20, 192 pages

à English sample available. à Spanish offer. A droll yet desperate search for happiness over a backdrop of contemporary urban despair, the collapse of the western à A response to contemporary male and female world, the failure of ideologies, the masculinity crisis, the confrontations. climate crisis, and the Nutella crisis. à A welcome satire that opens up a whole new direction for the author's work. Michel is crazy about Bérénice, the love of his life for nearly An exhilarating feminist tale full of twists and turns. three whole weeks now. But one morning, she unexpectedly leaves him. Tranquillizer-dependent Michel gives himself 12 hours to win her back with the recipes for happiness he finds Imagine a republic called “Juvenia”. On 27th January in the near in the positive-psychology books she left behind. future, a law is passed: men are now forbidden from living with women more than twenty years their junior. Anyone who fails to comply will be subject to harsh punishment. Michel, who is prone to depression and finds hope in Michel Houellebecq’s books, decides to take up the greatest challenge of his life: winning her back. His only weapons? The Juvena, a beautiful aspiring actress in her thirties, finds herself recipes for happiness in Bérénice’s collection of positive- breaking the law because Pierre, the father of the baby she’s psychology books. carrying, is twice her age. What will she do? We might as well admit it from the get-go: it ain’t gonna’ be Will Pierre ever be able to abide by the law? easy! Will Pierre’s ex-wife, fifty-three-year-old Laure, find renewed ABOUT THE AUTHOR: J.M. Erre is a teacher in Sète. From the confidence in her seduction? start, all of his novels have been published by Buchet Chastel. Several of them have been translated into different languages (China What if this law kindled a whole new eroticism? (Shanghai Translation Publishing), Italy (Clichy Edizioni), Russia (Inostranka), Japan (Kindai Bungei Sha) and Korea (Jaeum & Any resemblance to existing situations is purely coincidental. Moeum)) and LE MYSTÈRE SHERLOCK is being adapted as a film in France at the moment. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nathalie Azoulai is a novelist whose highly acclaimed TITUS N'AIMAIT PAS BÉRÉNICE won the 2014 Prix Médicis.

Lester Literary Agency & Associates / Spring 2020 / Fiction / Central, Eastern Europe & Baltic countries 17

Luc Blanvillain Julia Deck LE RÉPONDEUR PROPRIÉTÉ PRIVÉE (The Voice Mail) (Private Property) Quidam, January-20, 260 pages Minuit, September 2019, 176 pages

à A parade of emblematic characters: the solitary writer à Julia Deck’s concise, ironic, and subtle style manages to working through his kindly misanthropy, the editor, the capture a character or scene’s essence in just a few cynical and ambitious cultural correspondent, the sentences, for a totally captivating read. talented but neurotic young artist and the provincial naïf. à A rogues’ gallery of hypocritical, petty, and terribly ordinary characters, who could be anyone’s least- favorite neighbors. A comedy of manners and interrogation of the artistic process, but also a tale of a rite of passage, The Voice à The topic of madness, which is so dear to the author, is Mail depicts the “small world” of publishing and the declined from a sudden urge to kill the neighbor’s cat to premeditated homicide. creative arts. Julia Deck is back with another delightfully crazy tale. At Baptiste is a failing young actor and impersonator who once side-splittingly funny and deeply worrisome, it is performs with a community theatre. One day, Pierre irresistible! Chozène, a famous author, recruits the young impressionist to take his place on the phone, imitating his voice while he Eva and her husband had been dreaming of owning a house. completes the novel he is working on without constant So they decide to leave Paris for an eco-district in the near interruption. They do so at their own risk… suburbs. They’re sure they’ve gotten a great deal and are convinced they’re going to be happy in their little house with ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Born in 1967, Luc Blanvillain is professor its backyard. But they are soon disillusioned by the lack of of literature at univertsity. The Voice Mail is his second novel after privacy, and the pleasant, hostile, or downright chilling NOS ÂMES SEULES (Plon, 2015). conversations with their neighbors, particularly Annabelle Lecoq and her husband, the blatantly inconsiderate owners of an invasive cat. The cat is the first to go: cold-blooded murder. Its mistress soon follows suit, and all eyes turn towards Eva’s depressed and notoriously unstable husband. Eva founders before figuring out that the other neighbors have plenty of secrets of their own. She gets them to confess in order to spring her husband. Along the way, she also manages to blow up their house.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Julia Deck is a copy-editor for various newspapers and magazines. In 2012, her first novel, VIVIANE ELISABETH FAUVILLE was published (20,000 copies sold) to great critical acclaim in France. She is also the author of LE TRIANGLE D'HIVER (The Winter Triangle), 2014.

18 COMMERCIAL

Charlotte Gabris Sophie de Villenoisy DÉJEUNER EN PAIX COURAGE, RIONS (Having Lunch in Peace) (Chin Up and Laugh) Le Cherche Midi, January-20, 163 pages JC Lattès, March-20, 252 pages

à Charlotte Gabris explores with dark humour the à A feel-good book with a sudden plot twist that takes the themes of female rivalry and the gaze of the other, story in an unexpected direction. which can often be so difficult to shake off. à Lots of laughs in the pages of this book, especially à Temporality is a central element in this novel: through the character Jean: 56 years old, depressed and everything takes place both during a single lunch – i.e. always complaining, readers will find him endearing over a very short span of time – and in two different nonetheless. time periods. Two women who are actually the same à An unexpected immersion in the field of comic-strip person in different eras create a cinematographic creation that explores the world of children with life- effect… threatening diseases, with humor and sensitivity. à This woman’s evolution at different stages of her life shows readers that we actually can change over the Jean, age 56, is an illustrator past his prime and prone to course of our lives, and become someone whom we depression. To help him out, his wife offers him a laughter didn’t think we could be workshop. à The theme of feminine rivalry is explored through the prism of this lunch, but coming to the opposite When Jean receives a “laughter workshop” as gift for his 56th conclusion, as it proves the need for sisterhood, and for birthday from his own wife, he is mortified and extremely greater solidarity between women in our society. offended. Even if it’s true that he is a bit depressed, complains quite a lot and maybe his inspiration and creativity are not on Sitting on a terrace, two women who don’t know each top… But since when can anyone learn how to laugh? Only other and are diametrically opposed in character run their the thought is outraged. But thanks to this workshop, Jean will eyes criti- cally over each over in silence, while pretending meet Arthur, a thirteen year old boy with leukemia and Jean’s to ignore each other. Will they end up having lunch in whole life will take a new turn. peace? ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Sophie de Villenoisy is an author and screenwriter. After JOYEUX SUICIDE ET BONNE ANNÉE ! in A young woman from the provinces is having lunch alone on 2016, QUESTION DE STANDING in 2017 and LA REINE DES a terrace. A Parisian is waiting for her fiancé, who fails to turn QUICHES in 2018 with Denoël, she is publishing her 4th novel with up. The two women resemble each other physically though JC Lattès. otherwise they seemingly have nothing in common beyond the fact that they are having lunch in the same place and passing silent judgement on each other. Can you lunch alone and appear happy when you’re dressed unfashionably and are eating a copious plate of food washed down with a glass of wine, wonders one of them. Is she happy with that little salad and carrying around that wicker basket with an elegance that only true Parisians can manage, wonders the other. But are they really so different?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Charlotte Gabris is an actress and a humorist. She has notabily written, in 2017, the play Merci pour le bruit. DÉJEUNER EN PAIX is her first novel.

« Dans un monologue intérieur entrecroisé fascinant, Charlotte Gabris décortique avec précision les pensées féminines et évoque minutieusement tous les stéréotypes qu’une femme ose penser d’une autre, sans jamais oser les dire. » Livres Hebdo

« Remarquable dans les comédies de Philippe Lacheau, la Suissesse se révèle piquante dans son premier roman. » Télé 7 jours

Lester Literary Agency & Associates / Spring 2020 / Fiction / Central, Eastern Europe & Baltic countries 19

Cécile Cayrel Aurélie Delahaye LA COULEUR DE L'AIR A CHANGÉ DONNE-MOI LA MAIN MENINO (The Colour of the Air has Changed) (Give Me Your Hand Menino) Stock, March-20, 198 pages Anne Carrière, March-20, 224 pages

à As in Anna Gavalda’s ENSEMBLE C’EST TOUT à The true Lisbon, the one we’d like to find, and the one (Hunting And Gathering); several lonely hearts come that will soon be lost if we’re not careful, can be felt on together and achieve amazing things they never would every page: the sun, the pasteis de nada, the fado… have felt capable of on their own. making readers want to help protect it. à A feel-good book that strays from the norm, far from à The characters – a French student pursuing her the beaten path, making the point that happiness is in doctorate, an old Lisboan who is about to be kicked out fact to be found outside the norm, including in the very of his apartment, and a Portuguese real-estate agent – spoken writing style. are connected by their desire to preserve Lisbon’s cultural heritage. Together, they provide a well- à A cheerful crazy quilt of a mismatched crew that still rounded image and help raise readers’ awareness of the

manages to achieve great things together. situation. An unforgettable road trip which will move you to tears. A choral novel about a magical city whose soul is threatened by the Airbnb peril Camille is a young woman who’s bored with her life and her relationship. One evening she cheats on her partner, and Menino is a 34-year-old man from Lisbon who finds it difficult when he finds out he tries to strangle her. Deeply shaken, she to leave childhood behind. These past years, his beloved city runs away and is picked up on the roadside by Jen and Michel, has become quite a success, so much so that its genuine a couple of misfits travelling around France in their van from identity and the life of its inhabitants are in danger. one building development protest to another. Joséphine, a PhD student who just arrived, Nuno, a real estate Along the way they meet Mamie, a lonely retiree who agent in full rise, Senhor Zé, an iconic figure from the old town becomes a kindly protector for this impromptu trio. They and the others, whether French or Portuguese, are part of start to see glimpses of the pleasures of communal life, this new Lisbon and of the circle of this endearing anti-hero. eroticism, a rediscovery of their senses and – most importantly – self-acceptance. As his city finds itself caught in a stranglehold, Menino liberates himself through his association with his old friend and with the ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Cécile Cayrel is thirty years old. LA COULEUR DE L’AIR a changé is her debut novel. women who fight to preserve Lisbon’s cultural identity. A portrait of Portugal’s popular tourist-destination city, Lisbon, an eye-opening account of the damage wrought by Airbnb in

the great European cities, and the consequences on local populations: gentrification, disappearance of traditional shops, etc., presented like a modern legend recounting the loss of authenticity.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Aurélie Delahaye studied law before going to business school. She then shelved her dreams to start working. She experienced all kinds of firms to try and be happy. On March 1st 2015, she decided to put her dreams back at the centre of her existence and started improvising her life by founding « Ordinary Happy people ». This adventure inspired her to write a story, Embracing the Unknown, published at Éditions Anne Carrière. Give Me Your Hand Menino is her first novel.

20 Nathalie Hug Serena Giuliano COMME UN ENCHANTEMENT MAMMA MARIA (An Italian Fairy Tale) (Mamma Maria) Calmann Lévy, February 2020, 387 pages Le Cherche Midi, March-20, 240 pages

à The agency does not handle rights in Czech Republic, à Under option in: Czech Republic. Poland and Hungary. à Ciao Bella, the author’s debut novel, sold 20,000 copies à A modern fairy tale with all the right ingredients: love, in hardback. magic, unexpected twists with the Italian sun and cuisine as a gorgeous background. Slices of life in an Italian village recounted from the point of view of a heroine with a forceful personality. à Colourful and picturesque, this would make a great romantic comedy on screen. There is always someone in Mamma Maria, a bar in the south à A bright and joyful novel about rewriting one’s life and of Italy. Some come to kill the time they have left until time the power of love. kills them. There are the children who eye the ice cream counter longingly. There are the hurried ones who What if tomorrow you inherit a villa in Italy? Eddie has nevertheless find time to drop into Maria’s for a few minutes made her choice: Switching Paris’ grey ceilings for a sunny for a quick coffee standing up at the bar. And then there are valley in Emilia Romagna, Switching croissants for gnocchis the teenagers sipping on a fizzy drink, the Scopa players and and Lambrusco, Switching one-night stands for… who the clergymen. knows? The great love story? People come to Maria’s for reassurance and bonhomie, to Eddie, 35 years old, lives alone in Montmartre, Paris, in a tiny have a chat, enjoy an aperitif together and fend off solitude. apartment where you have to climb on a chair to glimpse part And there is also Sofia who sits on the terrace overlooking of the Sacré-Coeur’s dome. Orphaned at the age of sixteen, the sea and translates novels, trying not to think too much she has built herself a life of detachment and invisibility, to about the life in Paris that she has left behind. ‘The weather is keep both misfortune and happiness at bay. One day, a nicer here’, she says to reassure herself. ‘And also we have charming notary announces that she is the sole beneficiary of bidets!’ adds Maria. a very old Italian man and the inheritor of a farm in ruins in the Parma region, in Emilia-Romagna. Maria lords it over this little community and moans a lot. She’s the mamma of the entire village, a peaceful little place until Although the thought had never crossed her mind before, the day when... Eddie feels the urge to flee Paris, her monotonous life, and to get to know her roots. And, why not, begin a new life there. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Serena Giuliano is Italian but also has some Is it a sudden whim or a poker move to seduce the attractive flaws. She writes - in French - on networks and on paper. notary? Be that as it may, she decides to fly to Italy for a weekend that could well last longer… Little does she know when setting off to discover this mysterious inheritance and explore the beautiful Italian region, that the course of her life will be turned upside down. And that her shell, as thick as the sarcophagus of an atomic plant, will crack, leading to a nuclear – or romantic – catastrophe…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nathalie Hug, an author and screenwriter, has written three novels (L'ENFANT-RIEN, LA DEMOISELLE DES TIC-TAC, UN, RUE DES PETITS-PAS, all published with Calmann- Lévy) and several novels with her other half, Jérôme Camut. This bright and hopelessly romantic novel marks a radical shift in her career.

Lester Literary Agency & Associates / Spring 2020 / Fiction / Central, Eastern Europe & Baltic countries 21

Julien Sandrel Thierry Cohen LES ÉTINCELLES ET PUIS AU PIRE ON S'AIMERA (Sparks) (At Worst, We’ll Love Each Other) Calmann Lévy, February-20, 396 pages Plon, March-20, 464 pages

à The agency does not handle Polish & Hungarian One day, Alice finds a rose on the landing in front of her rights. door… It’s the beginning of a beautiful love story… but is à An immersion in the world of ecology and of whistle it really one? blowers that allows us to become aware of the enormous stakes on both sides of the issue. It’s a mystery, too, because Alice doesn’t know who is sending her flowers and making heartfelt declarations of love. A à A personal quest that turns into an investigation, and situation that’s as romantic as could be, but is also… a bit winds up turning the main character, Phoenix into a new, better young woman. disturbing. So the whole thing is like a romantic comedy full of humor… and doubts. à All over the world, a captivating race against time to put the pieces of the puzzle back together. Between her female co-workers, who are happy to see Alice Small sparks start big fires in this moving family quest for being courted, and her boss, who’s eager to fire her, Alice is on an emotional roller coaster: happy, despairing charmed, the triumph of truth, a luminous heroine, and a novel full distraught. All these new overwhelming emotions which of courage and hope. disturb her monotonous life are at the same time fantastic and upsetting. But aren’t there plenty of lonely hearts out Phoenix, a talented 23 year-old musician, has a depressed there who would love to be carried away by such a romantic mother, a gifted brother, a taste for the provocative, and well- mystery? buried dreams beneath the outer layers of her appearance. Ever since her father died in an accident, she had given up on Until the day when… everything skids out of control. When everything, moving from one odd job to the next. the dream turns into a nightmare. When, just like in a nightmare, the worst possible thing happens in the most One morning, she discovers a distressing message in her unexpected way. father’s belongings, written in a foreign language, literally meaning: “We’re being killed in silence. Help us.” An ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Thierry Cohen has written numerous best- enigmatic message, similar to the one found two years earlier sellers that have been translated into other languages, including JE LE in a pesticide bottle cap by some gardeners in the South of FERAI POUR TOI (I’ll Do It for You, 10,000 copies sold), SI TU France, which had sparked all kinds of speculation. EXISTES AILLEURS (If You Exist Elsewhere, 13,000 copies sold), SI UN JOUR LA VIE T'ARRACHE À MOI (If Life Ever Takes You Away Only her father died three years ago. How had this piece of from Me, 11,000 copies sold), JE N'ÉTAIS QU'UN FOU (I Was Just paper ended up here, in a box that had not been opened A Madman), AVANT LA HAINE (Before Hatred), J’AURAIS since? Phoenix’ certainties are shaken… What if her father’s PRÉFÉRÉ VIVRE (I Would Rather Have Lived, 150,000 copies, 17 languages) death was not accidental?

Armed with her dark sense of humour and unwavering determination, Phoenix decides to follow the clues in the message. But she is far from imagining the dangerous and emotion-fraught path this decision will lead her to… What started as a personal and family investigation will soon turn into a broader fight. A fight against an unscrupulous pharmaceutical industry. A fight to regain hope, a fight for truth.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Julien Sandrel was born in 1980 in the south of France. His first novel, LA CHAMBRE DES MERVEILLES, was a foreign rights phenomenon at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2017, shortly followed with LA VIE QUI M’ATTENDAIT, his second novel.

22 Martine Delomme Anne Michel LE CHOIX DES APPARENCES POUR QUELQUES BULLES DE BONHEUR (The Choice of Appearances) (For a Few Bubbles of Happiness) Presses de la Cité, January-20, 324 pages Presses de la Cité, April-20, 250 pages

A young successful women faces a tragic event and decides A sensitive and feel-good story about women, and a novel to go back to her family home. There, she will have to face about the wonderful power of friendship and bonds of the shadows from her past, to maybe, finally, live? the heart.

Successful divorce attorney, ambitious and merciless, Camille Sabrina is leading a rather happy existence in sunny Toulon, lives in the French city Toulouse with her partner, who already where the restaurant that she has opened with a couple of has two children from a previous marriage. But everything friends is proving to be very popular. She puts up with being changes the day when the husband of one of her clients kills single as best she can, even if during those long winter nights, himself right in front of her. Shocked, the young woman her dog Biplan and her cat Tranxène cannot quite override decides to spend a few days in the Bretagne region, where her solitude. For her part, Capucine lives in Stockholm and she remembers beautiful summers during her childhood, in has a rewarding family life and career as an illustrator. But Douarnenez, with her grandparents. when she is diagnosed with breast cancer, to help her cope with the ordeal she decides to get back in touch with an old As she is about to go back home, she suddenly accepts a friend, despite the geographical distance between them and position as an assistant in a local biscuit trade. She is way too the years of silence. qualified for the job, but it feels like a nice break. Camille changes her habits, meets new people and learns to care for As she supports her friend through the course of her them, while facing the ghosts that have haunted her for years. treatment, Sabrina realises that she has to deal with her body image – ever since childhood, she has suffered from feeling ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Martine Delomme has directed for twenty unattractive... As they near forty, it is time for these two years a business in wine export. Inspired by wine for her first novel, UN ÉTÉ D'OMBRE ET DE LUMIÈRE (2009), she creates women to take stock of their respective lives, their mainstream novels which combine regionalism, stories of mysterious relationships with others and their femininity. In the process, families and touching portraits of women, with a slight touch of they will learn to trust their inner strength and to embrace suspense. life.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Anne Michel teaches literature in Toulon. POUR QUELQUES BULLES DE BONHEUR is her second novel.

Lester Literary Agency & Associates / Spring 2020 / Fiction / Central, Eastern Europe & Baltic countries 23

Claire Renaud Antoine Paje L'ANGE ET LE VIOLONCELLE DU HAUT D’UN BRIN D’HERBE (The One-Winged Angel) ON VOIT LA TERRE Fleuve, April-20, 192 pages (From The Top Of A Blade Of Grass, You Can Clearly See The Earth) Fleuve, April-20, 320 pages

à English sample translation available. à Film references such as Hunting and Gathering and My Afternoons with Margueritte for a text of great à An ode to nature, bees, rural life, with a love story tenderness about getting a second chance. as a backdrop. à Joseph, Gabrielle, Adèle, Jules: unforgettable à 4th title of the author after the success of And he characters who are extremely touching thanks to spoke to me of cherry trees, dust and a mountain their humility, fragility and generosity in a unique (Over 90.000 copies sold). setting: the East station; the Saint Martin canal and A salutary return to the roots. the Ardèche department... It is never too late to build a family, and the chosen ones He is a senior Parisian executive who is living between Paris, are sometimes the strongest. New York and London. His only experience with the countryside is when he picked blackberries one day along a Joseph is fifty years old, he is single and works in the lost and track and when riding a bike on the Breton coast. But now he found service at a Parisian station. One evening, while Joseph decides that what he lives is hollow and false and that his true is touring the trains at the garage, he is attracted by unusual life is elsewhere. It's going to be a big shock, because, of noises... and discovers an abandoned baby in a basket under course, nothing is as he imagined it would be. a seat. Touched and destabilized, he decides to take it home. Just for one night. The next day, after his colleague Adèle His new neighbour is a beekeeper and looks at him as a not helped him clean and feed it, he took her advice and goes to too smart or friendly Martian. Between quarrels, angry the Department of Health and Social Security. But as soon as outbursts and attraction, these two certainly slowly but surely he passes through the automatic doors, emotion suddenly move towards a love story that started very, very badly. invade him. It's obvious: he can't leave this child here. So for the first time, something happens in Joseph's shipshape and ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Antoine Paje managed a business and emotionless life. worked abroad for several years until he realized that he wasn’t happy. This is how he decided to learn to get to know himself. His books are based on his personal experiences and aim at helping ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Claire Renaud is an editor and author of others. books for children.

“Such a sweet story and wonderful characters! It is impossible not to fall in love with Joseph’s “tough-yet-truly kind” personality. Joseph, Gabrielle, Adele and the others will just steal your heart.” Emeline Colpart, Editor

“I was deeply moved by the story. I had the feeling to find Amélie Poulain and Three Men and a Cradle.” Thomas Girault, Marketing

24 François Bourdon Véronique Pierron LA FONTAINE AUX VIOLETTES LES MIRACLES DE L'OURCQ (The Violet’s Fountain) (The Ourcq’s Miracles) Presses de la Cité, October 2019, 448 pages Belfond, October 2019, 270 pages

à From 1870 to 1940, four generations of independent à Awarded the Prix Jean Anglade du Premier Roman. women who follow their passion for perfume. à A Bohemian village on the edge of Paris along the banks Rosine, the product of a humble rural family, leaves Grasse of the Canal de l’Ourcq. A colourful community and its legendary violets behind in order to hide her stubbornly attached to life despite all the hardships pregnancy. In Paris, she becomes a courtesan and rises endured that is in search of meaning, and also of love… rapidly in society. à An irresistible debut novel and a stylistic tour de force that speaks to the heart, imbued with humanity and Her daughter Eloïse, who is born in the street, is entrusted to hope and championing the right to be different. a nanny and ultimately makes a living as a seamstress in Lyon. à An ‘Amélie Poulain’ universe. Eloïse’s daughter Emma is passionate about fashion and design and ends up working for Paul Poiret. Her hats, which are often Along the banks of the Canal de l’Ourcq in Paris, a rejected adorned with a bouquet of violets, prove to be a great community has constructed little villages of cardboard success. Her love affair with an aristocrat killed on the front houses covered in tarpaulins. Their world is reminiscent of in 1916 results in the birth of Béatrice. Against a backdrop of that of Emir Kusturica, springing into colour and life and jazz and surrealism, the free-spirited Emma experiences the offering seemingly unlimited possibilities. Roaring Twenties to the full, hanging out with Jean Cocteau and stepping out with an American journalist who is a friend Among them is the Old Man, who lives in a makeshift caravan of Hemingway. Béatrice, for her part, becomes fascinated with after a nervous breakdown and indulges his passion for the world of perfume, which she discovers through the knitting, Sandra, a former office worker with Tourette’s entourage of Coco Chanel. On a trip to Grasse, she discovers syndrome, Bella, the clairvoyant of the Roms village, and the traces of her ancestors at the Fontaine aux Violettes Noury and his much-cherished violin. There is also Juno the estate, whose name has been handed down through the Brazilian poet, who is illiterate but has fallen madly in love with family since 1875. She becomes a ‘nose’ in Grasse and falls for an infirm and increasingly successful female writer. a film director at the Studios de la Victorine in Nice. Béatrice ultimately purchases the Fontaine aux Violettes, the place This marginalised community survives by trying to make the where it all began, and grows flowers for perfumes there. She most of their circumstances as an antidote to a sense of becomes the first woman in her family to find true despair. Until the day when miracles start to occur along the happiness… banks of the Ourcq... ABOUT THE AUTHOR: LE VENT DE L’AUBE, LA COMBE AUX OLIVIERS, LA MAISON DU CAP and A TRAVERS LA NUIT ET LE ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Born in 1974, Véronique Pierron is a VENT are just some of Françoise Bourdon’s big successes published journalist who covers economics, history, politics and science as well by Les Presses de la Cité. as writing on education and literature for Le Monde de l’Education. LES MIRACLES DE L'OURCQ is her first novel.

Lester Literary Agency & Associates / Spring 2020 / Fiction / Central, Eastern Europe & Baltic countries 25

Marie-Bernadette Dupuy Marie-Bernadette Dupuy 1. L'ORPHELINE DE MANHATTAN 2. LES LUMIÈRES DE BROADWAY (The Manhattan’s Orphan) (The Lights of Broadway) Calmann Lévy, February 2019, 512 pages Calmann Lévy, May 2019, 512 pages

à Rights sold in: Russia (Hemiro), World English Elisabeth’s semblance of serenity is short-lived: an accident (Hodder). turns her destiny upside down and shakes everything she à TOP#20 of the best-selling authors in France once believed in… à A multi-talented writer, Marie-Bernadette Dupuy successfully addresses the most diverse genres such as 1900. Elisabeth is aboard an ocean liner, carrying her back to historical biographies, romances, locally-based novels, America. By her side, her fiancé. With affection and kindness, epic family sagas. he helps her regain her self-confidence and faith in love. A quick wedding between the two lovebirds is celebrated on A new series, set in New York. the boat. But a violent storm breaks out and the young husband disappears at sea. This new stroke of fate destroys October 1886. Catherine and Guillaume Duquesne set off for Elisabeth. Only the support and unfailing love of the New York with Elisabeth, their six-year-old daughter. Despite Woolworths, her adoptive parents, helps her piece herself Catherine’s parents’ reservations, they decide to leave France back together. Newly widowed, the young woman and their little house, full of hope and eager to start a new rediscovers New York. As her gift develops, she senses a life. But the young couple’s dreams of freedom and supernatural presence inside the Dakota Building she lives. independence soon turn into a nightmare. Catherine dies during the journey and, one week after their arrival on Marie-Bernadette Dupuy American soil, Guillaume is assaulted on the street and left for 3. LES LARMES DE L'HUDSON dead. Elisabeth ends up all alone in a vast country. After one night of wandering in Central Park, she is hit by the carriage (The Tears of the Hudson) Calmann Lévy, September 2019, 512 pages of the very wealthy Woolworth family. They bring her home, look after her and decide to adopt her, ignoring the wanted notices sent by her grandfather. Elisabeth grows up spoilt and happy. But when she turns 16, she learns the truth about her upbringing and her life is shattered. She feels betrayed and leaves New York to come back to France and meet her real family. However, she discovers upon her arrival the true face of her grandfather and the secrets hidden in the house... Will Elisabeth manage to distinguish the truth from the lie and finally feel true love from her kin? As New York gradually fades away behind the boat taking ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Marie-Bernadette Dupuy is an extremely her back to France, Elisabeth dreams of an impossible prolific author whose sagas full of romance have seduced a wide readership in France and abroad. Her fanclub does not miss any of happiness. her new books, and she writes at least two per year. In France, over 2018 only, her books sold over 500,000 copies ! She successfully Upon arriving she settles near the family castle, which now addresses the most diverse genres such as historical biographies, belongs to Justin, Elisabeth’s grandfather’s natural son. But the romances, locally-based novels, epic family sagas. running of the vineyard seems to elude the young man, so much so that Elisabeth, now 27, decides to take over the reins. She pours all her passion and enthusiasm into the estate. Troubled by Justin, whom she cannot forget and who she refuses to see as an uncle, Elisabeth works tirelessly. Evidently enamoured, the two observe one another, but are held back by this kinship that they begin to doubt. Upon deciding to investigate the circumstances surrounding Justin’s birth, they

discover new secrets. As the mysteries shrouding the Laroche family grow thicker, Elisabeth asks herself: will she ever, one day, experience true love?

26 BIO & HISTORICAL

Macha Méril Céline Spierer VANIA, VASSIA ET LA FILLE DE VASSIA LE FIL ROMPU (Vania,Vassia, and Vassia’s Daughter) (The Broken Thread) Liana Lévi, March-20, 352 pages Héloïse d’Ormesson, April-20, 418 pages

à A romantic, political and historical saga set in France à French pocket and big letters rights sold. that spans the latter half of the 20th century. à From Katarzyna, the rebellious muse who has to leave à The portrait of a brave woman who does everything she her native land to hide her pregnancy, to Mrs. Janik, the can to rise above her condition. child claimed by Nazis who has no choice but to forget her past in order build her identity, a lush family saga à The characters’ omnipresent Russian roots grant the that follows three generations of strong women novel an extra dimension. à A real page-turner of a tale that captures readers with Three lives tell the little-known story of the Cossacks in a series of fascinating and terrifying events: prohibition, France, during the war and post-1945. A great saga in stolen art work, the Lebendsborn project and more. which Macha Méril incorporates elements of her own life. A reflection on history and its effects on individuals’ fates, In a valley of the French Corrèze, between woods and wild as well as on family relationships, memory and the fields, a small community of Cossacks prepare to celebrate difficulties of building an identity in a war-torn, chaotic the Orthodox Christmas. It’s January 1939. For almost twenty world. years, these sons of the tsarist imperial horse-guard have led an autonomous life on the La Motte estate inherited from a 2015, New York. Unassuming and reserved, Ms. Janik lives Russian general. Having arrived in France following the alone in the West Village. The old lady confied in her young October Revolution, these men devoted themselves to neighbor, Ethan, and reveals him the truth that she has always horse-breeding. But the war opens old wounds: shouldn’t kept under silence, which notably surrounds six masterpieces they try to rid Russia of Bolshevism, even if it means siding which she jealously hides in her apartment. with Hitler? That’s the choice of Vassia who hasn’t managed to turn the page on the past. He leaves behind his only 1913, Kalisz, Russian Empire. Fifteen-year-old Katarzyna is daughter, Sonia, who’s already lost her mother, and his forced to flee her native Poland to the United States when unfailing friend Vania, who knows a thing or two about war she finds herself pregnant. A modest seamstress on the Lower and wants no- thing of this new adventure.Vania will take care East Side, she meets Isak Goldstein, a figure in the local of her and stand by her side right to the end of the road to Yiddish connection, who falls in love with her and agrees to assimilation. Determined to escape the poverty of her little raise the child as his. community, she throws herself into a brilliant political career, while Vania modestly deploys his quiet strength in support of 1936, New York. Katarzyna's murder reveals to her daughter, her ambition. Edith, the secret of her origins and leads the young woman to follow in the footsteps of this secret mother to try to find her The characters in this surprising novel are animated by the biological father. same questions that bedeviled the community of White Russians during the war and post-1945: to resume the battle But at the dawn of World War II, the horror is on its way. against Stalin, to integrate into French society and forget the Edith and her people will not emerge unscathed. past, or to remain Russian while defending the French Republic? ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Céline Spierer was born in Geneva and took a screenwriting course in Los Angeles before studying at NYU ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Macha Méril, born Marie-Madeleine film school. She then worked as a consultant and production Gagarine, daughter of a Russian prince exiled in France, began her assistant in the United States and in Switzerland. She now lives in career in cinema after training in the Charles Dullin National Theatre Manhattan. LE FIL ROMPU is her first novel. of Paris and the Actor’s Studio in New York. She made her name in the mid-60s as one of the personalities of the New Wave. After acting for a few years in Italy, she returned to France to pursue a career in cinema, television, the stage, and writing.The author of numerous works, for many years she’s harboured this sweeping novel that evokes the condition of Russian émigrés in France.

Lester Literary Agency & Associates / Spring 2020 / Fiction / Central, Eastern Europe & Baltic countries 27

Emmanuelle Friedman Mireille Calmel JACQUES L'ENFANT CACHÉ LA LOUVE CATHARE (The Hidden Children) (The Cathar She-Wolf) Presses de la Cité, February-20, 256 pages XO, May-20, pages

à A novel that combines both the strength of emotion and à Plunge into the heart of the mysterious Cathars, where the tragedy of History. murder, vengeance, betrayal and passionate love mingle in intoxicating combination. à Within this novel based on the true story of the writer’s father, the emotional and gravity of History go hand in “At a time when the roof of Notre Dame goes up in flames, hand with the mischievousness and innocence of the when dagger and poison reign supreme and when entry young heroes. into adulthood is accompanied by great pain, the memory 1943. The young Jacques, separated from his mother for of a woman returns as a haunting presence… Her name ? the first time, is entrusted to the pastor Jousselin whose She-wolf… The Cathar She-Wolf ». holiday camp has been turned into a refugee camp for countless Jewish children... Paris, 13 November 1226. Mahaut, a woman of ill repute from the île de la Cité, is murdered in front of her daughter Paris, 1943. To prevent her child to live for several months Griffonelle, a fiery maiden of 16. This savage act is committed hidden inside the cave of his uncle, Bilma entrusts her eight- by Amaury de Montfort, the son of the man who had several year-old-boy to the pastor Jousselin. His holiday camp inside years earlier burned hundreds of Cathars in Occitanie. the castle of Cappy in Oise has be turned into a refugee for Occitanie is far, however, and Griffonelle has never heard of many Jewish children. Despites the fear and the loneliness, the Cathar religion. childhood takes its course... So why does this man suddenly offer a large reward for her ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Emmanuelle Friedmann is a journalist for capture, claiming she possesses a map – of which she knows several newspaper and magazines. She is the author of the book nothing – that reveals the secret of a gold mine hidden in the RÊVEUR DES HALLES (2012), which has received the Special Price heart of the Black Mountain? Hunted down, her only chance from the Jury of the city of Mennecy and L'ORPHELINAT (2015). of survival is to find out what her mother was hiding from her…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mireille Calmel has written songs, novellas, stories, and plays, one of which, a play for adolescents, won a prize. In 1995, when she was penniless, she began to write Eleonor’s Bed. It was a huge success: almost a million copies sold throughout the world. Then came whith success the next two sagas: The House of the Wolves (2003) and Lady Pirate (2005)

28 THRILLER

Barbara Abel Karine Giebel ET LES VIVANTS AUTOUR CE QUE TU AS FAIT DE MOI (And The Living Around Her ) (What You Made Me) Belfond, March-20, 448 pages Belfond, January-20, 570 pages

à Under option in: Czech Republic (Albatros Media) à The agency does not handle Czech & Hungarian & Russia (Hemiro). rights. à Rights sold in: Italy (Leone). à English full translation available. à Barbara Abel analysed perfectly the unsettling à 60,000 copies sold. psychology and feelings of the characters. à An author with 1.3 million copies sold in France. à “Barbara Abel keeps readers on tenterhooks until the à A TV adaptation of Till Death Do Us Unite in November very last line of this novel that intertwines psychological tension and criminal suspense with a dash of humor, 2018 : 5.3 Million viewers. too.” (the Belgium version of the newspaper Marie- à 14 Literary awards. Claire) A tour de force by Karine Giébel that makes the reading Barbara Abel’s latest thriller has a remarkably tight plot, of two interrogations totally fluid: while also laying bare the psychology and the roller-coaster ride of emotions of the characters gravitating around the Tonight, in interrogation cell number 1, the head of the Drug body of Jeanne, which is both inert and dramatically Squad, Commander Richard Ménainville, must confess his present, right up to the unexpected ending. addiction and answer for his acts. What really happened between him and his lieutenant, Laëtitia Graminsky? How After a car accident, Jeanne, 29, has been in a coma for four could falling in love have triggered such a tragedy? long years. Her chances of emerging from it grow slimmer with each passing day. For months now, Dr. Goossens has At the same time, in interrogation cell number 2, Laëtitia tells been advising ending life support in the name of the recent her story. end-of-life law Claeys-Leonetti which forbids therapeutic obstinacy. So when he calls Jeanne’s parents and her husband Will their versions be identical? Richard and Laetitia are in for a meeting, Micheline, Gilbert and Jérôme know perfectly connected in a way and it is certain that something is well what he’s going to say, and they’re dreading it. But it turns happening between these two, but what exactly? Karine out that nothing had prepared them for what the doctor Giébel shows us how passion can lead inexorably to horror. actually tells them. The unthinkable has happened. And the dilemma they have been confronted with is surreal… ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Karine Giébel has published several crime thrillers, including LES MORSURES DE L’OMBRE (Fleuve Noir, ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Barbara Abel was born in Belgium in 1969. 2007) and JUSTE UNE OMBRE (Fleuve Noir, 2012). Her novel DE At 23, she wrote her first play. At 33, her first novel, L’INSTINCT FORCE, published by Belfond, was sold up to 60.000 copies and MATERNEL, won the Prix Cognac. MAÎTRES DU JEU, her previous collection of short stories, was sold up to 36 000 copies.

“She plunges you into the depths of the human soul, into what we all try to hide, into that part of humanity or inhumanity that we all try not to think about.”

“Karine Giébel has written a passionate, terribly disturbing, challenging and psychologically trying story on human nature, whose

reading makes one feel a palette of crazy emotions.”

Lester Literary Agency & Associates / Spring 2020 / Fiction / Central, Eastern Europe & Baltic countries 29

Olivier Bal Cai Jun L’AFFAIRE CLARA MILLER COMME HIER (The Clara Miller Affair) (Like Yesterday) XO, March-20, 300 pages XO, June-20, 400 pages

à A cursed lake. à Under option in: Czech Republic (Omega). à A rock star hiding out in his manor house. à In this gripping thriller that navigates between reality à A headstrong journalist. and the virtual world, the characters are like so many pieces of a puzzle that fit neatly together until, in the à A multi-cast thriller that alternates first-person final resolution, the complete picture is revealed. narratives by all the main characters – until the incredible truth explodes. à The unlikely but very likeable duo of avenging angels represent a glimmer of hope in this dark picture of 21st Fame is a dream that is costly. Very costly… The dark, century Chinese society that teems with violence and hidden face of fame under the bloody red carpet of unbridled capitalism – with all its catastrophic celebrity consequences on the environment and humanity – and the ubiquitous presence of new communication The body floated up to the surface of the water, like those of technologies… the other women. Six in total… This cursed place, in the A fast-paced thriller by the Chinese Stephen King in the forests of New Hampshire, is known as Suicide Lake. Clara vein of the Black Mirror series Miller was a journalist. Like Paul Green, the Globe reporter who takes up Clara’s case; they had known each other as On 13 August 2017, Jiao Keming, a computer technology students and she had been his platonic love. He is certain that teacher at the Nanming high school, his wife and his five-year- she did not commit suicide. old son – who suffers from a congenital illness – are murdered in their apartment. A man intrigues him: Mike Stilth, the mega-pop star holed up several kilometres away at Lost Lakes. He has transformed his Charged with the enquiry, the incorruptible Ye Xiao is manor house into a fortress where he lives with his two young assisted by Sheng Xia, one of the victim’s pupils. Seventeen children, Noah & Eva, who know nothing of the outside years old, red hair, a Thai box expert and formidable hacker… world. The star is surrounded by a handful of loyal staff, Suffering from a terminal brain tumour, this Chinese Lisbeth including Joan Harlow, the dreadful publicist who guards his Salander, has vowed to avenge her teacher – with whom she privacy and who will stop at nothing to prevent any harm had developed a revolutionary virtual reality app called “Like coming to the Stilth empire. yesterday” – before his death. Paul Green is patient, however. In his old, beat-up Ford, he Thanks to this new technology that enables people to dive unwearyingly circles the property, seeking to find out whether back into their own memories and to explore other people’s there is a road leading directly to the lake. ones, the righters of wrongs will uncover two cold cases: the death of a little girl on 13 August 2012 and the disappearance When you have everything, when you are on the top rung of of a young woman on 13 August 1999. the ladder, where is there left to go? ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Born in Shanghai in 1978, Cai Jun began ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Novelist Olivier Bal is 41 years old and the writing at the age of 22. His novels immediately meet with success. author of the critically acclaimed LIMBES (Limbo) and its sequel Today, known for his inexhaustible imagination and incredible sense MAÎTRE DES LIMBES (Master of Limbo). of suspense, he is one of the best-selling authors in China. Nicknamed “the Chinese Stephen King”, he has published some “Hello anguish. Olivier Bal gives us a great show – fantastic, horrific thirty new thrillers and anthologies, and sold more than 13 million and intriguing!” L’Express books. Largely adapted to film and television, its international influence continues to grow.

30 Sonja Delzongle Gilles Vincent L’HOMME DE LA PLAINE DU NORD LES POUPÉES DE NIJAR (The Man From The Northern Plains) (Nijar’s Dolls) Denoël, March-20, 300 pages Au Diable Vauvert, February-20, 368 pages

à An incredibly precise plotline by one of the genre’s most à A historical, political, ecological and humanitarian noir promising authors. novel, Gilles Vincent’s kaleidoscopic crime fiction pays off. à Hanah Baxter is an unforgettable heroine, an exceptional profiler, and the victim of a murky past. à An investigation-portrait of a bruised and desperate Spain in the times of Franco. à An extraordinary psychological thriller that places its heroine in the heart of a double investigation. A Mediterranean crime novel set in lands devasted by à A magnificent and unsettling backdrop: the bare and industrial slavery. gray Northern plains. Photographer of chaos, Thomas Volner is sent to capture the The profiler Hanah Baxter must face up to her past. desperation in the glowing greenhouses of Andalusia, a sea of plastic in the middle of the Spanish desert. Gigantic gardens, Hanah Baxter, a Belgian woman living in New York, is one of unprecedented environmental devastation, African workers the best profilers in the world. When she returns home after reduced to slavery and silence: all the ingredients for a an investigation and finally unpacks her bags, two FBI agents scandalous report. While on these already explosive tracks, knock at her door. An international warrant has been issued strange events keep all of Spain from sleeping. Taken on their for her arrest. Baxter is accused of murdering Anton Vifkin, way to school, leaving swimming pools and judo classes, the the legendary profiler who was also her mentor. This region’s children disappear, to be found several days later investigation plunges her into her past and takes her, in the suspended from the branches of trees like grotesque puppets. wake of the mysterious Man from the Northern Plains, where There are no witnesses and even fewer clues, but for the she never thought she would go. terror in their eyes ...

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Born in 1967 to a French father and a ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Gilles Vincent was born in 1958 in Issy-les- Serbian mother, Sonja Delzongle grew up between Dijon and Serbia. Moulineaux. Author of well-known and highly reputed crime fiction, She has led a Bohemian lifestyle, between various jobs (from working he has been rewarded for his work several times: in 2008, he in Afro-Asian artisanal trade to running a bar) and writing. She now published Djebel with Éditions Jigal, winning the Euro-Polar Prize, divides her time between Lyon and la Drôme. then Beso de la Muerte which collected the Cezam Inter-CE Prize. Devastated is his first novel for Diable Vauvert. “All-nighter guaranteed with this thriller that delightfully plays with your nerves.” Biba

“With her incisive writing, Sonja Delzongle takes us on a merciless and Cornelian hunt. A must-read thriller.” Madame Figaro

“Sonja Delzongle doesn’t skimp on gore, but she perfects her plots with a multitude of details.” Elle

“The reader is dragged into a torrent of emotions rather than mud. A highly intelligent narrative.” La Gazette d’Aix-en-Provenc

Lester Literary Agency & Associates / Spring 2020 / Fiction / Central, Eastern Europe & Baltic countries 31

Karine Lebert Sophie Loubière LES MURMURES DU LAC CINQ CARTES BRÛLÉES (The Whispers of the Lake) (Five Burnt Cards) Presses de la Cité, April-20, 232 pages Fleuve Noir, January-20, 352 pages

A tragic accident brings a woman to steal her twin sister's à The myth of the femme fatale adapted by Sophie identity, without fully knowing everything her sister’s life. Loubière. à The astonishing portrait of a young woman, both victim After twenty years spent in Mexico, Isaure is back in her home and malicious, which makes this book a tremendous region, Vendée. As she is about to meet with her twin sister, psychological thriller or a brilliant and definitely modern Lucille, she witnesses, powerless, her sister’s motorbike noir novel. accident. Despites a difficult relationship filled with jealousy, à Isaure is overwhelmed: she can no longer make it up with her A novel dealing with psychological manipulation – including that of the reader – that illustrates how sister. deceiving appearances can be and how violent other people’s gaze can be. The young woman suddenly takes a crazy decision: she steals the identity of her sister, with the purpose of getting her à A small news item. The story of a woman encountered wealth. But a surprise is waiting for Isaure at the family home around a swimming pool. A hotel lost at the end of the in the island of Yeu: Noé, her sister's baby... road. A small casino in the Cantal department. The burning water of a fountain.... Despites the fear of being discovered, Isaure takes over her Our life is a deck of cards that are constantly being played. sister’s life. And starts to love the child. Fate has not always been nice to her, is it finally giving her a second chance? Mr and Mrs Graissac live with their two children in a sinister pavilion in Saint Flour in the Auvergne region. They divorce ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Born in the French region of Normandy, after he is suspected of sexual touching on his daughter. whose landscapes inspired the background of her novels, Karine Thierry, their son, finds it a malicious pleasure to harass his Lebert was a biographer for fifteen years before becoming a journalist for the newspaper Paris Normandie. She has already sister Laurence with incessant mockery of her obesity. But the published : CE QUE FANNY VEUT... (2015), LES SAISONS DU latter still devotes blind and unconditional love to her brother MENSONGE (2016), LES DEMOISELLES DE BEAUNE (2017), LES and father. She picks herself up thanks to high-performance AMANTS DE L'ÉTÉ 44 (2018). sport until the day her mother and brother have a car accident: Thierry is seriously wounded and Mrs Graissac is sent to a mental institution. Laurence comes back home to take care of her brother and financially support her family. This is how she starts working at the casino in Chaudes- Aigues where she meets the man who will change her life dramatically.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Sophie Loubière dedicated herself to journalism for 17 years. She published her first novel in 1999. She’s the author of nine novels, along with numerous short stories and radio dramas. In 2011, she gained international recognition with her novel The Stone Boy and the support of her now dear friend, Thomas H.Cook. Her previous book, THE STONE BOY reached 80,000 copies sold.

“Darkness has a beauty of its own, and no writer conveys that beautiful darkness more fully than Sophie Loubière. She demonstrates the thoughtfulness, craft, and artistic sincerity of a writer whose vision of life is uniquely her own. No writer more skillfully leads her readers into the heart of darkness, nor more gently returns them to the light.” Thomas H Coo

32 Nicolas Beuglet Johana Gustawsson L'ÎLE DU DIABLE SÅNG (The Devil’s Island) (Blood) XO, September 2019, 320 pages Bragelonne, November 2019, 300 pages

à Rights sold in: Czech Republic & Slovakia (Albatros à Under option in: Poland (Swiat Kziaski). Media). à Full English translation available. à A spine-chilling thriller that exhumes a horrifying à Rights sold in: UK (Orenda Books), Spain (Navona). unknown event from the depths of history and poses an intriguing question: how much, for better or worse, do à Previous titles sold in: Italy,UK, Poland, Russia, Brazil;, our ancestors live on in us? Spain, Taiwan, Romania, Czech Republic. Revenge is a matter of memory. After LE CRI and à A highly documented novel, anchored in social and COMPLOT (470,000 copies sold altogether) this is the political reality. third volume of the trilogy featuring inspector Sarah à A lively narrative that switches between contemporary Geringen. investigation and past deeds. à A psychological dimension that subtly exposes how the The body covered with a strange white powder… the roots of evil lie in family transmission. extremities gangrenous…

A face frozen in a grimace of pain… Sarah Geringën is gripped Are we predestined by our heritage, or are we free to with horror when she sees her father’s body. And is paralysed become who we really are? with fear when the pathologist gives her the key found in his stomach. What if her father was not the man he seemed to A family is murdered in Sweden in their luxurious home. The be? horrible crime brings Aliénor Lindbergh, a young woman with Asperger’s syndrome who has just joined Scotland Yard as an From murky Norwegian forests to icy Siberian plains, the analyst, back to her native land. The victims were her parents. former special forces inspector goes on a journey to confront Along with her friend Alexis Castells, a writer who specialises a terrifying family secret. What will she discover in that old in serial crimes, the profiler Emily Roy meets up with her manor house isolated in the woods? Will she dare venture protégée in Falkenberg, where police captain Bergström’s onto Devil’s Island? team is leading the investigation. Together they follow leads left by the killer that take them all the way back to the Spanish ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nicolas Beuglet is an author and Civil War in the late 1930s, a time when General Franco scriptwriter. His two previous novels have sold over 470, 000 copies bloodily crushed any resistance. to date (hardback and paperback). ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Johana Gustawsson, a Frenchwoman of Catalan stock, is a political science graduate fascinated by family ties. She lives in London with her Swedish husband and their children. Her novels Block 46 and Mör have been translated into several languages and are currently being adapted as television series.

“Johana Gustawsson has established herself as an outstanding international thriller writer. Her new novel is a hit.” Bruno Lamarque – Librairie de la Renaissance

Lester Literary Agency & Associates / Spring 2020 / Fiction / Central, Eastern Europe & Baltic countries 33

Franck Thilliez LUCIE HENEBELLE & FRANCK SHARKO IL ÉTAIT DEUX FOIS Syndrome E, Gataca, Atomka, Angor, Pandemia, Sharko (Twice Upon a Time) Fleuve Noir, 2010-2019, around 500 pages each Fleuve Noir, Mai-20, 450 pages

à English translations available à Over 2,6 Million copies sold.

à Under option in: Czech Republic, Slovakia, à Rights sold in: US (Penguin), Spain (Destino), Spain Hungary, Russia, Ukraine. Catalan (Columna), Germany (Goldmann), The Netherlands (Xander), Brazil (Intrinseca), à From a small village in Savoie and its former Russia (Atticus), Taiwan (Solo Press), Portugal hyrdroelectric plant to an isolated cabin in Poland, (Sextante), Turkey (Pegasus), Japan (Hayakawa), to a disused warehouse in Belgium, fear is China (Hachette Phoenix), Slovakia (Artforum), everywhere. Hungary (Gabo), Korea (Eunhaeng Namu), Thailand (Welearn), Czech Republic (XYZ), à A dark outcome, at the centre of a devilish plot. Vietnam (Nha Nam), Ukraine (Ranok). “Somewhere, someone knows something...” à Film rights sold. In 2008, in a small town in the mountains, lieutenant Gabriel Each novel of the series tackles one subject in particular, for Moscato is desperately looking for his daughter, who example the propagation of violence in Syndrome E and disappeared a month ago. He searches all the establishments Gataca, or bioethics and artificial intelligence in Luca. In each that could have had hosted strangers. That takes him to the book is intertwined the investigation, and the personal lives of Cliff Hotel. He settles in room 29, second floor, with the Franck Sharko and Lucie Henebelle, the two main register and falls asleep. protagonists, as well as other members of their team.

When he wakes up, he is in room 7, on the ground floor of LUCIE HENEBELLE & FRANCK SHARKO the hotel. And soon he learns that in the date is now 2020, Luca and that his daughter is still missing... What has he done for Fleuve Noir, May-19, 552 pages 12 years? And why doesn’t he remember anything?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Franck Thilliez has become canonical with over 5 million copies sold in France being part of the 2019 ranking of the 10 bestselling French authors. Chamber of Death and Puzzle have already been adapted into movies and most of his Work is currently under option. Franck is also a script and comics writer.

à Bio-hacking, genetic manipulation, social networks abuses, savior babies, Internet tracking, PTSD. Do we still have a private world that can’t be accessed by machine intelligence?

First, an ordinary couple who cannot have children decides to use the services of a surrogate mother encountered on an Internet forum. Why does she look so afraid and what does that mean exactly when she says that “this baby is special. Preserve your anonymity and he will be safe.” When the adoptive father is kidnapped with another woman and their sequestration is broadcast live on the Internet, light is shed on him... and the deal is broken... Then, a mutilated body is found in a pit in the middle of a forest. Tatooed on his arm is the exact date and time of a man’s death, on the threshold of the police headquarters. In his hand, a letter. At the center of those cases: The Angel, a mysterious blackmailer who wants to awaken consciences against IA and the standardization of human thought. The police will have to start a crazy race against time to try to save the two prisoners and protect baby Luca.

34 CRIME / NOIR

Dominique Sylvain Patrice Gain UNE FEMME DE RÊVE LE SOURIRE DU SCORPION (Woman Of My Dream) (The Smile of Scorpio) Viviane Hamy, January-20, 304 pages Le Mot et Le Reste, January-20, 208 pages

à Powerful and colorful female characters. à Long-listed for the Le Prix des Libraires 2020. à Two worlds are lighting up each other and giving to the à The tale of a family after the death of the father, and plot its frenetic pace and its mysteries to solve. how each member handles both their mourning and the culprit’s intrusion in their lives. à A novel like no other before. Rather than searching for the suspect, the author endeavours to make us guess at à A young hero, Tom, whose childhood comes to an end the victim. when he sees his mother and sister wasting away, and tries in vain to reconnect with them. à In the era of new technologies and Bitcoin, Sylvain plays with multiplying the investigations and false leads to the à A spell-binding, suspense-filled novel with endearingly absolute delight of the readers. emotional characters. à The plot, particularly effective and masterfully In the shadow of the Balkan wars, a family tries to find a developed includes a majestical reinterpretation the meaning in their fate. most famous of myths, that of Orpheus. Dominique Sylvain takes us once again into her That’s it ! Tom, her twin sister Luna and their parents will go dangerously oneiric and sensual universe. rafting in Tara’s Can- yon. One more beautiful step in their no- madic life. However, in spite of the breath- taking There has just been an escape at Mavoiry prison. The scene Montenegrin landscapes, the family complicity and the reassuring presence of their Serbian guide Goran, tension is as spectacular as unimaginable: Karmia, the most famous slowly overrun the canyon and drama strikes ! repeat armed robber, also known for having coolly planted a bullet in Chief Constable Severine Varmeau’s skull, has just cleared off in a helicopter. On board are Nico, Karmia’s Since he is fifteen, Tom gets hit by the violence of mourning daughter who is holding the pilot at gunpoint, and Adèle, the and loneliness. While his family is being torn apart, he discov- kindly teacher who encourages detainees to continue their ers the great pain, the one that cracks the fences and shatter studies, who Karmia has taken as hostage thanks to a razor all common sense, opening the doors to whome knows how blade wedged into a toothbrush. Two thousand officers have to sneak through others weakness. But, as chaotic as his life been mobilized for the search. Karmia appears to have two is, Tom can’t help but to retrace all the terrible events and, in objectives: first, to do whatever it takes to find Laurence the end, a question pops out : aren’t they the victims from a Schneider (an audio naturalist who records the sounds of wild much bigger History than theirs ? animals at the request of her clients, who include film producers) with whom he had a one-nighter. Second, to leave ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Patrice Gain was born in 1961. He is a mountain worker and environment engi- neer. He has always been for Brazil with his daughter with the money from his hold-ups passionate by wild territories and alpinism. that they have converted into bitcoins. "The style of Patrice Gain has a strengh power of suggestion that But Karmia who is nicknamed “The Phoenix” will have to face renders brilliantly the beauty of nature and landsapes" France Inter his sworn enemy: Schrodinger. This former leader of the “Antigang”, Severine’s partner and soulmate, is more "A story of torments and nature beautifully written" Télérama determined than ever to put Karmia back into jail. It is a question of honour. Having become a security guard at a "A radiant style, a plot perfectly mastered and a young averwhelming luxury hotel, he leaves everything behind to lead his own hero" Libération investigation, even if it means rubbing up against criminality. He has an immense advantage over his colleagues, as he knows Karmia better than anyone.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dominique Sylvain’s novels have been translated in fifteen languages and several have been adapted for the screen.

Lester Literary Agency & Associates / Spring 2020 / Fiction / Central, Eastern Europe & Baltic countries 35

(RE)DISCOVERED WRITERS

Hélène Gremillon Georges Pérec LE CONFIDENT LA DISPARITION (The Confidant) (A Void) Plon, April-10, 267 pages Denoël, November-19, 320 pages

à 300,000 copies sold. à Rights sold in: United Kingdom (Harvill/Wel Rights), Germany (Diaphanes), The Netherlands (De à Rights sold in 20 languages: North America (Penguin Arbeiderspers), Spain (Castilian/Anagrama, USA), UK, Australia & New Zealand (Text Publishing), Catalan/L’avenç), Brazil (Autentica Editora), Poland Germany (Hoffman und Campe), Sweden (Bonnier), (Znak) , Sweden (Modernista), Turkey (Ayrinti Italy (Mondadori), Spain (Random House), Netherlands Yayinlari), Romania (Art), Russia (Limbakh), Finland (De Bezige Bij), Israel (Keter), Russia (Ast), Norway (Teos), Croatia (Meandar Media). (Aschehoug), Finland (Otava), Denmark (People’s Press), Iceland (Bjartur), Poland (Albatros), Serbia à To shed light on this work of fiction, the novelist Marie (Alnari), Croatia (Alfa Zg), China (Yilin Press), Hungary Darrieussecq (a Perec enthusiast, translator, and (Geo-Pen), Brasil (Paz & Terra), Korea (Enhaeng psychoanalyst) proposes a reading of this seminal text Namu), Romania (Humanitas), Japan (Hayakawa in Perec’s life and literary production through the prism Publishing), Greece (Gema), Turkey (Can Yayinlari) & of psychoanalysis and translation. Czech Republic (Vydavatelstivi Vikend). Known the world over as a lipogrammatic French novel à Alternating Camille’s story and the mysterious letters whose uniqueness and genius resides in the absence of the from the unknown correspondent, the author letter “e”, Perec’s A Void no longer requires introduction. transports us to the years between 1939 and1943. The absence of the letter “e” may be a metaphor for à A highly original first novel that blends historical novel Perec’s parents, who died during World War II. and psychological suspense with brio and virtuoso literary style. Beyond its literary prowess, A Void is an astonishing detective 1975. After her mother’s death, Camille receives a letter novel. Anton Voyl disappears, leaving behind some from an unknown correspondent. Every week new letters mysterious messages. The police are intrigued, but also arrive, further weaving a tale that began thirty years disoriented and unable to prevent a second disappearance. This time, a Moroccan lawyer has gone missing, just as earlier, at the beginning of the war, until the last one mysteriously and inexplicably. The friends of the individuals in reveals a dreadful secret that directly concerns her. question meet up in Azincourt at one of their properties in order to try to understand what has happened. But the Paris, 1975. Sifting through the letters of condolence after her countless pieces of information they gather and their mother’s death, Camille discovers a strange missive sent by memories are always incomplete. As the investigation moves someone she does not know. She thinks it is probably an forward, they all sense the threat and danger approaching. Yet error. But then, every Tuesday, a new letter arrives, again, Death rears its head. What mystery surrounds this progressively recounting a tale of two impossible loves, four book? Who are these individuals who have disappeared and broken destinies, until the final denouement destroys what secret have they taken with them to the grave? We’ll everything in its inevitable path. Little by little, Camille begins never find out. Suffice it to say that they lived and died and to piece together the puzzle and is shocked to realize that this that this entire book is none other than the trace of that story has a direct bearing upon her own life. endless damnation.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Hélène Grémillon is 32 and has graduate ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Georges Perec was born in 1936 to Polish degrees in literature and history. She worked in advertising and as a Jewish parents, both of whom died during WWII. In 1956, his first programming assistant in television before becoming a journalist at novel, LES CHOSES, was awarded the Prix Renaudot. One year Le Figaro. Le Confident is her first novel. later, he published the daring QUEL PETIT VÉLO À GUIDON CHROMÉ AU FOND DE LA COUR ? Perec quickly became a "Hélène Grémillon's talent bursts forth in this first novel, as much central figure in the Oulipo group, which he joined in 1967. by the style as the historical details and the suspense that persists up Fascinated by all forms of expression, he constantly questioned the to the very last paragraph." Le Nouvel Observateu act and limits of writing. The author of a surprising and diverse collection of works and a true explorer of language, Perec is a key figure in 20th century French literature.

36 TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH

Sarah Léon Hervé Le Corre WANDERER APRÈS LA GUERRE (Wanderer) (After the War) Héloïse d'Ormesson, March 2016, 176 pages Rivages, March 2014, 528 pages

à Full English translation available. à Full English translation available. à Rights sold in: Italy (Edizioni E/O), the Netherlands à Carried by a Schubertian melody, Wanderer is a (Xander), Greece (Ekdoseis tou Eikostou protou), twilight adagio in the depths of winter that will take UK (MacLehose Press), USA (Europa), Spain the reader in a romantic atmosphere. (Reservoir Books/Penguin Random House,). à Poetic musical references and a subtle ode to à 65,000 copies sold. German romanticism. à Awarded the Prix LIRE du Meilleur polar, Prix du à A fast-paced book with many flashbacks. Polar européen du Point, Prix Polars en séries à The story of a French composer and his former student, Quais du polar, Prix Landerneau du polar, Trophée 813 du meilleur roman français. brilliant but difficult, who reappears unexpectedly after an absence of 10 years. Bordeaux, 1950. World War II is still vivid in everyone’s memories, yet a new conflict has already broken out: the The composer and professor of music Hermin shut himself Algerian war. away in the Bourbonnais, devoting himself to writing a tribute to Schubert. But on a cold January evening his blessed hours Daniel knows that he too, will have to go. An orphan who of studious peace are interrupted when one of his former lost his parents in the camps, Daniel, now a mechanic, spends students—Lenny, a pianist prodigy—comes knocking at his most evenings at the movies. One day, a stranger comes to door. But still together, they will encounter ghosts from the the garage to get his motorcycle repaired. He seems to cast past including musical osmosis, blindness and the expectation a shadow that poisons the atmosphere even after he’s gone. of a revelation. Romantic with a capital R, the novel ultimately The man didn’t go there by chance. A series of violent treats the relationship between the two men with a delicacy incidents takes place. A high-school girl is mugged by that is unexpectedly moving. someone who threatens her. She is the daughter of Albert Darlac, a police commissionaire who had had no qualms ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Sarah Leon was born in 1995. She studies about arresting Jews during the Occupation, and who now literature and musicology. WANDERER is her first novel. rules the city with an iron hand. A short time later, the bar that is Darlac’s unofficial headquarters gets blown up. He gets “Léon’s innovative blending of events across time and her delicate drawn into a spiral of violence just as Daniel ships out to emotional precision make for a bewitching, immersive experience.” Algeria. Publisher's weekly After several novels in the série Noire, Hervé Le Corre’s “Aside from writing lyrical, evocative prose, Léon’s other precocious acclaimed L’HOMME AUX LÈVRES DE SAPHIR (2004, Italian rights talent is her understanding of people. This capacity is a hallmark of

some of the world’s better writers. Shakespeare, Tolstoy, and Faulkner sold (Piemme) 42,000 copies sold in France) - a hit with critics and come to mind, among others. That Léon wrote this discerning novel readers alike - won the Mystère de la Critique Prize. His next novel, when she was 21 speaks to future works that should explore a more LES COEURS DÉCHIQUETÉS (2009, English world rights sold to expansive landscape.” New York Journal of books Machlehose Press, Italian rights sold to Piemme and 20,000 copies sold in France), won him the Mystère Prize yet again, as well as the Grand Prix de Littérature poliicière.

“This a dark despairing novel, enlivened with flamboyant bastards, shoot-outs, ambushes and dialogues that crackle under a masterful pen.” Le Point

Lester Literary Agency & Associates / Spring 2020 / Fiction / Central, Eastern Europe & Baltic countries 37

RECENT SUCCESSES ...... 3 Joseph Incardona ...... 10 LA SOUSTRACTION DES POSSIBLES ...... 10 Jean-Paul Dubois ...... 3 (Substracting Possibilities) ...... 10 TOUS LES HOMMES N'HABITENT PAS LE MONDE DE LA MÊME FAÇON ...... 3 Sandrine Collette ...... 10 (All Men Live in This World Differently) ...... 3 ET TOUJOURS LES FORÊTS ...... 10 (And Always The Forests) ...... 10 Luc Lang ...... 3 LA TENTATION ...... 3 Carl Aderhold ...... 11 (The Temptation) ...... 3 LE THÉÂTRE DES NUITS ...... 11 (In the Theatre of War) ...... 11 Louis-Philippe Dalembert ...... 4 MUR MÉDITERRANÉE ...... 4 Joseph d’Anvers ...... 11 (Mediterranian Wall) ...... 4 JUSTE UNE BALLE PERDUE ...... 11 (Just a Stray Bullet) ...... 11 Pascal Janovjak ...... 4 LE ZOO DE ROME ...... 4 Édouard Jousselin ...... 12 (Rome Zoo) ...... 4 LES CORMORANS ...... 12 (The Cormorans) ...... 12 Jean-Baptiste Andrea ...... 5 CENT MILLIONS D’ANNÉES ET UN JOUR ...... 5 Frédéric Lepage ...... 12 (A Hundred Million Years and a Day) ...... 5 SI LA BÊTE S’ÉVEILLE ...... 12 (If The Beast Awakens Homo Criminalis) ...... 12 Cécile Coulon ...... 5 UNE BÊTE AU PARADIS ...... 5 Jean-Claude Mourlevat & Anne-Laure Bondoux ...... 13 (A Beast in Paradise) ...... 5 OH HAPPY DAY ...... 13

Thomas Gunzig ...... 6 Jean-Claude Mourlevat & Anne-Laure Bondoux ...... 13 FEEL GOOD ...... 6 ET JE DANSE AUSSI ...... 13 (Feel Good) ...... 6 (Shall We Dance?) ...... 13

Guillaume Lavenant ...... 6 UP-MARKET ...... 14 PROTOCOLE GOUVERNANTE ...... 6 (The Governess’s Protocol) ...... 6 Aki Shimazaki ...... 14 SUZURAN ...... 14 Odile Bouhier ...... 7 (Suzuran) ...... 14 LE BAZAR DE LA CHARITÉ ...... 7 (The Bazar de la Charité) ...... 7 Frédérique Deghelt ...... 14 SANKHARA ...... 14 Philippe Amar ...... 7 LE PETIT ROI DU MONDE ...... 7 Thibault Bérard ...... 15 (The Little King of the World) ...... 7 IL EST JUSTE QUE LES FORTS SOIENT FRAPPÉ ...... 15 (It’s Only Right that the Strong Should Be Stricken) .... 15 Didier Decoin ...... 8 LE BUREAU DES JARDINS ...... 8 Salomé Baudino ...... 15 ET DES ÉTANGS ...... 8 LE SYNDROME DES CŒURS BRISÉS ...... 15 (The Office Of Gardens And Ponds) ...... 8 (The Broken Heart Syndrome) ...... 15

Jacky Durand ...... 8 Hervé Bellec ...... 16 LE CAHIER DE RECETTES ...... 8 LULU TOUT SIMPLEMENT ...... 16 (Monsieur Henri’s Secret Recipes) ...... 8 (Just Lulu) ...... 16

Colin Niel ...... 9 Liza Azuelos ...... 16 SEULES LES BÊTES ...... 9 LA VIE EN OSE ...... 16 (Only the Animals Are Left) ...... 9 (My Life After You) ...... 16 CONTEMPORARY ...... 17 Jérôme Loubry ...... 9 LES REFUGES ...... 9 Nathalie Azoulai ...... 17 (The Refuges) ...... 9 JUVENIA ...... 17 HIGHLIGHTS ...... 10 (Juvenia) ...... 17

38 J-M Erre ...... 17 You Can Clearly See The Earth) ...... 24 LE BONHEUR EST AU FOND CU COULOIR À GAUCHE ... 17 (Happiness Is Down The Hall On The Left) ...... 17 François Bourdon ...... 25 LA FONTAINE AUX VIOLETTES ...... 25 Luc Blanvillain ...... 18 (The Violet’s Fountain) ...... 25 LE RÉPONDEUR ...... 18 (The Voice Mail) ...... 18 Véronique Pierron ...... 25 LES MIRACLES DE L'OURCQ ...... 25 Julia Deck ...... 18 (The Ourcq’s Miracles) ...... 25 PROPRIÉTÉ PRIVÉE ...... 18 (Private Property) ...... 18 Marie-Bernadette Dupuy ...... 26 1. L'ORPHELINE DE MANHATTAN ...... 26 COMMERCIAL ...... 19 (The Manhattan’s Orphan) ...... 26

Charlotte Gabris ...... 19 Marie-Bernadette Dupuy ...... 26 DÉJEUNER EN PAIX ...... 19 2. LES LUMIÈRES DE BROADWAY ...... 26 (Having Lunch in Peace) ...... 19 (The Lights of Broadway) ...... 26

Sophie de Villenoisy ...... 19 Marie-Bernadette Dupuy ...... 26 COURAGE, RIONS ...... 19 3. LES LARMES DE L'HUDSON ...... 26 (Chin Up and Laugh) ...... 19 (The Tears of the Hudson) ...... 26 Cécile Cayrel ...... 20 BIO & HISTORICAL ...... 27 LA COULEUR DE L'AIR A CHANGÉ ...... 20 (The Colour of the Air has Changed) ...... 20 Céline Spierer ...... 27 LE FIL ROMPU ...... 27 Aurélie Delahaye ...... 20 (The Broken Thread) ...... 27 DONNE-MOI LA MAIN MENINO ...... 20 (Give Me Your Hand Menino) ...... 20 Macha Méril ...... 27 VANIA, VASSIA ET LA FILLE DE VASSIA ...... 27 Nathalie Hug ...... 21 (Vania,Vassia, and Vassia’s Daughter) ...... 27 COMME UN ENCHANTEMENT ...... 21 (An Italian Fairy Tale) ...... 21 Emmanuelle Friedman ...... 28 JACQUES L'ENFANT CACHÉ ...... 28 Serena Giuliano ...... 21 (The Hidden Children) ...... 28 MAMMA MARIA ...... 21 (Mamma Maria) ...... 21 Mireille Calmel ...... 28 LA LOUVE CATHARE ...... 28 Julien Sandrel ...... 22 (The Cathar She-Wolf) ...... 28 LES ÉTINCELLE ...... 22 (Sparks) ...... 22 THRILLER ...... 29

Thierry Cohen ...... 22 Barbara Abel ...... 29 ET PUIS AU PIRE ON S'AIMERA ...... 22 ET LES VIVANTS AUTOUR ...... 29 (At Worst, We’ll Love Each Other) ...... 22 (And The Living Around Her ) ...... 29

Martine Delomme ...... 23 Karine Giebel ...... 29 LE CHOIX DES APPARENCES ...... 23 CE QUE TU AS FAIT DE MOI ...... 29 (The Choice of Appearances) ...... 23 (What You Made Me) ...... 29

Anne Michel ...... 23 Olivier Bal ...... 30 POUR QUELQUES BULLES DE BONHEUR ...... 23 L’AFFAIRE CLARA MILLER ...... 30 (For a Few Bubbles of Happiness) ...... 23 (The Clara Miller Affair) ...... 30

Claire Renaud ...... 24 Cai Jun ...... 30 L'ANGE ET LE VIOLONCELLE ...... 24 COMME HIER ...... 30 (The One-Winged Angel) ...... 24 (Like Yesterday) ...... 30

Antoine Paje ...... 24 Sonja Delzongle ...... 31 DU HAUT D’UN BRIN D’HERBE ...... 24 L’HOMME DE LA PLAINE DU NORD ...... 31 ON VOIT LA TERRE ...... 24 (The Man From The Northern Plains) ...... 31 (From The Top Of A Blade Of Grass, ...... 24

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Gilles Vincent ...... 31 LES POUPÉES DE NIJAR ...... 31 (Nijar’s Dolls) ...... 31

Karine Lebert ...... 32 LES MURMURES DU LAC ...... 32 (The Whispers of the Lake) ...... 32

Sophie Loubière ...... 32 CINQ CARTES BRÛLÉES ...... 32 (Five Burnt Cards) ...... 32

Nicolas Beuglet ...... 33 L'ÎLE DU DIABLE ...... 33 (The Devil’s Island) ...... 33

Johana Gustawsson ...... 33 SÅNG ...... 33

(Blood) ...... 33

Franck Thilliez ...... 34 IL ÉTAIT DEUX FOIS ...... 34 (Twice Upon a Time) ...... 34 LUCIE HENEBELLE & FRANCK SHARKO ...... 34 Syndrome E, Gataca, Atomka, Angor, Pandemia, Sharko ...... 34 LUCIE HENEBELLE & FRANCK SHARKO ...... 34 Luca ...... 34

CRIME / NOIR ...... 35

Dominique Sylvain ...... 35 UNE FEMME DE RÊVE ...... 35 (Woman Of My Dream) ...... 35

Patrice Gain ...... 35 LE SOURIRE DU SCORPION ...... 35 (The Smile of Scorpio) ...... 35

(RE)DISCOVERED WRITERS ...... 36

Hélène Gremillon ...... 36 LE CONFIDENT ...... 36 (The Confidant) ...... 36

Georges Pérec ...... 36 LA DISPARITION ...... 36 (A Void) ...... 36

TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH ...... 37

Sarah Léon ...... 37 WANDERER ...... 37 (Wanderer) ...... 37

Hervé Le Corre ...... 37 APRÈS LA GUERRE ...... 37 (After the War) ...... 37

40 Laura Karayotov Representation for Eastern & Central Europe & Associate & Agent Baltic countries Lester Literary Agency Cell phone : +33 6 03 40 82 58 Actes Sud + Rouergue (selected titles) Anne Carrière Arléa L’Atalante Belfond – Place des éditeurs (selected titles) Boréal Bragelonne Calmann-Levy (selected titles) CNRS (selected titles) De Fallois

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Lester Literary Agency & Associates / Spring 2020 / Fiction / Central, Eastern Europe & Baltic countries 41