Literary Back to School 2023: 5 novels we can’t wait to read

Like every year, hundreds of books arrive on the shelves of bookstores, but this year they are a little less than last year. 466 novels have been or will be published in this new school year 2023, that is 5% fewer new books compared to last year. A fact that remains significant, when we know that every year the abundance of literary publications also creates many unsold books that end up in the pestle some time later. Second The worldevery year, these are 42,229 tons of books were returnedon average, to the distributor.

Yet this literary abundance, though more limited, is particularly alluring in its quality. Here are the novels we can’t wait to have on our bedside tables in September and October.

Literary Back to School 2023: The novels that make us want more

Panorama, by Lilia Hassaine (Gallimard)

After The eye of the peacock AND bitter sun, her first two novels, Lilia Hassaine returns with a brilliant book on the border between dystopia and detective story.

The field: in 2049, in France, the era of Transparency reigns. A France where it’s nice to live in glass houses, nurseries that allow everyone to see what’s happening next door. A system that seems to have completely eradicated crime, and allowed the inhabitants to live in maximum security. At least in appearance. One fine day, a family disappears, leaving no trace and enveloping a thick mystery. The investigation begins, led by the figure of Hélène, a former police officer who returns to service for the occasion. A novel that promises to be breathtaking and that implicitly questions our contemporary world.

Panoramaby Lilia Hassaine (Gallimard), 20 euros

The thickness of a hair, by Claire Berest (Albin Michel)

Claire Berest has long amazed us with her pen and her unique way of telling stories, whether it’s the romantic life of Gabrièle Buffet-Picabia, her grandmother, or the love story between Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. In The thickness of a hairdeals with a difficult and particularly contemporary theme: feminicide.

The field : The thickness of a hairis the story of Étienne and his wife Vive, a couple of intellectuals who have been in love for ten years, that nothing, on paper, seems to be able to shake. However, Étienne will kill his wife, even if no violence had previously ruined their lives. A tragic yet unusual story, through which Claire Berest wanted to show the path that leads to madness, this inevitable countdown once started. A perfectly invented story, which nevertheless allows us to think differently about the theme of femicide, long assimilated to a class murder, which would not affect either the most educated or the richest.

The thickness of a hairby Claire Berest (Albin Michel), 19.90 euros

L’indésir, by Joséphine Tassy (The Iconoclast)

Researcher in development economics, Joséphine Tassy, ​​​​25 years old, is from Marseilles and Martinique and signs with The desire his very first novel.

The field : One night, while walking home from a club, drunk and accompanied by a boy she barely knows, Nuria receives a call from her grandmother who tells her that her mother has died. The next morning, the young woman realizes that this news does not affect her. Among other things because she didn’t really have a relationship with her mother. The day of her funeral he realizes that her mother’s friends are numerous and that they make her a radiant portrait. The young woman then goes in search of those who have known and shared her mother’s life, to discover the face of an elusive woman. At the same time, it is herself that Nuria meets, and this desire that has inhabited her for so long, the one that makes her stand out from her, builds a shell between her and the world.

The desireby Joséphine Tassy (The Iconoclast), 20.90 euros

Goodbye Tangier, by Salma El Moumni (Grasset)

24 years old, Salma El Moumni, originally from Morocco, former student of the École Normale Supérieure in Lyon and Parisian by adoption, has written her first novel.

The field : in Algiers, Alia struggles to understand why her body attracts so much attention, why, on the street, her mere presence arouses looks and insults. So she starts photographing herself in her bedroom, trying to capture what men see when they look at her. Shortly thereafter she meets Quentin, a Frenchman who attends her own high school. Beside her, in confidence, she discovers a life of privileges, of freedom. Alia doesn’t know it yet, but soon her privacy will be revealed in broad daylight and her photos made public. Guilty her in spite of obscene acts, the young woman will be sentenced to leave her country to seek refuge. She settles in Lyon, where she thinks she sees a clearing, until her past resurfaces … A novel that speaks accurately of what surrounds the phenomenon of revenge porn, but also of uprooting and the impossible return.

Goodbye Tangier, by Salma El Moumni (Grasset), 18 euros

You don’t know anything about me, by Julie Héraclès (JC Lattès)

To write You do not know anything about me, her first novel, Julie Héraclès goes to live in Réunion for three years. She is also a short story writer.

The field : in You do not know anything about me, Julie Héraclès is inspired by a photograph taken on August 16, 1944 by Robert Capa, in Chartres. In a city street we see a young woman shaved and branded on the forehead, carrying a newborn baby beside her. The crowd surrounds her and appears to be roughing her up. This photo was taken at the time of the ferocious purge carried out by the French population after the Liberation, and represents in an image the fate suffered by many women, accused of having relations with the German enemy. It is from this shocking image that the moving story told by Julie Héraclès takes its cue, in which she retraces the fate of a woman, Simone, better known as “La Tondue de Chartres”.

You do not know anything about me by Julie Héraclès (JC Lattès), 20.90 euros

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