Winter literary return: our 5 favorite novels

Being women by Marie Darieussecq, POL editions

In Cleves, in the 80s in the Basque Country, on the one hand there is the story of Rose, nice parents, a comfortable situation and a perfect boyfriend, Christian. Ok, he’s a bit bored, but life seems to be going well, psychology studies, first job, children. In front of her, there is her neighbor Solange, pregnant at fifteen, her parents are divorced, she doesn’t drive much. She fled to Bordeaux, then to Paris, London and finally to Los Angeles, in romantic pursuit of her acting career. Rose sees her from afar and we don’t quite understand who this elusive Solange is who abandoned her son behind her back.

And then the story changes, we go to Solange’s side. We passionately follow her journey as an actress in the queer night of the 80s with her friend/lover Brice, suffering from AIDS, up to the glitters of Hollywood.

From one woman to another, with a precise pen anchored in the era it describes, no other novel by Marie Darieussecq has lived up to its name like this one.

The rock by Martin Lichtenberg, Héloïse d’Ormetton editions

In a dark future, the inhabitants of a remote island struggle every day to have access to drinking water. Reduced to nothing, this essential resource for life must now be pumped from the depths of inaccessible aquifers.

The population is divided into different factions. On the one hand there are the Rockies, those who exhaust themselves in the rocky bottoms to find water, and on the other the Rockies, those who preferred to give up and live on trafficking and small business. At the center, the soldiers, the Guard, authoritatively maintain order, and in exchange promise the luckiest to go to the Capital, the promised land of abundance and peace.

But, of course, as in any good dystopia, there is resistance, which reveals the dark mechanisms of dictatorship.

Tackling the highly political issue of access to water, Martin Lichtenberg offers a fascinating story of struggle in this first science fiction novel.

Louisiana by Julia Malye, Stock editions

In early 18th century France, women were chosen to travel to the French colonies in America, with the aim of populating these distant lands. Among them there are bad girls, prostitutes, crazy people, abortionists or lesbians. There are also orphans, or brave but poor women who hope to make their fortune elsewhere. These “king’s daughters,” as they are called, leave everything behind to embark on a perilous journey to hostile lands.

Tracing the thread of three friends over the course of almost fifteen years, Julia Malye follows the extraordinary fates of Charlotte, Pétronille and Geneviève in this little-known history of France and its colonies.

This young 29-year-old author, who is already writing her fourth novel, wrote this text first in English, before rewriting it herself in French. It has since attracted worldwide attention, as the novel has been translated into twenty countries and will soon be adapted into a series. The coup of this return to school.

Repatriation by Eve Guerra, Grasset editions

Annabella, a student, just left on the streets of Lyon by her lover Gabriel, discovers that her father has died. Her father, white, French-Italian, was one of these workers, who left to try his luck in Africa, working on construction sites.

From her childhood between Cameroon and Congo-Brazzaville, Annabella retains the memory of a violent and possessive father and a mother, a Congolese villager, too young to become one. Even though she hasn’t heard from her for years, her body must now be repatriated.

This tragic event puts an end to Anna’s studies, and she will have to fight to untangle the threads of the dubious circumstance of death and, at the same time, visit her father’s dark past. Written in one sitting, this breathtaking first novel can be read in one sitting.

The private life of oblivion by Gisèle Pineau, Philippe Rey editions

In modern-day Guadeloupe, Yaëlle, a young stylist who dreams of pursuing a career in Paris, is convinced by her friend Margy to act as a mule for her trafficker boyfriend. It’s easy, Margy has already done it, just swallow about thirty pellets of cocaine and take the plane to Paris. But during the flight, the packages open one by one in Yaëlle’s body. She approaches death and the shame falls on her family.

In Paris, where he is being treated, they also meet Joycy, a former slave prostitute, Nigerian victim of human trafficking, and Maya, a young mixed-race student searching for her origins.

They don’t know it, but all these young women are linked to the same ancestor, Agontimé, once a 19th century African princess, deported as a slave to the sugar cane colonies. Her journey, mixed with that of her descendants, traces the invisible traces of colonization and resistance with finesse and emotion.

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