The 6 Essential Novels to Pack This Summer

A mother-daughter relationship tested by illness and the Spanish sun, three prodigy sisters seeking emancipation in 1950s San Francisco, a story of disappearance in an American religious community, a feminist widow dealing with different facts in Victorian England, an overwhelmed mother who discovers a treasure or a love story that is renewed after a misunderstanding: these are the tantalizing intrigues of our selection of summer novels.

Hot Milk, Deborah Levy, editions du Sous Sol

In the south of Spain, a young Englishwoman, Sofia, accompanies her mother Rose, who is seriously ill with a disease that prevents her from walking. To get treatment, she has had to mortgage her house and her daughter has had to stop studying. While swimming to pass the time, Sofia is stung by a jellyfish. From this painful experience, a hasty escape drags the young woman into two adventures and a journey to find her father.

Despite the title that evokes an autumn evening, the new novel by American author Déborah Levy is a pure summer product, condensed with saltiness, sea spray and a touch of melancholy. Delicately describing the mother-daughter relationship, privileging the role of the too often invisible caregiver, this very fluid novel mixes and reveals beautiful intrigues.

The Imposture, Zadie Smith, Gallimard

At the end of the 19th century in England, Mrs. Touchet, a young widow, funny, feminist and brilliant, became passionate about the Tichborne affair, named after the young butcher who passed himself off as the heir of Baron Tichborne, who died at sea a few years earlier. Attention fans of the Victorian era like Downtown Abbey or Bridgerton, this brilliant historical story takes up all the themes dear to this fascinating period. Between false barons and widows, lies and fictions of English society, the prodigy novelist takes inspiration from a real news story to transport us into a glossy and ultra-cinematographic novel.

The Sisters of Filmore, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, Actes Sud

In 1950s San Francisco, three sisters, Ruth, Esther, and Chloe, grace the jazz clubs of the black neighborhood where they earn a living with their vibrant music. Their mother, Vivian, who sees her daughters as future stars, desperately wants them to work with a manager, even as each aspires to her own dream. A vibrant chronicle of postwar America, this coming-of-age novel weaves a sublime web of sisterhood and hope among these women who refuse to have their futures dictated to them. Punctuated by jazz music and crafted dialogue, The Sisters of Filmore It’s a quick read and makes you want to dance.

The opportunity of a lifetime, Sophie Astrabie, Flammarion

Stanislas, in his forties, lives a quiet life when his high school sweetheart, Sara, reappears in his life through a curious message. The young woman saw the obituary of a namesake and wanted to confess to him all the things they had not said to each other. The thread of their story continues twenty years later. Classically made, this well-rounded sentimental novel subtly mixes romance and intrigue, just what is needed to keep us in suspense until the end. Likeable, the characters offer a beautiful complexity on every page, far from the stereotypes of the genre.

A golden age, Titiou Lecoq, Iconoclast

Chloé, a mother and mother-in-law, lives in a medium-sized town, filling her life with the small worries and joys of everyday life. A banal life in short, where not much happens, until the day when mysterious events suddenly occur in her neighborhood. Family secrets, police arrests and treasures to be unearthed, the common heroine finds herself at the center of explosive news. This third novel marks the return to narrative of the essayist and writer Titiou Lecoq, after the success of her work on the forgotten women of history. Lively and funny, this delightful novel speaks between the lines of the suffering of life as a mother, between the mental load and the acute organization of daily life.

Rodeo Vice, Gia Martinelli, Flammarion

Rose, a young French girl who has just graduated from high school, arrives in the United States for a year as an au pair with a family. Immersed in an ultra-strict religious community, she meets the rebellious Maxine, who immediately attracts her. When one of her friends suddenly disappears, the two young women embark on a breathtaking adventure in search of the truth. The man we first meet as the manager and companion of the singer Hoshi here signs a first devouring novel. Skillfully mixing questions of learning, awakening desire and news, the story launches with pomp into a puritan America full of contradictions.