The Local France

'Lost' manuscript of pro-Nazi French author published 78 years later

Wed, 04 May 2022 13:42:47 +0200

A book by one of France's most celebrated and controversial literary figures arrives in bookstores this week, 78 years after the manuscript disappeared

French discover new pleasure: adult comics about wine

Sat, 30 Jun 2018 15:50:27 +0200

It is no secret that the French love wine. But they are also the world's second-biggest consumers of graphic novels after the Japanese. Now a new wave of literature is putting the two passions together -- comics for adults about wine.

10 of the best novels about life in rural France (apart from A Year in Provence)

Fri, 19 Jan 2018 17:09:51 +0100

We asked some writers to name the best novels about life in rural France apart from the classic A Year in Provence. Here's what they came up with. (And no, there are no books about Paris here.)

The forgotten feminist history of the French fairy tale

Mon, 28 Aug 2017 18:08:44 +0200

Each year, tourists in their millions flock to France to visit Disneyland Paris, where - so the marketing material promises - "fairytales take flight".

France's bad boy of literature takes 'French Bashing' to New York

Wed, 24 May 2017 14:59:22 +0200

France’s bad boy of literature, Michel Houellebecq, is about to open his first exhibition in the US, a multimedia work titled French Bashing that takes a mournful look at the country’s “peri-urban” wastelands whose inhabitants vote largely for far-Right leader Marine Le Pen.

Novel about killer nanny wins France's top literary gong

Thu, 03 Nov 2016 14:52:20 +0100

Moroccan-born Leila Slimani won France's top literary prize, the Goncourt, on Thursday with a novel guaranteed to "scare the wits out of parents".

Finally! French fans go mad for Harry Potter translation

Fri, 14 Oct 2016 11:42:04 +0200

French Harry Potter fans queued up to be the first to get their hands on 'Harry Potter et l'Enfant Maudit', the translated version of the 'Cursed Child' play.

Proust's personal archives to go under the hammer in Paris

Tue, 03 May 2016 09:44:29 +0200

Intimate letters, personal photographs and rare manuscripts that once belonged to French writer Marcel Proust will go under the hammer in Paris.

Anne Frank diary to go online amid legal row

Thu, 31 Dec 2015 12:38:55 +0100

An academic and a French MP have announced plans to publish online the famous diary of Anne Frank, with the organisation holding publication rights threatening legal action.

Mathias Enard wins France's top literary prize

Tue, 03 Nov 2015 10:18:39 +0100

Writer Mathias Enard won the Goncourt, France's top literary prize, on Tuesday in a race dominated by books about the West's love-hate relationship with Islam and the Arab world.

Google honours French icon Camus 100 years on

Thu, 07 Nov 2013 10:35:00 +0100

Google is honouring one of France’s literary giants Albert Camus with a special 'Doodle’ dedicated to the 20th century writer and philosopher, who would have turned 100 on Thursday.

US writer wins top French literary prize

Wed, 06 Nov 2013 18:55:34 +0100

American author Richard Ford's novel "Canada" about a boy whose parents rob a bank on Wednesday won the Femina Prize for best foreign novel, one of France's top literary awards.

French spy novelist De Villiers dies at 83

Fri, 01 Nov 2013 14:18:00 +0100

Prolific spy novelist Gerard De Villiers, the creator of the top-selling SAS series with a hero often described as France's answer to James Bond, has died aged 83 in Paris.

GALLERY: The ten best books about France

Tue, 23 Jul 2013 18:31:00 +0200

Looking for a good book about France to read this summer? Look no further. The Local has asked authors who have written best-selling books about France and staff from Anglo bookshops in the country to name their favourite reads. See below if you agree with their choices.

Fifty shades of fake: spin-offs irk French publisher

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 16:56:15 +0100

Copy us at your own risk. That is the message sent by the French publisher of "Fifty Shades of Grey" which is cracking the whip at spin-offs of the erotic romance.

Israeli wins top French literature prize

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 17:43:05 +0100

Veteran Israeli writer Avraham B. Yehoshua has been awarded France's Medicis literature prize for a translated work with his novel "The Retrospective".

Oscar Wilde's Paris tomb made safe from dangerous kisses

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 11:44:00 +0100

Oscar Wilde's renovated Paris tomb was unveiled on Wednesday, complete with a new glass barrier to shield the monument to the quintessential dandy from a torrent of admiring kisses.

Biology teacher wins France's top literary prize

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:04:00 +0100

High-school biology teacher Alexis Jenni on Wednesday won France's top literary award, the Goncourt Prize, for his first novel, "L'art francais de la guerre" (The French Art of War).

Academie rewards Algerian writer

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 10:47:00 +0200

The Academie francaise, official guardian of the French language, said Thursday it will recognise 70 people in its 2011 round of prize giving, including Algerian writer Yasmina Khadra.