What a summer that was. There was really nothing else I could do in that heat but read. Here’s a selection of the books I got through. I really should take more time to review them properly as they were nearly all excellent.
- Amadeus à Bicyclette by real-life Mexican tenor Rolando Villazón was a major discovery for me. The novel explores Salzburg during a music festival and takes us backstage during the preparation of Mozart’s Don Giovanni and questions the artists’ quest for fame. Possibly my literary find of the year (though Pamuk below gives it a run for its money).
- Les Nuits de la Peste is the latest offering from Orhan Pamuk. This writer has become one of my favourite authors in recent years. This is a very realistic and believable political novel, set on an imaginary Mediterranean island during a pandemic.
- L’illusion du Mal is the second police novel published in French from Italian author Piergiorgio Pulixi. Set in Sardinia, they are well written and a cut above standard detective fiction.
- L’eau de Toutes Parts is a masterclass in the art of the novel by one of my very favourite authors, Leonardo Padura. He fills in fascinating details on how he sources his material and what he’s trying to achieve in each of his major works. I especially liked learning more about his best novel, L’Homme Qui Aimait les Chiens (The Man Who Loved Dogs).
- Partie Italienne was my second look at the work of Antoine Choplin to follow on Le Héron de Guernica. Both are short poetic novels and a joy to read.
- Le Nageur d’Aral by Louis Grall is a short fiction which feels so real that the author feels obliged to assure us at the end that it was the product of his imagination. A Russian agent abandons his mission and defects to join a Benediction monastery in Brittany. A delight, although I found the language difficult.
- Vivement la Guerre Qu’On Se Tue by Vincent Courcelle-Labrousse was a truly fascinating read. A crime novel set among real-life events in France including the debate on removing the death penalty from the statutes and the residual guilt about their colonisation of Algeria. Had me delving repeatedly into Wikipedia.
- Rapport sur Moi by Grégoire Bouillier. Recommended by my bookseller, this is a kind of auto-biographical novel. I would not like to be part of his entourage as he tells it all, no holds barred. Fascinating but a bit close to the bone.
- L’Espion Qui Venait du Livre by Luc Chomarat is a short comic novel where the fictional spy meets his real-life author and his publisher who has become less than happy with his clichéd adventures. Light and amusing.
- Une Histoire de Tempête by Hubert Mingarelli is a very short 80 page novella by an author whom I usually devour but who left me a little dissatisfied this time.
There were more, but memory fades.
Asynchronists 