Welcome to

July to December 2010

ISSUE 2

Welcome to Gallic Times, Where alongside neWs of our forthcoming and backlist titles, We bring you author intervieWs and other features We hope Will be of interest.

in this second issue of Gallic Times we bring you yet more highlights of contemporary french writing. our lead title this autumn is the massive number- one bestseller, monsieur de montespan, by Jean teulé. based on historical fact, this witty and engrossing novel is both the tragic tale of a lost love and the extraordinary depiction of a world driven by sex, power and money. teulé’s first novel with gallic, The suicide shop (see page 21), is to be made into an animated feature, with filming starting this summer.

our historical crime series continue to receive acclaim, and this season sees the publication of the latest victor legris mystery, The leopard of Batignolles, by claude izner, and the fifth nicolas le floch investigation, The saint-Florentin murders, by Jean-françois parot.

in other news, the gallic edition of muriel barbery’s The elegance of the Hedgehog has now sold close to 200,000 copies and is shortlisted for the prestigious international impac dublin literary award. and The Gourmet, now in paperback, is enjoying great success.

The first in the hector’s Journeys series, Hector and the search for Happiness, by françois lelord, has acquired a devoted following since its publication in april. a major film based on the book and starring patrick dempsey is planned for release in 2011. gallic will publish the second of Hector’s Journeys, Hector and the secrets of love in spring 2011.

you can find out more about gallic and our books by going to www.gallicbooks.com or to either of our partners’ websites: bookhugger.co.uk or www.biggreenbookshop.com. bookhugger is an online literary magazine featuring the best content from a range of leading publishers and The big green bookshop is an award-winning bookshop in Wood green, north london. We are proud to have them both as partners.

Welcome to

G A L L I C

C O N T E N T SneW titles July to december 2010 . . . . . . . . . pages 2–7

backlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . pages 8–21

spring 2011 highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 22-23

sales and distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . back cover

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C l a U d E I z N E rT h E P r E d aT O r O f B aT I g N O l l E Sa V I C T O r l E g r I S M y S T E r y

Belle Epoque Paris is brought vividly to life once more, in this fifth adventure for the sleuthing bookseller.

Translated by Lorenza Garcia

In the turbulent Parisian summer of 1893,Victor Legris has faithfully promised his lover Tasha that he will give up the dangerous pastime of amateur detective work to concentrate on selling books.

But a murderer is at large in Paris, intent on revenge for events that took place many years before during the Commune.

And when a bookbinder friend of Victor’s becomes the latest victim of the mysterious Leopard, the young bookseller feels impelled to uncover the identity of the Batignolles predator.

‘Brilliantly evokes 1890s Paris’ GuardianFo r m o r e o n th e V i cto r Le g r i s myste r i e s s e e pag e 14

9781906040253 | £7.99 | July 2010 |

B format paperback | 320pp |

Historical crime |

10-18 (Univers Poche) |

UK/CM/E/ME

Claude Izner is the pen name of two sisters, Liliane Korb and Laurence Lefèvre. Both booksellers on the banks of the Seine, they are experts on nineteenth-century Paris. They have co-written all the titles in the Victor Legris series.

Our Victor Legris series of murder mysteries is set in late nineteenth century Paris, and we love to use real historical figures and events. The realistic framework allows us to imagine some very unrealistic situations for our detective, a bookseller who finds himself having to solve murders, every year from 1889 to 1900.

In France we are published in a collection called ‘Grands Détectives’. It is a collection of titles in which an epoch and a country or town is recreated and a detective story introduced into the setting. Readers of the collection are fond of the authors, many of whom are not French, because they know they do their best to be historically accurate but at the same time to invent sleuthing adventures that will carry the reader away on the wings of the past. Fantastic stories provide a nice escape from day-to-day reality. Sometimes people need to forget the present, but of course, even stories set in the past have lessons for the contemporary world.

We do our best to get under the skin of our heroes, and to see the ‘Belle Époque’ through their eyes, without being too didactic about facts or details; we try to integrate real-life events, which might be boring if told factually, naturally into our stories.

We do take some liberties to meet the needs of the story (not many!). For example, we have real writers and painters coming into Victor Legris’s bookshop – Anatole France, Georges Courteline, Jules Renard, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec amongst others. But in the main, we are very precise about the period we have chosen, and we are particularly careful to avoid anachronistic vocabulary, and to introduce our readers to popular nineteenth century expressions and songs.

This article first appeared on Bookhugger

C l a U d E I z N E r O N U S I N g r E a l P E O P l E a N d P l a C E S I N f I C T I O N :

J E a N - f r a N ç O I S Pa r O TT h E S a I N T- f l O r E N T I N M U r d E r Sa N I C O l a S l E f l O C h I N V E S T I g aT I O N

Translated by Howard Curtis

These are difficult times for Nicolas Le Floch: Louis XV is dead and Nicolas’s boss Sartine has been promoted to Minister of State for the Navy.

Le Noir, Sartine’s successor as Lieutenant General of Police, distrusts Le Floch. Monsieur de Saint-Florentin, the King’s new minister, entrusts Commissioner Le Floch with the investigation into the murder of a chambermaid whose throat was cut in unusual circumstances at Saint-Florentin’s home.

His inquiry takes place both in Paris and Versailles, where he secures his position alongside the King and must confront the mysteries of the Trianon and the horrors of Bicêtre. This fifth exciting adventure for Nicolas Le Floch has it all: serial crimes and a bizarre murder weapon, as well as debauchery, espionage, and the follies of a young court where ancient rivalries and grudges still linger.

Praise for Jean-François Parot

An engaging murder mystery that picks away at the delicate power balance between king, police and state’ Financial Times

‘The Châtelet Apprentice is a terrific debut... a novel that brilliantly evokes the casual brutality of life in eighteenth-century France’ Sunday Times

9781906040246 | £7.99 |

August 2010 | B format paperback |

Historical crime |

Lattès (Hachette) |

UK/CM/E/US

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Jean-François Parot is a diplomat and historian. The Nicholas Le Floch mysteries have been published to much acclaim in France.

Nothing is more exotic for Jean-François Parot than the past. He’s well placed to judge. Along with more than 30 years as a diplomat in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe, Parot also has his studies as a historian, anthropologist and Egyptologist to delve into. ‘From your armchair, you can enjoy far-off islands, strange animals, the deep sea. Where is the exoticism in all that now?’ he asks. ‘Nowadays, the exotic is found…by returning to our past – which is not so very far away, but is so incredibly different from our lives when you consider the progress we have made.’

Parot has plundered this rich seam of inspiration to create a series of best-selling crime novels centred on the enigmatic police commissioner Nicolas Le Floch. Set in Paris, in the second half of the 18th century, each novel unfolds over a year. For UK readers, the fourth in the series The Nicolas Le Floch Affair, sees the detective himself come under scrutiny for his involvement with an elegant Parisian socialite. French readers are eagerly awaiting the ninth novel in the series, and have enjoyed television adaptations of four of the books. Now in his early 60s, Parot has built up a huge library of books from and about the 18th century. But working as he currently does from his posting as ambassador in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa, Parot does not have these to hand. No matter, he says cheerfully: “the details are all in my head. I’ve got a very large memory for these things, so details come quite naturally.”

For all his time-travelling and globe-trotting, there is one place to which Parot has not yet ventured – England. The author hopes to remedy this situation in the next year or so.Fu rth e r par ot t itLe s ar e o n pag e 18

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M O N S I E U r d E M O N T E S Pa NJ E a N T E U l é

Translated by Alison Anderson

The Marquis de Montespan and his new wife, Athénaïs, are a true love-match – a rarity amongst the nobility of seventeenth-century France.

But love is not enough to maintain their hedonistic lifestyle, and the couple soon face huge debts. When Madame de Montespan is offered the chance to become lady-in-waiting to the Queen at Versailles, she seizes this opportunity to turn their fortunes around.

Too late, Montespan discovers that his ravishing wife has caught the eye of King Louis XIV. As everyone congratulates him on his new status of cuckold by royal appointment, the Marquis is broken-hearted. He vows to wreak revenge on the monarch and win back his adored Marquise.

With this extraordinary novel, Jean Teulé has restored a ridiculed figure from history to his rightful position as a hero, by telling the hilarious, bawdy and touching story of a good man who loved too well and dared to challenge the absolute power of the Sun King himself.

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9781906040307 | £7.99 |

September 2010 | B format paperback |

432pp | Historical fiction |

Éditions Robert Laffont | WEL

NUMBEr ONE EUrOPEaN BEST-SEllEr

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He was passionate, eccentric, and in love with his ravishing wife…

‘louis-Henri the chance to be a cuckold is the biggest opportunity of your life. so don’t make a mess of it, you won’t get a second chance.’

The Marquis de Montespan is known as the most famous cuckold in French history, whose wife, Madame de Montespan, was Louis XlV’s mistress for many years. Unlike every other husband whose wife the King had bedded, he did not see this as a great honour, refusing all the titles and riches on offer, and was therefore rejected as a fool by the royal court.

‘Versailles is a terrible place, it turns everybody’s head. The court changes the very best of people.’

He devoted the rest of his life to trying to win back his wife and wreaking his personal revenge on the King. Most famously on the day that he arrived at the King’s palace dressed in black, sitting in a carriage painted black, with massive deer antlers attached to each corner, signifying cuckold’s horns. When the King demanded an explanation he said he was in mourning for his love. Montespan was imprisoned and exiled to Spain and his chateau in south-west France and died without seeing his wife again.

‘i am a separated but inseparable husband.’

Jean Teulé has turned a ridiculed figure from history into a sympathetic man who loves his wife, rejects the cynicism and immorality of the court and believes he has the right to stand up to the King.

It’s a tale of money: had Montespan been rich enough Madame de Montespan would never have become a lady-in-waiting and caught the King’s eye; it’s a tale of sex: the voluptuous Madame, irresistible to her husband, and all men including the King; it’s a tale of power: the absolute power of the monarch which crushes everything in its way.

A romp, at other times very poignant, it’s an engrossing story that gives a dazzlingly vivid picture of life in the time of Louis XlV.

… T h I S I S T h E I r T r U E S T O r y.

She was a witty and beautiful style icon with a lust for life…

‘Barbery has

a knack for describing

food, and for evoking the

physical and emotional

sensations it produces.’

Financial Times

‘The exquisite

descriptions of

eating are like nothing

you’ve read before.’

Good Housekeeping

‘An ode to the pleasure of good food…mouthwatering from beginning to end’ Paris Match

M U r I E l B a r B E r yT h E g O U r M E T

France’s greatest food critic is dying, after a lifetime in single-minded pursuit of sensual delights. But as Pierre Arthens lies on his deathbed, he is tormented by an inability to recall the most delicious food ever to pass his lips, which he ate long before becoming a critic. Desperate to taste it one more time, he looks back over the years to see if he can pin down the elusive dish.

Revealing more than just his love of great food, the narration by this larger-than-life individual alternates with the voices of those closest to him and their own experiences of the man.

Muriel Barbery’s gifts as an evocative storyteller are used to mouth watering effect in this voluptuous and poignant meditation on food and its deeper significance in our lives.

Muriel Barbery is a philosophy teacher. Her first novel, The Gourmet, won the top French award for food writing and has been translated into twelve languages. Her second novel, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, has sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide.

Translated by Alison Anderson

A man’s life is told through food in this exquisite tale from the author of The Elegance of the Hedgehog.

9781906040314 | £6.99 | May 2010 |

B format paperback | 144pp | Fiction |

Gallimard | UK/E/Non-ex ROW

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‘An exquisite

French black

comedy’

Sunday Times

M U r I E l B a r B E r yT h E E l E g a N C E O f T h E h E d g E h O g

Translated by Alison Anderson

(extract from an interview with Muriel Barbery by Jennifer Whitehead)

Q: Arthens is an enormous success in his career, but in the end it has not made him happy. As it happens, you’ve also had enormous success, with The Elegance of the Hedgehog selling millions of copies across the world. Has success been different to how you thought it would be?

A: Success, I’m sorry to say so directly, is a word for magazines. I never imagined that any of my books could interest many readers, I never thought about success and today less than ever. Praise is a gift – the extraordinary gift that some readers gave me by sharing my universe and being moved by my words. That’s all. I feel very humble and grateful for such luck. I am a discrete person, I stand personally away as much as possible from media so that the debate can focus on my texts and not on me. Besides, I know that there is no link at all between what is called success and happiness, which is for me the exact opposite of the intoxication of power and glory. And that is in fact the message of this first novel.

Moving, life-affirming and utterly original, Muriel Barbery’s novel about Renée, the Parisian concierge who is also a closet intellectual has become a worldwide bestseller. 9781906040185 | £7.99 | June 2009 |

B format paperback | 320pp | Fiction |

Gallimard | UK/E/Non-ex ROW

‘ Resistance is futile…You might as well buy it before someone recommends it for your book group. Its charm will make you say yes.’

Guardian

‘ This breathtakingly singular novel…is totally French yet completely universal.’

Good Housekeeping

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f r a N ç O I S l E l O r dh E C T O r a N d T h E S E a r C h f O r h a P P I N E S S S

Translated by Lorenza Garcia

Hector is a successful young psychiatrist.He’s very good at treating patients in real need of his help. But many people he sees are just deeply dissatisfied with their lives. Hector can’t do much for them, and it’s beginning to depress him.

So when a patient tells him he looks in need of a holiday, Hector decides to set off round the world to find out what makes people everywhere happy (and sad), and whether there is such a thing as the secret of true happiness.

François Lelord has had a successful career as a psychiatrist both in the United States and France. He now devotes his time to writing, and is the author (in conjunction with Christophe André) of a number of best-selling self-help books.

‘Hector is a fascinating read. After reading it I felt

happiness can only be found from within and not from listening to other people.’

Tracey Rollings

We at gallic invited subscribers of newbooks, the popular magazine for readers and reading groups, to read hector and the Search for happiness in advance of publication. The positive feedback we received was overwhelming. here are just some of our reviewers’ happy comments:

‘It’s simply delightful! I’ve ordered it in for my public library after

reading the proof so that others can enjoy it. It’s definitely one I’ll be

recommending. READ IT!’

Saffie

SOON TO BE a MaJOr

fIlM STarrINg PaTrICK

dEMPSEy9781906040239 | £7.99 | April 2010 |

B format paperback | 288pp | Fiction |

Odile Jacob | WEL

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N a P O l E O N B O N a Pa r T EC l I S S O N a N d E U g é N I E

Translated by Peter Hicks

With an introduction by Armand Cabasson

‘Their eyes met…and they soon knew that their hearts were made for each other.’

Triumphant on the field of battle, Clisson turns his back on worldly success. He falls in love and marries Eugénie, but how long will their love survive?

Completed when Napoleon was only 26, the tragic story of Clisson and Eugénie reveals one of history’s great leaders to be also an accomplished writer of fiction and offers a fascinating insight into the young man’s view of love, women and military life.

Peter Hicks and Émilie Barthet have created the definitive version of Clisson and Eugénie from original fragments of manuscript. This edition includes their commentary on Napoleon the writer, and an introduction by Napoleonic specialist, Armand Cabasson, on the man behind the legend.

9781906040277 | £7.99 | October 2009 |

B format paperback | 128pp | History/fiction |

Fayard | WEL

‘ There is a wit and power about the writing and the characterisation that makes the reader regret that Napoleon Bonaparte did not write more fiction…true to the original and wonderfully well written.’

Flora Fraser, The Times

‘ A scholarly reconstruction’

Sunday Telegraph

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a r M a N d C a B a S S O NT h E N a P O l E O N I C M U r d E r SArmand Cabasson marries his phenomenal knowledge of the Napoleonic period with his psychiatric expertise in this award-winning series of psychological thrillers featuring Quentin Margont of the Grande Armée.

Translated by Isabel Reid 9781906040130 | £7.99 | October 2009 |

B format paperback | 352pp |

Historical thriller | Univers Poche |

UK/CM/E

‘ Cabasson skilfully weaves an intriguing mystery into a rich historical background.’

mail on sunday

‘ With vivid scenes of battle and military life…Cabasson’s atmospheric novel makes a splendid war epic…’

sunday Telegraph

‘ Enthralling’

morning star

Winner of the 2003 Gendarmerie National thriller prize

Translated by Michael Glencross9781906040031 | £7.99 | October 2007 |

B format paperback | 432pp | Historical

thriller | Robert Laffont | WORLD

Winner of the 2005 Napoleonic Foundation Fiction Prize

Translated by Isabel Reid 9781906040086 | £7.99 | May 2008 |

B format paperback | 352pp |

Historical thriller | Univers Poche |

UK/CM/E

P r a I S E f O r T h E N a P O l E O N I C M U r d E r S :

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I have been fascinated by psychology for many years and I draw heavily on my experience as a psychiatrist in my writing. But when I create a character, I never use one person in particular (that would be to steal someone’s private life).

I’m interested in the way the mind works – in the contradictions, the obsessions, the stratagems the mind employs to deal with traumas, the way it controls its impulses, and how and why these sometimes, in spite of everything, spill over… I also try to understand the causes of violent behaviour and to work out the psychological roots of such behaviour.

I pay close attention to the way we communicate with each other, to the words we use and the resulting dialogue.

I love to explore the dynamic when two people meet each other for the first time. It’s interesting to see the way they act on each other and how their relationship will play out, to find which aspects in them can be changed by the other person and which will remain unchanged.

Everyone’s personality is complex and unique, so I make sure that this applies also to my characters. When I read a novel I can’t bear one-dimensional characters (or metro tickets as I call them because you can sum up their characters in two lines on the back of a metro ticket).

In fourteen years of working in psychiatry I have never come across a single uninteresting person. But over the same period I have encountered a certain number of dull characters in the books I’ve read.

This article first appeared on Bookhugger

Armand Cabasson was born in 1970. He is a psychiatrist working in the North of France. Armand is a member of the Souvenir Napoléonien and has used his extensive research to create a vivid portrait of the Napoleonic campaigns.

a r M a N d C a B a S S O N O N W r I T I N g f r O M E x P E r I E N C E I N a f I C T I O N a l S E T T I N g :

BaCKlIST

C l a U d E I z N E rT h E V I C T O r l E g r I S M y S T E r I E S Crime beats a path to the door of Victor Legris’s bookshop in this irresistible series set in the Paris of the Impressionists.

Series information:

B format paperback | 10-18 (Univers Poche) | UK/CM/E/ME

The first Victor Legris Mystery

Translated by Isabel Reid9781906040017 | £7.99 |

May 2007 | 304pp

The second Victor Legris Mystery

Translated by Lorenza Garcia and Isabel Reid9781906040048 | £7.99 |

October 2007 | 320pp

The third Victor Legris Mystery

Translated by Lorenza Garcia and Isabel Reid9781906040055 | £7.99 |

June 2008 | 320pp

‘ full of pungent period detail…a satisfyingly convoluted yarn’ Observer

‘ isabel reid’s seamless translation captures the novel’s many period charms.’

independent

‘ an extremely enjoyable, witty and creepy affair’ independent on sunday

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P r a I S E f O r T h E V I C T O r l E g r I S M y S T E r I E S :

The fourth Victor Legris Mystery

Translated by Lorenza Garcia and Isabel Reid9781906040147 | £7.99 |

March 2009 | 320pp

‘ a cracking, highly satisfying yarn’Guardian

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MUrdEr ON ThE EIffEl TOWEr PrOlOgUE 12 May 1889

Storm clouds raced over the barren plain between the fortifications and the goods station at Les Batignolles, where the scrubby grass smelled unpleasantly of sewers. Rag-and-bone men, grouped around carts filled with household rubbish, were using their gaffs to level the mounds of detritus, raising eddies of dust. A train approached from far in the distance, gradually getting bigger and bigger.

A gang of children came running down the hillocks, shrieking: ‘There he is! Buffalo Bill is coming!’ Jean Méring straightened up and, hands on hips, leant backwards to relieve his aching joints. It had been a good haul: a three-legged chair, a rocking horse that had lost its stuffing, an old umbrella, a soldier’s epaulette and a piece of wash-basin rimmed with gold. He turned towards Henri Capus, a lean old man with a faded beard. ‘I’m going to see the Redskins. Are you coming?’ he said, adjusting the wicker basket on his shoulders. He picked up his chair, passed the Cook Agency vehicles and joined the crowd of onlookers gathered around the station, a mixture of workmen, petit bourgeois, and high society people who had come in carriages.

With a great hiss of steam, a locomotive followed by an endless convoy of coaches pulled up beside the platform. A covered wagon stopped in front of Jean Méring. Inside, panic-stricken horses were stamping wildly, and tossing their manes. Sunburned men in cowboy hats and Indians with painted faces and feather headdresses leant out of the doors. Everyone was jostling to catch a glimpse. Jean Méring slapped the nape of his neck: an insect sting. Immediately he faltered, slid sideways, staggered, and then stumbled against a woman, who pushed him away, thinking he was drunk. His legs buckled and, as he lost his grip on the chair, he sank to the ground, dragged down by the weight of his basket. He tried to raise his head but already he was too weak. He could faintly hear Henri Capus’s voice. ‘What’s the matter, my friend? Hold on, I’ll help you. Where does it hurt?’

With a tremendous effort Méring managed to gasp: ‘A . . . bee . . .’

His eyes were watering and his sight was becoming blurred. Amazingly, in the space of just a few minutes, his whole body had become as limp as an old rag. He could no longer feel his limbs, his lungs were straining for air. In his last moments of lucid thought he knew that he was about to die. He made a final effort to cling to life, then let go, slipping into the abyss, down . . . down . . . down . . . The last thing he saw was a dandelion flower, which was blooming between the paving stones, as yellow as the sun.

a N d r E a h . J a P P T h E a g N E S d E S O U a r C y C h r O N I C l E SAndrea Japp’s inspiring medieval heroine fights for her life when she becomes the focus of a secret ancient quest.

AGNES DE SOUARCY CHRONICLE III

Translated by Lorenza Garcia9781906040192 | £7.99 | August 2009 |

402pp

Series information: B format paperback | Calmann-Lévy | Historical thriller | UK/E/ANZ

AGNES DE SOUARCY CHRONICLE I

Translated by Lorenza Garcia9781906040109 | £7.99 | August 2008 |

368pp

AGNES DE SOUARCY CHRONICLE II

Translated by Lorenza Garcia9781906040215 | £7.99 | April 2009 |

320pp

Andrea H. Japp is one of the grandes dames of French crime writing with over twenty novels published. She is a toxicologist by profession and weaves this knowledge into her books, giving them particular authenticity. (photo © Philippe MATSAS / Opale )

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It seems to me there are two sorts of ‘baddies’ in thrillers and my approach depends on which kind I am dealing with. There are ‘ordinary baddies’ and ‘extraordinary baddies’ – those who are so extreme they appear to have lost their humanity.When thrillers deal with ‘extraordinary baddies’, serial killers for example, I think they very often depart from reality and enter the area of dramatisation. A particularly successful example of this is the brilliant Silence of the Lambs. The main reason for the dramatisation is simple: no one wants to read about the bloody exploits of real serial killers for entertainment. The second reason is more complex and derives from the very essence of the crime novel, which is actually akin to the Greek tragedy (or the Western!): good is pitted against evil, with Man in the middle – which way will he turn? The fictional serial killer has come to symbolise evil, which Man must combat. So very often the literary version of the serial killer becomes all-powerful, extremely intelligent (although really many serial killers have a lower than average IQ), rather attractive, completely lacking in either fear or remorse, breaking all the taboos and prohibitions, in short the Devil, even in societies that no longer believe in the Devil. The important thing when writing such a character is not to seek to ‘understand’ them but to destroy them. Of course, that’s a generalisation. Some authors have created serial killers that are very closely based on reality.

The ‘ordinary baddie’ on the other hand, is simply someone who has taken a wrong turning. From a novelist’s point of view, writing a character like that provides the opportunity for a detailed psychological study. What is it that makes a human

being turn to wrongdoing? The writer tries to understand the criminal’s motives, even where their crimes are unforgivable, and sometimes even feels a certain amount of compassion for the baddie. It is all within human reality (our dark side) unlike with the fictional ‘extraordinary baddie.’

In my own novels, whether contemporary or historical, my ‘choice’ of baddie is a function of the impetus I want to give the story and characters. Human nature fascinates me, especially its capacity for change. How will Mr and Mrs Average, like you and me, who lead a more or less peaceful life, who are good citizens who wouldn’t hurt a fly, react when faced with a terrible event or a situation of extreme danger (a murder, or the disappearance of a child, etc.), a situation they could never have imagined being faced with? Will they try to fight against it, will they collapse, will they be cowardly? How will the experience transform them? If I want to explore such transformation I will choose to create an ‘extraordinary baddie’ – the perfect catalyst for such a transformation. On the other hand if I want to explore the dark side of humanity, I would paradoxically create an ‘ordinary baddie’. Most often I have both types of baddie in my novels.

This article first appeared on Bookhugger.

a N d r E a J a P P O N W r I T I N g ‘ B a d d I E S ’

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J E a N - f r a N ç O I S Pa r O TT h E N I C O l a S l E f l O C h I N V E S T I g aT I O N S Packed with extraordinary historical detail, these absorbing thrillers follow the life of Nicolas Le Floch as his police career progresses at the Châtelet.

Series information:

B format paperback |

Historical crime |

Lattès (Hachette) | UK/CM/E/US

The second Nicolas Le Floch Investigation Translated by Michael Glencross9781906040123 | £7.99 | January 2009 | 352pp

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The first Nicolas Le Floch Investigation Translated by Michael Glencross9781906040062 | £7.99 | February 2008 | 418pp

The third Nicolas Le Floch Investigation Translated by Howard Curtis9781906040154 | £7.99 | June 2009 | 368pp

The fourth Nicolas Le Floch Investigation Translated by Howard Curtis9781906040222 | £7.99 | March 2010 | 432pp

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When i started writing about my career in a supermarket, i was very keen to defend the rights of my fellow workers and to give a behind-the-scenes look at life in the supermarket.

Writing my blog was one way of doing this, speaking about it in the media was another and bringing a book out about it, yet another. after the book came out, i wanted to take the idea further, and meet supermarket bosses to discuss my views. i felt that the most useful thing i could do, would be to give talks to businesses and retail professionals. but i had not realised that i would then find myself in the world of the professional communicator and the theoretical side of retail. i did not want to be confined to the theoretical side of business and i greatly prefer dealing with the people who actually do the work.

a few months ago i met one of the best-known retailers in france (the only retailer to appear frequently in the media), michel-Édouard leclerc, of hypermarket and supermarket chain, leclerc. We had many long discussions and have launched a project to raise the profile of supermarket workers. Theory and creating a plan obviously play a part in the project, but by far the most work will be devoted to implementing the plan.

The plan started with my rather naïve idea: simply to change the way people look at cashiers and other supermarket workers. today, i can say that that idea will be backed up by a far-reaching plan. but the campaign has only just started…

a N N a S a MC h E C K O U T: a l I f E O N T h E T I l l SThis warts-and-all picture of what it’s like to be a checkout girl is now a huge international bestseller.

9781906040291 | £6.99 | July 2009 |

A format paperback | 192pp | Non-fiction |

Éditions Stock | WEL

Translated by Morag Young

Anna Sam was born in 1979 in Rennes where she still lives with her husband and two dogs. Checkout: A Life on the Tills is her first book.

BaCKlIST

y V E S J é g O a n d d E N I S l é P é ET h E S U N K I N g r I S E SFact and fiction combine in a fast-moving story of intrigue, conspiracy and love set in seventeenth-century France

Translated by Sue Dyson

9781906040024 | £7.99 |

March 2008 | B format paperback |

474pp | Historical thriller |

Timée Editions | UK/CM/E/US

Yves Jégo and Denis Lépée are the co-authors of The Sun King Rises. Yves Jégo is a member of the French Parliament. Denis Lépée is a local politician and environmental adviser.

‘ murder, blackmail, rebellion, adultery and lots of other dastardly goings-on fill the book and keep the plot cracking on.’

scott pack

{ 20 }

BaCKlIST

J E a N T E U l éT h E S U I C I d E S h O P

Translated by Sue Dyson

In a depressed world some time in the future, business is brisk at The Suicide Shop, until happiness threatens to ruin everything, that is…

Jean Teulé is an illustrator, filmmaker and television presenter; he is also the prize-winning author of ten books. In researching a book about Verlaine he discovered that a group of nineteenth-century poets had founded a review called The Suicide Shop and this inspired his novel.

9781906040093 | £7.99 | July 2008 |

B format paperback | 160pp |

Fiction/fantasy | Robert Laffont | WORLD

{ 21 }

BaCKlIST

SOON TO BE a MaJOr aNIMaTION

h I g h l I g h T S f O r S P r I N g 2 0 1 1

f r a N ç O I S l E l O r dh E C T O r a N d T h E S E C r E T S O f l O V ET h E S E C O N d O f h E C T O r ’ S J O U r N E y S

Following the search for happiness in his first journey, Hector, the celebrated young psychiatrist, is to embark on a new adventure.

What if the secret of love were to lie in a particular combination of molecules? Genial Professor Cormoran, a world expert on love, has disappeared, and he’s taken the results of his latest research with him!

Hector, who is forever dealing with the casualties of love in his consulting rooms, is charged with finding the Professor...He sets off on a journey that will take him as far as China, where he too will experience misfortune in love.

Will he escape the clutches of his pursuers? Will he find Professor Cormoran and his amazing discovery, which could change the course of human history? Will he succumb to the charms of sweet Vayla or will he be reconciled with his dear Clara?

But above all, will his journey help him understand the mysteries of love a little better?

A tender and enlightening fable on the emotions.

Translated by Lorenza Garcia

{ 22 }

9781906040338 | £7.99 | May 2011 |

B format paperback | Fiction

{ 23 }

g U I l l a U M E M U S S OW h E r E W O U l d I B E W I T h O U T y O U ?

Sometimes, a second chance can come out of nowhere…

Parisian cop Martin Beaumont has never really got over his first love, Gabrielle. Their brief, intense affair in San Francisco and the pain of her rejection still haunt him years later.

Now, however, he’s a successful detective – and tonight he’s going to arrest the legendary art thief, Archibald Maclean, when he raids the Musée d’Orsay for a priceless Van Gogh.

But the enigmatic Archibald has other plans.

Martin’s pursuit of the master criminal across Paris is the first step in an adventure that will take him back to San Francisco, and to the edge of love and life itself.

Guillaume Musso is one of the most popular authors in France today. He was born in 1974 in Antibes where he still lives.

At the age of 19, after finishing high school in France, Guillaume Musso left for the United States. He spent several months living in New York earning his money by selling ice cream.

To date he has had seven novels published One of them, Afterwards (XO Editions, 2004) has been made into a film starring John Malkovich, Evangeline Lily and Romain Duris.

He currently teaches in a high school in the South of France.

9781906040345 | £7.99 | April 2011 |

B format paperback | Fiction/Fantasy

h I g h l I g h T S f O r S P r I N g 2 0 1 1

OVEr 700,000 COPIES SOld WOrldWIdE

TheGourmetMuriel BarBery

‘An ode to the pleasure of good food. Mouth watering from beginning to end’

Paris Match

‘Resistance is futile. Buy it before someone recommends it

for your book group' Guardian

OuT NOW iN PaPerBaCK

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