Wednesday 11 February 2015

Top 5 Wednesday: books that take place in your country/region/area

New Wednesday means new top 5 ! 
This week's theme is top 5 books that take place in your country/region/area.

Since I'm French, most of the books taking place in France/Paris that I can think of were written by French authors, so you may not know them, sorry about that :)

Here is my top 4 (because I couldn't find a 5th one, to be honest, unless I chose multiple books by the same author, which would have been of small interest):



4. La conjuration primitive, Maxime Chattam

This book is a thriller, taking place in France. It starts when a bunch of atrocious and unexplainable murders hits France, without any apparent link between them - except the fact that they could not be committed by anyone else than the devil himself. It is absolutely terriffying, wonderfully thought and written, mastered with genius. You slowly realize that the human soul is much darker and more complex that anything you could have thought of. 




3. 100 Pages blanches, Cyril Massarotto 

This is a contemporary novel. It opens on the death of the narrator's grandfather, whom he was very close to, and who did not leave him anything but an old notebook, with a hundred blank pages. And a letter, in which the grandfather tells him that these pages are the greatest treasure he could have ever dreamed of. First furious, the young man slowly discovers that this book has a wonderful power that is about to change his life forever...
This was the first book I've ever read by Cyril Massarotto, who straight away became one of my favourite French authors. This novel is surprising, beautiful, moving, and funny. 



2. Notre-Dame de Paris, Victor Hugo

I believe that everyone has heard about The Hunchback of Notre-Dame at least once, so I won't say much about this classic novel, except that it's beautiful. Beautifully written, witty, and telling the story of Paris as well as Quasimodo's. If you haven't read it yet, I highly suggest that you do so, even if you're not a big fan of Victor Hugo: this book was the first one of his that I really enjoyed. 




1. En l'absence des hommes, Philippe Besson

When it comes to Philippe Besson, I don't really manage to put words on thoughts and emotions. But here is what I can say about this novel: it is set in Paris during WWI. Vincent, a young man, deeply falls in love with a solider on leave. This passion appears as a relief, even if it is temporary. In the meantime, Vincent also becomes friends with Marcel Proust, a young writer that he loves to talk and spend time with.  This story is one about love, but also about friendship, about courage, about being young; it is also about what it means to write. 


Unfortunately, I believe that some of these books have not yet been translated in English or even in any other languages. But if you can come across them, you should definitely take a closer look, because I swear they are awesome :) 


Don't forget to check out the Goodreads group






2 comments:

  1. Is The Hunchback of Notre Dame as long as Les Miserables? I haven't read it yet, but I love Hugo's stories.

    My T5W list for this week can be found here if you want to check it out.

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    1. I haven't read Les Misérables yet (yeah, I know, a bit weird for a French person, but it really scares me) but I'm pretty sure The Hunchback of Notre-Dame is definitely shorter ! Although it still is about 800-900 pages long...

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