Dominique Fabre

A veteran waiter is set adrift when his cafe closes its doors.

The Waitress was New

Waitress Was New

Pierre is a veteran bartender in a café in the outskirts of Paris. He observes his customers as they come and go – the young man who drinks beer as he reads Primo Levi, the fellow who from time to time strips down and plunges into the nearby Seine, the few regulars who eat and drink there on credit – sizing them up with great accuracy and empathy. Pierre doesn’t look outside more than necessary; he prefers to let the world come to him. Soon, however, the café must close its doors, and Pierre finds himself at a loss. As we follow his stream of thoughts over three days, Pierre’s humanity and profound solitude both emerge. The Waitress Was New is a moving portrait of human anguish and weakness, of understated nobility and strength. Lire est un plaisir describes Dominique Fabre as a "magician of the everyday."

The Waitress Was New

C'est un garçon de café. Il travaille à Asnières, près du tunnel de la gare. Il voit les voyageurs, toujours pressés, longer le café, parfois ils entrent. « Je ne regarde pas trop dehors, parce que tout ce qui m'importe dans la vie finit toujours par s'installer en face de moi à mon comptoir ». Certains clients, Pierre les aime bien. Le jeune homme vêtu de noir qui ne boit que de la bière en lisant Primo Levi, la femme « perdue dans sa beauté » qu'il ne verra qu'une fois, le type qui se met à poil pour aller se jeter dans la Seine quand il a pris une cuite. Et puis il y a la serveuse, Sabrina, une fille courageuse, toujours pimpante pour ses deux gamins qu'elle élève seule. Il aurait pu l'aimer, peut-être, mais il y a si longtemps qu'il n'a pas emmené une femme dans son studio, et la dernière il l'a quittée, va savoir pourquoi... Sauf que son comptoir, bientôt, n'accueillera plus les gens du quartier. Les patrons ne vont pas fort en ce moment. Alors, pour le garçon de café, se profile peu à peu la vraie solitude: plus personne à qui prêter l'oreille. Et toutes ces histoires qui vibraient autour de lui, toutes ces vies qui palpitaient se font silence.

La serveuse était nouvelle

Dominique Fabre, born in Paris and a lifelong resident of the city, exposes the shadowy, anonymous lives of many who inhabit the French capital. In this quiet, subdued tale, a middle-aged office worker, divorced and alienated from his only son, meets up with two childhood friends who are similarly adrift, without passions or prospects. He's looking for a second act to his mournful life, seeking the harbor of love and a true connection with his son. Set in palpably real Paris streets that feel miles away from the City of Light, Guys Like Me is a stirring novel of regret and absence, yet not without a glimmer of hope.

Guys like me

Guy de Maupassant

Irène Némirovsky

Anatole France

Alphonse Daudet

François Coppée

Anatole Le Braz

Paul Arène

Jean-Philippe Blondel

Antoine Gustave Droz

Joyeux Noeuml;l: “[An]endearing collection of Christmas stories from ten of France’s most esteemed writers―past and present―skillfully translated.” ―Foreword Reviews This collection brings together the best French Christmas stories of all time, featuring classics by Guy de Maupassant and Alphonse Daudet, plus stories by the esteemed twentieth century authors Irène Némirovsky and Nobel Prize winner Anatole France and contemporary writers Dominique Fabre and Jean-Philippe Blondel. With a holiday spirit conveyed through sparkling Paris streets, opulent feasts, wandering orphans, kindly monks, homesick soldiers, oysters, crayfish, ham, bonbons, flickering desire, and more than a little wine, this collection encapsulates Christmas à la française—delicious, intense and unexpected.

The Greatest French Holiday Stories of All Time

A Very French Christmas

La petite ceinture est une infrastructure ferrée implantée à Paris dans la deuxième moitié du XIXème siècle pour le transport des voyageurs et des marchandises. Elle traverse neuf arrondissements périphériques de la capitale et permet de découvrir Paris d'un point de vue différent. Témoignage du passé ferroviaire pour les uns, espace à reconquérir pour d'autres. Cet espace en friche, énigmatique, est un lieu propice aux observations urbaines et à la création artistique. En grande partie recouverte par la végétation, progressivement réhabilitée en jardin, elle est une pièce maîtresse d'un nouveau paysage parisien. A l'horizon 2020 ce seront 10 km ouverts au total (3,5km en 2017) - au public. Charles Delcourt, photographe, et Dominique Fabre, écrivain, ont parcouru ensemble cette boucle de 32 km, rencontré les habitants et les passants qui empruntent cet espace, "comme les rois d'un monde caché".

Rencontres sur la petite ceinture

Le grand détour

“Fabre speaks to us of luck and misfortune, of the accidents that make a man or defeat him . . . [He] is the discreet megaphone of the man in the crowd” (Elle). Lifelong Parisian Dominique Fabre—author of The Waitress Was New—exposes the shadowy, anonymous lives of many who inhabit the French capital. In this quiet, subdued tale, a middle-aged office worker, divorced and alienated from his only son, meets up with two childhood friends who are similarly adrift, without passions or prospects. He’s looking for a second act to his mournful life, seeking the harbor of love and a true connection with his son. Set in palpably real Paris streets that feel miles away from the City of Light, Guys Like Me is a stirring novel of regret and absence, yet not without a glimmer of hope. “Fabre’s unexpectedly touching novel has a laugh of its own behind its low-key, smoothly translated narrative voice . . . The city it evokes isn’t the Paris of tourists but of local people.” —The New York Times “Fabre is a genius of these nuanced, interior moments . . . The story Fabre tells is that of every one of us: looking for meaning in the mundane, moving through our lives, our interactions, as if through the fabric of a dream.” —Los Angeles Times “A short, arresting tale that . . . not only offers keen insights into the mind of its middle-aged protagonist, but also provides the reader with a unique tour of what everyday life in the low-key suburbs of Paris must truly be like.” —Typographical Era

Dominique Fabre

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