Laurence Cossé

A mysterious death, unusual car accident, and anonymous threats have one thing in common-- the victims are all members of the Good Novel bookstore's secret selection committee. Set in Paris, this tale combines mystery, romance, and French theology and literature.

A Novel Bookstore

When âEdith discovers that her sixty-year-old Moroccan housemaid is illiterate, she embarks on a mission to teach the woman to read and write in French and an unlikely friendship begins to bloom.

Bitter Almonds

La buena novela

Alison Anderson

Un fou de Stendhal est abandonné en forêt. Une très jolie blonde quitte brusquement une route qu'elle connaît comme sa poche. Un Breton sans histoire rencontre au bord d'une falaise deux inconnus inquiétants. Nous ne sommes pourtant pas dans un roman policier. Les agresseurs ne sont ni des agents secrets ni des trafiquants. Ils ne s'attaquent qu'à des tendres : un ancien routard devenu libraire, une mécène mélancolique, des romanciers... Qui, parmi les passionnés de lecture, n'a rêvé un jour que s'ouvre la librairie idéale ? Une librairie vouée au roman où ne seraient proposés que des chefs-d'œuvre ? En se lançant dans l'aventure, Ivan et Francesca se doutaient bien que l'affaire ne serait pas simple. Comment, sur quels critères, allaient-ils faire le choix des livres retenus ? Parviendraient-ils un jour à l'équilibre financier ? Mais ce qu'ils n'avaient pas prévu, c'était le succès.

Au Bon Roman

roman

Drömbokhandeln

From the author of A Novel Bookstore comes this delightful story about friendship across racial and economic barriers set in contemporary Paris. Édith can hardly believe it when she learns that Fadila, her sixty-year-old housemaid, is completely illiterate. How can a person living in Paris in the third millennium possibly survive without knowing how to read or write? How does she catch a bus, or pay a bill, or withdraw money from the bank? Why it's unacceptable! She thus decides to become Fadila's French teacher. But teaching something as complex as reading and writing to an adult is rather more challenging than she thought. Their lessons are short, difficult, and tiring. Yet, during these lessons, the oh-so-Parisian Édith and Fadila, an immigrant from Morocco, begin to understand one another as never before, and form this understanding will blossom a surprising and delightful friendship. Édith will enter into contact with a way of life utterly unfamiliar to her, one that is unforgiving at times, but also full of joy and dignity.

Ivan, a one-time world traveler, and Francesca, a ravishing Italian heiress, are the owners of a bookstore that is anything but ordinary. Rebelling against the business of bestsellers and in search of an ideal place where their literary dreams can come true, Ivan and Francesca open a store where the passion for literature is given free rein. Tucked away in a corner of Paris, the store offers its clientele a selection of literary masterpieces chosen by a top-secret committee of likeminded literary connoisseurs. To their amazement, after only a few months, the little dream store proves a success. And that is precisely when their troubles begin. At first, both owners shrug off the anonymous threats that come their way and the venomous comments concerning their store circulating on the Internet, but when three members of the supposedly secret committee are attacked, they decide to call the police. One by one, the pieces of this puzzle fall ominously into place, as it becomes increasingly evident that Ivan and Francesca’s dreams will be answered with pettiness, envy and violence. “An Agatha Christie-style mystery bolstered by a love story worthy of Madame de la Fayette...” —Madame Figaro

From the author of A Novel Bookstore comes further proof of a prodigious and remarkable literary imagination at work. In An Accident in August, Laurence Cossé takes one of the most famous news events of recent world history as the starting point for a novel as intelligent as it is gripping. Lady Diana, Dodi al Fayed, and Henri Paul are long buried. Today, the paparazzi are busy hounding other celebrities. But fourteen years after the accident that cost the lives of all three, one person involved in the tragedy remains unidentified: the driver of a white Fiat Uno that was in the alma tunnel at the time of the accident. In Cossé's spellbinding novel, the driver of this car, a young French woman on her way home from work that fatal night, sees her life thrown into turmoil when, scared and alone, she flees the scene. While there are no immediate repercussions resulting from her flight, as news of the event spreads and TV stations, papers and radio talk of nothing else for weeks, she is assailed by a growing sense of guilt. Terrified of being found out, questioned, arrested, and thrown headfirst into a media whirlwind, she finds herself paralyzed by fear, paranoia, and a growing sense of remorse. When finally it seems she has evaded both the police and the media spotlights, a mysterious man appears who will force her into a decision that will dramatically change her life. Wonderfully paced, suspenseful and dramatic, An Accident in August is the story of an ordinary person radically altered by her chance involvement in an extraordinary event.

A Novel

An Accident in August

"Septembre 1935. Robin sort de l?adolescence. Il est né après la mort de son père, comme de nombreux enfants de sa génération, venus au monde pendant la Grande Guerre. La vie politique est alors particulièrement violente en France, tant sur le plan intérieur que dans l?ordre international. Mais, à dix-huit ans, qui n?accorde pas plus d?importance à ses tourments intimes qu?à l?actualité collective? En la personne d?un de ses camarades de classe préparatoire, Robin découvre que l?amitié est un des noms de l?amour, autrement dit de l'inquiétude. Conrad est la séduction même et l?énigme incarnée. En avril 1936, alors que la tension politique est à son comble, tous les deux vont skier dans un vieux et pauvre village de Haute Tarentaise du nom de Val-d?Isère, dont quelques visionnaires imaginent qu?il pourrait devenir une grande station de ski alpin. Les six jours qu?ils y passent marqueront Robin à vie. Son existence entière va être éblouie par une jeune fille."--Page 4 de la couverture.

Nuit sur la neige

Cosa succede se a un certo punto nel mondo viene scoperta la prova inconfutabile dell'esistenza di Dio? Se Dio smette di essere oggetto di immaginazione o di fede e diventa un fatto reale, concreto, certo? Se il bene e il male hanno una spiegazione logica, se il mistero dell'esistenza smette di essere un mistero? Succede che il mondo va sottosopra, crollano i miti e i valori su cui finora si è basata la società, si sgretolano le divisioni di classe e le gerarchie, svanisce quella beata incertezza grazie alla quale l'uomo, per natura conflittuale e aggressivo, ha sviluppato nei secoli un modus vivendi che gli consente di coabitare il pianeta con i suoi simili. È lo scenario che si trovano ad affrontare cinque insigni teologi, da una parte illuminati, anzi folgorati, dall'evidenza della prova, dall'altra incerti se divulgarla al mondo scatenando una serie di destabilizzanti reazioni a catena. L'opportunità o meno della divulgazione della prova diventa il problema principale delle massime autorità politiche e religiose, timorose soprattutto di perdere i loro privilegi in un eventuale mondo nuovo votato al bene. Ed è uno scenario che Laurence Cossé affronta con ironia, immaginando le convulse iniziative messe in atto dal governo francese e dal Vaticano per occultare la prova: un balletto tra Roma e Parigi che diventa critica sferzante delle gerarchie della Chiesa.

Laurence Cossé

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