Two best-selling books by Christian Bobin

Essays, novels, biographies… Find the ranking of the best-selling books from November 18 to 24 in La Procure bookstores. A selection of inspiring reads from books published in the last four months.

1A FEW WORDS BEFORE THE ANNOUNCEMENT – READING THE GOSPEL IN A TIME OF CRISIS

Summary : by Adrien Candiard, Cerf, September 2022. We have never talked about disasters as much as we do today: climate, pandemics, wars… Should we be afraid of the end of time? But this is probably just a phase and then towards what? P. Candiard wants to examine the texts of the New Testament that speak of all this. The apocalypse is for tomorrow and we feel helpless. However, the New Testament already prompts these alarming signs… while providing keys to understand which are the real reasons for hope: the Apocalypse of John, of course, but also “little statements” that we find in the gospels. It’s just that, these texts, we rarely refer to them, it’s like we’ve never seen them. Or else they are historical or spiritualized: in other words, they are made to lose their force. However, what Jesus said about the “end of time” is good. And when he mentions “eschaton”, we must take him seriously. Not to look for letters for today, like Nostradamus, but to dig into the meaning of history that these texts convey to us. Look for it in bookstores.

2Words of honor

Fayard

Summary : by General Pierre de Villiers, Fayard, November 2022. These letters addressed to young people constitute an intellectual and moral profession of faith of this soldier, Chief of the Defense Staff from 2014 to 2017. They open the way to relearning to love France and to have again of hope. Look for it in bookstores.

3A LONG ROAD TO BE UNITY IN FRENCH SINGING

Albin Michael

Summary : by François Cheng, Albin Michel, October 2022. “At the age of fifteen, singing woke me up. I opened to poetry and entered, as if by breaking and entering, the path of creation…” From his first essay on water and thirst – the only witness to his Chinese youth that he brought to France and where he now brings us a translation – going through his encounters with Gide, Vercors, Lacan, Michaux, Emmanuel, Bonnefoy and many others, François Cheng shares with us the long road that led him to become an exile who did not able to say “hello” or “thank you” when he arrived in Paris, a French poet. This road, despite the terrible wars in China, the severe material uncertainty of the first decades in France, and cruel inward suffering, but always enlightened by the French poems he internalizes in the depths of his lonely nights. Look for it in bookstores.

4red lily of the valley

Gallimard

Summary : by Christian Bobin, Galliard, October 2022. “My dead father showed me two branches of the red lily of the valley. He told me that a young man there, on a mountain in the Jura, had invented this lily of the valley and planned to spread it to the world. He invited me to visit him. The man runs an inn by a lake. I’m eating an omelet there, drinking straw wine. When I talk to him about flowers, my host leads me to a flat meadow: dozens of newly sprouted red lilies are preparing to set the plain on fire. I went back to my father, ask him who this man is. He replied that it was part of his family that he had never discussed with me. Go to them, he told me, learn to know them. Christian Bobin occupies a unique place in the French literary landscape: this writer, both poet and essayist, puts his Christian faith at the heart of his work. Look for it in bookstores.

5White

Gallimard

Summary : by Sylvain Tesson, Gallird, October 2022. From 2018 to 2021, every March, Sylvain Tesson, together with a high mountain guide, skis the entire chain of the Alps on the peaks, from Menton to Trieste, covering 1,600 kilometers on snow. He delivers the story of this man’s adventure, where he makes surprising encounters, as well as his reflections on these completely white landscapes. Look for it in bookstores.

6THE HOLY SHROUD OF TURIN: WITNESS TO THE PASSION OF JESUS ​​CHRIST

Tallandier

Summary : by Jean-Christian Petitfils, Tallandier, August 2022. In this complete synthesis, far from any polemical spirit, Jean-Christian Petitfils shows, in a clear and convincing way, that there is no longer any doubt today: the Holy Shroud of Turin is truly authentic. Not only the information it provides on the Passion of Christ is unique, but the unique and surprising qualities of the image, which have never been reproduced in the same way despite all modern techniques – color inversion , three-dimensionality, orthogonal projection without lateral effects, absence of the slightest trace of decay of the body or tearing of blood clots – seems to introduce us to another mystery… Look for it in bookshops.

7The adventure of adulthood

Robert Laffont / Versilio

Summary : by Marie de Hennezel, Robert Laffont, Versilio, November 2022. The author explores the relationship between time, age and is interested in the experience of aging. According to him, this experience should not be experienced as a decline but as a continuation. Look for it in bookstores.

8the different regions of the sky

Gallimard

Summary : by Christian Bobin, Galliard, October 2022. 17 texts of various forms, representative of Christian Bobin’s rich writings, can be compared to a poetic and meditative wandering from darkness to light. Look for it in bookstores.

9THE GRACE OF OLD AGE

Emmanuel editions

Summary : by Pope Francis, Editions Emmanuel, October 2022. In this book, which brings together all his catechesis on old age, Pope Francis offers to everyone, and especially to “the elderly”, an original reflection full of hope in great age of life, the grace of time that happens, the importance of delivery. and the relationship between generations. A wonderful teaching on the meaning and value of old age, which shows how important our elders are in the eyes of God and play an irreplaceable role in our society, especially among the youngest. Look for it in bookstores.

10FRANCIS OF ASSISI’S CHRISTMAS

Savior, Part One

Summary : by Eloi Leclerc, Salvator, Part One, October 2022. This wonderful Christmas story by Éloi Leclerc has been reissued. This is the story of the first nativity imagined by Saint Francis, a living nativity scene found in a small cave in Greccio in 1223. With this small album with a delicate picture, the emotion is as full as every Christmas night , in the middle of winter. Look for it in bookstores.

1124 TALES Around the Nativity scene

Mom

Summary : by Blanche Collange and Sara Ugolotti, Mame, October 2022. 24 Christmas themed stories featuring Etienne and his guardian angel, Léon the grumpy donkey or even Diego the little cherub. With, for each day, an element to detach to form a nativity scene. Look for it in bookstores.