Douglas Stuart, Mariana Enriquez… The selections of the Livres et Parlotte bookstore in Paris
Charlotte Servant-Le Priol lacked a place of her own to share her latest favorites with other readers. After studying literature and taking over the family business dedicated to the world of wine, the young woman wants to return to her first love, where she first dedicated a successful blog (Charlotte Parlotte) before opening her own bookstore. Designed as a place to hang out, Livres et Parlotte* issues wish lists on its shelves. Looking for thrills, love stories or travel, he encourages his visitors to follow the passion of the moment, under the benevolent gaze of Tess and Scottie, the mascots of the bookstore’s logo. Here, every new thing is destined to remain, resisting the parade of offices and literary returns that consign so many good books to oblivion. Hispanic and Irish literature is particularly represented there, the bookstore welcomes on Saturday February 4 a meeting with Jan Carson around the Raptures (Sabine Wespieser), among the latest favorites of his team.
Best seller: Nutmegby Douglas Stuart
After the success of Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart continues with this second novel, with even more impressive skill, his exploration of abused youth in Glasgow in the 1990s. Mungo, from a Protestant family, falls in love with James , Catholic. When Mungo’s mother understands the emotion that animates her son, she decides to send him camping with two strangers who are responsible for making him a real man. The story then alternates between this fishing trip that turned into a nightmare and everything that preceded it: the blossoming of a first love, the violence of Hamish, Mungo’s brother, a gang leader willing to do anything to defend the honor of the family. Tension mingles with emotion, darkness with hope. We become attached to Mungo as much as to the secondary characters who try to help him. Douglas Stuart evokes with infinite accuracy homophobia, the need of virility and the excess of a toxic masculinity which still condemns so many young men who feel stigmatized because of their sensitivity.
NutmegDouglas Stuart, translated from English (Scotland) by Charles Bonnot, Globe, 480 pages, 24 euros
Heart stroke: The dangers of smoking in bedby Mariana Enriquez
If Stephen King had to choose an heiress, it would undoubtedly be Mariana Enriquez, who was unanimously praised for Notre part de nuit (Editions du sous-sol, 2021), a gothic and poetic epic of a father and his fleeing son. a mysterious secret society grappling with darkness. Originally published in 2009, this collection of haunting short stories populated by witches, ghosts and women haunted by their demons expands the unique universe of a writer whose prose resonates with our contemporary fears . Notoriously mixed with politics, the struggles of his characters reflect those of the Argentine people, haunted by the lost of dictatorship and drug trafficking. Twelve stories with a suffocating, sticky and disturbing atmosphere, which makes the reader vacillate between attraction and repulsion but in no way leaves him alone.
The dangers of smoking in bedMariana Enriquez, translated from Spanish (Argentina) by Anne Plantagenet, Editions du Sous-sol, 240 pages, 21 euros
Discovery: The Court of Birdsby Agnès Ravatn
Norwegian literature doesn’t just have thrillers to offer, here’s the proof in this superb camera reminiscent of Rebecca and The Birds of Daphne du Maurier. Allis Hagtorn decides overnight to leave her husband, her home, to become a home help in an isolated fjord. His boss is not the octogenarian he expected but a 40-year-old man, married but avoiding the return of his wife, who is not at home. Despite the wild beauty of the scenery, the atmosphere is immediately oppressive because we don’t know what this man expects from the girl, just as we don’t know the reasons why Allis ran away from her past life. A domestic routine is set up between attraction and repulsion; let’s guess what’s at stake between these two strange creatures but nothing will be certain until the fall…
The court of birds, Agnès Ravatn, translated from Norwegian by Terje Sinding, Actes sud, 240 pages, 22 euros
* 25, rue de la Tour, 75116 Paris, livreetparlotte.com
