the General, from Courseulles to Notre-Dame
When de Gaulle liberated Paris, June-August 1944 by Jean-François Muracciole Odile Jacob, 504 pp., 24,90 € When de Gaulle disembarked from a British torpedo boat on a beach in Normandy near Courseulles-sur-Mer on 14 June 1944, he declared that he was initially “ came to see the French of France “. He abandons the English […]
“The Last Invasion” by Maxime Reynaud: a forgotten landing
The Last Invasion: 1798, when revolutionary France landed in the British Isles by Maxime Reynaud Passés Composés, 270 pages, €22 It was a “first” since William the Conqueror: in 1798 the French were able to set foot on the soil of “treacherous Albion”. The event went unnoticed and barely appears in the best histories of […]
Thirty years after the death of Jacques Ellul, the confessions are so relevant
Against a current. Interviews. Jacques Ellul, Patrick Chastenet Round table, Coll. “The Little Vermilion”, 272 pages, €8.90 In May 1994, the technical thinker Jacques Ellul died. A few months later, academic Patrick Chastenet published the interviews he had conducted with his former professor up until a few weeks before his death. It’s been thirty years […]
the king’s flowery beard
Charlemagne by Bruno Dumezil PUF, 240 pages, €15 Back, vague memories of school. Farewell, song by France Gall from 1964, Crowned Charlemagne!, which only very old teenagers can hum. Warning: Charlemagne (748-814) returns. But without a beard. Bruno Dumézil, an important medievalist at the Sorbonne, had the happy idea of writing down the “sound biography” […]
The fantasies of Shehan Karunatilaka
What does Shehan Karunatilaka really take seriously? In Les Sept Mondays by Maali Almeida, the Sri Lankan writer imagined a funny hero dealing with the painful subject of the conflict that devastated his country for 26 years: Maali Almeida, homosexual war photographer, ailing poker player addicted to psychotropic drugs and, above all, dead among the […]
“Anachronistic Snow Guide” by Elisabeth Foch-Eyssette: off-piste hike
Anachronistic Guide to Snow d’Elisabeth Foch-Eyssette Arléa, 170 pages, €21 Everything starts with a catastrophe. A phone call on December 25 informed the suddenly reserved father that his two brothers were dead. An avalanche. Elisabeth Foch-Eysette is only 8 years old. “ Despite this drama, snow was our Christmas present year after year », she […]
In Truth, Alice by Tiffany Tavernier: The Making of Saints
Really, Alice by Tiffany Tavernier Sabine Wespieser, 286 pages, €22. “The Diocesan Association of Paris hires an assistant for the promotion of canonization. » You no longer know which direction to turn to when applying for such a position. This is exactly what happens to Alice, who is cornered and forced to find work by […]
Francis of Assisi, from love for the poor to love for creation
Canticle of Brother Soleil, Francis of Assisi Translated and presented by Sylvain Piron PUF, 2024, €9. A new translation of Song by Brother Sun The work of the medievalist Sylvain Piron offers a new look at the extraordinary ecological intuition of the human aspect of the Saint of Assisi. In his introduction, Sylvain Piron proposes […]
Joseph Kessel: The aviation author talks about Aéropostale
The heroes of heaven Joseph Kessel Arthaud, 760 pages, €30 Mermoz. The name alone is enough to remind us of the one who was still nicknamed “The Archangel”. In 1936 he was lost at sea. Two years later, his friend Kessel wrote a warm and epic biography of the aviator. In a new volume of […]
“Eden” by Audur Ava Ólafsdóttir, chronicle of a life change
Eden d’Audur Ava Ólafsdóttir Translated from Icelandic by Éric Boury Zulma, 256 pages, €21.50 For a long time Alba used the comma “to come out of torpor”” breathe “,“looking around”, “deciding the next step on the journey that is life”. In Eden, The linguist and professor in Reykjavik, who specializes in rare languages, will use […]