French Studies: Book Recommendations (In French and in translation)

Tells the story of a middle-aged novelist, Oscar, who is accused of sexual harassment by a younger female colleague years prior. Around the same time, he receives a heated Instagram message from an actress he had recently insulted. The way in which Oscar dismisses the budding #MeToo crusade, along with his being “victimized” by it, is meant to instigate an exploration of modern French society from all different viewpoints.

Marie, the prettiest girl in her provincial hometown, is dating the most popular boy at her high school, and is the envy of all of her peers. But when she falls pregnant and gives birth to a baby girl, Diane, she later on starts to get a taste of her own medicine as her daughter is now the object of attention wherever she goes. This is Diane’s story — because of her mother’s acute jealousy, she grows up without maternal affection. She builds relationships with other women, and her story highlights the sentiments that often define human relations.

Tackling the effects of patriarchy on the construction of narrative stories, Zeniter discusses her storytelling and women’s overall representation in literature by digging deeper into tales and authors including Aristotle, Umberto Eco, Superman and Anna Karenina.

Graphic novel that tells the story of Simon, a 14-year-old British teenager who is constantly teased and bullied by his peers. One day, while doing a favor for a fortune teller, she reveals to him the future winners of a famous horse race. Simon secretly bets all of his father’s savings on one horse and ends up winning over 16 million pounds. He returns home, however, to his mother in a coma and his father missing. The book follows how Simon goes about finding his father and solving the mystery surrounding his mother.

An exploration into why the fates of women murdered during World War II fell off the radar, rather than making the mark on history that they should have.

A biography recounting the experiences of the author’s father, a Belgian diplomat and ambassador, recounting his life from his birth up until his death during the COVID-19 pandemic. She relates events ranging from the 1964 Stanleyville hostage-taking to the 1960s Congo crisis, during which he was taken hostage.

A fast-paced mystery detailing two private investigators' search of a missing adolescent girl traveling through Paris and Barcelona. They expose the dark hidden nature of contemporary youth culture through their numerous interrogations of suspicious individuals.

Winner of the International Booker prize. This book is told from the perspective of a Senegalese tirailleur soldier with the French army during World War I.

Psychological novel about a young chef’s obsessive and often destructive desire to create incomparable culinary delights.

The story of North Africans living in Paris in the summer of 2010. Intersecting narratives follow the inner workings of the lives of these emigrants as they cope with the space between their dreams and realities.

A struggling graphic design student in Montreal with a gambling addiction jumps upon the first job that promises a decent paycheck: dishwasher at a high-end restaurant. He realizes that he may be in over his head as he finds himself thrown into a chaotic world of characters.

A multigenerational epic of a family's life in Iran and their eventual exile. Kimiâ flees Iran at the age of ten with her mother and sisters to join her father in France. Now twenty-five and facing the future, she finds herself stuck between family traditions and her own "disorientalization."

A memoir/diary detailing her love affair with un unnamed Soviet Diplomat in 1988 Paris.

A novel that dives into the lives of French mathematicians through World Wars I and II, over several generations.

Ophelia possesses the ability to read the past of objects, along with the power to travel through mirrors - skill passed down to her from previous generations. Her world is turned upside down, however, when she is forced to marry an influential member of a distant clan. After leaving everything she knows behind to follow her fiancé, Ophelia begins to realize that she is a pawn in a political game that will have immense consequences for her and her entire world.

The story of the author’s mother, a “lament” for what he views as her “destroyed” first 20 years of adulthood, as well as an ode to her hard-won and deserved independence that came later in her life.