“Names are the fingerprints of the soul.” Chapter 1: The Birth of Plectrude The novel opens with the birth of Plectrude, a name chosen by her father, a […]
French literature
The Baron in the Trees
“On the fifteenth of June, 1767, Cosimo Piovasco di Rondò, my brother, sat among us for the last time.” Chapter 1: The Rebellion The novel opens with twelve-year-old […]
French literature
The Disappearance
“A void. A gaping void. A void which swallows up all, which annihilates all, which voids all.” Chapter 1: The Vanishing The novel opens with the sudden disappearance […]
French literature
The Violin of Auschwitz
“Music is the only thing that can make people forget, even for a moment, the horror of this place.” Chapter 1: The Violin Maker The story begins in […]
French literature
Promise at Dawn
“I had a mother who believed in me—that was enough to make a man of me.” Early Years and Childhood The book opens with Romain Gary’s childhood in […]
French literature
The Roots of Heaven
“There are no men who are not, in some way, responsible for the fate of other men.” Part One The novel opens in French Equatorial Africa, where Morel, […]
French literature
The Life Before Us
“Madame Rosa was the only person who ever loved me for nothing.” The novel is narrated by Momo, a young Arab boy living in the Belleville neighborhood of […]
French literature
Anomalie
“We are all anomalies in someone else’s story.” Chapter 1: The Flight The novel opens with David, a commercial airline pilot, preparing for a routine flight from Paris […]
French literature
Fresh Water for Flowers
“The dead don’t go anywhere. They’re all here. Each one in a box.” Fresh Water for Flowers follows Violette Toussaint, a cemetery caretaker in a small French town, […]
French literature
The Girl Who Reads on the Métro
“A book is a door. You open it. You step through.” Chapter 1: Juliette’s Routine Juliette, a young Parisian woman, mechanically rides the Métro every day to her […]