Le Forum - Votre librairie française en australie

A grammar lesson disguised as a short novel (more precisely, a novella in novel’s clothing), Grammar is a Gentle, Sweet Song follows the adventures of a brother and sister, Thomas and Jeanne, after being shipwrecked on an extraordinary island where words prance around like living beings and you can buy the perfect word for any occasion at the market. Rendered mute by the trauma of their shipwreck, the siblings, under the kindly influence of Monsieur Henri, one of the island’s residents, seek to unlock their tongues by exploring the mysteries of the island. Among the wonders they encounter is the idea of marriages between words:

"To be frank, they were pretty odd marriages. More like friendships. It reminded me of how schools used to be long ago, before they were co-ed. In the kingdom of French words, the boys stay with the boys and the girls with the girls... The article would go into the City Hall through one door and the adjective through another. The last to arrive was the noun. All three would disappear from sight: the roof of the building hid them from view... They would come back out together holding hands and with a complete agreement — Le chateau enchante, "the enchanted castle" — or all feminine — La maison hantee, "the haunted house"... "

"I’m going to let you in on a secret: adjectives are deeply sentimental. They think their marriage will last forever...which just shows how little they know the congenital infidelity of the nouns, that bunch of dedicated bachelors, changing their qualifiers as casually as their socks. "

Not everything in Grammar is a Gentle, Sweet Song has the same playfulness, and the book falters when it becomes serious, but the playful sections more than make up for the miscues. The siblings are interesting characters, for sure, but the pleasures of the book exist mostly on the level of metaphor and are considerable.

An epic novel set in the West African kingdom of Bambara (old Mali) in 1797, exhaustive in its detail and thoroughly addicting. Conde transforms actual historical events into a full-blooded, lively tale. Translated from French.

A powerful novel of Africa's history and the men and women who determined its fate. From the East came Islam. From the West, the slave trade. The battle for Africa's soul had begun...
"A wondrous novel about a period of African history few other writers have addressed... Much of the novel's radiance comes from the lush descriptions of a traditional life that is both exotic and violent."
(THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW)

"Segu is an overwhelming accomplishment. It injects into the density of history characters who are as alive as you and I. Passionate, lusty, greedy, they are in conflict with themselves as well as with God and Mammon. Maryse Conde has done us all a tremendous service by rendering history so compelling and exciting. Segu is a literary masterpiece I could not put down."
(LOUISE MERIWETHER)

The Last of the African Kings (Les derniers rois mages) follows the wayward fortunes of a noble African family. It begins with the regal Behanzin, an African king who opposed French colonialism and was exiled to distant Martinique. In the course of the novel, Maryse Conde tell of Behanzin's scattered offspring and their lives in the Caribbean and the United States. With many characters and countless stories, The Last of the African Kings skillfully intertwines the themes of exile, lost origins, memory, and hope. The book is set mainly in the Americas, from the Caribbean to modern-day South Carolina, yet Africa hovers always in the background

Three times a day in a Parisian square, a curious modern-day crier announces the news items that are left in his box. Over the course of a few days he receives a number of disturbing and potentous messages of malicious intent, all of them referring to the Black Death. Strange marks have also appeared on the doors of several buildings: symbols once used to ward off the plague. Detective Commissaire Adamsberg begins to sense a connection, even a grotesque menace. Then charred and flea-bitten corpses are found. The press seizes on their plague-like symptoms, and the panic sets in...

Originally published with the title: Pars vite et reviens tard.

'Fear and Trembling' tells the story of a young woman who spends a year working at a Japanese firm. She soon learns that at the Yumimoto Corporation hierarchy means everything, and her time there soon turns into a comic nightmare of terror and self-abasement.

Originally published as 'Stupeur et Tremblements'