Books from France

In a small French village, a postman knows everyone’s secrets—and cannot resist uncovering more. Joigneau begins his daily rounds with a bag full of letters, bills, telegrams, and summonses, but delivering the mail is only part of his business. Curious, calculating, and shamelessly intrusive, he opens envelopes, delays deliveries, and invents excuses to enter people’s homes. As he moves from one household to another, the private ambitions, petty rivalries, hidden anxieties, and quiet hypocrisies of the village come into view. A baker cheats his customers, a café owner plots to acquire a neighbour’s property, and superstition shapes everyday decisions. Over the course of a single day, Roger Martin du Gard constructs a vivid portrait of provincial French life, revealing how much drama can hide beneath an apparently peaceful surface. Observant, gently satirical, and rich in human detail, this short novel is a reminder that even the smallest communities contain entire worlds of secrets.

What makes a great editor—and what happens when the person who believes in your work is no longer there? In this intimate, witty memoir, French novelist Jean Echenoz remembers Jérôme Lindon, the formidable publisher who led Éditions de Minuit and helped shape modern French literature. Their relationship began in 1979, when Echenoz, an unpublished writer, nervously submitted his first novel to Lindon. Instead of rejecting the manuscript, Lindon offered him a contract, beginning a friendship and professional partnership that would last more than twenty years. Through recollections of early-morning phone calls, lunches, disagreements, and conversations about the smallest details of writing, Echenoz reveals a man whose stern exterior concealed generosity, conviction, and an unwavering commitment to literature. Both a personal farewell and a portrait of literary life, this slender book celebrates the often complicated bond between a writer and the editor who helps bring his work into the world.