Books from France

Set along the sun-drenched French Riviera, Bonjour Tristesse follows seventeen-year-old Cécile, who spends a carefree summer with her charming, pleasure-seeking father, Raymond, and his young lover, Elsa. Their relaxed existence is disrupted when Anne, a sophisticated and principled woman who was once a friend of Cécile’s late mother, arrives and begins a relationship with Raymond. Fearing that Anne will impose discipline and destroy her freedom, Cécile devises a plan to separate the couple, setting in motion consequences she cannot fully control. Narrated by Cécile as she reflects on that pivotal summer, the novel explores adolescence, jealousy, desire, and the unsettling transition from innocence to adulthood. Sagan’s elegant, restrained prose captures the tensions between personal freedom and emotional responsibility, revealing how selfish choices can lead to irreversible loss.

How to Make a Woman follows Rose and Solange, two lifelong friends growing up in a small village in the French Basque Country during the 1980s. Although they share a childhood, their lives begin to diverge dramatically as they enter adulthood. Rose, thoughtful and conventional, moves to Bordeaux to study psychology while maintaining her relationship with her childhood sweetheart, Christian. Solange, rebellious and restless, becomes pregnant at fifteen and eventually leaves her familiar surroundings to pursue a career as an actress. As their paths take them through Bordeaux, Paris, London, and Hollywood, the two women confront the expectations imposed on them by society, the demands of relationships, and the challenges of defining themselves on their own terms. Their friendship endures despite their differences, revealing how women can remain connected even as their lives move in opposite directions. With wit and emotional precision, Darrieussecq explores female friendship, sexuality, motherhood, ambition, and the social forces that shape women’s identities. The novel offers a nuanced portrait of growing up and becoming oneself in a world that continually tries to define what a woman should be.