Title : The Passengers of the King of Rome - Jeanne Faivre d'Arcier - book Summary : "Here I am, more than thirty years that I have been vegetating, my ass in the mud and my nose pressed against the disjointed planks of a Maritime Affairs hangar that blocks my horizon: the small port of Four on the Arcachon basin, on the Cap Ferret peninsula side. They call me The King of Rome and yet my kingdom is only an illusion. It is limited to a piece of quay greened by algae, a dead end used by stray dogs and kids who have escaped from the neighboring campsite who come to gorge themselves on blackberries or play in the salt meadows..." Sailors say that a tub never dies! The King of Rome, on the other hand, had passed from hand to hand, from captain to captain. He had sailed the Caribbean seas transporting dubious goods, before running aground in the squalid seas of the peninsula... Unscrupulous people would like to buy him to turn him into a sort of floating casino; others, a clandestine gambling room, an opium den... Thugs dream, sometimes. And blackmailers lie in wait, ready for anything, including murder. But first, they will have to solve the enigma of the passengers of the Roi de Rome, these strangers locked away in the hold for months, even years... The Roi de Rome knows their story... But on this point, he, so eloquent, remains silent. Until when? A captivating dark and adventure novel, where we meet colorful characters, including Matthieu, the hero of Les Yeux de Cendre (Le Cherche Midi, 2006). Winner of the 2001 Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire, Jeanne Faivre d'Arcier has written fantasy novels, including two books on vampires, Rouge flamenco and La Déesse écarlate, considered essential by fans of the genre. Les Passagers du Roi de Rome is her third crime novel. EAN : 9782268067681 Used book Book in good condition The book matches the photo

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Title : Three Days at My Mother's - François Weyergans - book Summary : "On the train, he pressed his head against the window and saw, superimposed on it, floating amidst a backdrop of scrub, a pale, tense face, his own, with its unmistakable forehead, high and receding hairline, swollen eyelids, and thin-lipped mouth. He felt like saying to himself: "What can I do for you?" This face so close to his inspired a deep sympathy in him." Night after night, a deeply disturbed man protects himself by recalling his past—so many travels, so many haunting romantic encounters. His memory makes him dizzy. Will his memories help him get better? He invents a series of doubles who lead romantic lives just as turbulent as his own. He wants to visit his mother. She lives alone in Provence and will soon be ninety. He has a job to finish first. His mother tells him, "Instead of sending faxes to your dozen or so lovers, you should publish a book, otherwise people will think you're dead." Better than anyone, François Weyergans combines depth and humor, emotion and laughter, in this novel which powerfully affirms the powers of literature. EAN : 9782246545910 Used book Book in good condition The book matches the photo

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Title : The Arenberg Trench and Other Sporting Delights - Philippe Delerm - book Summary : There are these little bits of memories that suddenly resurface... these fleeting pleasures that we thought had vanished... Nostalgia at the end of the line, but also the present of movements, the arabesque of dribbling, the grace of the skater, the elegance of the sentence... There's Colette Besson's radiant smile, Platini's hand in Battiston's, Jean-Pierre Rives's golden helmet, Zidane's thrusts... Philippe Delerm captures all these gestures that are sport, like evidence of joy and suffering intertwined. These sporting pleasures, madeleines scattered throughout the stadiums that make us live, relive these moments of emotion. EAN : 9782755702156 Used book Book in good condition The book matches the photo

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Title : Imperial Suite(s) - Bret Easton Ellis - book Summary : Twenty-five years after the publication of Less than zero, the story continues... A dive into the decadence, violence and existential emptiness of LA's gilded class Clay, the anti-hero of Ellis's first bestseller, Less than Zero returns to Los Angeles. He's twenty years older, a little older, a little more alone and idle. He meets up with those he knew in his youth: Blair, Trent, Julian, Rip... the representatives of a golden and lost generation, abandoned to the emptiness, solitude, and vanity that destroy them. As an associate producer on the film adaptation of his latest screenplay, Clay participates in the casting of the film, uses his power to seduce Rain, a sublime but untalented young actress, and makes her false promises. He'll do anything to possess her. But who's manipulating whom? Clay soon discovers that he's constantly being watched and followed... Jealousy, betrayal, murder, manipulation... here, in the City of Angels, everyone encounters the same power games and the same demons, gets drunk on sex, images, drugs, unreal parties... and reveals themselves to be ever more bitter and desperate. Emptiness and fury suck the characters in, and make them lose all sense of boundaries. EAN : 9782221108697 Used book Book in good condition The book matches the photo

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Title : The Princess Exchange - Chantal Thomas - book Summary : In 1721, Philippe d'Orléans was Regent of France. The exercise of power was enjoyable, and he took a liking to it. Then a brilliant idea arose in his head: to propose to Philippe V of Spain a marriage between Louis XV, aged eleven, and the very young Infanta, Anna Maria Victoria, aged four – who would therefore not be able to give birth for a decade… And he didn't stop there: he also proposed to give his daughter, Mlle de Montpensier, as a wife to the young Prince of Asturias, future heir to the throne of Spain, to strengthen his position and consolidate the end of the conflict with the large neighbor. The reaction in Madrid was enthusiastic, and things quickly fell into place. The exchange of princesses took place in early 1722, with great pomp and ceremony, on a small island in the middle of the Bidasoa River, the river that served as the border between the two kingdoms. Everything could be going well. But nothing would go as planned... EAN : 9782021119138 Used book Book in good condition The book matches the photo

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Title : Adèle D'aiguebrune Volume 2 - The Hour of Elise - Pascale Rey - book Summary : A great female character, noble and serious, in an eminently romantic era. The storm of Terror has receded, Adèle has returned to her poor castle of Aiguebrune. And her life is empty: gone is the Count of Méricourt, her lover in the happy days of Champlaurier; gone is the handsome Michel Marsaud, the revolutionary who, for a moment, made her heart beat in the turmoil. After four years of absence, Denis, her half-brother, reappears. He is certainly a colonel of the Republic, but he is bitter: lacking political support, he is kept at a distance, while his brothers-in-arms, all generals, soar from victory to victory with Bonaparte. Meeting Michel Marsaud, who has become Commissioner General to the Directory, allows her to achieve the dream rank; a situation reinforced by his marriage to the insignificant daughter of the very powerful and very rich Commissioner General of the Armies, a friend of Fouché. This marriage brings Adèle to Paris, which she discovers with joy. For her, life in Paris is a celebration. Painful at times, when she finds herself rejected by the Faubourg Saint-Germain, where she is criticized for not having emigrated, for having survived and for being, it is said, the mistress of the deputy Marsaud. General Denis Barrère is in Italy where he is champing at the bit (at that time, Bonaparte is in Egypt). But, because there is no question of endangering the son-in-law of a general commissioner, he is recalled to Paris. Then the proud Denis collapses: he frequents gambling houses, ruins himself. He could not pay his debt without selling Aiguebrune. He commits suicide. Adèle takes care of the little girl born from Denis's marriage, as she once did with Élise. But she is tired. Méricourt has turned his back on her, Marsaud, after Brumaire, has retired to Charente. She is barely forty years old, but she has lived too much: History has crushed her, she has loved without being loved. Back in her old empty manor, she learns that Aiguebrune has not been sold: Marsaud has paid Denis's debt; and she finally understands that if Marsaud, before the revolutionary tribunal, could not save Élise, it is because the young girl was condemned by the wealth and splendor of her family, and that he chose to save her, Adèle d'Aiguebrune, who was poor and loved by her people. And so, deep in their province, far from the din of the big city, Adèle the noblewoman and Marsaud the revolutionary will end up confessing their hidden love. EAN : 9782221091777 Used book Book in good condition The book matches the photo

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Title : The Annual Banquet of the Brotherhood of Gravediggers - Mathias Enard - book Summary : For the purposes of a thesis devoted to "country life in the 21st century," apprentice ethnologist David Mazon left Paris and took up residence in a modest village in Deux-Sèvres. Living on a farm, soon equipped with a moped suitable for his investigations, eating at the Café-Épicerie-Pêche and drawing on local knowledge from the friendly mayor - also a gravedigger - the newcomer began a field journal, recording small true facts and local customs, determined to circumscribe and epitomize rurality. But he ignores some of the whims of this place where Death rules the roost. When it seizes someone, it is to immediately throw them into the Wheel of Time, recycle them into an animal as well as a human, grant them an immediate destiny or one in a previous era - as if to better resuscitate this deep France whose local and regional soil Mathias Enard excels at plowing, at excavating its historical strata, without ever losing sight of the small circle of villagers who surround the ethnologist and outline (perhaps) the happy neorurality of our tomorrows. But the Mayor is already busy preparing his brotherhood's annual Banquet - a gargantuan three-day feast during which Death calls a truce so that the gravediggers - and the readers - can feast without qualms in a fabulous opulence of food, libations and language. For the flavors of language, its persistence and its metamorphosis, are the epicenter of this stirring of the centuries and of this extraordinary novel, as full of truculence as it is enamored of popular culture, rich in memory, fertile in fraternity. EAN : 9782330135508 Used book Book in good condition The book matches the photo

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Title : Proud Eleanor - Children of the Revolution Volume 1 - François Ceresa - book Summary : They are passionately in love. Alas! Éléonore de Moussey is a young aristocrat and Charles Rivolier is a teenager from modest backgrounds… When the Revolution breaks out, each is forced to choose sides. The two lovers are now sworn enemies. As the Italian campaign begins, the destinies of Charles and Éléonore will cross once again. The meeting will be explosive. EAN : 9782259196994 Used book Book in good condition The book matches the photo

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Title : The Glory of the Damned - Nicolas d'Estienne d'Orves - book Summary : The daughter of a collaborator executed before her eyes at the Liberation, Gabrielle Valoria is to write the first biography of Sidonie Porel. But who is Sidonie Porel really? The most famous novelist of her time, or a literary fraud? A great lover or a manipulator? Delving into the past of this woman she both fears and admires, Gabrielle discovers a world teeming with liars and traitors. Writers, politicians, journalists, prostitutes, big bosses: all hiding a secret that kills... In Successive Loyalties ( Cazes-Lipp Prize ), Nicolas d'Estienne d'Orves explored the ambiguities of the Occupation, with La Gloire des cursed, he attacks the lies of the post-war period. This romantic portrait of a France in the aftermath of chaos, where we meet the great figures of intellectual and artistic Paris in the 1950s, shows that the past always catches up with us and that wars never end. EAN : 9782226317308 Used book Book in good condition The book matches the photo

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Title : The Berber Dreamlighter - Fellag - book Summary : In an Algiers housing project in the early 1990s, water is distributed twice a week, from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. During this time, while the water flows and life resumes, Zakaria, a famous journalist, observes the actions of his fellow citizens from his balcony and records them on index cards. He would like to use them to compose the great novel of his life and reconnect with his youthful dreams, from the time when he was not shackled by the system. For Zakaria is going through a crisis of conscience. Since the events of October 1988, he joined the protest movement but finds himself caught in a vice: on one side, an old regime that must be dynamited; on the other, Islamist extremists who hunt down women, intellectuals, and all those who refuse to conform to their vision of the world. To escape death, he hides at home during the day and only leaves his observation post at nightfall to tell us the most incredible stories that abound in a country gripped by fear. With The Berber Dream Igniter , Fellag sets fire to the imagination of a people who cultivate supreme elegance: that of laughing at their misfortunes. EAN : 9782709626705 Used book Book in good condition The book matches the photo

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Title : The Words in My Hands - Guinevere Glasfurd - book Summary : Helena Jans van der Strom is not your average maid. When she arrives in Amsterdam to work for an English bookseller, the young woman, fascinated by words, has taught herself to read and write. Her independence and thirst for knowledge will find echoes in the heart and mind of the philosopher René Descartes. But in this 17th century of light and shadow, their affair could be their undoing. Descartes is Catholic, Helena is Protestant. He is a philosopher, she is a maid. What could their future hold? By revealing this proven and little-known romantic relationship, Guinevere Glasfurd paints a fascinating portrait of a luminous woman, ahead of her time, and reveals another side of the famous French philosopher. A novel of passion and freedom that immerses us in a captivating fresco of the Netherlands in the "golden age", in the style of The Girl with a Pearl Earring. EAN : 9782253107804 Used book Book in good condition The book matches the photo

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Title : The Bourgeois - Alice Ferney - book Summary : They call themselves Bourgeois, and their surname is also a way of life. They are eight brothers and two sisters, born in Paris between 1920 and 1940. They grew up in the wake of the Great War and the beginnings of the Second. In the favorite places of bourgeois society—the army, the navy, medicine, the bar, business—they are part of historical events and social developments. From decolonization to the post-May '68 period, their lives span an entire era. The march of the world never discourages their deployment. From Jules the elder to Marie the last, the appearance and disappearance of the characters, their aspirations and their commitments punctuate the formidable clockwork of this novel, very different from a simple family saga. For here it is the century that is reconstructed in brief discontinuous sequences, like a vast mosaic where the portraits of the ten members of the family gradually stand out - and a little of their ancestors, and already their children. Alice Ferney casts a novelist's and historian's eye over this dizzying cycle of time. From a contemporary perspective, she retraces the journey. Constantly moving from the singular to the collective, from individual destiny to the national epic, she reveals history in the making, the errors, the guilty silences, the erroneous choices that explain the confusion of the present. Ample and captivating, Les Bourgeois thus proves to be a formidable analysis of our roots: a book that sifts an entire French century through the sieve of family romance. EAN : 9782330081775 Used book Book in good condition The book matches the photo

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Title : The Florio - Volume 1 - The Lions of Sicily - Stefania Auci - book Summary : The novel that inspired the Disney+ series. “The real good surprise of this literary season.” The Stampa “I devoured it!” Gerard Collard, The Health Magazine 1799. Paolo and Ignazio Florio leave their native Calabria to settle in Palermo. Passionate, ambitious but poor and of modest origin, the two brothers and their family aspire to only one thing: to rise among the powerful of the city. This is without taking into account the contempt of the Palermitans who look askance at these foreigners whose "blood stinks of sweat." Through stubbornness and willpower, the Florios, by launching into the spice trade, forge a path that, perhaps one day, will give them an empire. But Their success does not protect them from more intimate dramas , because Paolo and Ignazio, although united like the five fingers of a hand, love the same woman... A phenomenal success in Italy, it was soon adapted for the screen by the producers of My Brilliant Friend . The Lions of Sicily opens a passionate and tormented fresco, in the image of this Southern Italy which constitutes its setting. “A legendary family... A fascinating mosaic of public, private, and historical stories.” Vanity Fair “One of the must-read novels of the summer. ” Booksellers' Page EAN : 9782226442024 Used book Book in good condition The book matches the photo

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Title : The Quay of Ouistreham - Florence Aubenas - book Summary : “The crisis. We talked about nothing else, but without really knowing what to say or how to take stock of it. Everything gave the impression that the world was collapsing. And yet, around us, things still seemed to be in their right place. I decided to go to a French city where I had no ties, to look for work anonymously… I rented a furnished room. I only came back home twice, in a hurry: I had too much to do there. I kept my identity, my name, my papers, and I registered as unemployed with only a baccalaureate as luggage. I went blonde. I never took off my glasses. I didn't receive any benefits. It was agreed that I would stop the day my search came to fruition, that is, the day I landed a permanent contract. This book tells the story of my quest, which lasted almost six months, from February to July 2009. I kept my room furnished. I returned there this winter to write this book. Florence Aubenas EAN : 9782879296777 Used book Book in good condition The book matches the photo

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Title : It was good - Jean d'Ormesson - book Summary : Author of some twenty works, Jean d'Ormesson looks back on his past and on a life that has already been long. Like each of us, he was swept away by a time that invents everything before destroying everything. He lived in one of the bloodiest centuries in history. He witnessed the triumph of a science that now carries as many fears as hopes. He tried to be happy in a world where evil is inextricably mixed with the search for happiness. On this perishable earth, he loved books, women, and sea bathing. Books were the great business of his fleeting existence, of which he speaks with distance and gratitude. Gratitude to whom? Amazed by the endless play of chance and necessity, enchanted by a world he has traveled from one end to the other (with a preference for the Mediterranean), he believes in an order of things whose meaning he ignores. With ironic and slightly melancholic joy, he communicates to the reader three feelings that he experiences with force: stupor before the universe, terror before history, fervor before life. EAN : 9782070768196 Used book Book in good condition The book matches the photo

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Title : Hedonist Manifesto - Michel Onfray - book Summary : "Hedonistic philosophy is a psychological, ethical, erotic, aesthetic, bioethical, political proposition... It (is) a discourse on the nature of things so that everyone can find their place in nature, a world, a cosmos in the perspective of a successful life - a successful life being defined as the one we would like to relive if it were possible for us to live one again." Michel Onfray, philosopher, has always placed hedonism and atheism at the heart of his work. Founder of the Popular University of Caen and then of the University of Taste in Argentan, he is also known for his courses on the counter-history of philosophy, regularly broadcast on France Culture. EAN : 9782746716124 Used book Book in good condition The book matches the photo

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Title : Double Je - Sylvie Granotier - book Summary : Love, friendship, ambition: they shared it all. Together, Sophie and Elisabeth could have made a perfect woman. But power and the desire to possess everything, even to the point of dispossessing oneself, overcame beautiful feelings. Today, they are two "friends" whose destinies are so intertwined that they end up merging. Only death will be able to unravel them, distinguish the true from the false, the victim from the executioner. Against a backdrop of political and financial scandals, resentments and unfulfilled passions, a fatal Hitchcock-style duo in which Sylvie Granotier confuses the issue with disturbing mastery. After Jean-Christophe Grangé and Maud Tabachnik, a new French author makes a spectacular entrance into the “Spécial Suspense” collection. EAN : 9782226132666 Used book Book in good condition The book matches the photo

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Title : Stolen Childhood - Vale Allen Charlotte - book Summary : “My dearest Snow, By the time you read this, I'll be dead. There's no way to soften the brutality of the revelation I have to make, so I'll get straight to the point: I am not your mother. On September 21, 1963, I kidnapped you from a New York City supermarket... I know this will be a terrible shock to you, and I don't ask you to forgive me. But I would like you to try to understand... With all my love, Anne Cooke." Everything suddenly collapses around Snow, now alone with her fear, her doubts, her rebellion. Who was this mother from whom she was stolen? And who was this woman she called Mother, this monstrous stranger whom, alas, she cannot help but love? Her life is suddenly nothing more than a lie, an enigma to which she must find the key... EAN : 9782280094054 Used book Book in good condition The book matches the photo

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Title : With the Worst Intentions - Alessandro Piperno - book Summary : Iconoclastic, provocative, and politically incorrect, this novel paints a portrait of a family from the good Roman Jewish bourgeoisie, the Sonninos. First and foremost, Bepy, who, at the end of the war, prefers to forget the "clownish couple" Mussolini-Hitler and return to a glittering and futile existence in which women, especially those of his friends, occupy a lot of space. He will never understand why his youngest son Teo, gifted and attractive, chooses to go and live "in this insane country called Israel." Fortunately, his eldest, Luca, follows in his father's footsteps: double-breasted cashmere coat, Porsche Carrera, and frequent business class. As for his grandson Daniel, the narrator, the product of an improbable mixed marriage, he is caught in an insoluble dilemma: "being Jewish for the gentiles" and "gentile for the Jews." A handicap to which will be added his sexual shyness and his inability to take on the beautiful Gaia, in the whirlwind of the golden youth of Rome. EAN : 9782867463952 Used book Book in good condition The book matches the photo

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Title : Sentimental Destinies - Jacques Chardonne - book Summary : Of all Jacques Chardonne's novels, Les destins sentimentales is undoubtedly the most ambitious. This historical and intimate fresco traces the destiny of Jean and Pauline, a couple facing the upheavals of the first decades of the 20th century. Romantic adventure and social adventure intertwine, making this love story a subtle portrayal of the bourgeois and provincial society of the great cognac and porcelain manufacturers. A flamboyant, strangely contemporary work that reveals the art and style of one of the greatest French novelists. EAN : 9782226115898 Used book Book in good condition The book matches the photo

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Title : The English Corpse - Jean-François Parot - book Summary : Paris 1777, a mysterious prisoner dies while attempting to escape from the Fort-L'Evêque prison. At the same time, the prodigal and carefree Queen Marie-Antoinette asks Nicolas Le Floch to counter schemes aimed at compromising her. A breathless and meticulous investigation! From Paris to Versailles, the Enlightenment detective continues his journey through the century, going from surprise to surprise. Who is this mysterious victim? What secret are the English and French fighting over as the American colonies rise up? For what purpose is a precious object stolen from Frederick II? Is love throwing its weight into the balance? Armed with the trust of the young Louis XVI and the support of his friends, will he succeed, despite perils and obstacles, in unraveling the mysteries of these extraordinary affairs? In this seventh volume, our hero will experience the excitement of a criminal hunt and the bitterness of a breakup. EAN : 9782709628679 Used book Book in good condition The book matches the photo

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Title : Hortense and Queenie - Andrea Levy - book Summary : 1948, England is still shaken by the war. At 21 Nevern Street lives Queenie Bligh, a beautiful, temperamental woman raised the hard way in the Midlands. Her husband, Bernard, has not returned from India, where he was serving in the Royal Air Force. To survive, Queenie is forced to take in lodgers, including a Jamaican couple, Gilbert and Hortense. Gilbert Joseph has also just fought in the war under the flag of the Empire and the blue uniform of the RAF. Determined to stay in London, he endures everyday racism, whether he likes it or not. His cheeky wit helps him overcome the humiliations. His young wife, Hortense, has always dreamed of living in England. She joins Gilbert in the small room Queenie rents them. Disillusionment is not in short supply. Hortense, always concerned with her elegance, is shocked by the surrounding poverty. The motherland is not what she imagined in the shade of the mango trees. Andrea Levy weaves with great finesse of observation a novel in four voices, tinged with humor and emotion, imbued with exoticism and humanity, about the meeting and mixing of cultures. A great novel, crowned with numerous awards, unanimously celebrated by critics and the public. EAN : 9782710328131 Used book Book in good condition The book matches the photo

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Title : The African - JMG Le Clézio - book Summary : See photos EAN : 9782715224704 Used book Book in good condition The book matches the photo

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Title : An Uncertain Place - Fred Vargas - book Summary : See photos EAN : 9782878582857 Used book Book in good condition The book matches the photo

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