Books from France
344 popular french books
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
The target of the Read Around The World Challenge is to read at least one book written by an author from each and every country in the world.
All books that are listed here as part of the "Read Around Europe Challenge" were written by authors from France.
Find a great book for the next part of your reading journey around the world from this book list. The following popular books have been recommended so far.
271.
The Girl With the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac EN
Description:
'What holds sway over this country without morals, beliefs, or feelings? Gold and pleasure.' Sexual attraction, artistic insight, and the often ironic relationship between them is the dominant theme in the three short works collected in this volume. In Sarrasine an impetuous young sculptor falls in love with a diva of the Roman stage, but rapture turns to rage when he discovers the reality behind the seductiveness of the singer's voice. The ageing artist in The Unknown Masterpiece, obsessed with his creation of the perfect image of an ideal woman, tries to hide it from the jealous young studen... continue
272.
The Godmother: A Crime Novel by Hannelore Cayre EN
Description:
Meet Patience Portefeux, an underpaid Franco-Arab interpreter for the Ministry of Justice who specializes in phone tapping. Happening upon a particularly revealing set of police wiretaps, Patience uses the secret conversations to intervenes and infiltrate a massive drug deal. She thus embarks on a new career path: she becomes The Godmother.
273.
The Immoralist by Andre Gide EN
Description:
First published in 1902 and immediately assailed for its themes of omnisexual abandon and perverse aestheticism, The Immoralist is the novel that launched André Gide’s reputation as one of France’s most audacious literary stylists, a groundbreaking work that opens the door onto a universe of unfettered impulse whose possibilities still seem exhilarating and shocking. Gide’s protagonist is the frail, scholarly Michel, who, shortly after his wedding, nearly dies of tuberculosis. He recovers only through the ministrations of his wife, Marceline, and his sudden, ruthless determination to live a li... continue
274.
The Iron King by Maurice Druon EN
Description:
'This is the original game of thrones' George R.R. Martin From the publishers that brought you A Game of Thrones comes the series that inspired George R.R. Martin's epic work. "Accursed! Accursed! You shall be accursed to the thirteenth generation!" The Iron King - Philip the Fair - is as cold and silent, as handsome and unblinking as a statue. He governs his realm with an iron hand, but he cannot rule his own family: his sons are weak and their wives adulterous; while his red-blooded daughter Isabella is unhappily married to an English king who prefers the company of men. A web of scandal, mu... continue
275.
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak EN
Description:
Two teenagers, a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot, meet at a taverna on the island they both call home. The taverna is the only place that Kostas and Defne can meet in secret, hidden beneath the blackened beams from which hang garlands of garlic and chilli peppers, creeping honeysuckle, and in the centre, growing through a cavity in the roof, a fig tree. The fig tree witnesses their hushed, happy meetings; their silent, surreptitious departures. The fig tree is there, too, when war breaks out, when the capital is reduced to ashes and rubble, when the teenagers vanish. Decades later, Kostas ... continue
276.
The Island of Sea Women : A Novel by Lisa See EN
Description:
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “A mesmerizing new historical novel” (O, The Oprah Magazine) from Lisa See, the bestselling author of The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, about female friendship and devastating family secrets on a small Korean island. Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls living on the Korean island of Jeju, are best friends who come from very different backgrounds. When they are old enough, they begin working in the sea with their village’s all-female diving collective, led by Young-sook’s mother. As the girls take up their positions as baby divers, they know they are beginning a life o... continue
277.
Description:
The Juggler (La Jongleuse) is a "decadent" novel that was first published in 1900. Its author, Marguerite Eymery Vallette (1860-1953), who used the pseudonym Rachilde, was a prolific novelist (over sixty works of fiction), playwright, literary critic and reviewer, and a forceful presence in French literary society of her time. The protagonist of the novel, Eliante Donalger, is in some sense an exaggerated double for her creator--bizarre in appearance, clothing, and interests. Instinctively grasping a medical and psychological truth that the turn-of-the-century scientific world was only beginni... continue
278.
The Ladies' Paradise by Émile Zola EN
Description:
The Ladies' Paradise (Au Bonheur des Dames) recounts the spectacular development of the modern department store in late nineteenth-century Paris. The store is a symbol of capitalism, of the modern city, and of the bourgeois family; it is emblematic of consumer culture and the changes in sexual attitudes and class relations taking place at the end of the century. This new translation of the eleventh book in the Rougon-Macquart cycle captures the spirit of one of Zola's greatest works.
279.
The Last Day of a Condemned Man by Victor Hugo EN
Description:
Deeply shocking in its time, "The Last Day of a Condemned Man" is a profound and moving tale and a vital work of social commentary. A man vilified by society and condemned to death for his crime wakes every morning knowing that this day might be his last. With the hope for release his only comfort, he spends his hours recounting his life and the time before his imprisonment. But as the hours pass, he knows that he is powerless to change his fate. He must follow the path so many have trod before him--the path that leads to the guillotine.
280.
The Last of the Just by André Scwartz-Bart EN
Description:
The Goncourt Prize–winning novel of Jewish life and persecution from the twelfth century to WWII: “a powerful book—an eloquent and enduring testament” (Kirkus, starred review), On March 11, 1185, in the old Anglican city of York, the Jews of the city were brutally massacred by their townsmen. As legend has it, God blessed the only survivor of this medieval pogrom, Rabbi Yom Tov Levy, as one of the Lamed-Vov, the thirty-six Just Men of Jewish tradition, a blessing which extended to one Levy of each succeeding generation. In The Last of the Just, this terrifying and remarkable legacy is traced o... continue