Irish region known for the beauty of its landscapes, Connemara is also the title of the latest novel by Nicolas Mathieu who, in 2018, won the Goncourt prize for And Their Children After Them. The choice of the title of his final text refers to a song by Michel Sardou: Les Lacs de Connemara. A sort of leitmotif, this 1980s hit accompanies the characters of the novel in their daily struggles; it symbolizes an emotional bond with a familiar place (in this case, a small town in the eastern part o...
Anéantir – to reduce to nothing or plunge into a state of utter despair. It was not without reason that Michel Houellebecq chose this infinitive for the French title of his eighth novel; to revisit the fundamental law of nature – the progressive and inevitable degradation of the body that turns every living being to dust; to draw attention to the greatest taboo of the West - death - and thus plunge its readers into despair. We are indeed devastated by the omnipresence of themes related to the...
Deeply rooted in the South African reality of the past three decades, the last year’s Booker Prize winner, The Promise by Damon Galgut, is a story about an agricultural family, the Swarts, whose destiny unfolds to the rhythm of four consecutive funerals, political changes and a constantly returning question of an unkept promise once made by seriously ill Manie to her black servant Salome. At death’s door, she wishes for the decrepit tiny cottage situated on the other side of the rural propert...
