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RéTROViseuR collection RéTROViseuR collection
Type : Fiction
Cover : soft
Age : from 15 years old on
Format : 12 x 21 cm
The Rétroviseur (Rearview Mirror)
collection invites contemporary
authors to tell the story of a childhood
—autobiographical or not—in twenty-two
chapters, the ending marking the moment
when the main character realises that his
childhood has come to an end.
Our childhood composes, whether we
want it or not, the foundations of our
life. Nobody can steal it, nevertheless
it has been sad or happy. Even if our
childhood memories are distort by the
time, they remain marks for most of us.
We became aware of this specific time,
often privileged, when we enter in the
adulthood.
The Rétroviseur collection collect texts
of writters who accepted to work on this
topic. The last chapter must evoke the
moment where the protagonist decided
to leave his family in order to lead his
own adult life. He can also decided not to
leave it ! All literary forms are accepted.
This collection is a new step in our
publishing work, and allowed us to
increase our public. These books are
for everybody, even if we intend them
in priority to the young people who are
on the threshold of the adulthood. With
these severals travels in the past, we
wish to invite the reader to think about his
own childhood and incite him, why not,
to write.
The rear-view mirror allows, while looking
back, to move forward in security.
Doesn’t also the childhood with another
look allowed us to go on serenely ?
Francine Bouchet
Publisher
Temps interdits
Forbidden times
Author : Thérèse Aouad Basbous
Publication date : August 2009
Genre: autobiographical story
Number of pages : 96
Price : 12 €
Thérèse Aouad Basbous was born in Bhersaf (Lebanon) in 1934.
After finishing high school in Lebanon, she went to Paris where
she got a degree in modern literature at the Sorbonne. She
also studied Arabic literature at the Islamic Institute and got a
master’s degree in visual arts and contemporary sculpture at
Paris IV University. From 1968 to 1998, she taught Arabic and
French literature at the Lebanese University.
Poetess and playwright writing in Arabic and French, her works
are published in Beyrouth and in Paris by the L’Harmattan
publishing house.
Blurb
A little girl grows up on a hillside in Lebanon. Her father dies
before she turns ten; her mother, who became a widow too
early, will depart soon afterwards. Many things are left unsaid.
The girl goes to live with an uncle in another village. This childhood
broken up by hardships makes up a strange puzzle. For
her, time is broken up in this beautiful country torn by a war
she refuses to talk about. The tale can only be fragmentary:
the school lessons where reading is taught by distributing ruler
blows on pupils’ fingertips, the patiently kneaded bread, olive
oil and thyme, the parents’ faces. Between the lines, dramas
take root in this young life, sublimated by the girl’s need for
beauty. The language invents itself, becomes poetic in order to
match the sensitivity of the author.
Un amour à trois temps
A love in three-four time
Author : Antonio Ventura
Publication date : August 2009
Genre: autobiographical story
Number of pages : 256
Price : 17.50 €
Antonio Ventura was born in Madrid in 1954. He teached
from 1977 until 1993 and then became the collection
director of an important Spanish publishing
house. Since april 2009 he is in charge of the childrens
collection of Oxford University Press, Spain.
He is also a critic in children’s literature and created
in 2007 the review BLOC. He also paints and writes.
Blurb
Paris, 1979. Emilien, 11 years old, is the son of Spanish
immigrants who grows up in the Mouffetard area. His
boundless imagination turns the walk to school into a
fantastic journey during which each detail takes on a
magical meaning. He meets Alexandra, a girl his age.
He is overcome by new, contradictory and powerful
feelings to which he is unable to put a name. But
Alexandra soon must leave for Mexico, where her
father will undergo surgery. This story of first love ,
which unfolds itself in three-four time, will rest his
greatest ever.
The narrator, a precise and sensitive observer, rolls
around his memories as if they were pebbles being
polished. Under the aegis of Paul Eluard, it is a novel
of memories, pure hearts and a delightful freshness.
Mi-figue Mi raisin
Somewhat mixed
Author : Christophe Léon
Publication date : August 2009
Genre: autobiographical story
Number of pages : 224
Price : 17 €
Christophe Léon was born in 1959 and currently lives in
Dordogne where he devotes himself to writing. At the
frontier between genres, he follows a singular literary
path, with youth novels, a play and contemporary fiction.
He has been published by the Ecole des loisirs,
the publishing houses of Rouergue, Thierry Magnier,
and Alice et Oskar publishers.
Blurb
In this largely autobiographical novel, Christophe Léon
tells us about his colourful youth on both sides of the
Mediterranean sea: faint memories of a mythical Algeria
before its independence, which his parents will change
into a lost paradise once sent back to France; more
precise memories of his life in Saint-Tropez where the
family settles down, certain of its rights and centred on
itself. He tells us some funny and sardonic anecdotes
related to the daily exaggeration by which his parents
imposed themselves, writing a tale just as lush and
sincere.
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