fiction - Anastasia Lester Literary Agency - Free

FICTIONFICTIONBEST-SELLERS 2013Ledig, Agnès: JUSTE AVANT LE BONHEUR(Albin Michel, May 2013, 344pages)Short-listed for the Prix Maisons de la PresseØ A subtle and delicate novel about a mother's courage and determination.Ø A life-lesson for anyone who has ever been about to give up on optimismØ An author who can be compared to the most successful novelists over the past few years, Anna Gavalda,David Foenkinos or Muriel Barbery.In this poignant novel, full of compassion and optimism, single mother Julie has to face her little boy'sdeath after a tragic car accident. Through this heartbreaking loss, she learns the importance of friendship.20-year-old Julie works in a supermarket to bring up her son Lulu on her own. When she meets 50-yearoldretired Paul, recently divorced, they progressively build a strong and reassuring friendship. Paul ends upasking Julie to join the trip he is about to take with his son Jerome, young doctor whose wife just commitedsuicide, to their family house on the Brittany coast. During this singular excursion, they learn to know each otherstep by step and start to heal their hearts, surrounded by Lulu's joyfulness.But on the way home, a car accident leaves the young boy in a deep coma. When Lulu dies, Julie findssome confort in Paul and Jérôme's support, but she also fell in love with Romain, her son's physical therapist. Asa life just ended, Julie refuses to let herself drown in sorrow and starts a new life. She gives us a lesson ofcourage, love and tenacity.Agnès Ledig started writing when her own son was in the hospital, diagnosed with leukemia. Shepublished MARIE D'EN HAUT (Les Nouveaux Auteurs, 2011), awarded with Femme Actuelle prize. JUSTEAVANT LE BONHEUR goes deeper into her favorite leitmotives: the complexity of the human soul and theability to bear the unbearable.Rights sold to : Italy (Mondadori), Israël (Kinneret), Suède (Forum),Korea (Prunsoop Publishers), Spain(Grijalbo) and Germany (DTV)Le Callet, Blandine: DIX RÊVES DE PIERRE(Stock, January 2013, 256 pages) 20 500 copies sold in France !Ø Poetic or raging, tender or dramatic, nostalgic or darkly humorous, these ten short stories depict peoplewho are prey to the same passions, the same fears and the same hopes.Ø Ten “dreams in stone” to save as many lives from oblivion.Ø Some epitaphs are powerfully evocative; reading them conjures the ghost of someone who may have diedeven centuries ago.In this collection Blandine Le Callet brings together real epitaphs, using them as springboards toimagine the final hours, final days or final months of the person’s life. She resuscitates a slave girl who has justbeen granted freedom, a philanthropist trapped in the stifling secrecy of a Paris brothel, two individuals united byan extraordinary love as they head for the gallows, a cantankerous old woman writing her will, and many morebesidesTen lives interrupted by death: gentle or violent, sudden or anticipated, alone or with others. Tenjourneys between the past and the present, from the shores of ancient Asia Minor to a tiny village in deepestBrittany, from the Paris of the Ancien Régime to the same city in the nineteenth century, from medievalNormandy to Ukrainian plains devastated by the plague...Contact: Mrs Anastasia Lester ; Email:anastassia.lester@free.fr 3