fiction - Anastasia Lester Literary Agency - Free

CONTEMPORARY UP-MARKET COMMERCIAL TRENDSLedig, Agnès: MARIE D'EN HAUT(Albin Michel, June 2012, 362 pages)Ø A love story interwoven with social issues.Ø An invigorating novel filled with both laughter and tears.Ø FEMME ACTUELLE magazine’s Reader’s Prize Grand Prix.Agnès Ledig’s first novel – a madcap romantic comedy featuring characters who have been hard hit bylife -- paints a novel portrait of contemporary society over a background of life on a farmOlivier, a grouchy cop, is new in town. When an investigation leads him to an isolated farm in themiddle of nowhere, the last thing he expects is to fall in love with the woman whose farm it is. Yet Olivier’susual boorishness melts away before Marie, an independent-minded, temperamental woman.Between hilarious verbal jousting and grotesque situations, the characters gradually learn to relax witheach other, overcoming their own fears and obstacles, and proving to be deeper than they seemed at first glance.The misanthropic policeman is an abandoned child who thinks he’s King Arthur; the solitary woman farmer – agifted child trying to find her father – writes haikus to overcome having been raped. Their mutual lucky charm isa farmer on the run who talks to his cows in iambic pentameter!A refreshing romantic comedy that queries society’s values: caring for your parents, becoming a parentyourself – whether you’re battered, lonely, misanthropic or homosexual.Born in 1972, Agnès Ledig is a midwife. She started writing after one of her three children died ofleukemia in order to find her way back to life’s simple pleasures. Her first novel, MARIE D'EN HAUT, hasalready enchanted readers in France. JUSTE AVANT LE BONHEUR, her new book, which came out earlier thisyear, has already been bought in several countries.Giraud, Brigitte: AVOIR UN CORPS(Stock, August 2013, 240 pages)Long-Listed for Goncourt Prize 2013Ø HAVING A BODY follows the trajectory of a girl growing into a woman, as told from the point of view ofher body, in all its modulations.As a child, she has to conform to the parameters laid down by her parents and by society as a whole,both of whom expect her to be a girl. As a teenager, she is an excited and apprehensive witness to her body’sevolving outline, its incarnation of female sexuality and its first steps towards seduction, inexorably drawntowards boys. Next comes passionate love, irresistible desire and a relationship experienced as delectablepleasure for the senses and consolation for all life’s shortcomings. Motherhood and living with a child aretremendous upheavals that produce a surge of energy but also of self-doubt and anxieties. In addition she has tomake room for work, to undergo a transition from the outside to the inside, and to cope with a new kind offormatting in a collective environment. Then the grieving process strips the body naked in this most extremesolitude.The narrator’s lucid insights are often funny and off-the-wall as she takes us on a journey through life,the adventures of an everyday existence with all its posturing and restraint, its seduction and sexuality, its workresponsibilities and motherhood, its exhilarations, bereavements and metamorphoses. A sensitive, intimate novelwhich reminds us that our minds and our bodies are constantly engaged in a close-knit yet enigmatic dialogue.Brigitte Giraud was born in Algeria and lives in Lyon. She has had seven books published by Stock,including L’AMOUR EST TRÈS SURESTIMÉ, winner of the 2007 Prix Goncourt for a novella, UNE ANNÉEÉTRANGÈRE (2009) and PAS D’INQUIÉTUDE (2011), which is currently being adapted for the small screenby France Télévision. She runs the “La forêt” list for éditions Stock.CONTEMPORARY UP-MARKET COMMERCIAL TRENDSFriedmann, Arnaud: LE TENNIS EST UN SPORT ROMANTIQUE(JC Lattes, September 2013, 250 pages)Ø A very contemporary coming-of-age novel, tender and softly cynical, served by cleverly writtencharacters.40Contact: Mrs Anastasia Lester ; Email:anastassia.lester@gmail.com