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LONDON BOOKFAIR 2020

PLON & BELFOND

Florence MALETREZ

Rights Sales Manager

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PLON & BELFOND

Table of contents

FICTION5NON-FICTION15HIGHLIGHTS21VERY BEST31IN LOVE WITH39

FICTION

HOMO CRIMINALIS

English excerpts available

& HBO adaptation in process!

Frédéric LEPAGE

Thriller – Plon

9 april 2020 | 560 pages

A quadriplegic cop is assisted by a little monkey in both his personal life and his investigations.

Quadriplegic after being attacked by a criminal, Adam Leaf, 28, an NYPD cop, is cared for by Clara, a Helping Hands Capuchin monkey who has been trained to assist the severely disabled in his everyday life. But Clara suddenly starts to hate and persecute him. Adam wants to understand what’s going on in his furry enemy’s perverse mind. So he becomes an ethologist, and learns to decode animal behavior…

Adam Leaf decides then to apply the same interpretive framework to criminal affairs: he believes he can solve the most complex cases by analyzing the animal instincts deep inside us. But will his method reveal the murderer’s identity when the atrociously mutilated body of teen-aged Louise Geniusz is found in the Dakota, an apartment building that people say is cursed? Angelina, the woman he loves – and who also happens to be his supervisor – doesn’t think so. She believes that human beings are a mind and a soul more than anything else. The investigation will bring their relationship to the edge. Especially with Clara interfering between them, like an evil spirit.

“Homo criminalis” is currently being adapted as an 8-episode mini TV series.

Frédéric Lepage has written and produced hundreds of TV shows and documentaries. His books include novels, such as La Fin du septième Jour (The End of the Seventh Day), La Mémoire interdite (Forbidden Memory, Editions Robert Laffont), children’s literature, Le Camp des éléphants, La Malédiction de Mara (Mara’s Curse), Le Masque du serpent (The Serpent’s Mask) and Piège de sang (The Blood Trap, Editions Le Masque/Lattès), and several book-length essays. He also wrote and directed Sunny and the Elephant, an adventure film aimed at an international audience.

And The Living Around Her

Barbara ABEL

Thriller – Belfond

12 march 2020 | 448 pages

After a car accident, Jeanne, 29, has been in a coma for four long years. Her chances of emerging from it grow slimmer with each passing day. For months now, Dr. Goossens has been advising ending life support in the name of the recent end-of-life law Claeys-Leonetti which forbids therapeutic obstinacy. So when he calls Jeanne’s parents and her husband in for a meeting, Micheline, Gilbert and Jérôme know perfectly well what he’s going to say, and they’re dreading it. But it turns out that nothing had prepared them for what the doctor actually tells them. The unthinkable has happened. And the dilemma they have been confronted with is surreal…

Born in Belgium in 1969, Barbara Abel has always been passionate about both theatre and literature. She wrote her first play at age 23. She won the Cognac Prize for her first novel, L'Instinct maternel (Maternal instinct, Le Masque, 2002). Her books have been adapted for film and television, and translated into several languages. After Je sais pas (I Don’t Know, Belfond, 2016) and Je t'aime (I love you, Belfond, 2018),

Barbara Abel’s latest thriller has a remarkably tight plot, while also laying bare the psychology and the roller-coaster ride of emotions of the characters gravitating around the body of Jeanne, which is both inert and dramatically present, right up to the unexpected ending.

“Barbara Abel keeps readers on tenterhooks until the very last line of this novel that intertwines psychological tension and criminal suspense with a dash of humor, too.” (the Belgium version of the newspaper Marie-Claire)

I Don’t Want to Be Pretty

Fabienne PERINEAU

Novel – Plon

9 january 2020 | 217 pages

“Time to put your coat on.

I always do what I’m told, so I put it on.

You’re so pretty in that coat!

I hate that too.

If only I weren’t pretty, maybe none of it would have happened.”

The voice of a little girl who never stopped trying to reach her mother, to tell her the unspeakable… a woman who did everything to silence that voice…

Georgia should stay, she should cry. Cry for her mother. The mother from whom she hoped and waited for a word or a gesture for over 30 years. The mother for whom she now has to come, with her two children, to the Hôtel du Bord des Vagues, by the sea. She left her Valparaíso, her protective shelter, to join the family that knows nothing about what happened to her there when she was a child. But do they really want to know?

Fabienne Périneau is both an actress and a playwright.

She is also a novelist, the author of Un si long chemin jusqu'à moi (Such A Long Way to Me), published by the Denoël Editions, for which she received the 2016 Matmut First Novel Award.

At Worst, We’ll Love Each Other

Thierry COHEN

Psychological Novel – Plon


One day, Alice finds a rose on the landing in front of her door… It’s the beginning of a beautiful love story… but is it really one?

It’s a mystery, too, because Alice doesn’t know who is sending her flowers and making heartfelt declarations of love. A situation that’s as romantic as could be, but is also… a bit disturbing.

So the whole thing is like a romantic comedy full of humor… and doubts.

Between her female co-workers, who are happy to see Alice being courted, and her boss, who’s eager to fire her, Alice is on an emotional roller coaster: happy, despairing charmed, distraught. All these new overwhelming emotions which disturb her monotonous life are at the same time fantastic and upsetting. But aren’t there plenty of lonely hearts out there who would love to be carried away by such a romantic mystery?

Until the day when… everything skids out of control. When the dream turns into a nightmare. When, just like in a nightmare, the worst possible thing happens in the most unexpected way.

Thierry Cohen has written numerous best-sellers that have been translated into other languages, including Je le ferai pour toi (I’ll Do It for You), Si tu existes ailleurs (If You Exist Elsewhere), Si un jour la vie t'arrache à moi (If Life Ever Takes You Away from Me), Je n'étais qu'un fou (I Was Just A Madman), Avant la haine (Before Hatred), and more. His previous books have all been very successful both in France and abroad: J’aurais préféré vivre (I Would Rather Have Lived, 150,000 copies, 17 languages) Si tu existes ailleurs (If You Exist Elsewhere 13,000 copies), Si un jour la vie t'arrache à moi ((If Life Ever Takes You Away from Me, 11,000), and Je le ferai pour toi (I’ll Do It for You, 10,000).

My life after you

Liza AZUELOS

Novel – Belfond

7 may 2020 | 144 pages

When your last kid leaves the nest…

Alice, 52, has been separated from her husband for a year now, and her third and last child just left home. Like her older brothers, her daughter has gone off to college in a small town quite far from home. And as she was for the girl’s brothers, Alice is thrilled for her, because she knows that her daughter’s admission is the reward for years of hard work.

But even though she feels proud, Alice also feels abandoned. In the now too quite apartment, Alice is overwhelmed by sorrow. Fear of ageing heightens her distress. Worse, of ageing alone, an idea that has always terrified her, but that she can no longer escape. Alice is suffering from an intense case of empty-nest syndrome.

But day after day, Alice will learn that children leaving home is more than just a loss. It is time found to take care of her, to get to know herself. As one page turns, a new chapter opens for women who are willing to give themselves the opportunity.

Every successful woman is a woman who dared!

Lisa Azuelos is a director (LOL, Sweetheart), screenplay writer and producer. Committed to defending women’s rights, she edited the multi-author Ensemble contre la gynophobia (Together Against Gynophobia, Stock, 2016). She has also written several book-length essays and novels, including Bras blanc (White Arm, JC Lattès, 2005), Éloge du silence pendant l'amour (In Praise of Silence During Love, Plon, 2008) and Mon journal intime (My Diary, JC Lattès, 2009).

NUDES

Laure BECDELIEVRE

Novel – Plon


Posing nude while pregnant… being a woman who becomes a mother under other peoples’ eyes… becoming a mother when you’re estranged from your own mother… bringing life into today’s often cruel world …

Mathilde is a life model, a woman who poses nude: she spends entire days in her birthday suit, posing in art studios and schools. She performs her chosen profession with steadfast passion: it calms and fulfills her, despite the split with her mother that her decision led to 10 years ago.

Still, it’s a strange job when you get pregnant, and you have neither maternity leave nor any way to hide your changing body. From the day Mathilde learns she’s expecting, everything changes, both at work and at home. And her encounter with Mia, a strange young woman who takes classes at the studio where Mathilde models regularly, doesn’t make things any easier.

The fact is, in this crazy world where you can lose a friend to a Kalashnikov, it isn’t easy to get through your pregnancy naked.

A powerful debut novel about our relationship to our bodies and to nudity.

Born in Rennes in 1979, Laure Becdelièvre has directed a short (Mon Chien (My Dog), 2004) and had two book-length essays published: Nietzsche et Mallarmé (2008), which won the Académie Française’s 2009 Henri Mondor Prize, and Au creux des heures (In the Middle of the Hours, 2012). Nudes is her first novel.

PLUNK

Fabien HENRION

Novel – Plon


When modern art kills …

Harry Plunk is one of the world’s most famous art dealers, and one of the most feared as well. One morning, he gets on a train for London to attend the auction of some creations by David More, a well-known and free-spirited English artist. But the train goes off the rails. Stuck in an upside-down wagon, Harry looks back over the past year: his mother’s death, his faithful friends and those who didn’t hesitate to betray him, his mysteriously murdered shrink… And the questions arise.

What made the train derail? Who killed Harry’s therapist? And why can’t he remember his father’s first name? Ravaged by a terrible sadness lurking inside him, Harry destroys everything he touches, both people and objects. Harry, the dreaded terror of the art world, annihilates everything. Even himself?

Who can stop him? Who can get him out of there?

What if the train accident were actually the opportunity of a lifetime?

Fabien Henrion is a radio and television producer. He has also been editor-in-chief of “Le Grand Journal,” on Canal+, and has made several documentaries about art, dance and fashion. His first book, Teenage Lobotomy, was published in 2012.

My Heart Will Remain Frozen

Eric CHERRIERE

Thriller – Plon


Mama tried to kill me. I know she loves us, but when she looks at us, she sees how happy we used to be. Papa, my heart will remain frozen, and nothing and no one will ever capture it.

1917, in the center of France: Fleeing a mother who has slipped into madness, a little boy leaves his village to take shelter in the woods. He brings his older brother with him, a war veteran with severe injuries. Their father was sent to the front too, but he is reported missing.

1944: After a retaliation operation in a village in the center of France, German soldiers head into the woods in search of one of their units that has gone missing. They find nothing but traces of a massacre. Deep in a pine forest that has turned into a maze, lurks an enemy more formidable even than the Wehrmacht. Among the German recruits, a young corporal who was drafted away from his job as a French teacher is searching desperately for his brother. What takes place deep in that thick forest will change him forever.

Eric Cherrière, a screenplay-writer and documentary filmmaker in his 30s, cleverly avoids the pitfalls of a debut novel with this impressive and captivating masterstroke of page-turner that holds your attention until the totally unexpectedly, delightfully Machiavellian final scene. His powerful style really stands out, and the plot is both efficient and bold.

Born of the Night

Caroline AUDIBERT

Nature Writing – Plon


A poetical, naturalist and thoughtful novel with a young wolf as the narrator and main character. Through its eyes, a uniquely intimate relationship with fauna, flora, and mankind is revealed. An ode to the untamed life that allows us to see nature differently.

Exploring a new approach to nature writing, Caroline Audibert experiments with an untamed style. With invigorating and sensorial language, she invites us to abandon our human point of view and immerse ourselves deep into the heart of nature and its overarching cycles. A unique ode to the world as seen through the vigilant eyes of a furry predator.

Excerpt:

“Birth is as atrocious as death. They are both the beginning and the end of an exile. Birth, tired of plenitude, the night, responding to an imperious call. Beneath my stuck-shut eyelids, shadows yowl. Bewitching. Mother lifts me in her jaws, places me on her belly. Warmth, familiar folds, I recognize the downiness, the milk, I knead the fertile paunch.”

Caroline Audibert, journalist, is the author of several books about the Alps, as well as of Des loups et des hommes (Of Wolves and Men), in our "Terre Humaine" collection, for which she received the equivalent of the Goncourt Prize for nature writing. Powerfully affected by her life in a high-altitude shelter, she looks at nature from a thoughtful, philosophical standpoint, and enjoys exploring human beings’ relationship to their environment. Her core concern is ecology, in the sense of inhabiting the world with respect.

BAYA’S SECRETS

Hajar BALI

Novel - Belfond


Algiers in the present day…

Nour, 23, a math student, lives with his great-grandmother Baya, his grandmother Fatima, and his mother, Meriem, in a tiny apartment.

Baya, 95, was born during colonization. A courageous woman who defied the taboos and traditions of her era, she is the keeper of the family’s history, which she transmits to Nour day by day.

Suffocating in this all-female household, Nour tries to escape from it and to open himself to the world – and to love, which he finds with Mouna, a “disturbingly strange” young woman, who he meets through mutual friends.

Why does Mouna attract and affect him so? Is she really who she says she is? Nour will unwittingly find himself in the midst of an incredible tale of family revenge based on secrets that Baya had kept well-hidden.

The men of the family are practically absent from this novel, as though they had been erased by their own cowardice; through bad luck or fate, they have become anti-heroes.

Born in 1961, Hajar Bali lives in Algiers, where she teaches math at Bab Ezzouar University of Science and Technology. A playwright, she is the author of Rêve et vol d'oiseau (Bird’s Dream and Flight), a collection of plays (Barzakh, 2009), and Trop tard (Too Late), a short-story collection (Barzakh, 2014).

“With an elegant pen, Hajar Bali winds between different eras, using the lives of three generations of women to paint a portrait of Algeria bursting with unspoken torment. A fascinating and moving novel.” (by the newspaper Avantage)

Fluids

Alice MOINE

Novel - Belfond


This afternoon, Julie and her daughter Charlotte, 7, have decided to go to the municipal pool. The outing matters, because Julie and Charlotte don’t see each other much, as the little girl lives with her father.

Julie is looking forward to this special time with her daughter, but she’s worried too. Of putting on a bathing suit, of bumping into strangers in the pool, of not being able to cope. Of not knowing how to be a mother to her little Charlotte.

What has happened to this 30-something woman that is holding her back, keeping her body and heart from following its instincts? Julie has been struggling for three years now. And there isn’t the slightest chance that a dip in the municipal pool is going to change anything…

And yet, while Charlotte, who is learning to swim, does everything she can to impress Julie, an incident in the water will change both their relationship and their lives.

Alice Moine divides her time between writing and her job as a film editor for advertising, feature films and documentaries. She is the author of two previous novels, Faits d'hiver (Wintry Interest Story, Kero, 2015; Pocket 2017) and La Femme de dos (Woman Seen from Behind, Serge Safran, 2018).

“Synergy:” Les Fluides is also a short film currently in production that will be screened in festivals in 2020. Alice Moine wrote the screenplay at the same time as she was writing the novel. (With production assistance from the Occitanie region; while Julie is played by the actress Marie Denarnaud, who featured in Coline Serreau’s Chaos, Xavier Giannoli’s Les Corps impatients, Mélanie Laurent’s Plonger.)

“An instantly captivating tale told with subtlety and a feel for nuance " (by the newspaper Marie Claire)

NEFERTARI’S DREAM

Xavier-Marie BONNOT

Novel – Belfond


Could the great Queen Nerfetari have imagined, 3,300 years ago, the women of her country veiled, excised, and reduced to the status of second-class citizens?

Rodolphe, a young French archeologist, is obsessed by the splendors of ancient Egypt. On the riverbank of the dead, he explores the Valley of the Queens, with its buried treasure that keeps him from truly seeing today’s Egypt ; an Egypt now tormented by both a backwards-thinking form of Islam and by mass tourism.

On the other side of the Nile, on the riverbank of the living, live two Egyptian women, Noah and her childhood friend, Amina. One dreams of working as an archeologist and of the ancient Egyptian civilization becoming again a source of inspiration to her decadent country. The other is studying both medicine and Islam in order to serve her country, which is being plundered and exploited by the foreign powers it has fallen prey to.

When Rodolphe meets Noah and Amina, he realizes just how far Nerfertari’s dream is from the reality of her country’s young women…

Xavier-Marie Bonnot lives in Paris. A writer and documentary filmmaker, he is the author of, among other books, La Dame de pierre (The Stone Lady, Belfond, 2015, Best French-Language Novel Prize at the Cognac Festival; Pocket, 2016), La Vallée des ombres (The Valley of Shadows, Belfond, 2016), Le dernier Violon de Menuhin (Menuhin’s Last Violin Belfond, 2017) and Le Tombeau d'Apollinaire (Apollinaire’s Tomb, Belfond, 2018). Nefertari’s Dream is his eleventh novel.

And the Breath of the Gods Passes

Philippe SEGUY

Historical fiction – Plon


Ten feet are missing out of the 223 feet of the Bayeux Tapestry. But why? The mysterious solution is known only to the initiated. Whose incredible secret is revealed in this novel…

It’s the story of conquests. A war between two worlds that everything opposes: Christians versus pagans, William of Normandy versus Harold II, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England. Druids versus priests. In a novel that opens three years before Hastings, the battle that would change the face of the world, a century is brought back to life: the one following the year One Thousand, with its beliefs and rites, its code of honor often stained with blood.

It’s also the story of a young man, Odon de Rhys, 15, a page in the Court of William the Bastard, later the Conqueror. The connecting thread running through the book, he witnesses plotting and intrigues, and sees brazen ambition… Both daring and generous, he participates in conquering England, spies for his duke, falls in love, fights, defends himself, attacks, understands what’s at stake in the invasion of England and the changes coming in Normandy: while the Christians want to spread their faith, the druids refuse to renounce their ideals and seek a way to survive, transmitting their customs despite the hatred of William and his monks.

It’s a love story, too, between Odon and Hermine, between doubt and hope, passion and blood intertwined, one that will resort to theft and murder.

Last but not least, it is the tale of an enigma!

Philippe Séguy, writer and journalist, reporter for the magazine Point de Vue, has already written nearly two dozen historical or contemporary novels and biographies.

The Nicole Oresme Mystery

Pierre SQUARA

Historical fiction – Plon

27 february 2020 | 480 pages

A man and a woman whose lives cover three centuries are brought together by an extraordinary tapestry.

Early in the Vendée War (1793-1796), Marie de Russon, a young aristocrat who has fled for her life, is in the grip of despair. The discovery of an extraordinary tapestry offers her a way of escape from her hellish life. She focuses on the beauty of the work of art and on the underlying message she thinks it contains, which embodies the last manifestations of human decency in a world that has fallen into chaos and barbarism.

In the midst of war, her research, which leads her from Mauges to Angers and to Paris, brings her hope, and introduces her to Middle Ages that were far less Dark than she had believed: on the contrary, they were open-minded, creative and revolutionary! The tapestry’s message also turns out to have a greater importance than she had first guessed. Through it, she discovers the life of Nicole Oresme: fervent clergyman, true savant, ingenious and versatile genius, and friend and advisor to King Charles the Wise, who ruled from 1364 to 1380.

Marie learns about the start of the Hundred Years War. Above all, she learns about everything the 14th century offered to the fledgling French nation: a language and a currency, the outlines of a social contract.

Thanks to History and the example of Nicole Oresme, she finds the strength to believe, to hope, and to love.

A cardiologist and founder of the cardiology center at the Ambroise Paré Clinic in Neuilly, Pierre Squara is the author of La Danse des Curêtes (The Kuretes’ Dance, Ed Michalon, 2009) and Réanimer la politique (Reviving Politics, Éditions le Manuscrit, 2012,) republished by Harmattan in 2017.

NON-FICTION

We Are Our Own Best Doctor

55 000 copies sold!

Frédéric SALDMANN

Health – Plon


All the little things we should be incorporating into our daily routines if we would like to stay healthy for as long as possible.

A true health bible!

After the recent success of Vital, Dr. Frédéric Saldmann presents fascinating new research full of revelations and advices on what you can do every day to live better and longer.

Since lifestyle has a huge impact on both our equilibrium and our longevity, and since our energy, happiness and well-being depend not only on our health, but also on little things we might forget or not realize we should be doing every day, this book, which is based on hitherto unpublished medical research, will give readers all the cards they need for a winning hand: a happy and healthy life!

Both a cardiologist and a nutritionist specialized in healthy eating, Dr. Frédéric Saldmann, who works at the Pompidou Hospital, is a best-selling non-fiction author with over 3 million readers.

I was born in Bergen-Belsen

Yvonne SALAMON

Narrative Non-Fiction – Plon


Yvonne is now 76 years old.

She was born in the Bergen-Belsen camp and she spent her first six months there…

Hélène has died, but she left an extraordinarily intense text to her daughter, Yvonne, who is now 76 years old. Yvonne has responded to that powerful first-person testimony by probing history, interrogating her own identity, plumbing her personality… and revealing incredible family secrets.

This book describes the horrors of the Nazi concentration-camp system. But more importantly, it surprises and inspires us with the personal stories it develops within the larger historical context. By what miracle did some people manage to show the greatest humanity in the inhumane conditions in the camps? What sense of value could lead a mother and daughter imprisoned at the same camp to give up their treasure – a piece of chocolate – to an exhausted Hélène who was about to give birth in secret? And why didn’t baby Yvonne cry even once during the six months she was hidden in a barrack, not shouting until the camp was liberated? Can the survival instinct explain everything?

I was born in Bergen-Belsen reveals human beings’ most awful and contrasting aspects: their barbarity and their humanity.

Yvonne Salomon is a psychoanalyst. I was born in Bergen-Belsen is her first book.

Quiet for too long

33 000 copies sold!

Sarah ABITBOL & Emmanuelle ANIZON

Narrative Non-Fiction - Plon


The true story of a figure skating champion raped by her coach.

“You were my coach. I had just turned fifteen. And you raped me. It took thirty years for my hidden anger to finally turn into a public cry. You destroyed my life, Mr. O., while you quietly led yours. Today, I want to sweep away my shame, make her switch sides. But I also want to denounce the sporting world that protected you, and still protects you as I write these lines. When I wanted to talk, I was unable to do so for so long. Today, with this book, I'm out of this murderous silence. And I call on all victims to do the same.”

Sarah Abitbol is forty-four years old. Ten-time French pair figure skating champion, European runner-up and bronze medallist at the world championships, she is now a choreographer and coach. She shares her life between the United States and France, with her husband and their eight-year-old daughter.

Emmanuelle Anizon is a journalist for the newspaper L’Obs.

The phenomenal book which shook the sporting world and revealed a system where silence forbids all public speaking.

Who I am

Olivier GIROUD & Dominique ROUCH

Testimony - Plon

23 april 2020

Testimony of a footballer.

Olivier Giroud's career is far from obvious. Although he is now the third highest scorer of the French team, behind Michel Platini and Thierry Henry, he is regularly criticized in the press. When he was designated to replace Karim Benzema, the media and a large part of the public attacked him with a high level of animosity, while its legitimacy in the French team is constantly questioned.

This football enthusiast since childhood - he started playing at the Forges Olympique Club at the age of four – has always been willing to make all the sacrifices to fulfill and reach his dream of becoming a professional footballer. His education based on work, respect and humility, his strength of character, his family and his unwavering faith help him cope with adversity.

Usually so discreet, Olivier Giroud tells everything here without modesty: his childhood, the money, the notoriety, the Benzema affair, the permanent attacks on him... No subject is avoided and he takes us behind the scenes of a ruthless world.

At 33, the France striker is always hungry for victories and titles. And don't talk to him about the post-career: it's not of actuality.

Freedom is not a crime Shaparak SHAJARIZADEH

Testimony – Plon


The fight of a woman.

The Iranian Shaparak Shajarizadeh was sentenced in 2018 to two years in prison and 18 years of probation, for removing her veil in public and asking other women to follow her. “Ordinary” mother with an extraordinary courage, this 43-year-old woman became a leading character in the Revolution Street Girls' Movement in Iran protesting against the mandatory wearing of the hijab.

After walking down the street in May 2017, hair flying, her white scarf hoisted as a flag at the end of a stick, the activist was threatened, arrested, imprisoned and tortured. But she has to pay a high price for this magnificent symbolic act. Without complaining. Without lowering her head.

From her childhood in Iran to her painful exile in Canada through the horrors of her prison term, Vivre libre tells the story of the extraordinary fate of an amazing fighter, Shaparak Shajarizadeh, honored in 2018 by the BBC as one of the 100 most inspiring women in the world.

Rima Elkouri is a Canadian journalist and author. Winner of the Jules Fournier Prize of the Superior Council of the French Language of Quebec, she is interested, among other things, in issues related to women's rights around the world, whether in the wake of the Arab Spring in the Middle East, the movement #MeToo in Canada or the migration crisis in Europe. In 2014, she published the collection Pas envie d’être arabe (I don’t want to be Arab, Somme toute editions) which brings together her best work created between 2000 and 2014. She has also collaborated on several collective works.

ISIS’s Victories

Marie DOSE

Sociology Essay – Plon


What will happen to the wives and children of jihadists who are currently being held in Syrian camps? A lawyer is fighting to defend them and their families so they don’t become the new terrorists…

Judges are obsessed with taqiya (a technique which consists in dissimulating or denying your religious beliefs and practices) and see a “soldier of God” sleeping inside everyone who almost joined ISIS, but changed their mind at the last minute. This leads to inappropriate criminal measures: incarcerated alongside those they fled, these young men are easy preys to ISIS; seen as potential terrorists, some of them are bound to make those predictions come true.

Other victims: the French women and children being held in camps in Western Kurdistan (Syria) since the fall of Baghouz, ISIS’s last bastion.

In daily contact with those women and children, Marie Dosé, a lawyer, witnesses their exhaustion and poor health, their traumatisms, wounds and disappearances, the epidemics and fires.

This book is composed around a series of portraits: those who tried to go to Syria, but gave up; those who were arrested while they were trying to leave; those who have fled ISIS, and finally, those who are waiting in Syria, prisoners of the Kurdish forces there.

Lawyer at the Bar of Paris since 2001, Marie Dosé is specialised in criminal justice cases. Part of the victim’s counsel of the Karachi’s attack in 2002, she is known in particular for being the lawyer of the minister Rober Boulin’s family, of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, murdered in 1996, or of the members of the group “Tarnac”. She is also the writer, with Pierre-Marie Abadie, of Cour d’assises : quand un avocat et un juré délibèrent (Criminal Court : When a lawyer and a Juror deliberate, Dalloz, 2014).

Doctor at the Morgue

Michel SAPANET

Narrative Non-Fiction – Plon


Morgue Chronicles

A businessman found hanged with a bullet in his brain on top; a woman in an eye-catcher outfit strangled in her bathroom; a faceless corpse found near a railroad track; a homeless man stabbed 76 times then burned… Dr. Sapanet’s autopsy table at the University Hospital in Poitiers is never empty for long.

Every year, his team of experts handles over 450 cases of suspicious or criminal deaths, and performs 280 autopsies at the request of the courts. Tortured bodies, putrefied corpses, bodies with missing pieces are all mysteries that Dr. Sapanet tries to explain in this book.

His narration, accurate and objective, allows readers to immerse themselves in the day-to-day work of a forensic-medicine office for about thirty cases. That day-to-day work includes crime-scene investigations – some in the middle of the night-, autopsies, crime reconstructions and court audiences, as well as strong moments when they are called in to examine survivors of daily violence...

A coroner and forensic-medicine specialist since 1987 and a frequent expert witness, Dr. Michel Sapanet runs the Forensic Medicine Institute of Poitou-Charentes, a department of Poitou University Hospital. He is the author of three books: A Coroner’s Chronicles, New Coroner’s Chronicles and More Coroner’s Chronicles. All three are best-sellers (with an average of 30,000 copies sold).

Hurry up!

The New Tyrannies of the Now or the Need to Slow Down

Jonathan CURIEL

Sociological Essay – Plon

6 february 2020 | 352 pages

Fed up with the need for speed! Let’s learn to name it and tame it!

Quick. Everything goes too fast in a society that glorifies the present moment as intensely as it forgets it. Everybody has to go fast, to save time, not to waste it or kill it, no more waiting for anything. The need for speed is imposing an ever-more unsettling acceleration of our lifestyles. Politics, economics, business, society, media, human relations: we no longer live for anything but the present moment, and feel endlessly overwhelmed, subjected to the diktat of immediacy. Politics focusses on rapid reforms and the short-term rather than the long; economic decisions are made under the immediacy constraint, because the globally economy would supposedly collapse otherwise; instant messaging and hook-up sites are symbolic of ever-more expeditious human relations; our very identities are disrupted by that speed, which doesn’t allow us to provide our personalities with long-term continuity.

Through a multidisciplinary approach, this book accepts the challenge of analyzing the new tidal wave of immediacy and its manifestations in our daily lives. A tidal wave so powerful and overwhelming that it has created a new gap between the fast people and the slow ones; between the winners, who are open to globalization, and the close-minded losers; between those who impose speed and those who endure it.

A gripping and dynamic journey through the heart of our instantaneous society and how it works. Quick! offers new reflections drawn both from recent events and from the zeitgeist, while indicating escape routes from this new tyranny of the immediate.

A graduate of both ESSEC and Sciences Po, Jonathan Curiel, 38, started his career as an economic project manager at the French Mission to the UN in New York. After four years as Managing Director of the TV station Paris Première, he went on to become Deputy Director of the station M6, then Deputy Director for news shows and documentaries for M6/W9/6ter. He has written two books published by Fayard: Génération CV (CV Generation and Le Club des pauvres types (The Losers’ Club).

HIGHLIGHTS

A Topology of the Heart

85 000 copies sold & translated in 16 countries! translations!

Françoise SAGAN

Fiction – Plon

19 september 2019 | 224 pages

The posthumously released novel of Françoise Sagan!

“[…] there are so many stages in mourning. Since its cruelty, its daily banality that leaves you dazed at first, and later awakened and subjected to all the indifference, commonly called "discretion", of the closest and the farthest ones.

To all that leaves us astray, almost bored, but which gradually mixes you with life again and which is not part of the mourning: the unfolding and the changes of the days, the moments which succeed one another without he or she, without both of you. And it's not the certainty of another being, of another story and of another happiness that keeps you alive, but simply, perhaps, "the tough desire to last" as Paul Eluard speaks about - that was born with you, between your mother's legs and keeps you existing.

At that moment, it is the mourning of yourself that must be endured, a contempt without memory, even that of happy days. It is this perpetual and black scorn of yourself - that machine of suffering- which becomes at night, a groaning beast under the sheets, and at daylight an anonymous face, which represses its tears. You resist, you fight, and melancholy helps you like a facade and banality.

A vague respect surrounds the whimpering puppet we became and that makes us respectable and sometimes even attractive to others. But if this other one is interested in you enough, in your grief and in your refusal, if your refusal, precisely, does not humiliate him too much and if this other one knows that a beaten heart is still a beating heart, then all can become a window open on a terrace by a beautiful autumn afternoon. Then the first leaf on your cheek is no longer a slap of the past but an unimaginable happiness, suddenly irrefutable, incomprehensible. Happiness whatever the name you give it. […]”

Rights sold to:

Germany (Ullstein), Italy (Solferino-RCS Libri), Netherlands (Meulenhoff), Spain (Lumen), China (Shanghai Translations), Korea (Minumsa), USA (Amazon Crossings), Romania (Polirom), Russia (Azbooka), Latvia (Zvaigzne), Slovakia (Slovensky), Czech Republic (Nakladatelstvi), Croatia (Meandar Media), Serbia (Laguna), Estonia (Tanapaev) & Japan (Kawade).

The Little King of the WorldPhilippe AMAR

Rights sold in 3 countries!

Fiction - Plon

2 may 2019 | 469 pages

A young teen lives in a foster home. Will he be adopted someday? To find the mother of his dreams, this violin fanatic creates a false profile on a dating site, passing himself off as an adult. Will the destiny he dreams of come true? The perfect beach novel, bursting with humanity and happiness.

Victor, 12 years old, was abandoned at birth by a woman whose name he has no way of learning. At a very young age, he was placed with “Tata,” a woman who raises him as if he were her own son. Along with his friends David and José, Victor live a normal life for a boy his age: middle school, violin lessons – his true passion – and sessions with Maya, his social worker. But Tata’s health is declining, so when Social Services starts flipping through a “catalogue,” to find new parents for him, Victor decides to take matters into his own hands, and to find himself a “Mom” on his own!

With the help of his, friends, he creates a false profile on a dating site. His heart is soon set on “Lily from Les Lilas,” a woman who, in his opinion, would make a perfect mom. But although she’s touched by the boy’s request, Lily, a pastry chef in a 5-star hotel, has absolutely no intention of adopting anyone. …But it would take more than that to discourage Victor! Determined to do everything he can to convince her, he tries out a thousand ploys to achieve his goal...

A TV and movie scriptwriter, in 2013, Philippe Amar’s Tous les rêves de ma vie (Every Dream I’ve Ever Had, currently being adapted for television) was published. To write this new book, Philippe Amar studied adoption procedures for children who had been handed over to Social Services, as well as immersing himself in the world of pastry-making by taking a 3-month class at Lenôtre School, and finally, meeting with both professional violinists, and students and teachers at a Conservatory.

Rights sold to:

Germany (Verlags), Italy (Garzanti) & Spain (Grijalbo).

50 000 copies sold & translated in 3 countries!

Nobody Dies of LoveGéraldine DALBAN-MOREYNAS

Fiction - Plon

22 august 2019 | 208 pages

She is a 30-year-old journalist. She has just moved into a very stylish loft close to the Canal Saint Martin in Paris with her boyfriend. They are due to marry in June, on the 26th, to be precise. Their families have booked the date in their diaries and everyone is looking forward to it.

He is also 30 years old. He has just moved into a very attractive apartment on the second floor of building B with his wife and their little girl, who still can’t walk. He is a consultant for a talent agency. Every summer they go on holiday to Brittany.

They bump into each other for the first time one Sunday in November at the street entrance. It’s raining. She sees him arriving as a silhouette against the light, and she feels her whole body go tense. He looks at her as he approaches and is awkward as he says hello.

Later on, they agree that it was doubtless at that instant that it all began.

Géraldine Dalban-Moreynas began her career as a journalist before setting up her own PR agency. On her Instagram @geraldinefromlabutte page, she posts pieces about her daily life that are now followed by 40,000 people. On ne meurt pas d’amour is her debut novel, for which she received the First Novel Prize.

Rights sold to:

Brazil (L&PM), Germany (Verlags) & Spain (Grijalbo).

You See Best with Your Heart Marie DOYLE

Film adaptation in process!

Narrative Non-Fiction - Plon

30 september 2018| 312 pages

The surprising story of Maria Doyle, an Irish girl from a poverty-stricken family, who loses her eyesight at age 9 and decides then and there that she won’t let her handicap keep her from making all of her dreams come true.

Told in her own lively, often very direct style, this is the incredible tale of a little Irish girl from a poor family who loses her eyesight at age 9… and decides then and there that that won’t keep her from making all of her dreams – even the wildest ones – come true!

With her mother, who managed to withstand the worst of 1960s Ireland – the virtual prison-homes in which unwed mothers were placed – as a role model, Maria is hardly the type to give up in despair. At age 10, after running away from the school for the blind where she feels like she’s suffocating (and making the over 20-mile journey home on her own), Maria eventually manages to get a starring role in a musical, to represent her country in the Eurovision contest and to go on tour in the USA, until a producer who was furious that she spurned his advances put an end to her musical career. Elected “one of the 10 most beautiful women in Ireland,”

Maria Doyle recounts her surprising love affairs with a Swedish pop star and a Mormon missionary. And since she wants children, and tends to go whole hog at whatever she does, Maria has 7 children in 15 years. How do you raise such a large family when you’re blind? With an appealing sense of humor, Maria describes her atypical, to say the least, life as a homemaker. And shows that anything is possible if you really want it.

Luminous, droll and touching, Maria shares the choice that changed her life: rather than letting sickness overwhelm her, or crying over her fate, she decided to do whatever she had to do to make her dreams come true. If she can do it, despite being blind, surely we can too?

Born in Ireland in the 60s, Maria Doyle participated in her first talent show at age 5. Four years later, she lost her eyesight, but that didn’t stop her from going to the USA to pursue her musical training. In 1985, at age 20, she represented her country at the Eurovision contest. After starring in a musical comedy, selling thousands of records and giving hundreds of concerts, she married a Frenchman and went to live in Lorraine, where she raises her 7 children, all talented musicians. In 2016, she was a finalist at the Voice in Ireland and this year, she will try to win the Voice in France.

Wartburg 1210Jean D’AILLON

15 000 copies sold!

Fiction - Plon

18 april 2019

A new mystery for the famous Medieval hero, Guilhem d'Ussel, troubadour knight, to investigate.

1209: The Crusaders’ Army has just taken Béziers and slaughtered its inhabitants, without distinction between the heretics and the faithful. Guilhem d'Ussel, a knight whose castle has already been put to the sack by his enemies, fears that terror, plunder and violence will now reign supreme in the region around Toulouse. So he decides to leave his fiefdom and lead his people to safety on the other side of the Kingdom of France. He knows the journey will be perilous on account of highway robbers, greedy barons and bands of Crusaders heading south. Still, it never crossed his mind that among the latter, he would encounter German knights he vanquished fifteen years before, and who thirst for revenge.

When Guilhem leaves for Warburg Castle in Thuringia in order to see his friend, the minnesinger Wolfram of Eschenbach once again, his enemies will be in hot pursuit. But he will soon realize that neither Emperor Othon’s cunning knights, nor the snow or the packs of hungry wolves are his most dangerous adversaries. The worst threat comes from Goslar’s witches – the most terrifying of whom sacrificed her own daughter-in-law, Blancheflor, because of how beautiful she was – who are gathering for Walpurgis night.

Born in 1948, with a Ph.D. in economics and the Literature from Provence Grand Prix for the body of his work, Jean d'Aillon lives in Aix-en-Provence and writes detective novels set in France in different historical eras. He is the author of several successful series, including La guerre des trois Henri (The War of the Three Henrys), Les aventures de Guilhem d'Ussel, chevalier troubadour (The Adventures of Guilhem d'Ussel, Troubadour Knight), Les chroniques d'Edward Holmes et Gower Watson (The Chronicles of Edward Holmes and Gower Watson) and Les enquêtes de Louis Fronsac (Louis Fronsac’s Investigations).

Jean d’Aillon’s former best with 15 000 copies sold:

The Great FireJean D’AILLON

Fiction - Plon

15 march 2018

The Parisian notary Louis Fronsac is a private-eye for the richest, most important people in the Kingdom of France during the reign of Louis XIV.

Plants’ Hidden Emotions

Didier VAN CAUWELAERT

Non-Fiction - Plon

22 november 2018 | 276 pages

As incredible as it may seem, plants are capable of feeling a wide range of emotions. What’s more, it has been recently shown that they also know how to share what they’re feeling in ways that range from simple to extraordinary. This book provides proof that nature is talking to us constantly. We just have to learn to listen.

Plants do demonstrate intelligence, sensitivity and even a form of telepathy that can be measured with scientific instruments. As extraordinary as they are, every single revelation contained in this book has been observed by scientists. Didier van Cauwelaert, who in addition to the Goncourt Prize, has won awards for his popular-science writing, discussed some of these amazing discoveries with the world’s greatest botanists and anthropologists. Nature is constantly talking to us. We just have to learn to listen.

Didier van Cauwelaert is both an award-winning and a best-selling author. Prix Del Duca for his first novel, in 1982; Goncourt and Nimier Prize winner, he has also been awarded the Prix de la Vulgarisation Scientifique (Popular Science Writing Prize) for his 2002 book L’apparition. His most recent books include I Lost Albert (Albin Michel, 2018), The Dictionary of the Impossible (Plon, 2014), The New Dictionary of the Impossible (Plon, 2015) and Beyond the Impossible: Tesla and Me (Plon, 2016).

Rights sold to:

Italy (Giangiacomo), Korea (Alchimist).

Through Animals’ Eyes Aline RICHARD ZIVOHLAVA

Non-Fiction - Plon

2 may 2019 | 216 pages

What if we humans invited ourselves into animals’ lives? We think we know animals well, but we are actually far off the mark, as can be seen by the new discoveries in terms of animals’ capacities, intelligence and knowledge that scientists are discovering every day. A fascinating summer read.

This book describes the lives of 12 different animals, 12 of our companions on the planet, 12 characters whose evolution, biology, skills and cognitive capacities are truly remarkable. Each story is told, insofar as possible for a representative of the human species, from the animal’s point of view. But anthropomorphism doesn’t prevent empathy and scientific investigation based on the most recent research into animal biology and behavior. So come meet Jurassic octopuses, wild boars of Berlin, mosquitos from the London Tube, Quiqui the dog exposed to shrapnel in Verdun, Oscar the cat who lay down on the bed of the dying, and T. Gondii, a manipulative brain parasite. A fascinating bestiary!

Aline Richard Zivohlava is a science journalist for the website The Conversation - France. A television-documentary filmmaker, teacher at the Practical Journalism Institute, and contributor to Figaro Santé, she was the managing editor of the monthly magazine La Recherche (Research) for several years. She is the author of Cobayes humains, les secrets de l'expérimentation médicale (Human Guinea Pigs: The Secrets of Medical Experimentation) published by Editions La Découverte.

Rights sold to:

China (Shangaï translations).

Turn your Brain Into your Best Ally! Pr. Jean-Michel OUGHOURLIAN

Non-Fiction - Plon

14 november 2019 | 189 pages

Misunderstandings, temper flare-ups, jealousy, rivalries and conflicts can poison our daily lives. Professor Oughourlian, a neuro-psychiatrist and the father of “mimetic” psychology, gives you the keys for defusing conflicts through the unsuspected powers of our three brains…

Life isn’t a bowl of cherries. It’s more like California during a drought: the slightest spark can trigger devastating fires. Misunderstandings turn into rivalries and then teeth-baring hatred, jealousy poisons our brains, conflicts make our daily lives miserable. Yet those fires can be put out: our brains are capable of doing that. As long as we have the user’s guide… A disciple of René Girard, with whom he co-authored the best-selling Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, Professor Jean-Michel Oughourlian, neuro-psychiatrist, is the “father” of mimetic psychology, which is founded on neurological research using medical imaging. Our “brain”? We actually have three, which are constantly interacting. Understanding how they work gives us precious keys for defusing all those rivalries that ruin our lives.

This book is meant to be practical above all: it’s a scientific self-help book with lots of concrete examples, both from daily life and from Professor Oughourlian’s clinical practice, and from research laboratories.

A neuro-psychiatrist and a psychologist, Professor Jean-Michel Oughourlian defined mimetic psychology and has been practicing through the prism of that concept for 50 years. The discovery of mirror neurons offered spectacular corroboration of his theory. Close to René Girard, with whom he co-authored Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World (Grasset, 1978/Stanford University Press, 1987), he has also written numerous books of his own, including Le troisième cerveau (The Mimetic Brain, Michigan University Press) and Cet autre qui m’obsède (“The Person I’m Obsessed With,” Albin Michel).

Pop & Psy

Jean-Victor BLANC

Non-Fiction - Plon

10 october 2019 | 181 pages

In this veritable pop guide to modern psychiatry (and vice versa), Dr. Jean-Michel Blanc sheds new light on key pathologies and describes mental health in a more positive way, one that corresponds more closely to his daily medical practice. When pop stars and TV shows help us understand mental disorders better…

The representation of psychological disorders in popular culture is both erroneous and paradoxical. On the one hand, troubled stars’ disorders have a certain power of fascination (Britney Spears’s popularity was never as high as when she shaved her head in front of a horde of paparazzi), and people with mental disorders are popular subjects in books, films and TV shows. On the other, those disorders inspire fear, and their often terrifying representations in art are taken at face value.

As a young psychiatrist used to see a lot of Millennials amongst his patients, Dr. Blanc includes pop-cultural reference in his practice, making his misunderstood field more accessible to a wide audience.

Both pop and serious, scientific and entertaining, Dr. Jean-Victor Blanc focused his personal research on the struggle against the discrimination that people with mental disorders still face.

A psychiatrist in Paris, Jean-Victor Blanc specializes in addictions among Millennials, and patients with bipolar disorder. A huge fan of pop culture, he gives conferences on “Pop Culture and Psychiatry” whose goal is to reduce the stigma surrounding mental disorders.

VERY BEST

The ConfidantHélène GREMILLON

300 000 copies sold & 20 translations!

Fiction - Plon

26 august 2010 | 267 pages

1975. After her mother’s death, Camille receives a letter from an unknown correspondent. Every week new letters arrive, further weaving a tale that began thirty years earlier, at the beginning of the war, until the last one reveals a dreadful secret that directly concerns her.

Paris, 1975. Sifting through the letters of condolence after her mother’s death, Camille discovers a strange missive sent by someone she does not know. She thinks it is probably an error. But then, every Tuesday, a new letter arrives, progressively recounting a tale of two impossible loves, four broken destinies, until the final denouement destroys everything in its inevitable path. Little by little, Camille begins to piece together the puzzle and is shocked to realize that this story has a direct bearing upon her own life.

Alternating Camille’s story and the mysterious letters from the unknown correspondent, the author transports us to the years between 1939 and1943. A highly original first novel that blends historical novel and psychological suspense with brio and virtuoso literary style.

Hélène Grémillon is 32 and has graduate degrees in literature and history. She worked in advertising and as a programming assistant in television before becoming a journalist at Le Figaro. Le Confident is her first novel.

"Hélène Grémillon's talent bursts forth in this first novel, as much by the style as the historical details and the suspense that persists up to the very last paragraph." (the newspaper Le Nouvel Observateur)

Rights sold to:

North America (Penguin USA), UK, Australia & New Zealand (Text Publishing), Germany (Hoffman und Campe), Sweden (Bonnier), Italy (Mondadori), Spain (Random House), Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Israel (Keter), Russia (Ast), Norway (Aschehoug), Finland (Otava), Denmark (People’s Press), Iceland (Bjartur), Poland (Albatros), Serbia (Alnari), Croatia (Alfa Zg), China (Yilin Press), Hungary (Geo-Pen), Brasil (Paz & Terra), Korea (Enhaeng Namu), Romania (Humanitas), Japan (Hayakawa Publishing), Greece (Gema), Turkey (Can Yayinlari) & Czech Republic (Vydavatelstivi Vikend).

I’d Rather Have LivedThierry COHEN


Fiction - Plon


The startling destiny of a young man who dies for love, only to find himself lost somewhere between the afterlife and the world of the living. A philosophical tale.

On his twentieth birthday, Jeremy declares his passion to the love of his life. And is rejected. In the depths of his despair, Jeremy decides that God, the giver of life, is responsible for his pain; in an irrevocable gesture, he takes his life, challenging the God he feels has tricked him.

Against all odds, he survives. As he wakes up, suddenly, Victoria, his beloved, is right there, overcome with love. Deliriously happy, Jeremy lives through a day of bliss, refusing to seek any answers as to how this miracle happened. That night, overtaken by a strange torpor, he sinks into a deep sleep. When he wakes, a year has passed and Victoria is carrying his child.

This is only the beginning of an infernal cycle. Every year Jeremy comes to on his birthday, and every year he discovers some new disaster in his life, for while he hibernates for the year, another Jeremy, this one unbearably cruel and egotistical, has taken his place and wreaked havoc. His alter ego remains a stranger, but it is he, in fact, who is leading “their” life, and Jeremy is helpless. Behind this inexplicable and uncontrollable mechanism is a haunting question: where is the line between dream and reality? Or life and death? Is Jeremy insane, victim of a sort of selective amnesia, or cursed by the God he has defied?

Head of a communications company, Thierry Cohen lives in Lyon. J’aurais préféré vivre is his first novel.

Rights sold to:

Germany (BTB Verlag – Random House), USA (Amazon), Spain (Ediciones B), Italy (Edizioni Piemme), Poland (Bertelsmann Media), Russia (Azbooka), China (Thinkingdom Media Group), Korea (Balgunsegang), Hungary (Ulpius Haz), Serbia (Laguna), Turkey (Dharma), Taiwan (Business Weekly Publications) & Vietnam (Nha Nam).

His latest novel:

At Worst, We’ll Love Each Other

Thierry COHEN

Psychological Novel – Plon


One day, Alice finds a rose on the landing in front of her door… It’s the beginning of a beautiful love story… but is it really one?

From My Land to the EarthSebastião SALGADO


& Isabelle FRANCQ

Biography - Plon

5 september 2013 | 178 pages

The exclusive reflections of Sebastião Salgado, one of the greatest photographers alive today, on his militant commitment to the preservation of the planet. A hymn to nature, beauty, and the beauty of nature.

Sebastião Salgado’s photographs are famous worldwide. His black and white photos, his portraits of the anonymous, especially workers or refugees, are renowned for their incandescent use of light, their power, and the natural dignity their subjects express.

In 2013, after eight years of reportage, he put together a show with “Genesis”, a series of exhibitions in Europe, Brazil, Canada and the United States featuring places on the planet that still remain untainted by industrialization. A hymn to nature. His landscapes, his portraits of animals, of men and women who live far from modern civilisation always evoke the same moving humanism.

In this book, Sebastião Salgado talks for the first time about his militant commitment and his convictions as a photographer, not with images, but with words. Reliving the history of his photo-reportages in over a hundred countries and his personal history, we follow him from Brazil to Paris where he created the Amazonas Images agency with his wife, Lélia Wanick Salgado. He tells of their work on long-term reportages that covered years, becoming the subject of exhibitions, books, and publications in the international press, and of his love for photography. He takes us on a journey covering the world he crisscrosses over and over again, to contemplate, to understand, and to reveal his reflections.

Born in Brazil in 1944, Sebastião Salgado lives in Paris. With a degree in economics, he worked at the Organisation international du café before becoming a photographer. Member of Sygma, Gamma and then Magnum photo agencies, he founded Amazonas Images in 1994 with his wife, Lélia Wanick Salgado. Together, they also created the Terra foundation, devoted to replanting the Brazilian forest.

Rights sold to:

Brasil (Editora Schwarcz), China (China Photographic Publishing), Korea (Solbitkil), Germany (MG Medien Verlags GmbH), Spain (La Fabrica), Greece (Stereoma), Italia (Roberto Koch Editore), Japan (Kwade Shobo Dhinsha), Portugal (Caracter), Russia (Ripol Classic), Turkey (Everest Publication) & Taiwan (Ecus Publishing House).

Man, nakedMarc DUGAIN


& Christophe LABBE

Non-Fiction – Plon & Robert Laffont


The black book of the digital revolution.

Orwell’s 1984 depicted a violent dictatorship. If not as brutal, the advent of a world ruled by Big Data in the next few decades will be no less ominous. The demise of Greek philosophy is coming, and with it the end of an era for humanity.

The digital revolution, triggered by the Internet, led to the advent of monstrous entities, the Big Data (Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, etc.). These date empires gather zillions of data reports daily and share them with the American intelligence services.

Soon, the association between the Big Data and intelligence services will be more powerful than all countries of the world collectively. This supremacy of data will sound the death knell for each individual’s privacy. Yet, there is no escaping this downward spiral.

Christophe LABBE is Director of investigation reporting at the weekly magazine Le Point. He is an expert on intelligence services, police and security issue. He is the author of Bienvenue Place Beauvau (Welcome at the Beauvau Place, Robert Laffont 2017) and L’Espion du Président (The President’s Spy, Robert Laffont, 2012).

Rights sold to:

China (Shanghai Scientific & Technical), Korea (Bookie Publishing House), Germany (Audible), Taiwan (Rye Field Publications), Italy (Enrico Damiani Editore), Morocco (Centre Culturel du Livre) & Japan (Chikuma Shobo).

The Transhumanism RevolutionLuc FERRY


Non-Fiction - Plon


How biotechnology, collaborative economy and the uberisation of the world will revolutionize our lives.

Enabling the reader to understand and become aware of the exact nature of the economic, scientific and medical revolutions currently underway, as well as the ethical, spiritual and metaphysical changes that they induce.

The transhumanist revolution is not science fiction: biotechnology is already able to modify our species in a potentially irreversible way, as it has done for many years to “GMO” corn, rice and wheat. In this context, ideology has developed in the United States, with its prophets and experts, named “transhumanism”. It is a powerful movement supported by companies such as Google, and it has its own research centers, as prestigious as they are financially successful.

The same is true of the new technologies – nanotechnology, processing of “big data” circulating on the internet, biotechnology, robotics and artificial intelligence. Regarding this revolution, our watchword must be “regulation”, in order to set limits that are intelligent and judicious, if we can. These technologies have two characteristics that allow them to easily evade ordinary democratic processes: they develop at breakneck speed and understanding them is extremely difficult, mastering them even more so. Not only is the scientific and theoretical knowledge required to grasp them far beyond the limited reach of political and public opinion, but the economic power behind them is huge, not to say excessive.

Philosopher, former Minister of Education, Luc FERRY is the author of numerous bestsellers, including (published by Plon) Apprendre à vivre (Learning to Live, 2006), La Sagesse des mythes (The Wisdom of myths, 2008), La Révolution de l’amour (The Revolution of love, 2010) and L’Innovation destructrice (Destructive innovation, 2014).

Rights sold to:

China (China South Booky), Turkey (Kultur Yayinlari), Bulgaria (Colibri), Spain (Allianza), NL (De Arbeiderspus), Brazil (Manole).

IN LOVE WITH

Do you want to fall in love?

« The surprising encounter of a meticulous and erudite dictionary with the frivolity and ingenuity of love » | LA CROIX

« One has to sort out his intimate attic, dismiss the word ‘dictionary’ for once, and make room for Love » | DENIS TILLINAC – author of an In Love with France

An Islands Lover’s Dictionary

Hervé HAMON

Non-Fiction – Plon

2 april 2020

A Lover’s Dictionary which reunites the Odyssey and current events, Thomas More and the archipelagos threatened by global warming.

It is not because he travelled from Greenland to Polynesia, from Japan to Chile, that Hervé Hamon collects postcards. It is not because he loves sailing that he is fascinated by coconut trees and white sandy beaches. The island embodies first and foremost the travel, with all its representations. The travel of the conqueror, the exile or the migrant, the naturalist or the missionary, the slave or the pirate, the travel of the deportee as well as the travel of the one who dreams to become the king of a pure world. The travel of the one who leaves an island for another one.

The islands are not docked ships but emerged mountains, even though only the top is visible. They are the proofs of our greed, our wars, our beliefs, our hopes. Islands are as much about ecology and globalization than about distinction and loneliness.

Which is why literature was so found of islands. Melville with the Marquesas Islands, Hugo and Guernsey, Tchekhov and Sakhalin, Perec and Ellis Island, Albert Londres and the Devil’s Island, Dumas and If Island, Césaire or Glissant and the Martinique, and the list goes on. Thanks to this Lover’s Dictionary, the reader is able to travel all the way across these literary monuments and much more!

Hervé Hamon is an eclectic writer. Author of important sociological and historical studies, in particular with Patrick Rotman (Generation, Seuil Editions, 1987), he also writes books centred around the sea, essays, novels and novellas. This Lover’s Dictionary is his twenty-ninth book.

1.5 million copies sold since 2001

13 copies sold each hour

Translated in 18 countries

95 titles available

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