FOREIGN RIGHTS

SPRING 2018

JC Lattès - Le Masque 17 rue Jacob 75006 Paris - France www.editions-jclattes.fr www.lemasque.com

LITERATURE

HIGHLIGHT DELPHINE DE VIGAN The Loyalties Les Loyautés

A monumental novel that can be read in one sitting. Psychological suspense combines with great narrative tension to explore the hidden laws that define our intimate relationships with the world.

Theo, a child of divorce, is leading his friend Mathis down a hazardous path. Their middle school teacher, Hélène, who survived an abusive childhood, is worried about Theo: could he be in danger at home? Mathis’s mother, Cécile, sees her stable family life crumble just when she needs all the support she can get to protect her son. 8 weeks on the bestsellers list! Already 160,000 copies sold!

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Loyalties are the invisible ties that link these four protagonists and chain them to each other. 208 pages, January 2018

RIGHTS ALREADY SOLD IN 16 COUNTRIES

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er words are as rough as her voice is gentle. (…) In these lines we can imagine that Delphine de Vigan has made a very long journey to find herself (…) Which is perhaps why her talent for writing the world has risen so magnificently high. ELLE

Delphine de Vigan draws the portrait of a society, with no concessions, in the grip of its sorrows (…) but, at the end of the tunnel there is always a light, and its name is loyalty. LE FIGARO MAGAZINE

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Catalunya (Edicions 62) China (Shanghai 99) Czech Republic (Euromedia) Estonia (Eesti Ramat) Germany (Dumont) Greece (Utopia) Denmark (People’s Press) Italy (Einaudi) Hungary (Ob Ovo) Netherlands (De Geus) Poland (Sonia Draga) Slovakia (Ikar) Spain (Anagrama) Sweden (Sekwa) UK (Bloomsbury) US (Little Brown)

No and Me (now a classic reading in high schools) and Nothing Holds Back the Night have sold more than a million copies each. Based on a True Story sold more than 650,000 copies and was translated in 25 territories!

©Delphine Jouandeau

Delphine de Vigan is notably the author of among others No and Me, Underground Time and Nothing Holds Back the Night. Her latest novel Based on a True Story (2015) won the Prix Renaudot and the Goncourt des Lycéens and was adapted to cinema by Roman Polanski. Her books have been translated all over the world.

Spring 2018

“I thought the boy must be abused, and I thought it very early on, maybe not the first day but pretty soon after school began. There was just something in the way he held himself, how he tried to be invisible, I know all about that, how to melt into the background, let light pass right through you. Except for me, it didn’t work.”

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LITERATURE

HIGHLIGHT GRÉGOIRE DELACOURT The Woman Who Didn’t Grow Old La Femme qui ne vieillissait pas

“ At age forty-seven, I still had no frown lines or crow’s feet, no forehead furrow or laugh lines, not a hint of marionette lines or neck lines; not one white hair or the slightest shadow under my eyes, I looked hopelessly age thirty.”

And then there’s Betty. 256 pages, March 2018

Spring 2018

There are those who won’t grow old because they have left us too soon. Those who don’t worry about ageing because they have more important things to worry about. Those who try to stay young to keep their husbands, but end up losing everything anyway. 1st print-run 90,000 cps!

RIGHTS ALREADY SOLD: Germany (Hoffmann und Campe) Bulgaria (Fakel) Italy (De Agostini / Planeta) Russia (Eksmo)

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ABOUT DANSER AU BORD DE L’ABÎME

“A heady spiral of love.” L’Obs “A moving story and a vibrant ode to desire.” Femme Actuelle

Grégoire Delacourt is the author of six novels, all published with JC Lattès. He published his first novel L’écrivain de la famille in 2011, and in 2012 his first bestseller, translated in 35 countries, La Liste de mes envies / My Wishes, followed by La Première chose qu’on regarde in 2013, On ne voyait que le bonheur in 2014, Les quatre saisons de l’été in 2015 and Danser au bord de l’abîme in 2017.

©Emmanuelle Hauguel

Over 100,000 copies sold!

LITERATURE BÉNÉDICTE MARTIN Brisa Brisa is the portrait of a woman, a love story and an investigation into a family’s past. Her name was Brisa, and his was Pierre. They were Benedicte Martin’s grandparents. Who were this man and this woman and what did they leave her? Did she become the woman she is now because of them or thanks to them? Does she owe them anything?

256 pages, February 2018

“An audacious and modern debut novel. It’s sometimes raw, often poetic, somes sentences stick to your skin like a tatoo.” Le Parisien

Spring 2018

Bénédicte Martin is a journalist and novelist. She has notably written two short story collections, Warm up and Perspectives du paradis (Flammarion, 2003 and 2006) and one essay, La femme (Editions des Equateurs, 2014).

Her novel tells their passionate love story, uncommonly free and yet full of unspoken truths. Between Brisa and Pierre there was Eleonore, a strong and unique woman, later known as Madame Yvonne. She was the daughter of a wealthy ship-builder from Toulon and a laundress. She lived for years at the luxurious Hotel Lutecia then in another hotel in the north of Paris that was more like a bordello. Rebellious, free-spirited, domineering, with her hair cropped short, she enjoyed a rich night life in the cafés of Paris. She became Pierre’s friend and fell hopelessly in love with Brisa.

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LISA BALAVOINE Sparse Éparse

Lisa Balavoine, a divorced, imperfect mother of three in her forties, makes the rounds of her existence like a person conducting a visit of her home and delivers the playful, nostalgic story of her generation. Written as a sequence of fragments, using the songs, movies and most important events from the eighties to the present day, mixing memories of her youth and snapshots of her daily life, she turns her life into a narrative to which we can all relate. The questions she brings up about inheritance, transmission and the endless rebirth of love are universal. We recognize her doubts, joys and sorrows, whether lasting or transient, as our own. And the bold life inventory she offers echoes our own obsessions. Lisa Balavoine lives and works as a teacher and documentarist in Amiens. Éparse is her first novel. Some excerpts have been published in the magazine Décapage.

That is the prowess of this book: as the author reassembles the pieces of her personal puzzle and attempts to autopsy the first half of her life, it’s the reader who rediscovers herself. 208 pages, January 2018

LITERATURE ANNE-MARIE REVOL The Russian Star L’Étoile russe

It is the story of a farmer’s son with a degree in iron-working and a ferocious ambition who became the world’s first cosmonaut. He was a modest boy who grew up during the Cold War and who, at age 21, found himself accidently enrolled in a government selection program where he will be chosen among 3000 other candidates on April 12th 1961: 108 minutes that will go down in History and make him famous. Youri’s life is a novel – He conquered space but was defeated by dictatorship. When he became a living symbol of Soviet supremacy to be protected at all costs, his superiors forbade him any further space travel. With his dreams of walking on the moon now crushed, Youri turned his interest to women but his multiple relationships were all short-lived. But, heroes never die. 324 pages, March 2018

Anne-Marie Revol is a journalist at France 2 Television. She is the author of an essay, Nos étoiles ont filé (Stock, 2010) and a novel Gaspard ne répond plus (Lattès, 2016).

SOPHIE BASSIGNAC A Polite Distance

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La Distance de courtoisie

A whirling comedy on a serious subject. In public, a distance of several feet between people is considered respectful of an individual’s privacy. This is called the polite distance. Etienne Bellamy has lost everything, his wife, his company and his apartment and ends up in a small town where, in order to pay the bills, he finds an improbable job in a local museum. On the opening night of an exposition, his life turns upside down yet again: He meets an alluring actress and at the same time finds himself accused of stealing a famous painting. Alarmed by the young actress’s advances and by the cop who considers him an ideal suspect, Etienne finds refuge in the remnants of his past life, convinced that his exile will not last. This novel evokes the tragic and scandalous injustice of not being loved for who we are. In this story, Heloïse loves Etienne who loves Sylvana. Adélaïde loves Ivan who loves Luzia. Marthe loves Gaspard who prefers his freedom. They all play the love game, inventing ways to attract and discourage, nurturing healthy illusions about themselves and others and struggle to find their place in an ideal relationship. 384 pages, February 2018

Spring 2018

The extraordinary story of Youri Gagarine, the first cosmonaut, and his improbable, marvelous and ultimately tragic destiny as told through the accounts of several characters, both real and imaginary.

Sophie Bassignac lives in Paris. She is the author of several novels published with Lattès, among which Mer agitée à très agitée (2014) and Séduire Isabelle A. (2016).

Already sold in Germany (Hoffmann und Campe)

LITERATURE ERIC FOUASSIER Disappearance at the Hotel-Dieu Le Disparu de l’Hôtel Dieu

In the year 1515, young François I is about to inaugurate his reign with the conquest of the Duchy of Milan. Behind the scenes, enemies of France conspire to make certain his plans will fail.

580 pages, January 2018

JEAN-MARC MOURA The Intangible War La Guerre insaisissable

The story of a woman, Lily Rousseau, a scientist specialized in the study of viruses, during the worst medical catastrophe in history: the Spanish Flu.

Jean-Marc Moura is a professor of Compared Literature and French Literature. He is the author of three novels: Une legende de Bangkok, Gandara and La musique des illusions.

Lily Rousseau was an abandoned child raised by two women in the early 20th century. She was then sent to a convent where her education was entrusted to nuns. She manages to gain her independence and live alone as a free woman despite the social pressures of her time and the many people anxious to exploit her amazing scientific knowledge. War breaks out and Lily’s life and research are turned upside down. With the grace of its deeply moving heroine, this novel reveals a tragic page in our history and immerses us in a moment of great scientific discovery. 400 pages, April 2018

MARC TRÉDIVIC The Yellow Shop Le Magasin jaune

The story of a Parisian toy store from the late nineteen twenties up to the Second World War.

Judge for the prosecution with the antiterrorist department of the Paris judiciary court, Marc Trévidic is now vice-president of the Lille judiciary court and author of several successful books, all published with Lattès.

In early 1929 a young couple buys a failing toy store in Pigalle. Gustave and Valentine were hoping that selling joy would bring them happiness. Parents and children flock to the shop, the windows are brightly lit with animated toys. Once inside, the noises and smells of the city disappear. But outside, the world is changing. and then comes war. Can the Yellow Shop survive in the midst of so much horror and brutality? From 1929 to 1942, Le Magasin jaune retraces the history of a place of joy and where resistance finally triumphs over resignation. 324 pages, March 2018

ABOUT HIS PREVIOUS BOOK AHLAM - sold in 6 countries: Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Hungary & Serbia - 50,000 copies sold in France!

Spring 2018

Born in 1963, Éric Fouassier is a member of the Académie national de pharmacie, specialist in the history of pharmacy. He is also a lover of tracking games with clues and enigmas.

Through no fault of her own, Heloise Sanglar finds herself caught up in these underground schemes and must seek the aid of her ex-lover, the knight Sir Bayard, if she wishes to save the life of her son Etienne. In alternating chapters we follow the misadventures of young Etienne and those of Heloise and Sir Bayard. Tension mounts, culminating when the three protagonists reunite on the field of battle at Marignan. Disappearing bodies, kidnapping, theft, betrayal, assassinations, set-ups, lovers’ quarrels… This is an action-packed story full of twists and turns.

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LITERATURE VALÉRIE GANS Untitled Sans Titre

The painter Egon Stübli was devoured by sharks off the coast of Bali. The press, who never really took an interest in his work when he was alive, massively reported on his death. A few years back Stübli had been a minor sensation thanks to a series of portraits he called The Uglies but, since then, his success had faded. News of his death however sparked renewed interest in the art world. “Friends” suddenly make their appearances everywhere. The value of Egon’s work skyrockets as everyone wants to get their hands on a piece. Death has brought Stübli the fame he never could have hoped for when he was alive. At first reluctant to profit from his companion’s post-mortem popularity, the surgeon Charles Newcommer comes up with an idea. If it’s the singularity of the portraits that the people like so much, why not apply the same principle to his plastic surgery practice? Give women and men’s faces personality, instead of making them all resemble each other.

Journalist with Le Figaro Madame, Valérie Gans is the author of several novels. Among which: Le Bruit des silences, 2013, Des fleurs et des épines, 2015, Le Chant des lendemains, 2016.

304 pages, March 2018

Spring 2018

Part social satire, part psychological thriller, from the quest for beauty to the fabrication of success, Valerie Gans paints a scathing portrait of our society. What if all this was just a gigantic manipulation based on man’s never-ending desire for wealth and beauty?

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FRANÇOISE KERYMER Autumn Can Wait L’Automne attendra

Louise is a novelist in her sixties and enjoying life. When she meets and falls for Adrien, an orchestra conductor, she is forced to come to terms with what still bonds her to her husband Germain, a state prosecutor, after thirty years of marriage. Louise realizes it is above all a pact of duty and gratitude. At one point in her past a personal drama might have pushed her over the edge, but he was there to save her. Adrien, on his end, is disillusioned by all the commotion of his brilliant career and uses music as an armor to protect himself from the knowledge that he is incapable of love. Despite the power of their attachment and the five years they have spent slowly learning each other’s idiosyncrasies, struggles and hopes, these two wounded people would not have given themselves the right to happiness if Germain had not miraculously found it for himself. Stella, ex-ballerina and Louise’s friend, will be their lucky star. 350 pages, April 2018

Françoise Kerymer was a bookseller who now divides her time between Brittany and Paris. She has published two novels: Il faut laisser les cactus dans le placard (2010) and Seuls les poissons (2012), both published with Lattès.

LITERATURE VIVIANNE PERRET Mystery House La Maison mystère

4th investigation of the world’s greatest magician in New York.

In May 1904, after four years on tour in Europe, Houdini the magician returns to New York, determined to offer a surprise to his wife Bess: He buys her a house on 278 West 113th street. But, as soon as they go inside together, something strange takes place. Bess is certain she hears a baby crying but Houdini can only hear the usual clamor of the street. Bess follows the sound of the infant’s cries through the empty rooms of the house and then outside to the back of the courtyard where, much to her horror, she discovers the cadaver of a newborn baby. The strangest thing is the condition of the child’s body: like mummified, with no trace whatsoever of decomposition, a fact that greatly intrigues Police Inspector Petrusino who is placed in charge of the investigation. Bess, who suffers terribly from not being able to conceive a child, pesters her husband endlessly to persuade him to warm up to Petrusino so that he can get involved in the investigation himself. Several leads are beginning to form and more than one chilling secret appears to be hidden at number 278 West 113th. 288 pages, March 2018

Vivianne Perret is a historian, writer, journalist and insatiable globetrotting polyglot. Fascinated with “behind the scenes” History, she is specialist of America, especially the mythical figure of Buffalo Bill and the Lakota Indians.

VOLUMES 1, 2 & 3

Spring 2018

The

HOUDINI MAGICIEN & DÉTECTIVE

LE KAISER ET LE ROI DES MENOTTES roman

Vivianne Perret

“A true magician in the art of manipulation, Vivianne Perret weaves an intrigue full of false leads mixing fiction and true events of Houdini’s life.” Historia

PATRICK TRINGALE The Last Carnaval Dernier carnaval

A captivating thriller that takes place in a violent, tension-packed Brazil. Alex is age forty, ex-military and living a routine life collecting one-night stands and working at his pizzeria in Menilmontant until one day his feisty little brother goes too far, provokes the local tough guy, Korouma, and is kidnapped. If Alex wants his brother back, Korouma makes him a deal: find Gianluca di Franco, Korouma’s friend and bank robber on the run. He was last heard from hiding in Belem at the mouth of the Amazon River in Brazil. In spite of the financial crisis, Brazil is gearing up for its famous carnival and the boats sailing up the greatest river in the world are getting ready to dock. In a country split between joie-de-vivre and corruption, crooked cops and bitter political refugees, jungle-like cities and hostile forests, Alex will do everything possible to save his little brother. But, he is not the only one who is looking for Gianluca… 368 pages, January 2018

Born in Toulon into a Sicilian family originally from Catana, Patrick Tringale is a screenwriter for cinema and television. He lives in Paris and divides his time between France and Brazil.

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LITERATURE

BLACK SUN A great new series on the little known relationship between Nazis and esotericism

A Nazi SS expedition to Tibet in January 1939 successfully acquires a Swastika chiseled in an unknown metal. It is one of the Four Elements (fire, air, water and earth) that, according to an antique prophesy will make he who possesses all four to become master of the universe. At that same moment, a Republican commando, led by a French adventurer, Tristan, is vandalizing the Montserrat Monastery in Spain. There Tristan discovers a painting linked to the place where one of the elements is hidden. In October 1940, Nazi Germany is master of Europe. It is the triumph of darkness. A race begins to find the three missing elements. SS Colonel Weistord, head of the Ahnenerbe (Institute specialized in esotericism and archeology) frees Tristan from a fascist Spanish prison and forces him to collaborate. The investigation leads them to the last bastion of the Cathar Eric Giacometti was a journalist heretics: the castle of Montségur. In England, one of Churchill’s new secret service agents, Commander Malorwith Le Parisien daily newspaper. ley, sets up an operation to obtain the second element. Thus begins the battle He is also the scenarist for the between “The Star” and “the Swastika” that will determine the outcome of the Largo Winch album. Second World War. Jacques Ravenne is a writer and Master Freemason specialized in 480 pages, April 2018 ancient manuscripts.

Volumes 1 & 2 to come in 2019!

Based on historical fact, this series is an immersion into the deep dark secrets of war that reveals the little known occult aspect of the Nazi Party

Spring 2018

The Triumph of Darkness Le Triomphe des ténèbres

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NON-FICTION Sami Tchak Thus Spoke My Father Ainsi parlait mon père

A book of wisdom: little stories source of creation and inspiration.

“If, wherever you are in the world, you can’t find some deep part of yourself in others, don’t think it’s because they are too different, tell yourself you were not searching in the right places. In each man and woman, even in those you find the most vile and despicable, you can find the truth about yourself. If you can’t, you are overlooking an essential part of yourself my son.” 272 pages, March 2018

Sami Tchak is a writer. He has published, among others, Place des fêtes (Gallimard 2001), Le Paradis des chiots (Mercure de France, 2006 - Ahmadou-Kourouma Award) and Al Capone le Malien (Mercure de France, 2011). He won the Grand Prix Littéraire d’Afrique Noire in 2004.

Patrice Fava Living Tao

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L’Usage du Tao

Both manifesto and treatise of savoir-vivre, this book addresses the theoretical and practical sides of Taoism. “I wonder if even one person still remembers me. I have cut all ties with the outside world for so long that my name is probably crossed off every address book of the people who once knew me. They may have even forgotten I exist and that is fine with me. Erasing traces is a Taoist principle that I adhere to without regret.” After several years living among Taoists in China, sinologist and anthropologist Patrice Fava retreats to his isolated farm in the South of France that he transforms into a workplace, a Taoist temple and nature observatory. There he writes in his journal, in the form of an intellectual promenade between the Far East and the West, a dialogue between the great scholars of Chinese culture and modern Western thinkers such as André Breton and Michel Foucault. The author believes that if we rethink nature, art, philosophy and religion under the light of Taoism, humanity will pull out of its downward spiral and renew its ties to nature that were severed by industrial society. 304 pages, January 2018

Spring 2018

Sami Tchak was born in 1960, the first of his father’s children to learn how to read and write. After studying philosophy for two years at the University of Lomé, he traveled to Paris to finish his studies, and earned a doctorate in sociology. But his education really began in his father’s blacksmith shop. The bellows, the fire, the anvil, the red-hot iron and hammer came before the pen and paper. Above all, there were his father’s endless stories that Sami listened to religiously, for over forty years, until his father’s death in 2003. Even afterward, he continued to hear his father’s voice, his words, and his wisdom.

Great admirer of Simon Leys, Patrice Fava is an associate researcher at the Peking Center and the Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient. His extensive knowledge of the history, culture and languages of the immense country of China is certainly one of the best in France.

NON-FICTION DOMINIQUE VARIN Voyage to the Frontier of Life Voyage à la frontière de la vie

In this book, rich with the personal testimonies of patients and their loved ones as well as the latest theoretical developments, Dr. Varin shares his professional experience and proposes different paths of reflection to help each and every one of us make the most adequate decisions and surmount this painful ordeal. When confronted with a loved one who is at the end of their life, we all ask ourselves how to behave. What can we say to a person whose days are counted and who is suffering? What shouldn’t we say? How can we offer relief ? What are the physiological and psychological changes that closely precede death and how can we recognize them and react appropriately? What decisions might we have to make? When does keeping a patient alive become therapeutic harassment?

Doctor Dominique Varin practices medicine in a mobile palliative care unit at the Pitié Salpetrière hospital complex in Paris. He is also part of a teaching group on palliative care.

304 pages, February 2018

Spring 2018

NICOLAS DUPIN Saving Your Skin Mon amie la peau

Understanding and protecting the largest organ of our body throughout our lives. What is skin and what role does it play? The skin is the only visible organ of the body. It is embodies our sense of touch. It is a protective barrier and also serves as a truthful, often instantaneous, expression of our deepest feelings. It can be disguised under make-up or tattoos or modified with surgery. But do we really know our skin’s basic structure, its limits, its evolution and its needs? 400 pages, Spring 2018

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Nicolas Dupin is a dermatology professor at the University Paris Descartes and he practices dermatology at Cochin Hospital. Today, he is leading research on skin diseases and skin cancer.

MYLÈNE DESCLAUX Living Our Fifities the New Way Les Jeunes femmes de 50 ans

In this uplifting book, Mylène Desclaux speaks tenderly and honestly about herself and the other middle-aged women in her entourage. In her tiny personal laboratory she analyzes the new lifestyles of women in their fifties, from the sharing of housework to the choice of an ideal companion, not to mention sex and social networking. Les Jeunes femmes de 50 ans offers a list of what can help when sadness, anger or discouragement invade our thoughts. We happily tag along with the author when she goes to have her fortune told, we lay next to her on the couch of her far-too-emotional psychiatrist, witness her deal with younger rivals and share family secrets. She shows us how to handle as best we can the inevitable changes that can wreak chaos but also conceal new paths to happiness. 250 pages, April 2018

Mylène Desclaux has lived several lives: first as a publicist and then director of a company, she now has left those lives behind and devotes herself to writing her blog. She lives in Paris. Les Jeunes femmes de 50 ans is her first book.

Foreign Rights

Eva Bredin-Wachter

Elsa Misson

Rights Director [email protected] +33 1 44 41 74 30

Rights Manager [email protected] +33 1 44 41 74 31

Spanish & Portuguese rights: A.C.E.R. Catherine Passion [email protected]