L'Homme incendié (The Man in flames) - This is the memoir of the free-thinker and cosmographer, Giordano Bruno, written in the week leading up to his gruesome execution in 1600. In the novel, he reflects on his life and the impacts of his doctrines, and of being assumed to be homosexual. Translated into English by Liz Nash, it was voted one of Tariq Ali’s ten best books of 1999 in the TLS.
Comœdia - Gobbio is blessed by a miraculous power. But why does it prevent him from finding love? According to Alain Bosquet in Le Quotidien des Livres, this is an ‘angel’s story... a plea for gender fluidity... written with unfaltering delight and relish. This is because Gobbio never loses hold of his authentic inner self, no matter how unpredictable and evasive his personality.’
Le Roi de Sicile - Pier Angelerio was the hermit who became Pope Celestine V; then who, six months after his investiture, resigned. In Le Monde des Livres, Jean-Philippe Catinchi says ‘The lesson of Filippini’s saint-hermit contains abiding wisdom: to give up is a uniquely courageous act.’ This book, a cubist fresco on the theme of power, reimagines the potential for a future Golden Age, a new utopia. It is a political allegory in which the cynicism of the 1980s may be seen as obscuring the way to a better world.
Un Amour de Paul - In Rome, a scriptwriter rises to Pier Paolo Pasolini’s challenge: write the screenplay for a biopic of Saint Paul. This leads to his encounter with Eden Pym, an actress following her own spiritual path, at the very spot in the Abbey of Tre Fontane where the apostle was beheaded.
Deux Testaments - A young boy burns his copy of the Torah. At the same moment, Hitler begins exterminating Jews throughout Europe. This is the story of the boy’s wartime journey and his passage into peace. Astrid de Larminat, reviewing in Le Figaro Littéraire, observes ‘When you’re 12 years old, throwing your Bible into the flames won’t rid you of the Almighty. As Saint Augustine believed, God evades those who seek Him, but finds those who seek to evade Him.’
Le Combat des Trente - It’s 2100. Geopolitical and environmental catastrophes have turned Paris into a jungle, where wild animals roam among the ruined monuments. Two rival gangs, the Commandés and the Assassins, fight to control a ‘foothold’ at the heart of what was the 13th arrondissement. This is a chronicle of Europe after its reversion to a new Middle Ages. And one which revisits a moment in the Hundred Years’ War when 30 elite fighters from the Château de Josselin faced the same number from Ploermel, in one of the most savage battles in history.
Viola d'Amor - Told in the manner of the Eighteenth Century- that century of enlightenment and freedom! - this is the story of Tristano’s erotic adventures. Set in a village in the Italian Alps, Tristano finds more to do than simply play his viola d’amore for the pleasure of a dying local tyrant.
Motifs - André Breton began his classic novel Nadja with the question ‘Who am I?’ Motifs is a collage of texts and images that respond to that crucial question.
Rimbaldo - In 1880, a group gathered on the terrace of the Hôtel de l’Univers in Aden to pose for a group portrait. One of those appearing in the photograph is none other than the former poet, Arthur Rimbaud. This is about the man who gave up literature for adventure as a trader in Abyssinia.
J'aimerai André Breton - It is September 1966. In his summer house at Saint-Cirq-Lapopie in the Lot region, André Breton’s holidays are drawing to a close. Enter Chance, a young woman in flight from a dominating male partner. Her meeting with the ‘Pope’ of Surrealism starts her on the road to a mystical transformation. ‘...we can believe, or want to believe, that the sacred and mystical offer us, in solitude, paths that lead to freedom.’ (Mohammed Aissaoui, Le Figaro Littéraire)