France

Every year, Litro publishes international editions focusing on different parts of the globe…

For this World Series edition, we turn our pages to France: the Brits have always envied the French for their fantastic food; effortless style; clever, sexy films; and what we see as their laissez-faire, not to say louche attitude towards sex and life in general – French, above all, is chic.

  • Agnès Desarthe

    Agnès Desarthe

    Agnès Desarthe was born in Paris in 1966 and has written many books for children and teenagers, as well as adult fiction. She has had three previous novels translated into English: Five Photos of My Wife (2001), which was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the Jewish Quarterly Fiction Prize, and Good Intentions (2002) and Chez Moi (2008). The Foundling was awarded the Le Renaudot des Lycéens Prize on publication in France.

  • Adriana Hunter

    Adriana Hunter

    Adriana Hunter has been working as a literary translator since 1998, and has now translated nearly 50 books from the French, including, for Portobello Books, Véronique Ovaldé’s Kick the Animal Out (a finalist for the French-American Foundation and the Florence Gould Foundation Translation Prize) and And My See-Through Heart. She has three children and lives in Norfolk.

  • Michel Houellebecq

    Michel Houellebecq

    Michel Houellebecq lives in County Cork, Ireland. He is the bestselling author of Atomised, Platform, Whatever and The Possibility of an Island. He is also a poet, essayist and rap artist.

  • Delphine Grass

    Delphine Grass

    Delphine Grass has written a doctoral thesis entitled The Poetics of Humanity in the Novels of Michel Houellebecq at University College London. Her poetry has been published in various French and English-language journals. She is a member of the A Verse poetry group based in La Sorbonne, Paris.

  • Steven Appleby

    Steven Appleby

    Steven Appleby is one of Britain's leading cartoonists. His work appears in the Guardian, The Times, the Sunday Telegraph, Junior and the Oldie and numerous other newspapers, on television and on Radio 4, on stage at the ICA and in over 20 books. His latest book, Coffee Table Book of Doom, was published in September 2011.

  • Pierre Michon

    Pierre Michon

    Pierre Michon was born in Central France in 1945. He has published ten works of fiction, which have earned him a reputation as one of the finest writers of his generation. His work is starting to appear in translation in English, chiefly in the United States.

  • Gregory Norminton

    Gregory Norminton

    Gregory Norminton is a novelist and short story writer. He teaches creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University. His translations include Gustave Flaubert’s Dictionary of Received Ideas, published by Oneworld Classics.

  • Faïza Guène

    Faïza Guène

    Faïza Guène is a French writer and director, best known for her two novels, Kiffe kiffe demain and Du rêve pour les oufs. She has also directed several short films, including Rien que des mots.

  • Sarah Ardizzone

    Sarah Ardizzone

    Sarah Ardizzone is a literary translator, working from French to English. She has won the Marsh Award for Children's Literature in Translation two times, and the Scott-Moncrieff Prize once in 2007.

  • Dany Laferrière OC OQ

    Dany Laferrière OC OQ

    Dany Laferrière OC OQ is a Haitian-Canadian novelist and journalist who writes in French. He was elected to seat 2 of the Académie française on 12 December 2013, and inducted in May 2015.