# Please recommend me some current fiction in French **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 5, 2015, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-me-some-current-fiction-in-french/739518 "2015-12-05T15:47:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2015, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-me-some-current-fiction-in-french/739518/1 "2015-12-05T15:47:18Z")
Hello, a friend of mine was talking about how she used to be perfectly fluent in French but hasn’t used the language for six years, and well yeah, ok, now you can get books and series and whatnot anywhere but… what to get? She’s interested in material that will be using current French and which has been produced in French. I asked her if there’s any specific genres she’d like to hear about and she said “so long as there is a plot and dialogue it’s fine!” Suggestions? (And yes, I’m going to be paging those people that I inmediately identify as being French) ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2015, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-me-some-current-fiction-in-french/739518/2 "2015-12-05T18:05:35Z")
I’m afraid I’m gonna be of little help, since most of what I read these days is either American/British lit. or history textbooks :o. That said I can still heartily recommend Daniel Pennac’s oeuvre, notably his Malaussène cycle : _Au Bonheur des Ogres_ ; _La Fée Carabine_ ; _La Petite Marchande de Prose_ and _Monsieur Malaussène_. I wasn’t as fond of the last two in the cycle (_Des Chrétiens et des Maures_ and _Aux Fruits de la Passion_) but the writing style is still fresh. They’re rather unique and whimsy books, lying somewhere between optimistic urban fantasy and mystery novels. I’m also very fond of François Cavanna’s autobiography and regularly re-read the first two tomes (_Les Ritals_ and _Les Russkoffs_). Both deal with his youth and teenage years in 30s and 40s Paris, then his experiences as a reluctant worker in a prison camp in Nazi Germany and are written in a very colloquial, oral style. For reference, Cavanna was one of the guys who founded _Charlie Hebdo,_ back when it was subversive and good :p. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-me-some-current-fiction-in-french/739518/3 "2015-12-06T06:22:26Z")
Hey, better than my selection of “whatever I picked up last time at the airport” 🙂 It tends to be decoration magazines, not a lot of dialogue! ---
**Author:** ![bellybean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9d8465/32.png) [@bellybean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bellybean)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-me-some-current-fiction-in-french/739518/4 "2015-12-08T00:32:37Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > That said I can still heartily recommend Daniel Pennac’s oeuvre, notably his Malaussène cycle : _Au Bonheur des Ogres_ ; _La Fée Carabine_ ; _La Petite Marchande de Prose_ and _Monsieur Malaussène_. I wasn’t as fond of the last two in the cycle (_Des Chrétiens et des Maures_ and _Aux Fruits de la Passion_) but the writing style is still fresh. They’re rather unique and whimsy books, lying somewhere between optimistic urban fantasy and mystery novels. I second this suggestion. I recently finished _Monsieur Malaussène_ and it was the first time in a long time that I wished a long book were even longer. Amélie Nothomb is also very readable. I adored _Stupeur et tremblements_. Very funny.