Best Selling Books by Anne Berest

Before Françoise Sagan the literary icon there was Françoise Quoirez, an eighteen-year-old Parisian girl, who wrote a novel and needed a publisher for it.

1954. Françoise Sagan est une jeune fille de dix-huit ans comme les autres, ou presque. Le 15 mars, l’éditeur René Julliard publie le premier roman de Françoise Quoirez, dite Sagan, Bonjour tristesse, et tout change. Françoise devient riche et célèbre, noctambule et légendaire, culte et pourchassée. 2014. Romancière, Anne Berest se revêt « de la vie de Françoise pour oublier la sienne », et tisse sa jeune existence enlacée à celle de son aînée. Nous avons alors tout à la fois un roman, une biographie et une autofiction où, sous la plume merveilleuse d’Anne Berest, les vies de ces deux jeunes femmes n’en font plus qu’une. Et surtout, dans le miroir que vous tend le passé, le mythe Sagan rencontre l’éternelle jeunesse.

WINNER OF THE AMERICAN CHOIX GONCOURT PRIZE WINNER OF THE RENAUDOT YOUTH PRIZE WINNER OF THE ELLE MAGAZINE READERS PRIZE FINALIST FOR THE GONCOURT PRIZE Brilliantly told, Anne Berest's luminous, moving, and unforgettable new book The Postcard is the most acclaimed and beloved French novel in recent years. At once a gripping investigation into family secrets, a poignant tale of mothers and daughters, and an enthralling portrait of 20th-century Parisian intellectual and artistic life, The Postcard tells the story of a family devastated by the Holocaust and yet somehow restored by love and the power of storytelling. Heartbreaking, funny, atmospheric, and a sheer joy to read, The Postcard is certain to find fans among readers of Irène Némirovsky's Suite Française, Kate Atkinson's Life After Life, and Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See. January 2003. Together with the usual holiday cards, an anonymous postcard is delivered to the Berest family home. On the front, a photo of the Opéra Garnier in Paris; on the back, the four names of Anne Berest's maternal great-grandparents, Ephraïm and Emma, and their children, Noémie and Jacques--all of whom died at Auschwitz in 1942. Almost twenty years after the postcard is delivered, Anne is moved to discover who sent it, and why. Aided by her chain-smoking mother, countless family, friends, and associates, a private detective, a graphologist, and many others, she embarks on a journey to uncover the fate of the Rabinovitch family: their flight from Russia following the revolution, their journey to Latvia, Palestine, and Paris, the war and its aftermath. What emerges is a thrilling and sweeping tale that shatters her certainties about her family, her country, and herself.

How To Be Parisian brilliantly deconstructs the French woman's views on culture, fashion and attitude. Bohemian free-thinkers and iconoclasts, Anne Berest, Caroline De Maigret, Audrey Diwan and Sophie Mas cut through the myths in this gorgeous, witty guide to Parisienne savoir faire. These modern Parisiennes say what you don't expect to hear, just the way you want to hear it. They are not against smoking in bed, and all for art, politics and culture, making everything look easy, and going against the grain. They will take you on a first date, to a party and through a hangover. They will tell you how to be mysterious and sensual, make your boyfriend jealous, the right way to approach weddings and the gym, and they will share their address book in Paris for where to go at the end of the night, for a birthday, for a smart date, for vintage finds and much more. Full of wit and self-deprecating humour, How To Be Parisian explains those confusing subjects of clothes, makeup, men, culture and lifestyle as only a true Parisienne can.

Septembre 1908. Gabriële Buffet, femme de 27 ans, indépendante, musicienne, féministe avant l'heure, rencontre Francis Picabia, jeune peintre à succès et à la réputation sulfureuse. Il avait besoin d'un renouveau dans son oeuvre, elle est prête à briser les carcans : insuffler, faire réfléchir, théoriser. Elle devient " la femme au cerveau érotique " qui met tous les hommes à genoux, dont Marcel Duchamp et Guillaume Apollinaire. Entre Paris, New York, Berlin, Zürich, Barcelone, Etival et Saint-Tropez, Gabriële guide les précurseurs de l'art abstrait, des futuristes, des Dada, toujours à la pointe des avancées artistiques. Ce livre nous transporte au début d'un xxe siècle qui réinvente les codes de la beauté et de la société. Anne et Claire Berest sont les arrière-petites-filles de Gabriële Buffet-Picabia.