Paris in July: Three books by Antoine Laurain

Thanks to Paris in July, over the last couple of years I have been making my way through the backlist of popular French author Antoine Laurain.  Last year, I shared a review of what is still my favourite, An Astronomer in Love, as well as mini reviews of three other books. Today, I am back with another three mini reviews of the books that I have read since last years Paris in July event.

I was trying to get French Windows read for last years event, but I ran out of time. In this book, Nathalie is a photographer who is having therapy as she can no longer do her job after she accidentally photographed a murder. Her doctor, Doctor Faber, sets her the task of writing stories about the people who live in the building opposite her. Soon he is having to wonder whether she is making up the stories, or if they might be true. And if they are true, how is she finding everything out. One of the things that I notice regularly in these books is the smoking, and here Doctor Faber is a self proclaimed gifted smoker and this is central to the plot. This seems pretty French to me!

The President's Hat is probably my second favourite story from this author. One night accountant Daniel Mercier is having dinner in a Parisienne restaurant when the President comes in to dine. At the end of the night, Mercier realises that the president has left his hat behind. Daniel takes it home and realises that when he wears it he feels empowered to behave differently. However, it isn't long before Daniel loses the hat himself and other people get to feel the power of the hat!  What follows is almost caper-ish as various parties try to locate and obtain the hat. It's a lot of fun.

My most recent read was French Rhapsody which was published in 2016. This was a little deceptive as it started out as though it was going to be very nostalgic about music and about the different lives that people can lead when they start from a similar point in time. It did, however, end up being quite political, talking about right wing politicians in French politics. Structurally, it is very interesting, and the starting premise for the book is very clever. A doctor named Alain receives a letter through the post that should have been delivered 30 years previously. At the time, he was a member of a cold wave rock band and they had submitted a demo tape in the hope that they would get picked up by a record company. When they didn't get any interest, the band all went their separate ways. Now Alain is trying to contact them all again. Whilst we get perspectives from the band members, there are also additional perspectives from other characters as well. It does have some trademark Laurain elements in here from unusual meetings and unseen connections to silly humour. 

I love that whilst there are some trademarks in his writing, each of the books is very different.  

I think I still have The Portrait and Smoking Kills waiting for me on my Kindle, and then hopefully there will be an English translation of his latest book which is called La Dictee in French (The Dictator) coming soon as well.

A shout out to the translators for these books. French Windows was translated by Louise Rogers La Laurie. She also worked on the translation of The President's Hat along with Emily Boyce and Jane Aitken. These last two also translated French Rhapsody.

French Rhapsody was one of my Twenty Books of Winter and also counts for the Books in Translation Challenge

Paris in July: Antoine Laurain

Antoine Laurain is a French author who I was introduced to as part of previous Paris in July events. I read my first book last year, but then in the last 12 months I have read 3 more of his books, and I am now halfway through the fourth. I think I have also bought all of the books that I can get in English, except for one. I feel like I should have been more across this author well before now, but better late than ever I am sure! 

For today's post, I thought I would share a couple of mini reviews of the books that I have read, which I am sharing with my fellow participants of Paris in July, hosted at Words and Peace, and with Sunday Salon, hosted at Readerbuzz.

The first Laurain book that I read was The Red Notebook. When Laurent Letellier finds an expensive handbag when he is on his way to work, he is determined to return it to it's rightful owner. The only problem is there is nothing in there to help him find out who that it is. Instead, there are a number of random looking items which helps him track her down. Lauren is a bookseller, and one of the items in the bag is a copy of a book by Patrick Modigliani. There are therefore plenty of literary references, lots of Paris and a fun story. Obviously I enjoyed  it, otherwise I wouldn't have continued onto read so many more of his books.

The next book I read was Vintage 1954. An eclectic group of people find themselves sharing a bottle of  vintage 1954 Beaujolais. There is Hubert who owns the building, Magalie who is an antiques restorer, Julien who is a mixologist, and finally there is Bob, an American widower who is on his dream first trip to Paris. When the group wake up the next day, they find themselves back in 1954. Their mobile phones and credit cards don't work, Paris is very different to the Paris of 2017. The group needs to figure out a family mystery and then how to get back to 2017.

The Reader's Room is more of a mystery, but with a twist. Every one gets excited when a debut novel is found and published to great acclaim. It is a bit odd though. The editor, Violaine LePage, doesn't actually know who the author is, and when there are series of murders that echo those that appear in the book, the police come knocking.

I have enjoyed all of the books, but if you were forcing me to pick a favourite so far it would be An Astronomer in Love, which I reviewed earlier this month (review here). One of the reasons when I like the books so much is that everyone of them is different. There are some commonalities (for example, there seems to be something about smoking in his books, his characters often have interesting occupations, and Paris comes to life in the pages of his books. There are often unexpected connections between the characters which only come to life as you keep on reading the book. 

I am currently reading the latest book, French Windows, and then I have The President's Hat, French Rhapsody, The Portrait and Smoking Kills waiting for me on my Kindle. Yes, you can now call me an Antoine Laurain fan!

Have you read any books by Antoine Laurain?