ARTICLE LONG FORMAT, Ivan Garcia | Their names are William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck and others. They are great writers, published, read, celebrated and interviewed. The legends they have left us are grandiose, but beneath so many fine features, shouldn't we also be looking for traces of the work they did and the lives they lived? In her new essay, Julia Kerninon compares writers' accounts of their careers with their biographies, to show the extent to which legends have taken precedence over reality. A rebalancing of the scales.

Les bouquins du mardi - Ivan Garcia Decidedly dead too soon, two Americans, one black and one white, land in hell...

LONG-FORM ARTICLE, Ivan Garcia | He’s a vampire musician. She’s a vampire bookworm. Their main concern? Getting fresh blood. In *Only Lovers Left Alive*, a couple of millennia-old bloodsuckers fall in love against the backdrop of a world in decline. And all of this, set to music, no less. A far-fetched feature film that, in the end, isn’t very funky.

Les bouquins du mardi - Ivan Garcia Louise Erdrich's latest novel covers a young woman's escape...

LONG-FORM INTERVIEW, Ivan Garcia | Last March, Pascal Vandenberghe, CEO of Payot bookstores, published *Le Funambule du livre*, followed by *La librairie est un sport de combat*, both with Editions de L’Aire. The book, divided into two parts (a long interview and an essay)—the first of which was reviewed by *Le Regard Libre* in its «Tuesday Books» column—begins by chronicling the professional journey of «Monsieur Payot,» who has worn many hats: mechanic, bookseller at Fnac, publisher, and, since 2004, CEO of Payot SA. In 2014, Pascal Vandenberghe acquired the company from the Lagardère Services group and became CEO of the firm, which encompasses the Payot bookstores and the Nature & Découvertes Suisse chain. Furthermore, the essay «Monsieur Payot» explores the transformations the world of books has undergone over the past forty years through the eyes of a connoisseur. In many ways, Pascal Vandenberghe can be compared to Martin Eden, the hero of one of Jack London’s eponymous novels. An avid reader, our man of the hour is self-taught and has gradually risen to the helm of the largest network of general-interest bookstores in French-speaking Switzerland. To discuss his book, the head of Payot welcomes us to his office in Lausanne—where a portrait of Fritz Payot, the bookstore’s founder, takes pride of place—and talks to us about the role of bookstores in society, the world of books, and the challenges he will soon face.

A film... funny at times

The author's first feature film

Jean-Michel Olivier is the only Swiss author to have won the Prix Interallié. On the occasion of the publication of his new book, «Lucie d'enfer», the Genevan writer shares his vision of literature, and of the femme fatale at the center of this tale.

Journalist and writer, with a specialization in mathematical logic, deputy director of the Association Valaisanne des Entrepreneurs (AVE), Chiara Meichtry-Gonet is at the crossroads of several paths... or rails, one might say. In autumn 2020, she published her second novel Mathilde-sous-Gare with Bernard Campiche. It was an opportunity for me to meet her and discuss her singular profile and her vivid, disturbing world, during a trip by train and elsewhere.