With summer as scorching as ever, the month of August took on an apocalyptic air: a merciless tsunami swept across the entire French-speaking world, engulfing everything in its path. Bookstore shelves, newspaper columns, television programs, radio advertising - everything is overwhelmed by the voracity of this strange wave. Journalists panic, delivery personnel anguish and the curious are caught by the throat; the tidal wave spares no one. A seasonal typhoon also better known by another name: rentrée littéraire.
Like the branches of the Nile's tributaries, its offshoots never cease to spread and divide, giving birth to countless buds that all blossom at the end of summer. After all, there are hundreds of back-to-school novels piling up! And while the number of new releases is expected to drop this year, no fewer than 490 new novels are published between the end of August and the beginning of September alone. Obviously, that's a lot, too much. But the fact remains that, for several months, literature takes up all the attention. So, this end of the world has a gentler air.
Write to the author: quentin.perissinotto@leregardlibre.com
Photo credit: © Quentin Perissinotto for Le Regard Libre
You have just read a short article from our print edition (Le Regard Libre N°89).
French 
German 
English