Literature Misan-trope

When the leaves fall, so do the dead

6 reading minutes

written by Quentin Perissinotto · December 18, 2025 · 0 comment

Quand les feuilles tombent, les morts aussi

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Every month, our literary critic puts a work through a kaleidoscope, collecting the images it projects and reconstructing their diffractions. Even if the flashes of genius turn out to be shards of glass.

We've finally entered the full force of autumn, with its pallid light, lengthening evenings (unlike the French prime ministers' terms of office) and rain drumming on wind-beaten shutters. And with it, the desire to stay by the fire, wrapped in the scent of cinnamon. And for that, two invigorating companions of choice: Le Livre des portes by Gareth Brown and La Librairie des chats noirs by Piergiorgio Pulixi.

Close your door to travel

There are a number of ingredients for an excellent autumn evening in the warmth of your own home. First, mystery. Then, an ounce of crime. And finally, travel. The Book of Doors contains all this.

This novel tells the story of Cassie, a self-effacing young woman who works in a small New York bookshop and leads a rather quiet life, until the evening when one of her favorite customers, a charming old man, collapses and dies before her very eyes. Not without leaving her a curious leather book, with no author, no date, just a title engraved in fine gold. She doesn't understand why it was given to her, but what she understands even less is how it transported her to Venice in a split second. For this booklet has a power as natural as it is diabolical: it literally opens doors. Doors to other cities, other lives, and soon other times.

Cassie soon finds herself embroiled in an esoteric hunt by obsessive collectors and an underground order of traveling readers, where every page turned is a step into the unknown.

With this debut novel, Gareth Brown has succeeded in building an atmosphere of a November afternoon, bathed in hushed secrets, evil creatures on the prowl, icy fog seeping into alleyways and bare branches clawing at the light of seemingly unoccupied houses.

It's an immediately pleasurable, immersive read, slipping its puzzles in like a cold wind stirs the dead leaves underfoot. Without revolutionizing the genre, Le Livre des portes is a charming escape to be savored with relish. So, yes, it's not a literary masterpiece, but to come away happy from a read is already an immense merit.

Tuesday readers, Sunday investigators

But there's something else that goes hand in hand with autumn: its sweet, misanthropic undertones, and the joy of remaining reclusive, with a desire to see no one. And in Marzio Montecristo, the novel's protagonist, we can count on an acolyte of choice. La Librairie des chats noirs. Owner of the eponymous store, he's a fervent fan of exceptional promotions: an insult is an insult! A former teacher turned thriller specialist, he particularly hates one type of person: those who cross the threshold of his bookshop. And when Marzio isn't kicking customers out, he runs a book club as sharp as it is crazy, «The Tuesday Investigators». As a series of atrocious murders shakes the city and the police stall, it's this small circle of readers who will attempt, with the help of texts, to unravel the case.

Piergiorgio Pulixi has succeeded in slipping us into the hands of a truculent detective story, light without being frivolous, which mischievously plays on the clichés of the genre to pay homage to detective literature. La Librairie des chats noirs is a satire of cosy mystery, where benevolence is replaced by sarcasm, and mockery is just as common as bullets. We're no longer in the feel good of rural murder, but in its transgressive double. And if we enjoy following the plot so much, it's above all to stay in the company of these characters who are as disillusioned as they are endearing. La librairie des chats noirs is a read that makes you anything but morose and grumpy.

Read also | «La fin de la tristesse», writing to stay alive

Without having too much in common, these two books help us to remember that what's essential sometimes lies simply in the desire to sit down in the evening with a book that takes us on board, to let the plot carry us along, forgetting the tumult and bitterness of everyday life. Lurking in the shadows is the thought that books are never totally harmless.

Quentin Perissinotto is a literary critic for Regard Libre.

Write to the author: quentin.perissinotto@leregardlibre.com