Memoir books from France
Recommended memoir books (16)
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
If you are into memoir here are some memoir books from France for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge.
1.
After the Roundup : Escape and Survival in Hitler's France by Joseph Weismann EN
Description:
Cover -- Contents -- Translator's Foreword -- 1. Fall 1940 -- 2. The Star -- 3. July 16, 1942 -- 4. Beaune-la-Rolande -- 5. Escape -- 6. Parisian Wanderings -- 7. Three "Misérables"--8. The Americans -- 9. The Castle of Méhoncourt -- 10. Becoming French -- 11. Return to the Past -- Epilogue: Bearing Witness
2.
Algeria Is Beautiful like America by Olivia Burton EN
Description:
Algeria the Beautiful explores the rich heritage and tumultuous modern history of Algeria and its connections to Europe and colonialism. Olivia had always heard stories about Algeria from her maternal grandmother, a Black Foot (a “Pied-Noir,” the French term for Christian and Jewish settlers of French Algeria who emigrated to France after the Algerian War of Independence). After her grandmother’s death, Olivia found some of her grandmother’s journals and letters describing her homeland. Now, ten years later, she resolves to travel to Algeria and experience the country for herself; she arrives ... continue
4.
Flight to Arras by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry EN
Description:
The World War II aviator and author of The Little Prince tells his true story of flying a reconnaissance plane during the Battle of France in 1940. When the Germans first invaded France in May of 1940, the French Air Force had a mere fifty reconnaissance crews, twenty-three of which served in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Group II/33. After only a few days, seventeen of the crews in Saint-Exupéry’s unit had already perished. Flight to Arras is the harrowing story of a single mission over the French town of Arras, an endeavor Saint-Exupéry realized the futility of even as he witnessed it unfolding... continue
5.
Description:
Translated from the French by Tanya Leslie 'Absolutely extraordinary' - Liberation In 1963, Annie Ernaux, 23 and single, realises she is pregnant. Shame arises in her like a plague. Understanding that her pregnancy will mark her and her family as social failures, she knows she cannot keep her child. This is the story, written forty years later, of a trauma Ernaux never overcame. Abortion was illegal at the time and she attempted, in vain, to self-administer with a knitting needle and nearly died. An exceptionally moving account of a tragic experience.
6.
Henry şi June : din Jurnalul dragostei necenzurat : 1931-1932 by Anaïs Nin RO
Description:
Carte ecranizata in 1990 in regia lui Philip Kaufman, cu Fred Ward, Uma Thurman si Maria de Medeiros in rolurile principale
Anais Nin iubeste pasional, dincolo de conventii si pudori mostenite. Il iubeste pe Henry Miller pentru geniul si senzualitatea lui. Pe June Miller pentru frumusete si mister. Pe Hugo, sotul ei, pentru tandretea cu care o protejeaza. Pe Eduardo, varul de care a fost indragostita in copilarie, pentru farmecul lui de efeb. In jurnal, fantasmele se intalnesc cu luciditatea, iar rezultatul este o viziune unica asupra erotismului si fidelitatii.
7.
L'allure de Chanel by Paul Morand FR
Description:
Paul Morand faisait partie des proches de Chanel. Son dernier livre, écrit à partir des conversations qu'il eut avec la modiste, restitue, dans la langue étincelante de ce grand conteur, l'insaisissable Coco Chanel. Nous suivons, racontées à la première personne, son enfance chez des tantes qui lui donneront le goût de l'épure et le sens de l'argent, ses rencontres avec les providentiels M. B. et Boy Capel ; puis la création de sa maison, ses luttes contre les excentricités vestimentaires des dames du monde, ses succès, ses amitiés... Revivent, sous la plume exquise et vive de Paul Morand, Rad... continue
8.
Description:
"Enfant, quand je m'efforçais de m'exprimer dans un langage châtié, j'avais l'impression de me jeter dans le vide. Une de mes frayeurs imaginaires, avoir un père instituteur qui m'aurait obligée à bien parler sans arrêt en détachant les mots. On parlait avec toute la bouche. Puisque la maîtresse me reprenait, plus tard j'ai voulu reprendre mon père, lui annoncer que se parterrer ou quart moins d'onze heures n'existaient pas. Il est entré dans une violente colère. Une autre fois : Comment voulez-vous que je ne me fasse pas reprendre, si vous parlez mal tout le temps ! Je pleurais. Il était malh... continue
9.
Les armoires vides by Annie Ernaux FR
Description:
Etudiante en lettres, l'auteure se remémore la période où affligée par sa famille de tous les vices, elle en vient à la détester et se trouve confrontée à l'expérience difficile de l'avortement.
10.
