The Alliance Française is bringing you a different way to practise your French. On the third Thursday of every month, a French
book (with no translations) will be selected and discussed for 90 minutes, allowing you to develop and improve your reading and
comprehension skills.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Who:
Available for members and students of the Alliance Française d'Adelaïde
Where:
Alliance Française d'Adelaïde
319 Young Street, Wayville
When:
Thursday once a month, 6:30pm to 8pm
During school terms, unless scheduled otherwise
For more information:
Please contact reception at adelaide@af.org.au if you would like to know more.
This Club de Lecture will discuss Un fauteuil sur la Seine by Amine Maalouf
In telling the life and adventures of the eighteen characters who have succeeded each other in the 29th chair of the French Academy
since 1634, Amin Maalouf not only retraces this 'partly fictitious genealogy' of which his predecessor Lévi-Strauss spoke; it makes us
relive in a carnal, incarnated way, four centuries of French history. If 'a novel is a mirror that one walks along a path', in the words
of Stendhal, the novel of France that the author relates to us here is a Legend of the Centuries from an armchair.
Free booking: Click here
This Club de Lecture will discuss Premier sang by Amelie Nothomb
" The lust to live should not be underestimated. "
In the form of a tale, Amélie Nothomb recounts the life of Patrick, her father, a sweet angelic child who, as a young adult, will have
to face death. A magnificent tribute to the father figure but also to a hero in the shadows, a diplomat with an extraordinary career.
Free booking: Click here
This Club de Lecture will discuss La Serpe by Philippe Jaenada
One morning in October 1941, in a sinister castle in the depths of Périgord, Henri Girard calls for help: during the night, his father, his
aunt and the maid were massacred with a sickle. He is the only survivor. All the doors were closed, no break-ins were observed. Spendthrift,
arrogant, violent, the young man is the sole heir of the victims. Two days earlier, he borrowed the murder weapon from the neighbors.
However, at the end of a resounding trial, he was acquitted and the investigation abandoned. While public opinion remains convinced of his
guilt, Henri goes into exile in Venezuela.
The mystery of the Château d'Escoire murder will never be elucidated, leaving a black and sulphurous halo hovering around Henri Girard,
until the end of his life. Never, until a stubborn and thorough writer gets involved...
Free booking: Click here
This Club de Lecture will discuss Le testament français by Andrei Makine.
Locked behind the Iron Curtain, a young boy grows up bewitched by his French grandmother's memories of Paris before the Great War. Yet
despite what he also learns of her suffering in the Soviet Union under Stalin and during the Second World War, as an adolescent he finds
himself proud to be a Russian. Torn between the two cultures, he eventually makes a choice - which has a wholly unexpected outcome.
Capturing the powerful allure of illusion, this unforgettable novel traces a sentimental and intellectual journey that embraces the dramatic history of the twentieth century.
Free booking: Click here
This Club de Lecture will discuss La Cerise sur le gâteau by Aurélie Valognes.
Life isn't fair: at 35, you don't have time for anything, at 65, you have time, but you have to know what to do with it...
Bernard and Brigitte, a solid couple for 37 years, know something about it. Since she stopped working, Brigitte has been enjoying her
newfound freedom and her grandchildren. For her, it's only happiness. Until the tragedy: the retirement of her husband! Because,
for Bernard, swapping his suits for slippers is out of the question. This grumpy hyperactive really doesn't see anything to be
happy about. Ready to do anything to find a new meaning in his life, he gives a hard time to all those around him! Add to that children on
the verge of a nervous breakdown, tireless grandchildren, and especially unbearable neighbors who pollute their daily lives... What if
retirement was not a seamless experience?
This Club de Lecture will discuss Le mystère Henri Pick by David Foenkinos.
In the small town of Crozon in Brittany, a library houses manuscripts that were rejected for publication: the faded dreams of aspiring
writers. Visiting while on holiday, young editor Delphine Despero is thrilled to discover a novel so powerful that she feels compelled to
bring it back to Paris to publish it.
The book is a sensation, prompting fevered interest in the identity of its author - apparently one Henri Pick, a now-deceased pizza chef
from Crozon. Sceptics cry that the whole thing is a hoax: how could this man have written such a masterpiece? An obstinate journalist,
Jean-Michel Rouche, heads to Brittany to investigate.
By turns farcical and moving, The Mystery of Henri Pick is a fast-paced comic mystery enriched by a deep love of books - and of the authors
who write them.
This Club de Lecture will discuss La plus secrète mémoire des hommes by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr.
In 2018, Diégane Latyr Faye, a young Senegalese writer, discovers in Paris a mythical book, published in 1938: The Labyrinth of the Inhuman.
We have lost track of its author, described in his time as "Rimbaud nègre", since the scandal triggered by the publication of his
text. Diégane then embarks, fascinated, on the trail of the mysterious T. C. Elimane, where he faces the great tragedies of colonialism and
the Shoah. Without ever losing the thread of this quest which monopolizes him, Diégane, in Paris, frequents a group of young African
authors: all observe each other, discuss, drink, make love a lot, and wonder about the need for creation from exile. He will especially
attach himself to two women: the sulphurous Siga, holder of secrets, and the fleeting photojournalist Aïda... The Most Secret Memory of
Men is a dizzying novel, dominated by the need to choose between writing and life, or even by the desire to go beyond the question of
the face-to-face between Africa and the West. Above all, it is a love song to literature and its timeless power.
Thursday 19 May - 6:30pm
Alliance Française
"Dad asked me to help him get it over with." I repeat this sentence to myself, it sounds strange. What's not sticking? "Dad" and "end it"? At the end of 2008, at the age of 88, Emmanuele Bernheim's father was hospitalized after a stroke. When he wakes up, diminished and dependent, this curious man, passionately loving life, asks his daughter to help him die. How to accept? And then, "helping to die", what does that mean?
Thursday 14 April - 6:30pm
Alliance Française
Winner of the 2018 Goncourt Prize, this poignant coming-of-age tale captures the distinct feeling of summer in a region left behind by
global progress.
August 1992. One afternoon during a heatwave in a desolate valley somewhere in eastern France, with its dormant blast furnaces and its lake,
fourteen-year-old Anthony and his cousin decide to steal a canoe to explore the famous nude beach across the water. The trip ultimately
takes Anthony to his first love and a summer that will determine everything that happens afterward.
Thursday 17 March - 6:30pm
Alliance Française
In 1963, Annie Ernaux, 23 and unattached, realizes 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 that child.
This is the story, written forty years later, of a trauma Ernaux never overcame.
Thursday 17 February - 6:30pm
Alliance Française
"Petitesannonces.fr: Young 26 years old man, condemned to a life expectancy of two years by an early Alzheimer, wishes to leave for a
final journey. Seeking companion(s) to share it with me."
Émile decided to flee the hospital, the compassion of his family and friends. To his own surprise, he receives a reply to his online ad. Three days later, in front of the secretly purchased camper, he finds Joanne. Thus begins a breathtaking journey.
Thursday 9 December - 6:30pm
Alliance Française
A collection of nine stories about a planet in crisis. To be ‘à la lisière’ means: to be at the extreme edge of something – in this case: destruction.
The ‘We’ /‘Nous’ in the title is all inclusive, referring to all living beings, humans, plants, animals, the entire planet. With these stories, some written over twenty years ago, Caroline Lamarche simply invites us, through her clear, clean style, to pay close attention.
Anaëlle, a young woman whose life has been disrupted by an accident, is slowly rebuilding herself, between her work and her passion for writing.
Thomas tells wonderful stories of trees and forest to put a little color in the hospital room of Simon, a bright and tender boy.
Each one fights against fate in his own way. But is it really chance that will seal their destiny?
Guylain Vignolles lives on the edge of existence. Working a job he hates, he has but one pleasure in life ... sitting on the 6:27 train each day, Guylain reads aloud.
One morning, Guylain discovers the diary of a lonely young woman: Julie. A woman who feels as lost in the world as he does. As he reads from these pages to a rapt audience, Guylain finds himself falling hopelessly in love with their enchanting author.
Thursday 23 September - 6.30pm
Alliance Française
Losing her beloved husband after only seven years of marriage, heartbroken widow Nathalie steels herself against emotional attachments until she unexpectedly falls in for her offbeat, guileless co-worker, Markus, who represents the opposite of everything.
Thursday 19 August - 6:30pm
Alliance Française
Ferdinand Brun hasn't always been a grumpy old man. Many years ago, he was a grumpy young man. Now he'd much rather spend time with his canine companion, Daisy, than any of his noisy neighbors. But as his behavior becomes increasingly peculiar, his daughter grows concerned and begins to consider moving him into a retirement home.
Thursday 17 June, 6:30pm
Alliance Francaise
L’anomalie is set in 2021, on a flight between Paris and New York. The novel is narrated by 11 different passengers on the the flight,
including a part-time hit man and a Nigerian pop star.
Thursday 20 May, 7:00pm
Alliance Francaise
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A writer in need of inspiration decides to randomly choose a person in the street to make it the subject of his novel.
Thursday 29 April, 6:30pm
Alliance Francaise
Miroir de nos peines begins April 6, 1940. It’s the funny war, then the exodus; the German army will melt on Paris but nobody, French side, sees nothing coming.
Thursday 18 March, 6:30pm
Alliance Francaise
Set in Burundi and Rwanda from 1993 onwards, the novel is narrated by ten-year-old Gaby, and tells how the innocence of his youth is suddenly shattered by the outbreak of civil war and genocide.
Glacé by Bernard Minier follows an investigation of the headless body of a horse found in he French Pyrenees town of
Saint-Martin-de-Comminges.
In December, the book club will discuss Glacé by Bernard Minier which follows an investigation of a headless body of a horse found
in he French Pyrenees town of Saint-Martin-de-Comminges.
This month, the book club will discuss Tout cela n'a rien à voir avec moi by Monica Sabolo which dissects romance and heartache in a
collage-novel that is funny, crazy and heartbreaking. A text as graceful as it is moving that has been described as a new genre of
romance.
(NB: The November session has been moved online due to the 'circuit breaker' closure. We apologise for any inconvenience)
This month, the book club will discuss Les années by Annie Ernaux which is an autographical account of her life. Through photos and
memories left by events, words and things, Annie Ernaux gives a sense of the passage of the years, from the post-war period to today.
This month, the book club will discuss Ça raconte Sarah by Pauline Delabroy-Allard which tells the story of a young teacher who
meets Sarah, a violinist, which then becomes a passionate love affair. But Sarah is ill with breast cancer and is resistant to medical
treatment.
This month, the book club will discuss Eugenie Grandet by Honoré de Balzac : about miserliness and how it is bequeathed from the
father to the daughter, Eugénie, through her unsatisfying love attachment with her cousin. Eugénie Grandet is set in the
town of Saumur.
This month, the book club will discuss Le mystere de la chambre jaune by Gaston Leroux : Professor Stangerson has been working
and living for fifteen years with his daughter in their castle, Glantier. A few days after Miss Stangerson decides to marry Robert
Darzac, who has been courting her for fifteen years, somebody tries to kill her. A young reporter, Rouletabille, will try to solve the
mystery...
This month, the book club will discuss Les mouches d'automne by Irene Nemirovsky: Tatiana Ivanovna devoted her entire life to
her masters, the Karines, whom she saw born and grow. When the Russian revolution drives them out of their domain, it follows them to
Odessa first, then to Paris, in this small apartment in the Ternes district, where exiles turn in circles like autumn flies...
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Wednesday, 18 April - 6:30pm
Alliance Française, 319 Young St, Wayville
For this month's Club de Lecture, the club will to discuss Au-revoir là-haut by Pierre Lemaitre, set after World War I as two
soldiers - a disfigured but brilliant artist and an ex-accountant - start a memorial con.
Wednesday, 28th February - 6:30pm
Alliance Française, 319 Young St, Wayville
For this month's Club de Lecture, the club will continue to discuss La Possibilité d'une île by Michel Houellebecq, which tells the story of Daniel, a successful comedian, and his two clones, in a post-apocalyptic future set in a cloning cult.
Wednesday, 29th November
6:30pm-8pm
Alliance Française
For this month's Club de Lecture, the club will be discussing La Possibilité d'une île by Michel Houellebecq, which tells the story of Daniel, a successful comedian, and his two clones, in a post-apocalyptic future set in a cloning cult.
Wednesday, 29 November
6:30pm-8pm
Alliance Francaise
For this month's Club de Lecture, the club will be discussing No et Moi by Delphine de Vigan , which tells the story of thirteen-year old Lou, a gifted but lonely child, and Nora (nicknamed No), a homeless girl who Lou interviews for a school project after seeing her at the Gare d'Austerlitz.
Wednesday, 18 October - 6:30pm-8pm
Alliance Francaise, 319 Young St, Wayville
For this month's Club de Lecture, the club will be discussing l’écume des jours by Boris Vian, a surrealist style book which follows multiple plot lines, including the love stories of two couples, talking mice, and a man who ages years in a week.
Wednesday, 27th September - 6:30pm-8pm
Alliance Francaise, 319 Young St, Wayville
For this month's Club de Lecture, the club will be discussing Ce que le jour doit à la nuit by Yasmina Khadra, which follows the life of a young man, Younes, from his childhood in Algeria in the 1930s to his life as an adult.
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