Description:
SALAD DAYS
Rights sold to: Bulgaria (Fama), Italy (Barbès), Russia (Eksmo)
In the small northern town of Cardin, Guéret takes the same route home from the factory every evening, and every evening the same dog follows him back to his lodgings. This dog would be his only companion if it were not for Nicole, a young factory-worker with dreams of marriage. Nicole is attractive and considerate, but so frivolous that Guéret prefers Maria, his landlady in her fifties. Sadly, she shows him only indifference or contempt; until the day when a bloodcurdling murder is committed.
Maria loses no time in seeing her lowliest tenant as the perpetrator of the crime... and finally looks at him. Better still, she respects and admires him. Guéret, only too happy to be in favour with her at last, does nothing to disabuse her. A fool's game begins between them. Where will this imposture take Guéret? If he comes clean, surely he will lose Maria's love, lose everything? The only witness to the relationship who anticipates its painful end is the faithful dog.
Sagan takes on a challenge in this book. It is an unexpected story. Far from Paris with its flighty society and bourgeois women in love, the author of Bonjour Tristesse sets this book in working class circles, appropriating their hardships and grimness. No more artifice, just honest people caught up in their eccentric infatuations and ambitious dreams. And, in this unusual setting, readers take great pleasure in rediscovering what is so loved about Sagan: we keep boredom at bay as best we can, and manage to love by cheating a bit.
At nineteen, Françoise Sagan enjoyed huge acclaim with Bonjour Tristesse, followed by many plays and novels, all of which were well received. She wrote her own obituary for the Dictionary of Authors, compiled by Jérôme Garcin: "Appeared in 1954 with a slender novel, Bonjour Tristesse, which created a scandal worldwide. Her death, after a life and a body of work that were equally pleasant and botched, was a scandal only for herself."
The unprecedented success of Toxique, published by Stock in autumn 2009, is ample proof of the tremendous enthusiasm Françoise Sagan still arouses. Éditions Stock are continuing to publish all of Sagan's titles from the 1970s and 1980s.
Brief description:
A dix-neuf ans, FranAoise Sagan connaA(R)t la gloire avec Bonjour tristesse. Des piA]ces de thA(c)A[tre, de nombreux romans ont suivi. Tous ont rencontrA(c) le succA]s. Elle a A(c)crit elle-mAame sa rubrique nA(c)crologique dans Le Dictionnaire des auteurs, publiA(c) sous la direction de JA(c)rAme Garcin: A Fit son apparition en 1954 avec un mince roman, Bonjour tristesse, qui fit un scandale mondial. Sa disparition, aprA]s une vie et une oeuvre A(c)galement agrA(c)ables et bA[clA(c)es, ne fut un scandale que pour elle-mAame. A