The Martins

David Foenkinos author Sam Taylor translator

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Gallic Books

Published:16th Jun '22

£9.99

Available to order, but very limited on stock - if we have issues obtaining a copy, we will let you know.

The Martins cover

Galleys available for booksellers, press, media and influencers - both digital and physical. Broad campaign for coverage, targeting outlets who have previously reviewed Foenkinos such as The Guardian and the Daily Mail. Pitching to radio shows and podcasts. Foenkinos is a fluent English speaker and will be available for interviews and features. Targeted campaign for coverage in relevant publications and online outlets: Breathe Magazine, Calm Magazine, InStyle, Womankind, NB Magazine, Bookanista and Strong Words Magazine. Targeted promotion in Francophile spaces such as the French Institute, My French Life and Paris for Dreamers. Promotion through publisher social media including paid Facebook advertising. Promotion through publisher website (www.belgraviabooks.com) and newsletters.

A Parisian writer lacking inspiration finds the heroine of his next novel outside his apartment. Telling the story of octogenarian Madeleine and her family, he finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into their lives - with unexpected consequences.A disillusioned Parisian writer finds inspiration in the ordinary lives of his neighbours, the Martins. 'A wonderful surprise' L'Express Is it true that every life is the stuff of novels? Or are some people just too ordinary? This is the question a struggling Parisian writer asks when he challenges himself to write about the first person he sees when he steps outside his apartment. Secretly hoping to meet the beautiful woman who occasionally smokes on his street, he instead sets eyes on octogenarian Madeleine. She's happy to become the subject of his project, but first she needs to put her shopping away... Wondering if his project is doomed to be hopelessly banal, he soon finds himself tangled in the lives of Madeleine's family. Though calm on the surface, the Martins have secrets, troubles and woes, and the writer discovers that the most compelling story is that of an ordinary life.

'By entering the fabric of an everyday French family, he tells a story of life as it really is, with its minor dramas and major sorrows' Le Figaro Litteraire 'Clever, well-written, and brilliantly rises to the impossible challenge the author set himself: telling the story of uneventful lives ... Perhaps the most "Foenkinosien" novel of a unique writer who swims against the current of French literary trends. His style, whilst melancholic, is insuppressibly optimistic. If you had to file him in a manual of literary history, you might class him alongside the writers of the eighteenth century, but with the playfulness of Tintin' L'Obs 'It's hard to resist getting caught up in the (literary) game when the experiment turns into one of the warm-hearted, wickedly funny comedies the Delicacy author is so good at ... A talented author who ... has always known how to reinvent himself' Le Figaro 'The book's success lies in its comic reversal of roles: it's the characters who lead the author around by the nose ... David Foenkinos is at his best in this playful novel' Elle 'There's a message to be taken from Foenkinos's trademark lovely, clever comedy - which is, of course, a fiction from start to finish: the writer is never a neutral observer' Le Journal du Dimanche 'A wonderful surprise - light, fizzy, at once uplifting and melancholic and, above all, filled with twists, role reversals and self-deprecation. The Delicacy author's trademark is well and truly stamped on this book: a serious author who doesn't take himself seriously ... With the lightest of touches, the author takes us behind the scenes of literary creation, and into the eternal nebula of human relationships' L'Express 'Playing with the rules of autofiction and family comedy, Foenkinos has created a multi-layered novel' Le Parisien

ISBN: 9781913547301

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

256 pages