What's missing in the French rentrée littéraire

This afternoon I threw together a Niçoise salad, bought a fresh baguette, and got my gruyère and grapes ready to go. I logged onto amazon.fr, and checked out the 2007 offerings for the rentrée littéraire.

The rentrée refers to the nationwide phenomenon of the French returning home from their long August holidays. The rentrée littéraire takes place throughout the month of September. Publishing houses release their most anticipated books from their most celebrated authors. Books released in September are fresh in judges' minds when it comes time to award coveted literary prizes, such as the Prix Goncourt.

As I scanned the new releases for September 2007, I couldn't help but notice a large number of novels whose plot revolved around an author who mysteriously disappears. Editors, journalists, and other literary professionals much search for the missing author finding, not only the man, but the essence of his work.

Disappearance is a big theme in the 2007 rentrée littéraire. Whether the subject is missing authors (Le Livreur, Les romans n'interessent pas les voleurs), the disappearance of Jewish writer David Mendelsohn's family in 1941 Nazi-occupied Poland (The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million ), or an Alzheimer's sufferer who no one sees (On n'est pas là pour disparaître), the idea of disappearance shows up again and again.

As you may have noticed from the Mendelsohn autobiography, the rentrée littéraire is far from an exclusively French affair. I noticed a new book by one of my favorite Italian authors, Andrea Camilleri, translated into French. Talk Talk, T.C. Boyle's 2006 English release, has also been translated and is featured in the rentrée littéraire. When the prizes are awarded later this year, most have a special category for foreign authors translated into French.

One 2007 appearance I very much anticipated didn't disappoint. Amelie Nothomb's latest book, Ni d'Eve ni d'Adam, will be making its way to me across the Atalantic soon. There's nothing like reading a Belgian author write in French about her affair in Tokyo. (Here is my post on Nothomb's 2006 contribution to the rentrée littéraire)