French books you'll love in English
“Only a handful of contemporary French authors have ever broken through to English readers in translation…Le French Book is hoping to change that.” –Publishing Perspectives
New York, New York (PRWEB) September 13, 2012
A new French-to-English publishing company, Le French Book, is launching its first books, starting with three exciting crime fiction titles. This digital-first publisher has set out to bring France's best mysteries, thrillers, novels, short stories, and non-fiction to new readers across the English-speaking world. France has a very vibrant creative culture—in early September nearly 426 new French novels were published. Yet few are translated into English. As Publishing Perspectives says, “Trager’s mission is to bridge this disconnect.”
The company’s founder and CEO, translator and editor Anne Trager, explains her motivation, “I couldn’t stand it anymore. There are just too many good books not reaching a broader audience. The recent explosion in e-reader ownership provides a perfect medium to introduce readers to some of these French authors.”
Le French Book has a straightforward motto: “If we love it, we’ll translate it.” They are starting with a crime fiction collection, because, as Anne Trager says, “That’s what I love most.”
Three blockbusters from France are being released:
- The Paris Lawyer by Sylvie Granotier, a prize-winning psychological thriller that doubles as a legal procedural. Edgar Award-winning author Thomas H. Cook calls it a “beautifully written and elegantly structured novel about a woman’s attempt to unravel the central mystery of her life, and a number of other mysteries along the way.”
- Treachery in Bordeaux by Jean-Pierre Alaux and Noël Balen, is a classic whodunit set in French wine country. It is the first of the 20-book Winemaker Detective series made for television in France. New York Times bestselling author William Martin calls it “a terrific new series.”
- The 7th Woman by Frédérique Molay, who is “the French Michael Connelly,” according to Jean Miot, the former head of Agence France Press. This police procedural won France’s most prestigious crime fiction award, was voted Best Crime Fiction Novel of the Year, and has already sold over 150,000 copies.
Right now, they are available as ebook exclusives, but for Le French Book, being digital-first, doesn’t mean digital-only. “Our goal is to expand our books’ reach, not to choose between digital and paper,” says Fabrice Neuman, the company’s chief technology officer. “Publishing is changing and digital-first publishing enables a faster time-to-market. In our model, ebooks pave the way to all other formats.”
About Le French Book
Le French Book is a New York-based independent, digital-first publisher specialized in great reads from France. It was founded in December 2011 because, as founder Anne Trager says, “The recent explosion in e-reader ownership provides a perfect medium to introduce readers to some of these fantastic French authors.” Anne has lived in France more than half of her life, has 25 years of experience in the translation business and 15 in publishing. Co-founder Fabrice Neuman is French and the company’s tech consultant. He is one of France’s foremost proponents of e-books and one of the first French journalists to write about them in the mid-1990s. The core team also includes the American translation editor Amy Richards, who is based in Ohio and has a long, award-winning career in writing and editing.
