ANTOINE LAURAIN'S PAGE: An Astronomer in Love; Red Is My Heart; The Readers' Room

THE READERS' ROOM
ANTOINE LAURAIN (tr. Jane Aitken & Emily Boyce, Polly Mackintosh)
Pushkin Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$13.99 ebook, pre-order now for delivery 27 January 2026

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: When the manuscript of a debut crime novel arrives at a Parisian publishing house, everyone in the readers' room is convinced it's something special. And, when it’s eventually published, the committee for France's highest literary honour, the Prix Goncourt, agrees.

But when the shortlist is announced, there's a problem for glamorous editor Violaine Lepage: she has no idea of the author's identity. As the police begin to investigate a series of murders strangely reminiscent of those recounted in the book, Violaine is not the only one looking for answers. And, suffering memory blanks following an aeroplane accident, she's beginning to wonder what role she might play in the story – as well as how to find the mystery author before the prize is announced.

In the end it will take the combined investigative powers of a detective, a junior editor, and Violaine’s therapist to uncover the truth. They will learn not just about the author of the book, but about the story’s origins, and the novel’s strange power to exact justice for violence done to a young girl decades ago. But when everything comes to light, one question will remain: can Violaine and the other readers of the mystery manuscript put the past to rest, and find happiness in the present?

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: A fun, middlebrow light mystery about bookish people doing not-bookish things to discover the unexpected connection of writer to subject.

What worked best was the mystery of who the PoV character was before the accident that alters her. I found the brevity of the book (under 200pp) militated against it becoming fully integrated between the editor and the subject of police interest.

It's another entertaining story, albeit with less of Author Laurain's customary whimsical humor (feels odd saying that, given the main character awakes to having a chat with Proust), from France's Fredrik Backman. Laurain's comparative anonymity in the US is bewildering to me. I find his stories are pitched directly at my pleasure-read center, unlike Backman's. This cultural exploration, of a bit more serious tone, is also of a bit more serious topic: the murders, and other crimes, in the editor's manuscript received from a source unknown, coming true after the publication of the book suggests something very sinister took place. Her memory is compromised by the very public plane crash; did she ever know (despite consistently denying it) before her accident the truth of this manuscript?

It's a lot to put in a short space but this keeps the pace snappy. I was, as always, struck by Author Laurain's very unamerican way of keeping the violence and ugliness of the crimes either off the page entirely or minimally dealt with and then only in aftermath not in the commission of the crimes. I found it refreshing in a story that is not a conventional US-style cozy.

It's also not much of a mystery, in its resolution it felt rushed and obvious. So why am I giving it four stars? Because it feels like a dreamland, twilight between reality and not-reality throughout. From awakening into that chat with Proust to discovering she's got big memory-holes, the main character is off balance and so we are too. It's a way not to have our realism addiction denied by flying into the fantasy realm but not having it drag our awareness into the cleaning closet of realism there to be doused with the chlorine bleach of literalism.

I enjoy that liminality; I know others don't but always hope they'll be tempted to try something more...French, ambiguous, unbounded by rules of genre.

Can't hang me for hoping. (Yet.)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

AN ASTRONOMER IN LOVE
ANTOINE LAURAIN (tr. Louise Rogers Lalaurie & Megan Jones)
Pushkin Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$13.99 ebook, pre-order now for delivery on 3 February 2026

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: From the best-selling author of The Red Notebook comes the enchanting story of two men, 250 years apart, who find themselves on separate missions to see the transit of Venus across the Sun.

In 1760, astronomer Guillaume le Gentil sets out on a quest through the oceans of India to document the transit of Venus. The weather is turbulent, the seas are rough, but his determination will conquer all.

In 2012, divorced estate agent Xavier Lemercier discovers Guillaume’s telescope in one of his properties. While looking out across the city, the telescope falls upon the window of an intriguing woman with what appears to be a zebra in her apartment.

Then the woman walks through the doors of Xavier’s office a few days later, and his life changes for evermore . . .

Part swashbuckling adventure on the high seas and part modern-day love story set in the heart of Paris, An Astronomer in Love is a time-travelling tale of adventure, destiny and the power of love.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Guillaume le Gentil had to feel there was a bullseye on his back and gawd was always aimimg some kind of malign force at it. Nevertheless he persisted; he accomplished more than most will in a lifetime but failed spectacularly to accomplish the fame-bringing prize of observing the Transit of Venus. He was always trying to get where he needed to be, always thwarted by stuff he could not influence or change or avoid. How to get his Transit of Venus on one of the only two chances that come in any human lifetime?

Xavier Lemercier has a void at the center of his life after his divorce. He needs a woman to fill it. His real-estate career is nothing but a way to earn a living. What he wants is what we all want, someone who really *gets* him and whom he *gets* in the same way; someone with that fit between them that is as firm and solid as a lock receiving its key. How to find this, when he's already experienced failure, when he's always doing the business of life...?

The dual timelines aren't separated by chapters, or sections, or other structural tricks. They're separated by your attention. The maguffin here is Le Gentil's telescope that comes into Lemercier's possession via a real-estate transaction. Each man hopes to see his life change through its eyepiece. And both do. Just not ever quite as expected....

Will you resonate to these men's struggles to get to their hearts' desires? I'm guessing so; you'll need to be ready to invest a lot of energy into the under-300pp of fully intertwined life stories. There's a lot going on, yet a curious lack of direct action. This is a character-driven story of accepting limitations and finding a path through them, one that enriches your Self, despite (or because of) never being direct or going the easy route.

It was a satisfying read though lighter on Laurain's whimsical humor than I myownself prefer. It felt as though I was speaking to someone I had not heard from in a while, listening as he caught me up on the unusually packed time he'd been having. It's not perfect...I mentioned it's a bit po-faced for my preference, and a wee bit more action would not come amiss...but it was a rich, mellow mug of chocolate to warm my needing innards exactly when I needed it.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

RED IS MY HEART
ANTOINE LAURAIN (tr. Jane Aitken), illus. Le Sonneur
Pushkin Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$13.99 ebook, pre-order for delivery 27 January 2026

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: A moving, evocative exploration of heartbreak and healing in Paris, told through words and images in this stunning collaboration with French street artist Le Sonneur

How can you mend a broken heart? Do you write a letter to the woman who left you—and post it to an imaginary address? Buy a new watch, to reset your life? Or get rid of the jacket you wore every time you argued, because it was in some way responsible?

Combining the wry musings of a rejected lover with playful drawings in just three colours—red, black and white—one of France’s best-selling authors has collaborated with renowned street artist Le Sonneur to create a striking addition to the literature of unrequited love, and a moving, evocative exploration of heartbreak in one of the world’s great cities.

In this playful, poignant series of musings, a nameless narrator remembers a love affair just gone, watches the flight they were due to take to New York depart, sends flowers to a woman who died a century ago, smokes ostentatiously in front of No Smoking signs, and takes solace from the endless distractions and beauty of the city he calls home, Paris. If he walks these streets long enough—the streets of the City of Light, City of Love—he may find himself ready to love again.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: This is as close as I (voluntarily) come to poetry. Reminiscent of the concrete poetry that was popular in the 1960s, this illustrated trip into the psyche of a man processing his grief at loving and losing is evocative, emotionally resonant:

I hasten to say the text isn't arranged in flowers or birds flying, more just that the illustrations are copious in number and the text flows in response to them, reminiscent to me of old-timey concrete poetry. The prose is, of necessity, spare; it is making the points the many illustrations are expanding on and evoking responses from.

I'm not the obvious reader for a melancholic, perhaps under-reflective man's internal monologue. I wanted him to have a name so I could shout it at him to get him to see what was in front of him not merely look at it. Acts of adolescent defiance like the highlighted smoking in front of a "No Smoking" sign don't seem cute to me, just...adolescent.

I'm not making a great case for you to pick it up, am I? It's down to my absence of sympathy with things poetical. If you're not so inclined either, not a read to pursue. If, on the other hand, you're amenable to blank verse with integrated illustrations that are, in my opinion, very attractive indeed, you are exactly who the book is made for.

And consider this: I really dislike poetry, and still read this book, still liked this book...Author Laurain is clearly A Talent.It's very unusual for me to do more than look at poetry and slam the book shut, chuck it into the donation pile, and forget it exists.

On that grading curve, my 3.75* looks almost like a full five.