The first time that Mélanie met Clara, Mélanie was stunned by Clara’s sense of authority, and Clara was struck by Mélanie’s pink, glittery nails, which shimmered in the dark. “She looks like a child,� thought the first. “She looks like a doll,� pondered the second.  These two women, both of the same generation and exposed to the same media throughout their lives, could not be more different in adulthood. Mélanie is a social media superstar, broadcasting her children's daily lives on a family YouTube channel. Clara is a young police officer, assigned to the case after Mélanie’s daughter Kimmy is abducted. Traversing the Big Brother generation, the social media influencer generation, and right up to the 2030s, Delphine de Vigan offers a bone-chilling exposé of a world where everything is broadcasted and profited from, even family happiness.

"Timeless, vivid and utterly essential." Fergal Keane, author of The Madness AN AWARD WINNING NOVEL FOLLOWING THREE GENERATIONS TORN APART BY THE TUTSI GENOCIDE "Three generations of a family torn apart by the Tutsi genocide try to reconnect with their homeland and each other." THE NEW YORK TIMES "Powerful." ASYMPTOTE JOURNAL Blanche returns to Rwanda after building a life in Bordeaux with her husband and young son, Stokely. Reuniting with her mother Immaculata, old wounds are reopened for both mother and daughter while Stokely, caught between two countries, tries to understand where he comes from and where he belongs. Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse's unforgettable debut novel follows three generations torn apart by the genocide against the Tutsis, as they try to reconnect with one another, rebuild broken links and find their place in today's world.

A man's quest to bring new life to a desolate world "In this radiantly beautiful book, Sandrine Collette achieves a perfect balance between horror and beauty, finding poetry even in the dust."-ELLE Nobody wanted Corentin. His father left him, his mother dreams of getting rid of him. Dragged from home to home, his childhood is an aimless pilgrimage, until the day his mother leaves him with old Augustine. Life begins anew for him. Deep into the remote, verdant Valley of the Forests, Corentin finds the care and love he's been missing. When he grows up and moves to the city, Corentin immerses himself in the dazzling pleasures and distractions of urban life. But all around him, the world is on fire. Temperatures rise, rivers dry up, trees shed their leaves in June: a catastrophe is brewing. The night the worst happens, Corentin survives, hidden in the depths of the city's catacombs. When he emerges, he finds a devastated landscape devoid of life. Human, tree, or beast: nothing is left. But Corentin, armed only with hope, sets off on a journey to find Augustine.

An absorbing bildungsroman that tells the story of three sisters amidst France's rapid transformation in the '70s Three sisters were born into a modest Catholic family in Aix-en-Provence. Sabine, the eldest, dreams of an artist's life in Paris; Helene, the middle girl, grows up divided between the bourgeois environment of Neuilly-sur-Seine and the simple life led by her parents; Mariette, the youngest, learns the secrets and silences of a dazzling and crazy world. In 1970, French society is changing. Women have emancipated themselves whilst men have lost their bearings, and the three sisters, each in their own way, find ways to live a life of their own-a strong life, far from the morality, education, and the religion of their childhood. This family chronicle, which takes us from the May 1968 protests to the 1981 elections, is as much a tender and tragic stroll through the 20th century as it is the chronicle of an era, where consciousnesses are awakening to the upheaval of the world, and heralding the chaos to come.

The Gospel according to Amelie Jesus is perhaps the most universally known figure in the Western world, yet he remains one of the most obscure. In her reinterpretation of the story of the Passion and crucifixion, Nothomb gives voice to a transgressive Messiah, the son of God portrayed as deeply human. Not so much because of his broken chastity vows, rather because of his inability to forgive himself for the pointless and sadistic mise-en-scene that is the Passion. It all starts with the farcical trial at the court of Pontius Pilate. When the witnesses for the prosecution stand up one by one, they turn out to be, paradoxically, the very ones who were healed by Jesus' miracles, from the disgruntled beggar no longer able to solicit alms, to the man who, freed from satanic possession, now finds his life fatally boring. As the familiar, harrowing tale unfolds in all its dramatic intensity, Nothomb veers from the tragic to the comic, from deep compassion to cold mercilessness. She distils the essence of life down to its basic components - love, death and thirst - revealing that real human strength resides in the body, not in the spirit.

A novel about passion, death, and the ambiguous relationship between art and reality Antonia grows up in rural Corsica, a place of deeply-rooted traditions and strong family ties. When she's fourteen, her uncle, a priest, gives her a camera-suddenly changing the way she looks at the world and igniting a life-long passion. Over two decades later, Antonia runs into Dragan, a soldier whom she had met when she was reporting on the war in the former Yugoslavia. The two spend the night in deep conversation, reminiscing about their experience of the conflict. As she drives home, Antonia loses control of her car, plunges off a cliff and is killed instantly. Tasked with officiating at her funeral, Antonia's uncle is forced to reflect on her life and legacy and on the profound questions they beg about ambition and doubt, passion and guilt, representation and reality. Wide in scope but rich in detail, restrained yet deeply moving, In His Own Image weaves together the story of a life with universal themes that resonate across time and space.

Rene is the concierge of a grand Parisian apartment building. She maintains a carefully constructed persona as someone uncultivated but reliable, in keeping with what she feels a concierge should be. But beneath this facade lies the real Rene: passionate about culture and the arts, and more knowledgeable in many ways than her employers with their outwardly successful but emotionally void lives. Down in her lodge, apart from weekly visits by her one friend Manuela, Rene lives with only her cat for company. Meanwhile, several floors up, twelve-year-old Paloma Josse is determined to avoid the pampered and vacuous future laid out for her, and decides to end her life on her thirteenth birthday. But unknown to them both, the sudden death of one of their privileged neighbours will dramatically alter their lives forever. By turns moving and hilarious, this unusual and insightful novel is now an international publishing sensation, with sales of over 10 million copies.

A French intelligence officer, Assem, is tasked with tracking down a former member of the U.S. Special Forces suspected of drug trafficking during the War in Afghanistan. En route to Beirut he shares a night with Miriam, an Iraqi archaeologist, who is in a race against time to save ancient artefacts across the Middle East from the terrorist group ISIS. Punctuating these two storylines are vignettes from the bellicose past, all turning points in world history, each showing a will to continue in the face of defeat.

Awarded the Prix des libraires by France’s booksellers, a universal story about music and restoring one’s faith in others amid the aftermath of tremendous loss. Tokyo, 1938. An amateur quartet, led by the compassionate Yu, gathers to practice. Suddenly, their rehearsal is brutally interrupted by military police. In the ensuing skirmish, Yu’s violin is smashed while his son, Rei, witnesses his father’s arrest. He will never see him again. Salvaging his father’s instrument, Rei escapes thanks to a mysterious lieutenant. Paris, 2003. Raised in France, Rei–now Jacques–has dedicated his life to the broken violin’s repair: studying music, becoming an apprentice, and, eventually, a luthier. However, despite his effort to rehabilitate the damage of years ago, he struggles to reconcile his past with the present. Yet, when a world-class violinist, connected to the lieutenant that helped him as a boy, appears, Jacques’ past is rekindled and he perseveres in a final bid to heal. Fractured Soul is a parable of what once was lost and what there stands to be gained–a story of immense beauty and ferocious courage. Translated from the French by Alison Anderson

From the author of the New York Times bestseller, "The Elegance of the Hedgehog."
In the heart of Paris, in the posh building made famous in "The Elegance of the Hedgehog," Pierre Athens, the greatest food critic in the world, is dying. Revered by some and reviled by many, Monsieur Arthens has been lording it over the world's most esteemed chefs for years, passing judgment on their creations, deciding their fates with a stroke of his pen, destroying and building reputations on a whim. But now, during these his final hours, his mind has turned to simpler things. He is desperately searching for that singular flavor, that sublime something once sampled, never forgotten, "the Flavor" par excellence. Indeed, this flamboyant and self-absorbed man desires only one thing before he dies: one last taste.
Thus begins a charming voyage that traces the career of Monsieur Arthens from childhood to maturity across a celebration of all manner of culinary delights. Alternating with the voice of the supercilious Arthens is a chorus belonging to his acquaintances and familiars?relatives, lovers, a would-be protege, even a cat. Each will have his or her say about M. Arthens, a man who has inspired only extreme emotions in people. Here, as in "The Elegance of Hedgehog," Muriel Barbery's story celebrates life's simple pleasures and sublime moments while condemning the arrogance and vulgarity of power.

A timeless story between foundational tale and myth When Salina dies, it falls to her youngest son to tell her story, a story of violence and suffering, vengeance and passion. Exiled three times, the first time as a new-born abandoned outside a village by a mysterious horseman, Salina was taken in and raised by a clan that only ever saw her as a stranger and an enemy to be defeated. Three times a mother, her children born from strife, Salina never knew love, and revenge became her reason to live. For her to gain admittance to the cemetery, to a place of peace at last, Salina's son must face up and tell the tale of Salina's ordeals-her rape the most harrowing-in minute detail. He has no choice but to give voice to all the hardship that for years fed into Salina's rage. With this short novel set in an ancestral world, Laurent Gaude explores a narrative space where time flows to rhythmic rituals, where fate blurs to legend, and secrets become myth.

A primal tale of cruelty and redemption The family farm has run to ruin. Rafael's father has abandoned them. His older brothers, the twins Mauro and Joaquin, blame Rafael for their father's departure and exact revenge on their baby brother. Steban, Rafael's other sibling, is a simpleton whose affections and allegiances change with the shifting winds. Ruling over this dysfunctional roost is a tyrannical and avaricious mother. There is nothing bucolic about existence on a dilapidated farm on the lonely Patagonian steppe. Life is ruthless, unforgiving, and bloody. As the family tensions mount, daily life degenerates into open warfare, revealing dark truths about the human soul. For readers of Coetzee's Disgrace, the writing of Dorothy Alison, and the southern gothic of William Faulkner, Nothing but Dust is a gripping, unsentimental, ultimately majestic story about life in one of the most inhospitable places on Earth.

A powerful story of dysfunctional love Tomas is a wealthy farmer, rough and taciturn, as rooted in the land as the eucalyptus trees he grows under the Galician sun. When he's diagnosed with lung cancer, he tells no-one. Suiza is a damaged young woman, strikingly beautiful, barely literate, a run-away. Her only dream, to see the sea. The relationship that ensues is as passionate and tender as it is troubling and nuanced. How transformative can love really be? As happiness and the promise of healing beckon, the darkness that has been spreading underneath all along will reveal itself, bringing the narrative to a heart-stopping, heart-wrenching denouement.

Contents:
1. Introduction: the meaning of consumption; the meaning of change? Steven Miles, Kevin Meethan and Alison Anderson 2. Setting the Scene: changing conceptions of consumption Alan Warde 3. Consuming Women; winning women? Janice Winship 4. Consuming Men; producing Loaded Ben Crewe 5. Producing TV; consuming TV Steve Spittle 6. Consuming Advertising; consuming cultural history Liz McFall and Paul du Gay 7. Consuming Retro; consuming design Adrian Franklin 8. Consuming Symbolic Meaning; consuming alcohol 9. Consuming Technology; consuming home computers Elaine Lally 10. Consuming Youth; consuming lifestyles Steven Miles 11. Changing Consumer; changing disciplinarity Russell W. Belk

The consumer ethic is ubiquitous. Everything we do, see, hear and even feel appears to be connected in some way to our experience as consumers. The increasingly high profile of debates over consumption, consumer culture, consumer behaviour and consumer rights reflects a world undergoing rapid change. The Changing Consumer charts thenature of that change, as well as discussing why consumption has become so important and what role, if any, it plays in underpinning social, economic and political transformation. Featuring contributions from some of the leading theorists of consumption from across a range of disciplines, this collection includes chapters on:
* Men's consumption and men's magazines
* The changing profile of women as consumers
* the representation of consumption on popular TV shows
* Consuming retro chic
* The symbolic and emotional role of alcohol consumption.
Drawing on fascinating case studies throughout, this book will be essential reading for students and academics interested in the study of consumption.

This book is intended for final year undergraduates and postgraduates in cultural and media studies, as well as postgraduate and academic researchers. Courses on culture and the media within sociology, environmental studies, human geography and politics.