Agnès Gruda and Marie Semelin: two novels and a promise from Israel

Reviews, interviews, selection... "Libé" guides you through the aisles of the 47th edition of the Nancy Book Fair, a major literary event, which takes place from September 12 to 14.

This literary season also offers romance. Two debut novels, incredibly broad yet deeply rooted in reality, explore themes of identity and belonging to a country, a culture, or a religion, spanning the lives of several generations, from the 1950s to the present day. And the creation of Israel is at the heart of each of these two books, written by women, both reporters.

Of Polish descent, Quebecois Agnès Gruda tells a family saga spanning five generations and three continents in Ça fini quand, toujours? (When Will It End?), which has just won the Stanislas Prize for a first novel. A saga carried from start to finish by women who are strong, weak, funny, in love, solitary, feisty—yes, ready to do anything to defend their man, their children, their lives in the face of war and exile. The end of the first chapter sets the tone. In Warsaw, Nina gives birth to her first child. Crippled with pain, she meets the kind gaze of another pregnant woman who tries to reassure her. A few hours later, they find themselves in the break room, each holding their baby. Nina had a daughter, named Ewa, and Pola had a boy named Adam. Adam and Ewa were born at the same time, the same night, in the same hospital. The coincidence will forever bind the two women and their descendants.

Through them, their husbands, Marek and Andrzej, and another couple from the neighborhood, Heniek and Teresa, we will experience the death of Stalin, the