Although there are quite a few novels about draughty record store owners, musicians and DJs, the whole thing set in Paris, of course, has its own special charm. Anyone who knows the business, has certainly experienced one or many champagne-pregnant, fogged situation like Vernon Subutex.

A slender novel of the late nineteenth-century based in Paris. The protagonist, a precious aesthete and anglophile, prepares himself for a journey to London. He fails to accomplish the journey but reaches the conclusion that anticipation, when pursued with passion and precision, is an equal, if not greater reward. Reading the book insinuates a question that never leaves the mind - is his conclusion sublime or absurd, and if sublime what impact should the idea have upon our lives?

The downfall of a decent man, one of my favorite topics. Most of this happens in the red-light district of Paris in the 1930s.

1950’s Paris a young man explores his sexuality while torn between desire and conventional morality. The book navigates the social isolation, self-loathing and confusion that many on the fringes of society can feel. But really all you need to know is that it was crafted by the magnificently brilliant Baldwin; each page is a miracle of writing.

Paris and the Godmother and the Godmother in Paris.... who is not that old at all, insanely clever and funny. Patience Portefeux (the name alone!) translates wiretapped telephone conversations from Arabic into French for the Paris drug department until she gets into business herself. Her life story is no less absurd and amusing. With Patience through Paris: Essential reading recommendation.
 

This volume, conceived as a sequel to Lune de miel [Gallimard, 2011], is the last book Cavanna worked on before he died. No doubt he would have made some additions or changes in detail, but it can be considered a finished work. Composed, as was Lune de miel, of fairly short chapters, the book brings together memories and anecdotes that evoke both the end of the author's life and his past (Charlie Hebdo, the S.T.O...). One finds there with happiness the cheerful gibberish of Cavanna, his big mouth, his blows of anger, his outbursts of affection, his passion for language and literature : a writer, a real one. The title takes up the last words of the text, full of rage and love of life at the moment of letting go.