The five novels to read in May 2026

Friendship and love among people of the third age, tormented history, resilience, quest and dystopia… Overview with these five titles that caught our attention.   

““Mukudori” by Aki ShimazakiÂ: d’amour and d’amitié

“Hello-Work” is located on the third floor. A funny anglicism to designate the National Employment Agency.” This is the second time that Matsuko Okita has visited Hello-Work. The first time was thirty-eight years ago, when she was twenty-three. His friends are already enjoying their retirement. The sixty-year-old needs a full-time job. The department store she ran with Atsuhi, her husband, went bankrupt. Her ill husband, Matsuko must now provide for the couple’s needs alone. During her job search, she meets Matsuo, a man passionate about ornithology. The entry of this man into the lives of the isolated old couple will transform their daily lives. Precise, devoid of superfluity, Aki Shimazi’s language is extremely effective. In this concise book, the author of Japanese origin, living in Montreal for thirty-five years, writes a moving novel about the third age, life, death and life after death. Essential.

“Mukudori”, Aki Shimazaki, éditions Actes Sud, 176 pages, 16.50 euros

“Bosphorus Tango” by Metin Arditi: Once upon a time in Istanbul

“It was nothing. A detail. Upon her arrival at the Grand Bazaar, Renée noticed the absence of Abdullah, who was selling simit Beyazit gate. “Strange that he’s not here.” Renée noted several strange things on September 6, 1955. Hagok Bey, an Armenian trader, shared the same astonishments. “Something serious is brewing.” Istanbul is given over to the violence of the rioters, under the impassive gaze of the soldiers. Minorities are the targets of white-hot men. Renée finds Jako, her former lover, “more beautiful than ever”. Ancient? Did she never stop loving him? Jumping back in time, half a century later, Jalila, a renowned novelist, finds herself at the crossroads of trajectories coming from tormented times. She sets off to discover her own history. Metin Arditi is an exceptional storyteller. The author of Istanbul Love Dictionary finish with Bosphorus Tango on Trilogie de Constantinople Entamé par The Oriental DancerI canAtatürk’s Spy. Epic.

“Bosphore Tango”, Metin Arditi, Editions Grasset, 240 pages, 20 euros

“Clément” by Romain Lemire: of combat and resilience

Barely a year ago, Romain Lemire was still looking for a publisher. On May 5, Clément is the Goncourt prize for the first novel. In this poignant autofiction, the actor, singer and pianist looks back on his stolen childhood. Coming from a bourgeois Parisian family, Romain Lemire found the courage and distance to narrate, under the name of the character Clément Drelin, the repeated rapes that his father subjected him to from the ages of seven to fourteen. From the outside, it’s impossible to imagine the dramas that unfolded in this model family. The young author in his fifties has chosen a living language, at the height of a child first, which evolves gradually “story of an ordinary crime and deafening silence” to bear a testimony of rare power. He says the loving father and the monstrous father. How to rebuild yourself after incest, this “bombe à retardement “ ? How to break the silence and indifference? Clément, a cry and a liberation.

“Clément”, Romain Lemire, editions Le Cherche Midi, 400 pages, 22 euros

 

“Who remembers Joseph Diop?” by Nicolas Cartelet: rise and fall

Not everyone has the chance to disappear. “Arriving like a god, he leaves China like a thief and disappears silently, into the anonymity of a provincial airport.” Joseph Diop, former football glory who brought happiness to Liverpool and Chelsea, takes a plane from Quinhuangdao to Shanghai to join Doha to start a new career with his new club, the final stretch of his professional life. To him the sun, the money and the glory before a well-deserved rest. However, he never lands in Qatar. No one will hear from him again. Volatilized. After making headlines for two weeks, Joseph Diop falls into obscurity. Who remembers him? As a challenge, Nicolas Cartelet followed in his footsteps. This investigative story is not a book on football, nor a hagiographic biography on the child from Dakar who, thanks to his talent and tenacity, was able to establish himself in major stadiums around the world. Behind the football player, the man, the ghost. Who remembers Joseph Diop? also says an era and a world. To discover.

“Who remembers Joseph Diop?”, Nicolas Cartelet, Éditions Flammarion, 236 pages, 20 euros

“Day Zero” by Hadrien Klent: the best of all worlds

“This is a message from the government. We are facing a particularly intense solar storm.” Following an extraordinary solar storm, all the electronic devices on the planet were fried. Overnight, no more telephones, computers, cars, televisions… At the Elysée Palace, there’s strong phosphorus: what if the real change was now? Verticality quickly finds its limits. Far from the mysteries of power, Laurence, Inès, Jean-Charles, Adonie and the others, separately, dream of another world. Initiatives are multiplying throughout France. Out of sight, in the 16th arrondissement, influential people imagine a political system without elections… Hadrien Klent shows a boundless imagination in this joyful dystopia. The author of And let the chaos come, The Great Breakdown et Laziness for all He managed to convince us that he would be coming from the future. Rejoissant

“Le jour zero”, Hadrien Klent, editions Le Tripode, 448 pages, 21 euros