My 18-year-old is planning a study abroad trip to France 🇫🇷 next June.
They took French class in school for 4 years, and have been actively using the Duolingo app, to prepare.
On their Christmas wish list, they asked for “any fiction book written in French.”
I only speak a little bit of French, I did take several years in school but never traveled or used it, and that was 25 years ago.
Any suggestions on how to find the right book?
They tend to like fantasy, sci-fi, and just plain old fiction. Not super into classics. Not Les Mis.
by Jolie-Fille
7 Comments
Bonjour tristesse
Not a book, but you can also chose a book you already know and like and read it in French. That helps with understanding it better, so you can focus on the grammar and vocabulary while still being able to get the story
Maybe La vérité sur l’affaire Harry Quebert might be worth a look. Its size might seem a bit intimidating (700 pages) but it was a huge bestseller when it came out and I managed to understand what was going on with just a few years of high school French
My French class read Sartre’s Les Jeux Sont Fait, and I still remember it decades later. It leaps to mind because we were about four years in, so the writing and language level should be about right. It’s sort of a supernatural story about a revolutionary who dies, and he and the other ghosts are watching their comrades and wanting to fight/intervene; he also falls in love with another ghost). I remember it as fun and very strange.
No et Moi by Delphine de Vigan or Kiffe Kiffe Demain by Faiza Guene are both great books that would be suitable for a teenager. For a fantasy/sci-fi/dystopian book, you could try Moi Qui N’a Pas Connu Les Hommes by Jacqueline Harpman.
I’d try to figure out the appropriate CEFR level. Maybe B2 or C1? Here’s a link with some suggestions: [https://www.quora.com/Is-there-a-listing-of-books-based-on-their-CEFR-rating-in-French](https://www.quora.com/Is-there-a-listing-of-books-based-on-their-CEFR-rating-in-French)
The Count of Monte Cristo