Summer is approaching! At the cabin, on the beach, on a park bench or in the comfort of your living room — isn’t it the perfect time to dive into a French-language novel?

Here are Fransk kulturhus’ reading recommendations for the Summer of 2025:

Angélina Delacroix, Mémoires d’un expert psychiatre (Hugo Roman)

• Winner of the 2024 Cognac Prize (best French-language crime novel). Quite simply one of the best crime novels of recent years: a fascinating dive into the world of forensic psychiatry and the daily life inside high-security prisons and psychiatric institutions, between Lyon and the French countryside. You doubt, fear, hope — and want more! Captivating!

Vanessa Springora, Patronyme (Grasset)

• What would you do if you discovered photographs of your grandfather proudly wearing a Nazi uniform, apparently embracing Hitler’s ideology? Would you, like the author of this novel, travel to the Sudetenland in the Czech Republic to trace your German-speaking Czech ancestors? To try and understand the ideological and cultural path of this minority during WWII? A novel-investigation worthy of a historian, told with deep emotion and humility.

Camille Laurens, Ta promesse (Gallimard)

• When does a love relationship become toxic? When does violence — physical or psychological — begin? How can one escape from an unfair and unbalanced relationship? Is it shameful to be manipulated for months, blinded by love? These are existential questions — ones that speak to all readers and invite honest introspection. An excellent novel.

Pierre Lemaitre, Un avenir radieux (Calmann-Lévy)

• You’ll never regret spending 500 more pages with the now-famous Pelletier family. This new novel by Pierre Lemaitre is just as compelling as the others, guiding the reader with sharp dialogue and finely drawn situations into the extraordinary — and at times banal — everyday life of a French family in the latter half of the 20th century. Add a touch of Cold War intrigue and criminal drama, and this might be the best volume about the Pelletiers yet!

Do you enjoy French-language literature? Consider developing your analytical and writing skills and discovering new and original readings by participating in our literature course!