Born in 1911 in Poland to a modest Jewish family, Alter Fajnzylberg was imprisoned for three years in Auschwitz-Birkenau, from April 1942 to January 1945. For eighteen months, he was forced to join the Sonderkommando—the “special unit” of Jewish prisoners forced to work in the extermination facilities.

He wrote three notebooks to bear witness to what he had endured, then hid them in a shoebox. It took decades for his son, RRoger Fajnzylberg, to recover these notebooks from the past, have them transcribed, translated, and placed in historical context with the help of historian Alban Perrin.

Published by Seuil in January 2025, these notebooks represent an exceptional testimony—made all the more vital by the extreme rarity of such accounts, as the Nazis systematically murdered almost all direct witnesses to their horrific crimes.

In French.

A renowned writer, Christine Angot has steadily built a unique and significant body of work, establishing herself as one of the major voices in contemporary literature. Her notable books include Incest (L’inceste, Stock, 1999), Rendez-vous (Flammarion, Prix de Flore 2006), An Impossible Love (Un amour impossible, Flammarion, Prix Décembre 2015), and A Journey to the East (Le voyage dans l’Est, Flammarion, Prix Médicis 2021).

She has also written around ten plays and made her directorial debut in 2024 with the film Une famille.

Her latest book, La Nuit sur commande (Stock, 2025), was awarded the 2025 Grand Prix de l’Héroïne Madame Figaro in the biography/memoir category. It tells the story of a night she ultimately did not spend—with her daughter—at the Bourse de Commerce in Paris.  Invited to sleep there and reflect on the artworks housed within, she leaves the venue shortly after arriving, and instead offers a sharp, often humorous meditation on the art world and her own place within it.

In French.

Jean-Christophe Grangé has followed an unconventional path—from earning a master’s degree in literature at the Sorbonne, to working in advertising, and then moving into journalism. After a career as a grand reporter, he turned to writing thrillers, all published by Albin Michel. His debut novel, The Flight of the Storks (Le Vol des cigognes, 1994), was well received by critics. His bestseller The Crimson Rivers (Les Rivières pourpres, 1997), adapted for film by Mathieu Kassovitz, cemented his reputation as one of the masters of French thrillers.

He is the author of nineteen novels, translated into over thirty languages, including Rouge karma (2024).

His latest book, I Was Born of the Devil (Je suis né du diable, 2025), is all the more chilling because it is entirely true: the author sheds light on the disturbing paternal figure at the root of his dark and violent imagination.

In French.