Prize-winning tale by master French crime writer scheduled for release in English in September

May 29, 2012 - PRLog -- Can you ever escape your past?

The Paris Lawyer by Sylvie Granotier is set between the sophisticated world of Paris and the rural outreaches of France, where beautiful, rolling countryside holds dark secrets. As a child, the heroine Catherine Monsigny was the only witness to a heinous crime. Now, she is an ambitious rookie attorney in modern-day Paris, working for a well-known firm. On the side, she does pro bono work and hits the jackpot: a major felony case that could boost her career. A black woman is accused of poisoning her rich farmer husband in a peaceful village in central France, where nothing ever happens. While preparing the case, Catherine’s own past comes back with a vengeance. This fast-paced story follows Catherine’s determined search for the truth in both her case and her own life. Who can she believe? And can you ever escape from your past? The story twists and turns, combining subtle psychological insight with a detailed sense of place.

The Paris Lawyer met with success in France when it was released in French in 2011.
-   It won the 2011 Grand Prix Sang d’Encre crime fiction award.
-   Author Sylvie Granotier has written fourteen novels and numerous short stories.

------Find out more at: http://www.lefrenchbook.com/our-books/crime-fiction/the-p...

"I really wanted to translate this book myself,” says Le French Book founder, the translator and editor Anne Trager. “It's a gripping and powerful whodunit that is also about reconciliation with those we have lost.”

"It took me a few books to realize that the common point of my novels was finding the traces of things past in present occurrences,” author Sylvie Granotier says. “In the case of The Paris Lawyer, I decided to write everything in the present tense because my heroine's tragic past, the murder of her mother, is entangled to what's threatening her now. It might well be that the questions of time are more acute when you come from a very old nation.”

The author
Author, screenwriter and actress Sylvie Granotier loves to weave plots that send shivers up your spine. She was born in Algeria and grew up in Paris and Morocco. She studied literature and theater in Paris, then set off traveling—the United States, Brazil, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, ending with a tour of Europe. She wound up in Paris again, an actress, with a job and some recognition. But she is a writer at heart, and started her publishing career translating Grace Paley’s short story collection Enormous Changes at the Last Minute into French. Now a major crime fiction author in France, she has met with continued success, and is translated into German, Italian, Russian and Greek. Sylvie splits her time between Paris and the Creuse, like The Paris Lawyer.

The translator
The translator, Anne Trager has lived in France for over 26 years, working in translation, publishing and communications. In 2011, she woke up one morning and said, “I just can’t stand it anymore. There are way too many good books being written in France not reaching a broader audience.” That’s when she founded Le French Book to translate some of those books into English. The company’s motto is “If we love it, we translate it,” and Anne loves crime fiction.

Praise for The Paris Lawyer
“Sylvie Granotier's The Paris Lawyer is a beautifully written and elegantly structured novel of a woman's attempt to solve the central mystery of her life, along with several other mysteries along the way. It captures the reader from the first page, and never lets go.”
— Thomas H. Cook, winner of the Martin Beck Award, Barry Award for Best Novel, Edgar Award for Best Novel

“Sylvie Granotier's book, The Paris Lawyer, has a compelling heroine in Catherine Monsigny. She is a young attorney, working on a fascinating, mysterious case. But she is also a woman haunted by a tragic event in her own past, the murder of her mother.  Sylvie Granotier interweaves the past and present with a sure hand, and her characters have a psychological depth that is rare in crime fiction today.  This is a complex tale, skillfully told, that will keep you in suspense to the very end.”
— Patricia MacDonald, Edgar-award nominee

“Full of surprises and twists that will keep you reading late into the night.”
–Cosmopolitan

“This is a suspense novel with an absolutely perfect atmosphere. The writing is subtle, racy, controlled. It is written with great art!”
— RTL.be

“Everything in this book—the plot, the atmosphere, the characters, and the style—is perfectly mastered from beginning to end.”
— L’Echo

“The author has a distinctive style and an unsurpassed talent for delving deep into her characters’ minds. It is a disturbing read.”
— Madame Figaro

“Reading this is like having a fever. The author takes the reader from dark humor to cold anxiety at a diabolic pace.”
— Notre temps


The Paris Lawyer, by Sylvie Granotier; translated by Anne Trager
$7.99—published by Le French Book
ISBN: 978-0-9853206-0-7 (Kindle)/978-0-9853206-1-4 (epub)
First published in French (La Rigole du Diable, Editions Albin Michel, Paris)
Direct-to-digital translation, ebook exclusive
Release date: September 18, 2012. Available in all major ebook outlets.

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Author and translator available for interviews in English


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About Le French Book
Le French Book is a New York-based independent, digital-first publisher specialized in great reads from France. It was founded in December 2011 because, as founder Anne Trager says, “I couldn’t stand it anymore. There are just too many good books not reaching a broader audience. There is a very vibrant, creative culture in France, and the recent explosion in e-reader ownership provides a perfect medium to introduce readers to some of these fantastic French authors.” Anne has lived in France more than half of her life, has 25 years of experience in the translation business and 15 in publishing. Co-founder Fabrice Neuman is French and the company’s tech consultant. He is one of France’s foremost proponents of e-books and one of the first French journalists to write about them in the mid-1990s. The core team also includes the American translation editor Amy Richards, who is based in Ohio and has a long, award-winning career in writing and editing.