Le French Book Launches 99-cent E-book Collection With Short Stories

Le French Book is launching a 99-cent e-book collection with short stories from seven of France's best writers-Tatiana de Rosnay, Didier van Cauwelaert, Yann Queffélec, Daniel Picouly, Christine Orban, Irène Frain, and Harold Cobert. These top authors got together to play a collaborative writing game called "cadavres exquis" ("delicious corpses"), in which one started a story and passed it on until all the authors had contributed. The resulting seven-author stories are sometimes strange, always very clever, and a real study in writing skill.

Each 99-cent e-book contains four stories, and the first two volumes in the 52 Serial Shorts collection are now available.

Tatiana de Rosnay says this writing experience left her a "marvelous memory." Didier van Cauwelaert describes it as a "sweet nightmare." Harold Cobert uses the word "jubilation." Christine Orban compares it "playful dancing."

Le French Book has set out to bring France's best entertaining novels and short stories to new readers across the English-speaking world. For the publisher and translator, Anne Trager, this collection of short stories is "a hilarious peek into the minds of some very fine writers, and a truly interesting translation experience."

Tatiana de Rosnay, who writes in English as well as French, also says that she is "very impressed" by the translation, which "is really excellent and completely sticks to our texts."

A brief encounter with three of the others: Murder in a Cellar with Wine and Sushi.

Readers can still sign up to get the short stories online free by email daily or weekly.

The e-books

52 Serial Shorts
by Harold Cobert, Irène Frain, Christine Orban, Daniel Picouly, Yann Queffélec, Tatiana de Rosnay and Didier van Cauwelaert; translated by Anne Trager-published by Le French Book-First published in French (52 cadavres exquis) by Play Bac-Direct-to-digital translation. Available through all major e-book retailers.