Two literary figures are meeting this Friday in Saint-Tropez and Grimaud

A duo of authors will be on the literary map this Friday afternoon, with signings from two big names in the French-speaking world.

"The child of the Parisian night," Eva Ionesco will be in Saint-Tropez for a meeting, reading, and signing of her latest book , Grand Amour. Joining her is Charles Serruya, the main character in her book, another artist who was once an "underground dandy" and has since settled in the Gulf.

The premise of the story is a return to the 70s when Eva has just turned thirteen and the juvenile judge decides to conduct a social investigation to strip her mother, Irène, of her maternal rights because of artistic photos that border on pornography... Maternal abuse that Eva had dealt with in her film My Little Princess presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011 with Isabelle Huppert.

Eva then meets Charles. A mad love affair ensues, with outings to the Palace, the Bains Douches, the Sentier, Pigalle, Montmartre, New York... A bubble of hope in the chaos and the grip of a mother who is so hard to break free from...

Open-air meeting

The 2022 winner of the ^1st Prix Pampelonne Ramatuelle, Tonino Benacquista, will be present as part of the Grimaud Literary Escapades for his work entitled Tiré de faits irréels.

Since the 1980s, the author has made a name for himself in crime fiction, comics, as well as theater and film. Several of his stories have found cinematic appeal, including The Beat My Heart Skipped and On My Lips, both co-written with director Jacques Audiard and awarded a César for Best Screenplay.

To mark his 40th anniversary, the author returns with a novel that questions the power of fiction and the relationship between imagination and reality. It follows Bernard Dumas, a publisher about to retire, whose life is turned upside down when he discovers a mysterious author. His stories, though entirely fictional, seem to change the destiny of his readers.

A novel that's at once funny, illuminating, and unsettling, questioning our relationship with the consensual lie that is fiction. An open-air literary gathering that will combine a lecture and discussions with the public, and of course, book signings followed by a cocktail reception.

Book signings: Eva Ionesco from 5 p.m. at the Grande Librairie Tropézienne. Tonino Benacquista from 6:30 p.m. in the park of the Notre Dame de la Queste Chapel in Grimaud.