Founded in Brussels in 2007 in order to publish translations of authors from the former Yugoslavia into French, M.E.O. publishing house expanded immediately its activities by publishing original works by French-speaking authors.

M.E.O. is dedicated to general literature. After 15 years of existence, it is today one of the main Belgian literary publishers. Its catalog includes more than 180 titles. It won 13 literary prizes, including the Prize of Parliament and, in Paris, the La Renaissance française Award. In addition, the translated authors obtained around 10 prizes in their own language or in other translations. All works are published simultaneously in printed books and homothetic digital books (PDF and EPUB). Its catalog is divided into 4 collections.

– Translations, so far of Balkan authors. This collection will soon be extended to other linguistic fields, including Chinese.

– Novels, short stories, life stories and a few unclassifiable literary essays by French-speaking authors from Belgium, France and Africa.

– A collection in partnership with the Museum of Medicine of the University of Brussels publishing illustrated books related to the History of Medicine and the exhibitions organized by the museum.

– A collection in concert with the Museum of Literature, which publishes heritage writers from Central Africa (Congo, Rwanda and Burundi).

A poetry collection (written in French or translated) stopped in 2017, but the books remain available

 

The editorial line combines the interest of the story, a vision of the world, a humanist sensitivity and a work on writing, in particular on the pruning of texts and on the use of ellipses. We seek to avoid the “navel-gazing” so dear to Paris’ literature; we make it a point of honor to discover new talents, but we also want to retain our authors; which is a true challenge because we are more and more often solicited by recognized writers desiring to be published by our house.

M.E.O. is approved by the Ministry of Culture, which grants a three-year agreement. IL is a member of the Association of Belgian Publishers and of the professional association Les Éditeurs singuliers.

It is distributed in France and Belgium by CED-CEDIF – Pollen.

We have chosen to present here some significant works from our catalog that we consider to be of particular interest for international literature. Of course, the other publications are of equal quality. We invite you to consult our catalog and, if another book awakes your interest, don’t hesitate to ask us for the argument.

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Zam

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A life story by Zam "Martino" Ebale

Will be translated into Italian and English (UK + USA) in 2023-2024

Rights available for all other languages

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The subtitle is essential: born in the wrong place? at the wrong time? in the wrong body?

Grandson of a leper, Zam Ebale Martino was born in Cameroon. His grand-mother and his mother were traditional dancers, and his mother led a choir at the protestant church.

Very early Zam felt that he was “a woman in a man’s body”, what Cameroonian tradition calls fame-minja or atcheng. These men are authorized to perform the traditional dances reserved for women. After his father’s mysterious death, he stopped his studies to become a singer and a dancer. Without any teacher, he created his own style, mixing traditional dances and contemporary dance. He founded his company with poor and even street children, to whom he taught everything he had discovered by himself. Some of his choreographies received international awards, and he became director of the National Ballet.

But in Cameroon, homosexuality is a crime punishable by prison and Zam was forced to exile before being arrested “to set an example”. Before that, he had converted to Buddhism, which preaches the respect and dignity of every human life, the means to transcend suffering, to “turn the poison into an elixir”. He spent seven years illegally in Belgium, in very special conditions: holder of an unenforceable order to leave the territory he was nevertheless recognized and subsidized by the Ministry of Culture, representing Belgium at dance festivals abroad.

Finally, he was granted the Belgian citizenship, founded a dance school, produced choreographies and created an International Dance festival in Brussels. He also performs regularly as a singer. He carries out official missions for his host country in international projects of artistic collaboration, and is a reference person for the Parliament of the European Union with regard to LGBTI persons. He also plays a role in secular Buddhism in Belgium.

A fascinating life story and a vibrant plead for the acceptance of all differences which denounces the prejudices of all kinds caused by rejection, whether the victims are homosexuals, lepers, ethnic or social groups, followers of a religion or philosophy, or simply… women. It offers a philosophical conception of human life, a reflection on art and its teaching, a call to accept differences.

Keywords: life story, dancer, choreographer, singer, LGBT, homophobic laws, refugees, Buddhism.

2019 — 232 pages

Gay novel award (Paris)

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Under the curtain, a little brown suitcase

An autofiction by Françoise Thiry

Rights available for all languages

 

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During the winter of 1966, a Boeing of Sabena arriving from Bujumbura landed on Belgian soil. A half-asleep girl, holding a small brown suitcase in her hand, trotted behind a flight attendant, who handed her over to a man wearing a white shirt with a funny white collar, a black suit, and a small golden cross. The hostess greeted “Monseigneur” before splitting the crowd and disappearing. This little girl, a Metis child of a Burundian mother and an unknown Belgian father, had been taken away from her maternal family and, like many others, given for adoption to a “good Catholic family” in Belgium. Throughout the narration, the hidden part of the narrator questions her “licit” part in the hope that one day both will join. The reader follows the slow metamorphosis of the child and the deliberate amputation of her memory until her fierce struggle against oblivion. Her efforts to “reattach” her broken halves lead to the discovery of her astonishing identity.

This book is a singular journey imbricated in a collective history that has long been hidden in the drawers and is now recognized as a secret of State and a secret of Church: the forced abduction of the half-breeds, “the children of shame” born under Belgian (but not only Belgian) colonization before the Independence. The story is infiltrated with passages of deep poetry when the author imagines her parents’ first meeting, or when the natural environment of the Ardennes induces reminiscences of a repressed life. A moving and lucid autofiction, which shows to what extent a religious institution can place itself above the laws and cause pain in the name of a distorted pseudo ethics.

“A beautiful book on the search for identity and on the struggle against oblivion.” (Martine Rouhart, writer and critic)

The author : Born in Burundi at the approach of Independence, from a Burundian mother and an “anonymous” Belgian father, Françoise Thiry, at the age of 6, was ripped from her maternal family by the Catholic Church to be taken to Belgium and given for adoption. She is a graduate in Practice and Training Policy and in Education, and has been active in intercultural action. She is now the coordinator of a Centre for French learning for refugees.

Keywords: Novel, autofiction, forced adoption of Metis children, abduction of the half-breeds, catholic church, Burundi.

2017 — 204 pages.

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Wanda, from Siberia to Antwerp…

A life story by Jerzy Hildebrand

Rights available for all languages

 

 

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Born in a rich Polish Jewish family, Wanda, the author’s mother, becomes a widow without knowing it; her husband having been executed by the Soviets during the Katyn massacre. She is deported to Siberia with her four-year-old son; a deportation that will save their lives. In this open-air prison, she will have to forget that she was once a frivolous young woman. Though sinking into near-poverty, she remains animated by the fierce will to survive and to allow her child to live. On their return to Poland after the war, they are confronted with anti-Semitism and know the fate of so many secular Jews shipped from one country to another, ending their wanderings in Belgium. First considered as inept at studying so much disturbed he is, her child becomes a medical doctor, a neurologist, then a professor at the Brussels University, head of the neurology department at Erasmus hospital, specialist in neurological complications of cancer of which he was a pioneer and in the treatment of which he acquired an international reputation.

A moving text, with enough humour to allow to keep at a distance what the narrative may contain as being too hard. One of the most beautiful homages which a son ever rendered to his mother, without attempting to make her a saint, but painting a courageous, pragmatic, free woman, full of gaiety and humour; a woman who has managed to remain herself through the convulsions of the twentieth century, even though her qualities were sometimes counterbalanced by defaults and prejudices of another time.

The author : After his retirement, professor Hildebrand remained a volunteer consultant at the Institute Bordet and at the Mazarin service of the Parisian hospital of Pitié-Salpêtrière (which earned him the Legion of Honor). He himself died of the disease he fought all his life and was cremated the very day of the publication of this book.

Keywords: life story, Poland, Polish Jews, Second World War, deportation to Siberia, emigration, medicine, university professor.

2013 — 152 pages.

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Cry, you’ll piss less

An auto fictional novel by Dawa Ma

Rights available for all languages

 

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Confined by the coronavirus pandemic in her London home, the narrator, an international model, rereads her diary started in 2013, where she recounts in a rough way an abysmal existential depression. Suffering, heartbreaks, revolts, analyses, imprecations, philosophical and sociological quests, addiction, self-mutilation and self-challenges punctuate a psychic tornado. Now that she is out of all this, forced inactivity allows her to reflect on a martyred childhood – suicide of her father when she was not five years old, serious maternal abuse, repeated rapes by two stepfathers, pre-delinquency, homeless period – which she succeeded in overwhelming thanks to social achievement. No wonder that its eruption was all the more terrible as it was compressed. A first autobiographical novel and a moving testimony of courage and authenticity, constantly oscillating between denunciation, the need for justice and the desire for resilience. A burst of writing.

“While reading this book, I took a big slap in the face, and before I wrote a single line after reading it, it took me a long time to come to my senses, to digest all the anger I had accumulated, dominate all the murder cravings that had stuck in my head, try to understand how a child who had become an adult at five, beaten, humiliated, raped, exploited in a thousand ways, could grow into an international model […] to win her Dantean fight against the forces of evil embodied by those who are closest to her, by those who should be there to love her, pamper her and defend her against evil.” (Babelio).

The author : French international model, well known in Asia, in Paris and in London where she now lives and works, Dawa Ma has really been the martyred child described in her book. A permanent work of resilience allowed her to represent major haute couture and Cosmetics Houses around the world, particularly in Asia. She posed for important magazines (Elle, Marie-Claire, Harper’s Bazaar…) of which she made several covers. She has appeared in a few arthouse films and prepares the release of her first record.

Keywords: Novel, autobiography, martyred childhood, rape, paedophilia, resilience, international model.

2020 — 316 pages .

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The lands of the wandering souls

A novel by Jasna Samic

Translated into croatian and serbian

Rights available for all other languages

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In their modest Paris apartment, Lena witnesses Alyosha getting drunk every night and obsessively looking at his family documents. This once brilliant computer scientist, one of the most elegant men in Sarajevo, is undermined by his eternal interrogation: did his father, whom he never knew, roll convoys of death before disappearing in 1945? Through three – authentic – diaries of Alyocha’s ascendants, that of his Babushka Liza – a Russian who knew Tolstoy and escaped Bolshevism to Bosnia –, that of his mother Irina and that of his Omama Grete – emigrated from Vienna to Sarajevo –, Lena tells the family saga of her first ex-husband who remained her lover and whom she then re-married to make him escape the war... Intermingling of wanderings merged with her own ones – Sarajevo, Istanbul, London, New York and especially Paris –, driven by her love for art and a fierce thirst for independence, in constant quest for authenticity, confronting against winds and tides the ubiquitous apparatchiks, the devious males, the literary impostors, the Parisian snobs, the Islamist fundamentalists at last…

“Jasna Samic’s latest novel is such a fascinating piece that it keeps us in suspense from beginning to end. […] The enigma is still present, and particularly concerns Alyosha, one of the main heroes of the book, around whom everything takes place.” [Sadizda, Decitre)

The author: Born in Sarajevo, Jasna Samic lives in Paris. Specialist of Eastern Languages, Literatures and Civilizations, she taught at the Universities of Sarajevo and Strasbourg, was associate research director at CNRS, collaborated at France Culture and Radio France International. She writes in French and Bosnian (Serbo-Croatian). Her work includes texts (including scientists) on Sufism and history of the Balkans, essays, novels, short stories, poetry and theatre (she staged in Paris and Sarajevo). Following the publication of her novel Portrait of Balthaza (Gauchez-Philippot Prize) and her stance against the rise of Wahhabi in BiH, Jasna Samic was violently attacked by the Bosnian fundamentalists.

Keywords: Novel, Sarajevo, Bosnia, exile, Paris, Soviet Union, communism, Second World War, convoys of death, Sufism, Islamist fundamentalism.

2019 – 436 pages.

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The tulips from Japan

An auto fictional novel by Isabelle Bielecki

Rights available for all languages

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A love story with her Japanese director (which ends badly, but...).

A story of war of nerves in a Japanese company (which ends well, but ...).

And memories that mark six days of a life of struggle.

Because nothing is offered to a young immigrant, even when she is determined to fully integrate. We have to fight to find a form of happiness, to struggle to keep one’s place in the professional world, especially if it is transplanted from another culture and does not graft easily.

The tulips from Japan, second part of a triptych, but which can be read independently, projects us into the life of a woman, a native Russian-Polish, who carries on her shoulders the dramatic experience of her parents, both survivors of the camps. Yet our heroine struggles against obstacles with talent and courage, digging an original furrow with her work in a Japanese company. She has the great merit of reacting to a faded private life, daring to prefer adventure to comfort. Often complexed, but never giving up.

“This second novel by Isabelle Bielecki is a total success, form and content.” Claude Donnay, in : Bleu d’Encre. “This novel is a gift, a happiness for its readers.” Pratellum, Babelio. “No doubt ! The book we were waiting for.” Michel Joiret, Le Non-Dit.

The author : Born in 1947 in Passau of a Russian father and a Polish mother, both survivors of the camps, Isabelle Bielecki received Belgian nationality in 1963, obtained a degree in translation and then an insurance broker’s diploma, and devoted her career to Japanese business world while indulging in his passion for writing. After The words of Russia (prize of the Libraries of Brussels), several plays, news, seven collections of poetry, The Tulips of Japan is her second novel. A third followed in 2020 : The House of the Belgian. Keywords: Novel, immigrate, Japanese business, harassment at work, interracial love.

Price : 18,00 € 2018 — 240 pages

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Saül Birnbaum ’s cinema

A novel by Henri Roanne-Rosenblatt – second edition

Rights available for all languages

 

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Survivor of a family of Jewish-Polish restaurateurs, Saul Birnbaum, fled Austria at the age of 6, after the Kristallnacht, by a Kindertransport of the Red Cross, and found refuge in Brussels where he was hidden from 1942 to 1944. As a young adult, fascinated by the Hollywood cinema that he discovered at the Liberation, he fulfilled his American dream by opening a “delicatessen” in New York. A draft script left as a pledge by an impecunious client allows him to become a film producer. He manages, by unorthodox methods of financing, to mount the production of a film and convince a star to play in it. However, Saul remains haunted by his dramatic youth and his nostalgia for his childhood sweetheart, Hilde, Hitler’s niece... This novel inserts real elements of the author’s life into a fictional narrative.

First published in 2013, it was reissued this summer on the occasion of the release of the film it inspired, and whose author is co-screenwriter: The Way to Happiness. (Best foreign film award at the Sacramento Filmfestival, Best feature film at the New Filmmakers New Orleans and the Nashville Independent Filmmakers Festival).

Coup de coeur! A novel […] which mixes reality and fiction in a perfect way [… A] book full of love and fury (L’Observateur) Henri Roanne-Rosenblatt offers us a story of resurrection, spiced with bitter humour and historically very documented, that of the dream of a hidden child. (La Libre Belgique)

The author : Born in Vienna in 1932, a refugee in Belgium after the Anschluss, Henri Roanne-Rosenblatt was a film critic at the Belgian Radio-Television. He is the director – with Gérard Valet – of two feature documentaries, Chine (Documentary Prize, Viennale 1972) and Moi, Tintin (Cannes Official Selection 1977).

Keywords: Novel. Holocaust. Exodus of German and Austrian Jews. Kindertransporte. Cinema.

2013 & 2022 — 172 pages

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A column for heaven

A novel by Philippe Fiévet

Rights available for all languages

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Byzantine Syria, 5th century AD. As Rome continues to fall into chaos, the axis of the world has swung towards the Levant. Christians are now the majority there and are working to stifle the last pockets of paganism.

Two men, a monk and a rich Roman refugee, follow each their own destiny. In the festive city of Antioch whose brilliance earned it the nickname “Pearl of the Orient”, Rufin remains faithful to ancient beliefs and enjoys to the full the pleasures of life. On the contrairy, Paphnutius turned away from all this in favor of a pious existence behind the walls of a monastery, before taking the radical decision to live alone at the top of a column, not far from the desert. But times are uncertain, even for a stylite, and never has doomsday seemed so close...

A Column for Paradise looks back on this 5th century plagued by the disorders of nature and human passions, oscillating between fervor and cruelty, pleasures and mortifications, transcendence and religious fanaticism, but which sometimes finds a temporary salvation in love. Doesn’t death always have the last word, as illustrated by this widespread epitaph on graves, both Christian and pagan?

You run ? - I run.

How far ? - So far!

The author: Philippe Fiévet was born in Charleroi, Belgium. He lives in Braives, between Liège and Namur. He taught history and travelled through Greece, Syria and Egypt, fascinated by late and proto-Byzantine antiquity, before branching off into a career as a journalist and editorial writer for the Belgian editorial staff of Paris Match.

It was after a prolonged stay on Mount Athos that he became closely interested in hermit life, the aspirations and hardships of which haunt this novel rich in adventures.

Keywords: fifth century. Byzantine Syria. Roman decadence. fundamentalist Christianity. Hermits. Stylites. Antioch.

2022 — 240 pages.

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About Pre

A novel by Daniel Charneux

Rights available for all languages

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Pete Miller, an aging jogger, was a friend of Steve Prefontaine, an American middle distance legend. Against the backdrop of the involvement of the Nifty Tortoises, his team of veterans, in the famous Hood to Coast Relay and the history of the United States from the 1950s to the present day, he decided to tell the sporting epic of the young fellow his supporters nicknamed “Pre”, an athlete who professed a high opinion of his sport: “According to Steve, the important thing was not the victory, but the manner”. Winning a race, managing it, staying carefully behind so as to kick off on the last lap, was good for the sissies or the bookkeepers. That was not how he, Steve Prefontaine, saw the race. – And how do you see the race, you Redneck? Bowerman had asked. – Like a work of art, coach! A work of art.”

“A very well organized, very stylish story, which introduces a world unknown to non-athletes. These lunatics who run such long distances aren’t as crazy as you might think: they get accomplished by running. And as Pre said, and it’s true: “Running is a work of art.” (Jean-Claude Vantroyen, Le Soir)

“It is the breath that runs through this book and brings it to life. […] A book of love, an ode to the beauty of being. (Françoise Houdart, writer and critic.)

Daniel Charneux signs here one of his best novels. (Joseph Bodson, Reflets Wallonie-Bruxelles.)

The author: Daniel Charneux is one of the prominent writers of French-speaking Belgium. Holder of several literary prizes, he has built a romantic universe which regularly leads him to explore real destinies. Thus Marilyn Monroe in Norma, novel (Charles Plisnier prize), Lady Jane Gray in Si près de l’aurore (Alex Pasquier prize) or the Japanese monk Ryōkan in Nuage et eau (nominated for the Rossel prize). A skilled jogger and former marathoner himself, Daniel Charneux talks here about a world he knows well.

Keywords: Novel, Athletics, Steve Prefontaine, Pre, Jogging, America, USA, Hood to Coast Relay.

2020 — 152pages

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Hibiscus are still in bloom

A novel by Monique Bernier

Rights available for all languages

 

 

 

Charlotte, a European girl, and Daniel, a Rwandan boy, grew up together for five years, until the 1994 genocide. Twenty years later, after a failed marriage where she was bullied by her husband and a difficult separation, Charlotte returns to Rwanda in the hope to find her childhood friend and his friend’s mother – her then nanny. She meets old Rwandan acquaintances, but also new people, and gradually discovers the dramatic history of her friend as well as the complexities of the country. The nanny was killed and for Daniel, in prison for having participated in the genocide despite being half Tutsi, the past is desperately present…

“The Rwandan genocide will remain a major fact of the end of the 20th century. The scale of the number of victims compared to the population, the methodical speed of the massacres and the absence of intervention by the international community have given to this drama a tragic dimension which never ceases to question. Many writers have drawn inspiration from these facts, whether they experienced them or not as Rwandans. If the subject is far from having been exhausted, the more time passes, the more it imposes to make an original contribution, especially since Monique Bernier lived in Rwanda and has already addressed this theme in The Magic of the Frangipani […] Hibiscus are still in bloom approaches the Rwandan genocide with great finesse. Despite everything that distinguishes them, Charlotte and Daniel have in common the desire to reverse their actions and to refuse the pressures which have led them to give up what was dear to them, to abandon theirs. This very systemic vision of the drama, which takes nothing away from the responsibility of individuals, makes it possible to overcome the divisions and, in particular, to question the simplisms that accompany all genocides.”

Thierry Detienne, Le Carnet et les Instants

The author : Psychologist, Monique Bernier worked as a child therapist before going abroad and starting to write. She was in Rwanda in April 1994 when the genocide against the Tutsis began. Hibiscus Are still in bloom is her sixth book.

Keywords: Novel, Rwanda, Post-genocide..

2020 — 192pages

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The Avenue, the Kasbah

A novel by Daniel Soil

Rights available for all languages

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Elie, a young Belgian filmmaker who came to Tunisia, meets Alyssa, a teacher. The cultural barriers that constrain their nascent love – which began and grew on Facebook – are shattered by the 2011 Revolution, in which they both engage. Accompanied by the background of the opera “Dido and Aeneas”, we follow in parallel the evolution of their love and that of the political situation: demonstrations, mobilization of young and old, free speech, until the fall of the dictator and the advent of a hope for democracy that sign the end of the one and the other.

The Avenue is the main street that crosses Tunis, from the sea to the medina. This is where, from time immemorial, people got angry. The Kasbah is the large esplanade in the center of the Ministries, which has replaced a popular district considered too old by the authorities: it did not give a quite rewarding image of a country which is so new and proud of its independence. It is between these two emblematic places that the upheaval of January 2011 took place, of which Daniel Soil was the witness. He was, before, during and after, amazed by the audacity of the rebels of this first “Arab Spring”, mad with sympathy for these Tunisians mixed, young and old, urban and country. The novelist had no difficulty in depicting a love in these circumstances, revolutionary too because it is fed by the social movement, his beauty, his inventiveness.

First novel about the Tunisian Revolution of 2011, starting point of the “Arab Spring”, written by a foreigner who was the privileged witness of it

The author : Daniel Soil was a Belgian diplomat in Maghreb from 2004 to 2015. He works today as a volunteer public writer, and as a moderator of a table conversation for migrants wishing to appropriate the languages of Belgium as quickly as possible.

He has already published six novels, the first of which, Vent faste, was crowned by the Jean Muno Prize. A new novel (Agdez, last page) which takes place in Morocco, has been published in 2022. Il will soon be translated into Arabic.

Keywords: Novel, Tunisian revolution, 2011 Arab springs, intercultural love.

2019 — 160 pages

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The light of the Archangel

A novel by Gérard Adam – second edition

Rights available for all languages

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A French specialist in viral diseases, Nobel Prize winner and founder of a brotherhood of scientists, is the victim of the virus he is studying, a mutant that has arisen in the Central African forests. Held in quarantine in his own department, supported by his friends around the world, he participates in the speed race between epidemic and research, while becoming aware of a contemporary world from which he had abstracted himself and that is shaken by deep social or geopolitical upheavals, as well as the explosion of violent fanaticisms and the advent of millenarian movements. But strange psychic changes appear in the survivors.

Is the evolution of life at a crossroads? Sent to Africa to coordinate the fight against the epidemic, the professor will be involved in an exceptional adventure and in an inner, psychological, metaphysical and spiritual quest.

A visionary novel, whose only flaw is that it was published too early. Now that the epidemics of mutant viruses are succeeding, it is extremely topical, and warns us of the dangers that the contemporary world poses to the humanity.

“A completely astonishing novel, which is unlike anything else known, which invents a new genre, halfway between science fiction and fantasy novel, something like medicine-fiction, even philosophy-fiction.” (Jean-Pol Hecq, Belgian Radio-Television)

“Gérard Adam succeeded there in the most difficult of cocktails: to combine pleasure and reflection about the meaning of life.” H-C Dahlem, Cooperation, Lausanne.

The author. Belgian writer and former military doctor involved in humanitarian operations in Africa and in Bosnia, Gérard Adam has published twenty novels and collections of short stories. He got the AT&T award and the Emma Martin prize, and was nominated for several other important awards (Rossel prize, Prize of Parliament, RFI International prize for short stories…)

Keywords :Novel, virus, mondial pandemy, millennial movements, brotherhood of scientists, philosophy of medicine, bacteriological war.

1992 & 2020 — 396 pages

Nominated for the Rossel Prize

 

 

 

Not made for

A novel by Véronique Adam

Translated into bulgarian

Rights available for all other languages

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Cécile, an obscure violin teacher, tackled by a companion who is more successful than her in music, is a frustrated, bitter young woman lacking self-confidence. Her friends offer her a subscription to a fitness club for her thirty-fifth birthday, which would give her life an unexpected turn. The friendship of an instructor will lead her to put her prejudices aside and introduce her to a universe she never imagined she was made for.

Attending a fitness room regularly will shake up her self-image and drop her – fortunately enough – at the dawn of another existence.

This first novel, although pure fiction, explores the author’s two familiar worlds – music and fitness – while bearing witness, not without humor and self-mockery, to the contradictions of a contemporary young woman.

“Not Made For» is one of those novels that you can’t let go until you finish it. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that Cécile is a very endearing character in which one can easily find oneself. Like her, we’ve all been through rough times, and many of us have undervalued ourselves at least at one point in our lives. But the story of this young 30-something reminds us that anything is possible and that sometimes all you need to do is step out of your comfort zone and open up to others. Everything is told with a lot of humor, which makes it a rather “light” book, perfect when you want to get away from your daily life for a few pages. One thing is sure, by the end of this reading, you will feel energized, ready to take on new challenges.”

Julie Jandrain, Mode in Belgium.

The author : After studying violin at the Brussels Conservatory, a few international tours with the orchestra of Helmut Lotti, several televised events where she accompanied singers such as Natasha St-Pier or Sarah Connor, Véronique Adam is passionate about fitness. She has been Miss Fitness Belgium, bronze medalist at the European and World Championships. She is now a sports coach, founder and manager of the Play2Move gym concept, while playing the violin in the rap group “Etat groupal”.

Keywords: Novel, fitness, sport, music, violin, contradictions of a contemporary young woman.

2020 — 220 pages

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Never cut the wings of angels

A novel by Claude Donnay

Rights available for all languages

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An unprecedented heat wave. The bodies suffer, the spirits heat up, the landmarks waver like silhouettes in a haze of heat. The crowd invades the streets of Brussels to let out a rage without clearly defined object: only “that” cannot last any longer. Arno, a young gay man, is the victim of a violent assault which spreads a shock wave to those around him, to his friend Bastian and even to the inspector in charge of the investigation. A question arises between the capital, the Ardennes and the Orient: are our world, our way of life, melting in the furnace? What if the dikes that we thought intangible disappeared? What if the barriers broke under an obtuse thrust? What if the darkest of our memories came back to burst the surface in pestilential bubbles?

“The novel of the next summer” (Tito Dupret, Le Carnet et les Instants).

“ This incisive, almost stripping novel tackles hot topics: the violence that disturbed people inflict on others, whether foreigners, blacks, homosexuals. […] The great subtlety of the book is to “operate” in layers […] and therefore to give, in large spans, a polyphonic vision of our society. (Philippe Leuckx, Les Belles Phrases)

The author : Born in 1958, Claude Donnay was a teacher. Today he devotes himself to writing and to the literary review - publishing house Bleu d´Encre, which he founded to publish the poets he loves. He has published 17 collections of poems and participated in several anthologies. He also writes short stories and received the Emma Martin Prize.

La route des cendres, his first novel (Éditions M.E.O.) was nominated for the Saga Café Prize.

Un été immobile, his second novel, won the Mons’Livre Book fair Prize.

Keywords: Novel, homophobic aggression, radical right gangs, climate deregulation.

2020 — 284 pages

 

 

 

Good bye Liza

A novel by Françoise Houdart

Translated inti Bulgarian

Rights available for all other languages

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A lightning strikes the centuries-old lime-tree in front of Eugenie’s house, knocking the old lady to her kitchen floor. Her daughter Liza goes to see her at the hospital. This is how Liza begins to become aware of all the mysteries that have marked her life, from the Mona Lisa pension, near Santa Maria Novella station at Firenze, where her parents spent their honeymoon and where she was – presumably – conceived. Despite a relative status quo,

family life was suddenly shaken by the forced escape of her father Auguste, unable to assume a serious accusation, and of whom she no longer knew anything but postcards sent from the four corners of France and Italy. From unsaid to unsaid, a wall has been erected, which she must now deconstruct stone by stone.

“There is a lot of distress and bewilderment in this novel which speaks very well of the irresponsible things left unsaid, the heartbreaking rumors and the wounds inflicted by inconsequential parents. Translator and teacher, Françoise Houdart is an experienced storyteller who, since the 1980s, has pursued a remarkable career as a poet and novelist. She has a keen sense of intrigue, leading it to its ultimate end with as much sensitivity to the turmoil of the human heart as she has a talent for driving suspense.” (Monique Verdussen, La Libre Belgique).”

“A book as I like them, where poetic writing, romantic history, real life and secrets mingle. A novel about the lies and things left unsaid that tear families apart and erect invisible walls between their members. A book also on the weaknesses of each other, on forgiveness, on our destinies.”(Martine Rouhart, AREAW)

The author : Translator, teacher (german language), poet, short story writer and novelist, Françoise Houdart continues, with this twenty-first novel, her exploration of a writing that submits lived experience to the challenges of the imagination. Winner of numerous literary prizes (including the Baron de Thysebaert prize and the Charles Plisnier prize), she also carries out many activities in libraries and schools.

Keywords: Novel, family secrets, missing father

2021 — 138 pages

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The words passers

A novel by Chloé Dusigne

Rights available for all languages

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In his Parisian bookstore Les Lettres Persanes specialized in the Middle and Far East, Maurice lives among his books and his memories. But one day, he receives mysterious notebooks in which poetic stories from all continents are transcribed. Touched by their beauty, Maurice decides to offer them to the world through theatrical reading.

To this end, he must convince Thomas, a former actor of the famous Théâtre Monstre, to go back on stage. But Thomas refuses. As a matter of fact, Thomas has given up acting on the stage since the death of his friend François, a passionate and charismatic translator from Afghan, killed by a bomb in Afghanistan where he worked for the French troops.

Recycled in the frenetic world of business, on the verge of burnout, Thomas ends up finding the words to tell Maurice about this extraordinary but also dramatic friendship, recognizing that acting on stage is his vocation. Maurice, for his part, finds a new meaning in his life with this role of guardian of the stories entrusted to him.

A strong and original argument. […An] elliptical text […] A real exercise in literary style which evokes […] the staging of beautiful texts, the most significant events of our time and the great weakness of a humanity incapable of managing itself other than by force and violence. (D. Billamboz, Les Belles Phrases)

An intriguing and gripping first novel (MP, L’Avenir.)

The author: holder of a bachelor’s degree in modern literature as well as a master’s degree in information and document management, Chloé Dusigne is head of Documentary Coordination and Digital Spaces in a public transport company.

Although having chosen another path, she has been immersed in theater life since her birth, which explains the accuracy of the chapters concerning this art. She is indeed the daughter of a well-known theater man and pedagogue in France.

In 2007, she won the young short story prize for Ronde de vie (unpublished)

The Word transmitters is her first published novel.

Keywords: Novel, theater, Art of acting, Afghanistan, giant Buddhas of Bamyan.

2022 — 200 pages.

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                          The first floor bedroom

                    A novel by Monique Bernier

 

 

 

After her father’s death, Sylvie was raised by her paternal grandmother, who separated her from her mother and older brother. She married very young on a whim and emigrated to Australia. An unhappy union, almost a sequestration. Now that her two children are adults, she finds the courage to flee in order to take refuge with her grandma. Unfortunately, the old lady has just died. While searching the house and particularly the first floor bedroom where her grandmother lived, she becomes aware of another reality concerning her childhood and discovers carefully buried family secrets. 

Commercial potential and originality of the work: A favorite of Estelle Piraux, Le Carnet et les Instants

The first floor bedroom recalls the summer sagas of the heyday of this television genre: return after a long absence, reunions tinged with resentment, discovery of family secrets, quest for truth and roots and weaving of family ties around exploring the past. The suspense is also there, the surprise too. Monique Bernier knows how to attract and maintain the attention of her readers from the first page to the last. The story is fluid, suffers no length, not the slightest procrastination. However, nothing is too rushed, the dosage is precise. We slip from one chapter to another, so captivated are we by meeting these characters, main or secondary, complex, realistic, deeply human…

https://www.meo-editions.be/product-page/la-chambre-du-premier-monique-bernier

The author

Psychologist, Monique Bernier worked as a child therapist before going abroad and starting to write. She was in Rwanda in April 1994 when the genocide against the Tutsis began.

The first floor bedroom is his seventh book and the second published by M.E.O.

2021 - 192 pages.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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