New Italian releases in French bookshops

At the start of autumn, a stroll through Parisian bookshops offers the opportunity to browse the latest Italian titles available from French publishers. Whether it’s heritage authors, classics from the first or second half of the 20th century, or emerging voices, Italian literature occupies an important place in French publishers’ catalogues. This long-standing affinity has accelerated considerably since the phenomenon of Elena Ferrante – whose four-volume series is available in France in paperback from Folio – which paved the way for renewed interest among the public and professionals alike.

Great classics such as Italo Calvino, Dino Buzzati and Alberto Moravia, to name but a few, have been translated for decades and are often republished, sometimes with new translations, mainly on the occasion of commemorations or anniversaries. In addition, pursuing an author-focused policy, their long-standing publishers – Gallimard, Grasset and Robert Laffont, for example – continue to publish texts that are often less well known and still unpublished in French. These publications are complemented by those of a few small, sophisticated publishing houses, such as Nous, Ypsilon and Les Cahiers de l’Hôtel de Galliffet.

Examples include the new edition of Il nome della rosa by Umberto Eco, published by Grasset, with drawings and preparatory sketches by the author, and, by Italo Calvino, the volume Le Métier d’écrire. Correspondance (1940-1985), translated by Christophe Mileschi and Martin Rueff (Gallimard, 2023), followed in 2024 by the publication, in the prestigious ‘La Pléiade’ collection, of a large selection of novels, edited by Yves Hersant.

French publishers, both long-standing and more recent, are nevertheless very attentive to the latest voices in Italian literature. One need only think of the publication of Tutta la vita che resta by Roberta Recchia (Istya & Cie, 2024, translated by Elsa Damien), or of authors who, in recent years, have enjoyed excellent public and critical acclaim beyond the Alps, such as Viola Ardone, whose trilogy – Il treno dei bambini, Olivia Denaro and Grande meraviglia, translated by Laura Brignon – was published by Albin Michel, and Piergiorgio Pulixi, whose detective novels, also translated by Laura Brignon, have been published by Gallmeister. We should not forget names that are well known and loved by the French public, such as Erri De Luca and Alessandro Baricco (Gallimard), whose novel Abele, published in 2025, has been translated by Lise Caillat.

Numerous new translations are also announced for late 2025 and early 2026.

Among the classics of the 20th century, we can mention the forthcoming publications of texts largely unpublished in France by authors such as Libero Bigiaretti, Dino Buzzati, Natalia Ginzburg, Rocco Scotellaro and Mario Soldati. Of the former, Les Éditions de l’Arbre Vengeur will publish L’Isola (L’Île) in a translation by Jean-Pierre Pisetta. The second will be published in the autumn, Bestiaire d’ici et d’ailleurs, in Robert Laffont’s ‘Pavillons Poche’ collection, which for the past twenty years has been publishing the works of the prestigious ‘Pavillons’ collection, created in 1941 and dedicated to foreign literature, in pocket format. The independent publisher Ypsilon, founded in 2007 by Isabella Checcaglini, will publish the previously unpublished work Vita immaginaria by Natalia Ginzburg, translated by Muriel Morelli. This is the third and final collection of essays and autobiographical writings by this author, first published in Italy in 1974 and reissued in 2021. Ypsilon has also published Le piccole virtù, translated by Adriana R. Salem, and Mai devi domandarmi, translated by Muriel Morelli, by Natalia Ginzburg.

As for Rocco Scotellaro, Cahiers de l’Hôtel de Galliffet, a collection of Italian literature published by the Italian Cultural Institute in Paris and edited by Paolo Grossi, has announced the September release of La Terre assoiffée. Récits et carnets (translated by Carole Cavallera). This is the first collection of prose writings by this author to be published in France, preceded by an extensive study of the author’s relationship with French culture by Franco Vitelli. In addition to the novel L’uva puttanella and the autobiographical short story Ramorra, this edition includes a selection of texts from Contadini del Sud and the notebooks (Taccuini), the latter published for the first time in Italy in 2024 by Quodlibet, edited by Franco Vitelli and Giulia Dell’Aquila. Also in Cahiers de l’Hôtel de Galliffet, Cinematografo, an original collection edited by Domenico Scarpa of Mario Soldati‘s most important writings on cinema (stories and reviews) will be published at the end of the year.

Among the French publishers most attuned to contemporary Italian fiction, Albin Michel deserves special mention. Its catalogue includes not only some of the biggest Italian successes of recent years, such as Stefania Auci, Francesca Giannone and the aforementioned Viola Ardone, but also critically acclaimed titles, striking a skilful balance between authors and works of different genres and styles. In spring-summer 2025, La bella confusione by Francesco Piccolo (translated by Olivier Villepreux), La portalettere by Francesca Giannone (translated by Françoise Bouillot), winner of the Bancarella Prize and now translated into more than forty countries, and La foglia di fico by Antonio Pascale (translated by Marianne Faurobert); followed in the autumn by Il trono by Franco Bernini and the first thriller by Marco De Franchi, La condanna dei viventi.

Another player in French publishing who has devoted the last two years to promoting Italian literature in France is the long-established publisher Calmann-Lévy, which added the works of Marco Missiroli to its catalogue in 2019 and the thrillers of Donato Carrisi in 2010. Next year, numerous publications by Italian authors are planned, including Onesto by Francesco Vidotto and La strangera by debut author Marta Aidala (Opera Prima ‘Per la donna scrittrice’ award), as well as L’Architettrice by Melania G. Mazzucco, not to mention Tangerinn by Emanuela Anechoum, which will follow the titles scheduled for release this autumn, namely Il fuoco che ti porti dentro by Antonio Franchini, winner of the Procida-Isola di Arturo-Elsa Morante Prize and finalist for the 2024 Campiello Prize, and Il cognome delle donne by Aurora Tamigio, winner of the 2024 Bancarella Prize for best first novel.

Publisher of Umberto Eco and a historical reference point for Italian literature in France, Grasset will publish Settembre Nero by Sandro Veronesi, winner of the De Sanctis Prize, and Missitalia by Claudia Durastanti in 2026, continuing an editorial line that has also included Strega Prize winners such as Mario Desiati and Ada d’Adamo.

As for genre fiction, Italian crime and noir novels are well represented in French publishing houses, where they are also very popular with the public. Examples include Fleuve noir, which publishes Andrea Camilleri, as well as Archipel, Gallmeister and Éditions de l’Aube, which publish Cristina Cassar Scalia, Piergiorgio Pulixi and Alessandro Robecchi respectively. Métailié is a renowned publisher active in the publication of thrillers and crime novels, which, in the ‘Bibliothèque italienne’ collection, edited by Serge Quadruppani, Andrea Camilleri‘s long-time translator in France, features several Italian works. Last spring, it published Il duca by Matteo Melchiorre, translated by Anne Echenoz and Serge Quadruppani – another first, which won the Bergamo Prize and the Alassio Prize in 2023 – and Il sapore del sangue by Gianni Biondillo, translated by Anne Echenoz.

Among the debuts planned for 2026, we should also mention the youthful Elvio Carrieri with Poveri a noi (Ventanas, 2024), which will be published by Philippe Rey, already the publisher of works by Emanuele Trevi, translated by Nathalie Bauer, among others. This book was selected as one of the twelve finalists for the 2025 Strega Prize, and its author became the youngest finalist in the history of the prize. In 2025, the young Éditions du Sous Sol, founded in 2011, also opened up to Italian fiction with the publication in France of another young debutante, Monica Acito (Uvaspina, translated by Laura Brignon), which aroused keen interest on the other side of the Alps, as well as winning the Massarosa Prize and the Fiesole Prize for fiction under 40 in Italy. In August 2025, again published by Éditions du Sous Sol, La ricreazione è finita by Dario Ferrari, translated by Vincent Raynaud, was published by Sellerio in 2023 and won the Flaiano Prize and the BookTok Prize in Italy.

Finally, Stock, already the publisher of Matteo B. Bianchi, Ilaria Tuti and Cristina Comencini, will publish Paolo Cognetti‘s L’Antonia (a portrait of the poet Antonia Pozzi) in autumn 2025, and Robert Laffont will publish Il pozzo vale più del tempo by Ginevra Lamberti in 2026.