While working as a high-school French teacher, Anna Gavalda published her first work in 1999, the critically acclaimed collection of short stories I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere, which sold over half a million copies in her native France. Gavalda has since published three novels, all of which have become best-sellers across Europe. Her first novel, Someone I Loved, was adapted to film in 2009 and her novel Hunting and Gathering was made into a film starring Audrey Tautou and Daniel Auteuil. Gavalda’s novels and short stories have been translated into over forty languages. She lives in Paris.
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Anna Gavalda
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Latest reviews
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The Cracks in Our Armour is a collection of stories that speak to the heart in all its simplicity, complexity, and the understanding of love and empathy that makes you see the world from a larger perspective of kindness and a whole lot of heart.— The Hungry Reader, Apr 28 2019![]()
In her latest book, French novelist Anna Gavalda brings together two novellas exploring the young, restless, and downtrodden on the edge of a breakthrough. Matilde and Yann are both in their twenties, at a point in their lives when they feel opportunity is slipping past, for...— World Literature Today, May 10 2016![]()
As 2015 comes to a close, we again look back to the year in translation. The end of 2015 marked two new beginnings: a new independent publisher, Spurl Edition, released its first translation in November as a free ebook and will follow with its second translated title in spring...— World Literature Today, Dec 15 2015![]()
My last choice for this first batch is Anna Gavalda’s Life, Only Better, two novellas published in one volume. In one a twenty-four-year-old woman changes her life entirely after a man returns the bag she thought she’d lost and in the other, dinner with a neighbour spurs...— A life in books, Dec 1 2015![]()
To be in your mid-twenties today often means being at a crossroads: the time between adventure and adulthood, between carelessness and commitment. In French author Anna Gavalda’s new work, “Life, Only Better,” (Europa, $17.00) this tumultuous time is on full display in...— Laura Farmer, Nov 30 2015![]()
In “Mathilde,” one of the two novellas that make up this book, a 24-year-old lives with twin sisters and works as a negative commenter on various websites. Her anonymous comments send site owners running to her brother-in-law to improve their web presence. When she loses...— The New York Times, Nov 30 2015![]()
This novel is a testament to love, friendship, overcoming abuse and suffering, and the feelings associated with being an outcast— The San Juan Islander, Aug 1 2015
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