The five novels to read in May 2026

In “Mukudori” & “Bosphore Tango”, as well as “Clément”, “Qui se souvient de Joseph Diop?” and also “Le jour zéro”, here is our first selection of the month of May. Covering topics like friendship and love in old age, troubled history, resilience, quest, and dystopia, let’s take a look at these five titles that caught our attention.

“Mukudori” by Aki Shimazaki: of love and friendship
“The Hello-Work is found on the third floor. A funny anglicism to designate the National Employment Agency.” This is the second time Matsuko Okita has visited Hello-Work. The first time was thirty-eight years ago when she was twenty-three. While her friends are enjoying retirement, the sixty-year-old needs a full-time job. The department store she ran with her husband, Atsuhi, went bankrupt. With her sick husband, Matsuko now has to provide for the two of them. During her job search, she meets Matsuo, a man passionate about ornithology. This man’s entrance into the life of the elderly couple will transform their daily lives. Precise, stripped of superfluity, Aki Shimazi’s language is of formidable efficiency. In this concise book, the Japanese author, who has been living in Montreal for thirty-five years, delivers a poignant novel about old age, life, death, and life after death. Essential.

“Mukudori”, Aki Shimazaki, Actes Sud editions, 176 pages, 16.50 euros

“Bosphore Tango” by Metin Arditi: Once upon a time in Istanbul
“It was nothing. A detail. Upon arrival at the Grand Bazaar, Renée noticed the absence of Abdullah, who sold simit by the Beyazit gate. Strange that he wasn’t there.” Renée notices several oddities on September 6, 1955. Hagop Bey, an Armenian merchant, shares her amazement. “Something serious is brewing.” Istanbul is thrown into violence by the rioters, under the indifferent gaze of soldiers. The minorities are targeted by heated men in white. Renée reunites with Jako, her former lover, “more beautiful than ever.” Fifty years later, Jalila, a renowned novelist, finds herself at the intersection of trajectories from tumultuous times. She embarks on a journey to discover her own story. A remarkable storyteller, Metin Arditi, completes his “Trilogy of Constantinople” with “Bosphore Tango,” following “The Oriental Dancer” and “Atatürk’s Spy.” Epic.

“Bosphore Tango”, Metin Arditi, Grasset editions, 240 pages, 20 euros

“Clément” by Romain Lemire: of combat and resilience
Just a year ago, Romain Lemire was still looking for a publisher. On May 5, “Clément” wins the Prix Goncourt for the first novel. In this poignant autofiction, the actor, singer, and pianist revisits his stolen childhood. Coming from a bourgeois Parisian family, Romain Lemire found the courage and distance to narrate, under the name of the character Clément Drelin, the repeated rapes inflicted by his father from seven to fourteen years old. From the outside, it is impossible to imagine the dramas unfolding in this model family. The fifty-year-old author has chosen a lively language, from a child’s perspective at first, evolving throughout this “tale of an ordinary crime and a deafening silence” to provide a testimony of rare power. He speaks of both the loving and monstrous father. How to rebuild after incest, this “time bomb”? How to break the silence and indifference? “Clément,” a cry and a liberation.

“Clément”, Romain Lemire, Le Cherche Midi editions, 400 pages, 22 euros

“Qui se souvient de Joseph Diop?” by Nicolas Cartelet: rise and fall
Not everyone has the chance to disappear. “Arriving like a god, he leaves China like a thief and disappears quietly, in the anonymity of a provincial airport.” Joseph Diop, a former football star who brought happiness to Liverpool and Chelsea, takes a flight from Quinhuangdao to Shanghai to reach Doha and start a new career with his new club, the final stretch of his professional life. To him, the sun, money, and glory before a well-deserved rest. However, he never lands in Qatar. No one will hear from him again. Vanished. After making headlines for two weeks, Joseph Diop fades into oblivion. Who remembers him? As a challenge, Nicolas Cartelet traces his steps. This investigative tale is not a book about football or a hagiographic biography of the child from Dakar who, through his talent and tenacity, made his mark in stadiums worldwide. Behind the football player, the man, the ghost. “Qui se souvient de Joseph Diop?” also portrays an era and a world. To discover.

“Qui se souvient de Joseph Diop?”, Nicolas Cartelet, Flammarion editions, 236 pages, 20 euros

“Le jour zéro” by Hadrien Klent: the best of worlds
“This is a message from the government. We are facing an abnormally intense solar storm.” Following an unprecedented solar storm, all electronic devices on the planet are fried. Overnight, no more phones, computers, cars, televisions… At the Elysée Palace, there is intense brainstorming: what if real change was now? Verticality quickly reaches its limits. Far from the corridors of power, Laurence, Inès, Jean-Charles, Adonie, and others, separately, dream of another world. Initiatives multiply throughout France. Away from prying eyes, influential people in the 16th arrondissement imagine a political system without elections… Hadrien Klent demonstrates abundant imagination in this joyful dystopia. The author of “And let chaos ensue, The Great Breakdown,” and “Laziness for all” convinces us that the future has promise. Enjoyable.

“Le jour zéro”, Hadrien Klent, Le Tripode editions, 448 pages, 21 euros