''L'Amour et les Forêts'' is a 2014 novel by French author

Éric Reinhardt Éric Reinhardt (born 2 April 1965) is a French writer and publisher currently living in Paris. Early life Reinhardt grew up in a middle-class family approximately 30 kilometres from Paris in Corbeil-Essonnes. He attended preparatory classes in ...

, published by

Éditions Gallimard Éditions Gallimard (), formerly Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française (1911–1919) and Librairie Gallimard (1919–1961), is one of the leading French book publishers. In 2003, it and its subsidiaries published 1,418 titles. Founded by G ...

on 21 August 2014.

Premise

The narrator recounts the story of Bénédicte Ombredanne, who is trapped in a toxic and abusive marriage with her controlling husband Jean-François. After another violent argument, Bénédicte registers on the online dating service

Meetic Meetic is a French online dating service founded in November 2001. It is recognized for its intuitive interface and matching algorithms that suggest potential partners to users based on profile attributes. Meetic became a part of the Match Gro ...

. She connects with Christian, a gentle and attentive man who appears to be the opposite of her husband. She decides to meet Christian in real life and spend the day with him, a choice she will pay dearly for when she returns home.

Reception

''L'Amour et les Forêts'' was well received by critics. It sold over 100,000 copies in its first year of publication. The novel was awarded the

Prix France Télévisions The Prix France Télévisions are annual literary awards in France. Since 1995, the national television broadcaster France Télévisions has awarded two prizes, for a novel and an essay. The judging panel consists of 15 television viewers chosen fr ...

and the Prix Renaudot des lycéens for 2014. It also received the

Prix France Culture-Télérama Prix was an American power pop band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1975 by Tommy Hoehn and Jon Tiven. The group ended up primarily as a studio project. Its recordings were produced by Tiven along with former Big Star member Chris Bell (America ...

for 2015. It was also named Best French Novel (ex-æquo) on the list of the 20 best books of 2014 by the magazine '' Lire''.

Film adaptation

A film adaptation was directed by

Valérie Donzelli Valérie Donzelli (born 2 March 1973) is a French actress, filmmaker and screenwriter. She has directed six feature films and two short films since 2008, including the film ''Declaration of War'' (2011). Early life Valérie Donzelli was born in ...

, from a screenplay written by Donzelli and

Audrey Diwan Audrey Diwan (; born 1980) is a French film director of Lebanese origin. Prior to becoming a film director, she worked as a journalist and a screenwriter. In 2021, her film ''Happening'' won the Golden Lion at the 78th Venice International Fi ...

. It stars

Virginie Efira Virginie Efira (born 5 May 1977) is a Belgian and French actress. She had her first leading role in '' It Boy'' (2013). Efira subsequently received praise for '' In Bed with Victoria'' (2016), for which she received a Magritte Award for Best Act ...

and

Melvil Poupaud Melvil Matthias Julien Poupaud (born 26 January 1973) is a French actor. Early life Poupaud was born in Paris, the son of Michel Poupaud and publicist Chantal Poupaud. He has an elder brother, Yarol, who is a musician. Career Poupaud made hi ...

in the main roles. The film was screened in the Cannes Premiere section of the 76th Cannes Film Festival on 24 May 2023, being theatrically released in France on the same day.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amour Et Les Forets 2014 French novels Domestic violence in fiction French novels adapted into films Éditions Gallimard books Prix Renaudot des lycéens winners