XCiTés

XCiTés: the Flamingo Book of New French Writing is an anthology edited by Georgia de Chamberet of French writing in translation which "aims to smash the stereotypes" by a new generation of writers who were unpublished in English at the time of publication (2000). The book includes stories by Frédéric Beigbeder, Mehdi Belhaj Kacem, Tonino Benacquista, Marie Desplechin, Ilan Duran Cohen, Agnès Desarthe, Virginie Despentes, Guillaume Dustan, Eric Faye, Michel Houellebecq, Mathieu Kassovitz, Mathieu Lindon, Mounsi, Lorette Nobécourt, Vincent Ravalec, Abdourahman Waberi. The INDEPENDENT said of it: "French society is diverse, richly multi-cultural - and the writing in this collection represents some of that diversity. If a writer is clearly wonderful - Abdourahman Waberi (originally from Djibouti) or Mounsi (Algerian) - then we want more. The last three inclusions - scenes from Mathieu Kassovitz's film La Haine, a piece on the house music scene by DJ Tov and an interview with Chelsea defender Marcel Desailly illustrate the point of this kind of new fiction which is to question traditional modes of publishing. The French are tired of their image."