The characteristic of Anna Gavalda is the highlighting of "common" lives, of "Mr and Mrs Everyone" who live stories in which one can find oneself, simple anecdotes, dramas that arrive at all, of the problems already encountered, ... Back on those books of life that have moved us.

• "I want someone to wait for me somewhere"

This book, dated 1999, marks the beginning of his adventure. And Anna Gavalda started "gently" since she showed us a part of her talent through a 12-novel book. Through her short stories, she plays different characters who find themselves in crazy and unusual situations, between hope and despair. What strikes us, in this collection, is humanity staged simply, without fuss. A first blow of heart, but the suite will be even better ...

• "I loved it"

The success is such that the story will be adapted to the cinema in 2009, seven years after its release. "I loved her" is the story of Chloe, left by her husband when nothing foreshadowed it. The book serves as a monologue in which the father-in-law (who comes to look for her with his children to take him to the country) expresses all his pain about his life, explaining how much he regrets not having left the woman he had married for all these years. A novel that unfolds in the same place, hence the adaptation "easy" to the cinema.

• "Together, that's all"

This book, born in 2008, is one of its greatest successes. As usual, Anna Gavalda stages lives and mixes the generations. Here, almost the whole of the story takes place in an apartment, around four characters: Camille and her two roommates, Franck and Philibert. The last character is a key element of the story as it is Paulette, Franck's grandmother isolated in a retirement home, which Camille will take care of. The story is so engaging that it will be adapted to the cinema, with Audrey Tautou, Guillaume Canet and Françoise Bertin.

• "The Consolante"

If Anna Gavalda tells the story of life again, she makes this story stand out in her style too. Anna Gavalda tells the story of Charles, a well-known architect, who learns of the death of Anouk, the mother of a friend of mine, childhood. If the two friends had lost sight of each other, Charles was upset. And we will eventually find out why ...

• "Lives in Better"

In 2015, Anna Gavalda returns to her first love, the news. In this book, the reader is confronted with three stories of three young people who tell each other. Each with his words, his style, his language. An atypical triptych that highlights characters "battered" by life who prefer to live a wobbly life rather than an inactive life, armor with hearts that suffer underneath. In the same spirit as "La Consolante" and "Ensemble, c'est tout", this collection of news reveals what Anna Gavalda knows best.

The collections of news belong so much to the style "Anna Gavalda" that his eighth book, "Fend the Armor", which comes out today, is again inscribed in this spirit. A total of seven stories that all begin with the first person singular. Some have first names, some not, they just say "I". All speak to try to see more clearly in their lives, to reveal themselves, confide, and .. Split the armor.