Cinema, painting, photography, literature… Marseille is an inexhaustible source of inspiration for many artists. For this ranking, we’ve decided to let you (re)discover some of the books that have sublimated the city of Marseille. Novels, Coffee Table Books, recipe books… So many pages to devour without moderation.
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The novel “Corniche Kennedy” by Maylis de Kerangal
How could we not start this ranking with this novel? Author Maylis de Kerangal takes us through a Marseilles summer in the shoes of teenagers who spend their youth diving off the Corniche Kennedy – which gives its name to this initiatory novel. Adapted for the screen, this story is as much to read as it is to see.
🤑”Corniche Kennedy”, Maylis de Kerangal – €6.90
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The legendary “Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexandre Dumas
Alexandre Dumas is undoubtedly one of the most famous authors to have chosen Marseille as the setting for his novel The Count of Monte Cristo! This novel tells the story of the revenge of a young man, betrayed and falsely accused of treason, then locked up in one of the gaols of the Chateau d’If for 14 years. This work has become one of Dumas’ most emblematic novels. It has since been translated into many languages around the world and adapted for the cinema.
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The novel “Il est des hommes qui se perdront toujours” by Rebecca Lighieri
The pages of this devourable novel quickly set the tone: “The life expectancy of love is eight years. For hatred, it’s more like twenty. The only thing that lasts forever is a childhood gone wrong.” We’re in the 1980s, in the Artaud housing estate in Marseille, and we follow the character of Karel, who’s afraid of one thing: looking like his father.
🤑”Il est des hommes qui se perdront toujours”, Rebecca Lighieri – €9.20
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The trilogy by celebrated Marseille writer Jean Claude Izzo
Do you know Jean-Claude Izzo? This key Marseilles author of the 1990s is best known for his detective trilogy featuring Fabio Montale, an Italian-born former delinquent turned policeman. Through his investigations, Montale introduces us to Marseille, from its northern neighborhoods to his seaside cottage. Each volume of the trilogy focuses on an investigation that keeps us on the edge of our seats right to the end: Total Khéops (1995) recounts the murder of his old friends, Chourmo (1996) follows the disappearance of a young man, and Soléa (1998) plunges Montale into a Mafia investigation. We can only tell you one thing: if you love Marseille and crime novels, this is the perfect combo!
🤑Each book at €9.50
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The novel “Romance in Marseille” by Claude McKay
This thrilling book, written in Tangiers in 1932, tells the story of Lafala, a West African dockworker, who returns to Marseille after being robbed of all his money by the beautiful Aslima. Following on from Banjo, “Romance in Marseille” takes us into the teeming world of the “Fosse”, Marseille’s reserved quarter. After a few misadventures and a trip to the U.S., where he makes his fortune, he returns to the “Port of Dreams”. a space where he finds the uprooted people of the Jetée and his lost illusions.
🤑”Romance in Marseille by Claude McKay – €8
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Cap canaille”, a Marseilles crime thriller by Christophe Gavat
Did you know that the Marseilles crime thriller was a literary genre in its own right? It has flourished over the last ten years, using the city’s sometimes explosive reputation as the backdrop for its breathtaking stories. In “Cap canaille” – Prix du Quai des Orfèvres 2021 – Christophe Gavat unveils an investigation that leads us in pursuit of fictional drug dealers on real Marseille streets.
🤑”Cap canaille”, Christophe Gavat – €8.90
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The New Mysteries of Marseille by Jean-Michel Verne
The city of Marseille, both beautiful and complicated, is stuck in an economic cul-de-sac at the gateway to the Orient, which is why it’s a veritable concentration of paradoxes. In his investigation, Jean-Michel Verne explores the underbelly of this complex metropolis, at once fascinating and harsh, where clientelism, financial scandals, political backstabbing, settling of scores and trafficking of all kinds intersect, sometimes with the hope of breaking out of this spiral. A book that offers a vision of Marseille’s secrets and reminds us of Emile Zola’s book “les mystères de Marseille”.
🤑”Les nouveaux mystères de Marseille”, Jean-Michel Verne – €20.50
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The journalistic investigation “Marseille, le roman vrai” (Marseille, the true story)
Marseille is well worth an investigation. In “Marseille, le roman vrai“, journalist Marie-France Etchegoin reveals a side of Marseilles we don’t talk about. It may come as a surprise, but there’s a real link between the inhabitants of the northern districts and the bourgeoisie of the southern ones. Drugs, violence, corruption… thrilling.
🤑”Marseille, le roman vrai”, Marie-France Etchegoin – €20.99
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Marcel Pagnol’s classic “La gloire de mon père” (“The glory of my father”)
We all know Marcel Pagnol ‘s must-have books! It’s partly thanks to them that Marseille has built up its fine reputation. Marcel was born on February 28, 1895 in Aubagne, under the Garlaban mountains, and this story recounts his childhood in Marseille, his early years at elementary school, but above all his family vacations in the village of La Treille during the summer of 1904, in the hills of the Garlaban massif. Thanks to this great classic, you’ll rediscover the wonders of Provence!
🤑”La Gloire de Mon Père”, Marcel Pagnol – €7.90
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Philippe Pujol’s journalistic investigation, “La fabrique du monstre” (The Monster Factory).
For 10 years, Philippe Pujol – winner of the 2014 Albert-London Prize – has been investigating the northern neighborhoods. Sometimes on the side of the drug dealers and in the cellars, sometimes on the side of the BAC Nord investigating the murders of young kids. He attempts to understand the origins of this monster, born of organized crime, corruption, clientelism and conflicts of interest….
🤑 “La fabrique du monstre”, Philippe Pujol – €20
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The cookbook “Marseille cuisine le monde” by Vérane Frediani
We couldn’t resist slipping a book about gastronomy into this ranking. In a book as beautiful as it is appetizing, Vérane Frediani gives us a taste of Marseille through interviews and recipes for everything that’s good to eat in this Mediterranean city: pieds paquets, panisses, 13 desserts but also pizzas and couscous… One of the most salivating books!
🤑”Marseille cuisine le monde”, Vérane Frediani – €29.90
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The book of culinary addresses: Un jour sans faim (A day without hunger)
In this book by Zerah Ezéchiel, the author takes us on a culinary tour of the city. Recipes, good addresses, portraits, reports… Un jour sans faim takes us on a journey to meet the people who feed the people of Marseille, helping us discover the best of the city and its thousand flavors.
🤑 “Un jour sans faim”, Zerah Ezéchiel – €45
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The “Marseille” guide from the publisher A Week Abroad
With this beautiful book, you’re in for an eyeful! Specializing in travel guides and beautiful photos, publisher A Week Abroad has dedicated a complete book to Marseille. In this book, you’ll discover the Phocaean city through its landscapes, but above all through its faces. The book features interviews with long-standing and adopted Marseillais.
🤑”Marseille”, A Week Abroad – 19€
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The coffee table book “Marseille je t’aime” by Jacquemus
This book sounds like a declaration of love. And indeed it is. In love with the Phocaean city that has (he has) adopted him, in “Marseille je t’aime“, designer Jacquemus gives us his personal photos of the city and its many faces.
🤑Marseilleje t’aime”, Jacquemus – €40
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Photos from “Marseille Instantanés
Would you like to take another look at Marseille? Former Côté Sud journalist Caroline Guiol and communicator Sophie Sutra-Fourcade have compiled the most beautiful snapshots of the Phocaean city. Far from clichés, Marseille reveals all its beauty in photos as motley as they are colorful. Just like the city itself.
🤑”Marseille Instantanés”, Caroline Guiol, Sophie Sutra-Fourcade – €22.50
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Fiction “Pour l’Amour de Marseille” by Alexandra Apikian
In the “Pour l’Amour de…” collection, here’s a book dedicated to the city of Marseille. Written by Alexandra Apikian, a native of Marseilles, this book takes us into Marseilles’ secret places. Through a fictitious dialogue, she tells us about Marseille’s splendor, but also its contradictions. Everything that invariably draws her to the city of her birth.
🤑 “Pour l’Amour de Marseille”, Alexandra Apikian – €10