Books for Intermediate French Learners

Have you already explored some French books for beginners, but don’t feel quite ready to tackle Balzac or Montesquieu?

Choosing the right books as an intermediate French learner can be tricky. You want something challenging enough to expand your vocabulary and improve your comprehension, but still enjoyable enough to keep you reading.

The good news is that you can now explore a much wider range of authentic French books and novels. In this guide, I’ve selected accessible and engaging reads to help you continue making progress.

Reading is also a great complement to French conversation classes, where you can put new vocabulary and expressions into practice.

Even if reading a novel no longer feels daunting, you’ll still come across plenty of new vocabulary. Here are a few simple ways to make the most of your reading:

• Keep a pen or pencil handy to mark unfamiliar words and phrases.
• Use a French dictionary when you need to look up a word.
• Don’t feel you need to understand every word immediately. Mark unfamiliar vocabulary and come back to it later.
• Keep a list of useful words and expressions you’d like to review or discuss with your French tutor.

Reading is only one way to expand your vocabulary and improve your comprehension. Complement your books with other resources, such as French series, movies and French podcasts, to experience French in different contexts.

You can also read or reread children’s books in French. Their simpler language can make them a useful and enjoyable option for regular reading.

Once you reach an intermediate level, reading in French is a great way to expand your vocabulary and improve your comprehension. From grammar guides to novels and short stories, the right books can help you make progress while discovering French in context.

“Grammar is a sweet song”..and a joyous fantasy. Jeanne, the narrator, travels a lot with her older brother, Thomas. Their parents are separated and each live on one side of the Atlantic. One day, their boat is wrecked and, only survivors, they miraculously run aground on an unknown island. Welcomed by Monsieur Henri, a musician, poet and charmer, they will discover a magical territory where words lead their life: they dress up, put on makeup, get married. It’s a walk in the city of words, full of humour and poetry, where the rules are enunciated with lightness. 

This short book tells 12 delectable stories such as :

• a Parisian who flirts with Boulevard Saint-Germain
• a rock concert organizer who, at the dawn of her forties, falls in love with a photographer
• a kid who had an accident with his father’s car
• an accountant who lives with his two sisters and has a craving for the sales manager.

Each time, I like the accuracy of the speech and the remarkable tone. A movie (I Wish Someone Were Waiting For Me Somewhere) has also been released in January 2020. 

This book tells about the meeting and then the arguments, the tenderness, the friendship, the reconciliations and everything that happens between four people living under one roof. Four people who had nothing in common to begin with and should never have met. A stammering aristocrat, an anorexic young woman, a stubborn old granny and a rude cook. All of them are full of bruises but have hearts ! You can also watch the movie ‘Hunting and Gathering’ (with Audrey Tautou and Guillaume Canet) based on this book. 

In 1992, ten-year-old Gabriel lived in Burundi with his French father, an entrepreneur, his Rwandan mother and his little sister, Ana, in a comfortable expatriate neighborhood. Gabriel had a sweet childhood that will fall apart at the same time as this “small country” of Africa brutally battered by history. Gabriel sees with concern his parents separate, then the civil war looms, followed by the Rwandan tragedy. Violence invades it and everything changes. The author wrote this novel to shout out to the universe that they had happiness before becoming refugees, immigrants and migrants. Gaël Faye evokes the torments and questions of a child caught in a story that makes him grow up faster than expected. 

Philippe Delerm was professor of literature in Normandy so his writing is very poetic. You will discover about thirty short texts which show these little things from everyday life, real moments of unspeakable happiness. From picking blackberries, to the uncomplicated pleasure of savouring a banana-split, through the colorful magic of kaleidoscopes or the subtle peeling of peas.

Agnès Martin-Lugand is the author of 14 novels, critically acclaimed. 

Diane suddenly lost her husband and daughter in a car accident. From then on, everything freezes in her, except for her heart, which continues to beat. Lost in the limbo of memory, she no longer finds the path to existence. In order to escape those around her who urge her to get back on her feet, she decides to go to Ireland, alone. 

When Miriam, a mother of two young children, decides despite her husband’s reluctance to take back her activity in a law firm, the couple starts to search for a nanny. After a severe casting, they hire Louise, who quickly wins the affection of the children and gradually occupies a central place in the household. However, little by little the trap of mutual dependence will close again, until the tragedy.

Another book that made a movie in 2011 (Love Lasts Three Years). Funny and cynical, the writing style is quite familiar.

“At first, everything is beautiful, even you. You can’t get over being so in love. For a year, life is just a succession of sunny mornings, even in the afternoon when it snows. You write books about it. You’re getting married, as soon as possible”. This book is a very modern and auto-biographical love story. The character – a young “trendy” – remembers his beginnings in life when, full of illusions, he married Anne, the prettiest girl of his generation. He remembers that at the beginning of their love, everything was beautiful.  The whole novel is a funny and moving variation on this theme.

In 2000, Marc Levy published his first novel Et si c’était vrai … Then comes Ou es-tu ? (2001), Sept jours  pour une éternité … (2003), La Prochaine Fois (2004) and one year later, Vous revoir (See you again) (2005). You could start with Et si c’était vrai as the characters are identical but this novel has more humour and unexpected twists. 

Marc Levy has been the most widely read contemporary French author in the world for more than eighteen years.

From novel to novel, Guillaume Musso has forged a unique bond with readers. Born in 1974 in Antibes, he began to write during his studies and never stopped. In 2004, the publication of “Et Après … ” is a great success. Translated into forty-four languages, several times adapted to the cinema, all of his books have enjoyed immense popularity in France and around the world.