Eighty writers who left Grasset after its editor's ouster tell their story in a new book

A collective volume titled "La Grande Évasion" arrives in French bookshops on September 10, published by Buchet-Chastel, according to Le Monde. It brings together roughly eighty writers who left the publishing house Grasset after Olivier Nora, its longtime editor, was pushed out under the ownership of Vincent Bolloré.

Among the contributors named by Bibliobs are Tania de Montaigne, Colombe Schneck and Vanessa Springora, who spoke to the outlet about why the writers chose to keep the dispute alive in print rather than let it fade. Their accounts describe what a publishing house meant to them beyond a business relationship: Le Monde quotes the book's framing of an editor as offering, above all, "un refuge" — a shelter — for people practicing what one contributor calls a strange trade, one where "l'on reste chez soi des mois devant un écran," spending months alone at home in front of a screen.

Nora's removal from Grasset, which is controlled by Bolloré's media holdings, prompted a wave of departures from the house's author list. "La Grande Évasion" appears to be the writers' collective attempt to document that rupture in their own words, framing their old imprint less as a corporate entity than as a place of professional and personal attachment now lost.

Neither Le Monde nor Bibliobs' summaries specify further contributors, a full author count beyond the approximate eighty cited, or additional details of the book's contents.