Antoine Laurain

Antoine Laurain is a French writer born in Paris in 1972. His debut novel, *The Portrait* (*Ailleurs si j'y suis*), won the Drouot Prize in 2007 and was followed by *Smoking Kills* (2008) and *Carrefour des Nostalgies* (2009). The career inflection came with *The President's Hat* (*Le Chapeau de Mitterrand*) in 2012—it won both the Landerneau Prize for emerging writers and the Relay travel prize, then translated into 17 languages and became one of the highest-selling French books in translation by 2013. Laurain toured the US for the book, visiting 10 cities in 15 days at the invitation of independent bookshops. In 2015, *The President's Hat* was adapted for French television (France 2) with actors Frédéric Diefenthal, Michel Leeb, and Roland Giraud, directed by Robin Davis. *The Red Notebook* (*La femme au carnet rouge*), published in 2014, reached 22 languages and sold cinematic rights to UGC. In April 2020, Queen Camilla recommended *The Red Notebook* on the Clarence House Instagram account as one of nine lockdown reads—the only French title on the list. By 2016, German translations of both *The President's Hat* (eighth-highest-selling book in Germany that year) and *The Red Notebook* charted on the Spiegel bestseller list. *French Rhapsody* (*Rhapsodie française*), published in 2016 by Flammarion, sparked a six-city US tour in nine days. His most recent novel, *Les caprices d'un astre* (2022), was published in English as *An Astronomer in Love*. As a screenwriter and novelist, Laurain crafts character-driven stories rooted in emotional specificity and historical texture. Born under Capricorn, his work carries the sign's trademark precision and long-view ambition.