Editor’s Pick: *L’heure des femmes*, by Adèle Bréau

*L’heure des femmes* is a fictionalized biography of Ménie Grégoire. Ménie was the “lady of hearts,” the first major female voice heard on French radio. Every day in the early afternoon, French women would call “Allo Ménie” at the RTL switchboard, and the whole of France thus discovered what was in women’s hearts… And in those hearts, a powerful desire for emancipation and ambition! Hearts spoke, and sharp minds revealed themselves: women’s intelligence was the biggest scoop of the era! We smile at it today, but we must revisit—alongside Adèle Bréau (granddaughter of her heroine)—the period where the roots of contemporary leadership lie. A leadership that embraces the desire for it all—a career and family life, personal fulfillment and political participation, femininity and equality. A form of leadership that challenges the myth of the “strong man”—capable of “sacrificing everything” for his career—and offers an alternative narrative of power built on balance and influence.

Both a chronicle of an era we have inherited and a sensitive portrait of a role model, *L’heure des femmes* is, above all, a delightful, funny, and lively novel for the masses.

*L’heure des femmes* by Adèle Bréau – Jean-Claude Lattès Publishing