released on 9 October 2008 and became a bestseller in France, with 250,000 copies. The book was translated and published in Spanish by the San Sebastián-based independent publisher Expediciones Polares in 2017. In 2018, the English-language edition of the book was released by Feral House, titled The Despair of Monkeys and Other Trifles and translated by Jon E. Graham. In 2012, Hardy published her first novel L'amour fou on Éditions Albin Michel, released in conjunction with a musical album of the same title. Hardy began working on its story, which deals with an obsessive romantic relationship, thirty years before its publication. Hardy had shelved the text and had no intention of releasing it, but was urged by her editor to do so and agreed after the encouragement of friend Jean-Marie Périer. The singer felt that it was appropriate to publish the book to mark the occasion of her fifty years of music career, as it was "the story that has been the matrix of almost all of my lyrics from the start". In 2013, the Italian-language edition of the novel was released by Florence's Edizioni Clichy. Following the poor sales of albums La pluie sans parapluie and L'Amour fou, Hardy decided to momentarily distance herself from music and dedicate herself to writing. This resulted in the essay Avis non autorisés—released in 2015 on Éditions des Équateurs—in which she expresses the difficulties of reaching her old age. In the book Hardy also shares her views on current affairs, which have been deemed "politically incorrect". Avis non autorisés was a commercial success. A year later, she published Un cadeau du ciel, a book in which she reflects on her hospitalization in March 2015 for cancer, during which she nearly died. In the early 2020s, after being unable to continue singing—claiming she had "nothing else to do"—Hardy dedicated herself to the making of the song book Chansons sur toi et nous—published in 2021 on Éditions des Équateurs—which compiles all of her lyrics and contains commentary on them. Artistry Musical style Although Hardy's music has covered a wide range of genres, she has maintained a signature sound since the beginning of her career, which is defined by her breathy alto vocals and predilection for melancholic songs. Rock & Folks Basile Farkas has dubbed her the "queen of melancholy", and the singer herself stated in 2012: "In music, I like above all the slow, sad