20th-century French novelists

Joseph Malègue (8 December 1876 – 30 December 1940), was a French catholic novelist, principally author of Augustin ou le Maître est là (1933) and Pierres noires. Les classes moyennes du Salut. He was also a theologian and published some theological surveys, as Pénombres about Faith and against Fideism. His first novel is, following the French historian of spirituality Émile Goichot, the most accurately linked to Modernism. Pope Francis quoted in several circumstances, among them in El Jesuita this Malègue's view about Incarnation : ‘’ It is not Christ who is incomprehensible for me if He is God, it is God who is strange for me if He is not Christ.‘’

Henri Cueco (19 October 1929 – 13 March 2017) was a French painter, essayist, novelist and radio personality. As a self-taught painter, his work was exhibited internationally. He was the author of several books, including collections of essays and novels. He was also a contributor to France Culture. A communist-turned-libertarian, he was a co-founder of Coopérative des Malassis, an anti-consumerist artists' collective. He was best known for The Red Men, a series of figurative paintings depicting aspects of the Cold War like the May 1968 events, the Vietnam War and Red Scare, and his 150 still lifes, or "portraits," of potatoes.

Albert Dieudonné (26 November 1889 – 19 March 1976) was a French actor, screenwriter, film director and novelist.

Ricciotto Canudo (French: [kanydo]; 2 January 1877, Gioia del Colle – 10 November 1923, Paris) was an early Italian film theoretician who lived primarily in France. In 1913 he published a bimonthly avant-garde magazine entitled Montjoie!, promoting Cubism in particular. Involved in numerous movements yet confined to none, Canudo exuded seemingly boundless energy. He ventured into poetry, penned novels (pioneering a style emphasizing interpersonal psychology, which he dubbed sinestismo), and established open-air theatre in southern France. As an art critic, he unearthed talents like Chagall, curating a Chagall exhibition in 1914. In that same year, alongside Blaise Cendrars, he issued a call for foreigners residing in France to enlist in the French army. Among the 80,000 who responded was Canudo himself.He saw cinema as "plastic art in motion", and gave cinema the label "the Sixth Art", later changed to "the Seventh Art", still current in French, Italian, and Spanish conceptions of art, among others. Canudo subsequently added dance as a precursor to the sixth—a third rhythmic art with music and poetry—making cinema the seventh art.Canudo is often regarded as the inaugural aesthetician of cinema, thus making his "Manifesto" pertinent for an English-speaking readership. Several of Canudo's concepts found resonance with two prominent early French film experimenters—Jean Epstein and Abel Gance.

Victor Margueritte (1 December 1866 – 23 March 1942) was a French novelist. He was the younger brother of Paul Margueritte (1860–1918).

Katherine Pancol (born 22 October 1954) is a French journalist and novelist. Her books have been translated into some 30 languages, and sold millions of copies worldwide. In the United States, she is known as the author of The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles (Penguin, 2013) and its sequel, The Slow Waltz of Turtles (Penguin, 2016), both translated by William Rodarmor.

André Héléna (8 April 1919 – 18 November 1972) was a French writer who spent most of his life in Leucate (southern France) on the mediterranean coast. He was born in Narbonne and died at Leucate, aged 53.

Jean-Claude Izzo (Marseille 20 June 1945 – Marseille 26 January 2000) was a French poet, playwright, screenwriter, and novelist who achieved sudden fame in the mid-1990s with the publication of his three neo-noir crime novels Total Chaos, Chourmo, and Solea (widely known as the Marseilles Trilogy), featuring as protagonist ex-cop Fabio Montale, and set in the author's native city of Marseille. All have been translated into English by Howard Curtis.Jean-Claude Izzo was born on 20 June 1945 in Marseille, France. His father was an Italian immigrant from Castel San Giorgio (Province of Salerno) and his maternal grandfather was a Spanish immigrant. He excelled in school and spent much of his time at his desk writing stories and poems. But because of his "immigrant" status, he was forced into a technical school where he was taught how to operate a lathe.
In 1963, he began work in a bookstore. He also actively campaigned on behalf of Pax Christi, a Catholic peace movement. In 1964, he was called up for military duty in Toulon and Djibouti. He worked for the military newspaper as a photographer and journalist.

Jean-Christophe Grangé (born 15 July 1961) is a French mystery writer, journalist, and screenwriter.
Grangé was born in Paris. He was a journalist before setting up his own press agency L & G.

Charles Exbrayat (5 May 1906 – 8 March 1989) was a French fiction writer. He published over 100 novels and short stories, most of them humorous thrillers. They were very popular and a considerable number were turned into films.
While living in Nice with his parents, he was studying to becoming a medical doctor, but then found his true calling as a writer.
His debut novel was Aller sans Retour (single fare, no return), written while in Geneva, before going to Paris. He was one of the most famous French authors of the illustrious "le Masque" collection. He wrote a number of novels set in Scotland (Imogene series) and in Italy. His other interests included gourmet food and fine wines.