| Title | Date | Notes |
| Chagrin lorrain | 1979 | Account of deindustrialisation in Lorraine |
| L'Âge-Déraison, véritable biographie imaginaire de Johnny H | 1982 | Fictional biography of his friend Johnny Hallyday |
| Trans-Europ-Express | 1984 | Anthology of Libération reportage |
| Tanger | 1987 | Travelogue of Tangiers. |
| L'enthousiasme | 1988 | Memoir of his time as a factory worker in Lorraine. Revised edition in 2006 was the second volume of his autobiography, Mémoire tu l'appelleras |
| Pourquoi écrivez vous? | 1988 | Co-editor with Jean-François Fogel of an anthology of writers explaining their motivations. |
| Les Tambours du Monde | 1989 | Novel |
| Chronique du Liban rebelle 1988–1989 | 1991 | Account of his friend Michel Aoun's interim premiership at the end of the Lebanese Civil War. |
| Portraits champenois | 1991 | Account of his home region of Champagne, with photographs by his brother Gérard Rondeau |
| La Part du diable | 1992 | Novel |
| Littérature notre ciel! | 1992 | Account of Heinrich Maria Ledig-Rowohlt [de] |
| Les Fêtes partagées; Lectures et autres voyages | 1994 | Literary anthology |
| Mitterrand et nous | 1994 | Account of the presidency of François Mitterrand |
| Des hommes libres; La France libre par ceux qui l’ont faite | 1997 | Co-editor with Roger Stéphane of accounts by Free French resistance members |
| Alexandrie | 1997 | Travelogue of Alexandria. Winner of the 1998 Prix des Deux Magots |
| Johnny | 1999 | Anthology of journalistic interviews and portraits of Johnny Hallyday. Second edition 2009. |
| Istanbul | 2002 | Travelogue of Istanbul. |
| Dans la marche du temps | 2004 | Novel |
| Camus ou les promesses de la vie | 2005 | Account of Albert Camus' life and work |
| Les vignes de Berlin | 2006 | First volume of his autobiography, Mémoire tu l'appelleras |
| Journal de lectures, 1999–2006 | 2007 | Anthology of literary articles from L'Express |
| Carthage | 2008 | Travelogue and meditation on the ruins and history of Carthage |
| Malta Hanina | 2012 | Account of Malta |
| Vingt ans et plus | 2014 | Excerpts from his 1991–2012 diaries. Winner of the Prix Saint-Simon |
| Boxing-Club | 2016 | Essays on boxing |
| Mécaniques du chaos [fr] | 2017 | Novel. Winner of the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française |
| La raison et le cœur | 2018 | Anthology of political and literary pieces written since 1984, some previously unpublished. |
| Arrière-pays | 2021 | Novel |