It’s time, it’s time to take stock before the surge in prices for the coming week which begins on November 4 with the Goncourt and Renaudot. Looking at our Top 20 fictions, we see that there are few novels of the literary season (that is to say published before August 30 and eligible for a “grand” prize of fall), to appear in this bestseller list. If we put aside the books by Michel Bussi, Valérie Perrin, Mazarine M. Pingeot, Freida McFadden, Mélissa Da Costa, Fabrice Caro, Sophie Jomain (Secret SantaAuzou) and Han Kang (Impossible goodbyesGrasset) – the latter two having just entered the list – which do not tick these boxes, we in fact only find seven novels: namely, those of Olivier Norek, of Gaël Faye, of Kamel Daoud, of Sandrine Collette, Amélie Nothomb, Miguel Bonnefoy and Maylis de Kerangal.
Let’s review them. Two authors, Amélie Nothomb and Maylis de Kerangal, do not appear or no longer appear on the prize lists of the week, so they will continue quietly on their merry way. Olivier Norek, the sensation and one of the back-to-school bestsellers with his Winter Warriors (Michel Lafon), ejected from the 2nd list of Goncourt, remains on those of Renaudot and Interallié (whose last selection takes place on November 7) as well as on that of the Giono prize. All hopes are allowed to him. Just like for Gaël Faye (JacarandaGrasset), present on the lists of the Goncourt academy and Renaudot. As for Kamel Daoud (HourisGallimard), already winner of the Landerneau readers’ prize, he is still in the running for the Goncourt prize (and big favorite), the Renaudot and the Interallié. Sandrine Collette (Madelaine before dawnLattès), for its part, is part of the last square of Goncourt. Finally, Miguel Bonnefoy (The Jaguar AwakensRivages), winner of the grand novel prize of the French Academy, still competes for the Femina and Medici prizes.
Morality? All of these authors should continue to prance around on our bestsellers list. Others could come and join them, like Abdellah Taïa whose novel The Bastion of Tears (Julliard) won the December Prize and the French Language Prize, worth 15,000 euros for the first and 10,000 for the second… Not bad these days.
As for the essays, we are witnessing the emergence of the book by Philippe de Villiers, Memoricide (Fayard), from the posthumous testimony of Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny, Patriot (Robert Laffont), from the work of Jérôme Garcin, Words and actions. Belles lettres under the Occupation (Gallimard) and that of the sociologist Marc Joly, Perverse Thought in Power (Anamosa).
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