Virginie Grimaldi, about to give birth, Agnès Martin-Lugand, victim of a tractor on a railway near Saint-Malo, Neige Sinno, at home in Mexico, Florent Pagny, also at home, but in Patagonia, Panayotis Pascot, in the middle of filming, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, ill, in Brussels… A concrete apology, if ever there was one. The fact remains that, on Wednesday February 7, around twenty of the bestsellers of the year 2023 managed to brave the elements to make their way to the Parisian palace of the Royal Monceau. Just like a former and future bestseller, Joël Dicker, present as editor (Rosie & Wolfe) and whose next novel, A savage animal, printed in 450,000 copies (!), released on February 27.
12:50 p.m. Click-click, the group photo is in the box, with, this year, 10 women out of 22 authors. A sign of the times and the explosion of romance… Sorj Chalandon, an “old hand” of these feasts, worries: “I don’t know many people.” He will have to get used to it, Maud Ankaoua, Morgane Moncomble, Nine Gorman, Marie Alhinho, Chloé Wallerand, Camille Creati are not about to leave the front of the editorial scene.
“Miracle”, the cream of the editors was brought together for this 25th L’Express lunch. Indeed, the bosses of the large groups are there (Denis Olivennes and Marie-Christine Conchon for Editis, Stéphanie Ferran for Hachette Livre, Gilles Haéri for Albin Michel, Sophie de Closets for Flammarion, etc.), who had to be delicately dispatched around ‘Alain Weill, owner and president of L’Express, and Eric Chol, editorial director. As the latter said in his introductory remarks, “in this era of great tectonic plate movements in the publishing world, it was as difficult to organize the table plan for this lunch as it was to fill out the sheet government match”. Mission accomplished, no scandal on the horizon, just a few rumors around the transfer window and the landing at Fayard of Lise Boëll, ex-boss of Plon and protégé of the new owner of Hachette, Vincent Bolloré.
Dr. Jimmy Mohamed to the rescue
Other comments, in a different genre: Amélie Nothomb, the record holder of these lunches declares his admiration to Giuliano da Empoli, the author of Kremlin Mage (Gallimard). And to engage in a long conversation about their respective creative processes to come to the conclusion that they are perfect opposites: iron discipline, on the Belgian side, and dispersion, on the Italian-Swiss side. But the latter is worried: he learned in L’Express that Jean-Christophe Rufin had drawn on one of their conversations to write his latest novel, Gold and jungle, just released. But da Empoli is currently working on this same question of digital coups… As for Nantes police captain Jean-François Pasques, he can’t believe he’s in such good company, while, the next day, at 8 a.m., he will find himself managing police custody again. Near him, a regular, Michel Bussi, inquires about the world of romance from two young girls, Morgane Moncomble and Camille Creati, and seems to discover a new world. The first releases volume 3 of its saga in March, Seasons, and has only a few weeks to write the fourth part, which is scheduled for publication in June. After which she will allow herself a one-year break in South Korea.
Not far from there, at the table of the Prix Goncourt Jean-Baptiste Andrea, we hardly talk about writing, but we listen with great interest to the advice of the tireless Dr. Jimmy Mohamed, who has had a string of radio appearances and TV on the occasion of the release, by Flammarion, of his new breviary, Zero constraints to stay young (After Zero constraints to lose weight). A recipe that seems to work… And so many recommendations that delight this table of vegetarians, from Cédric Sapin-Defour, the happy author of Its smell after the rain (Stock), to Jean-Baptiste Andrea and, therefore, Jimmy Mohamed.
1:55 p.m. While the other guests (the carnivores) are preparing to attack the poultry after the salmon, all is going on: the boss of Editions Perrin, Benoît Yvert, feels unwell. Is there a doctor in the room? Jimmy Mohamed runs over and gives him first aid. Nothing too serious it seems, but the emergency doctor wants to call Samu. We won’t see them again, the first having returned home and the second, gone on his TV tour, without having touched his risotto – ultimately, we say to ourselves that it is not that difficult to lose weight… Meanwhile – there, Franck Thilliez, who knows a lot about detective novels (The Fault, Fleuve éditions), imagines a most Machiavellian scenario around publishing, an overwhelmed doctor and a poisoned salmon. We proposed a title: “When the literate salmon rebels”.
3789 annual awards
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