Book sales: 2023, time for an initial assessment

You too have to stamp your feet. It is still like that in mid-August. While the new literary season is looming with its 466 novelties, including 321 French novels (74 of them being signed by first-time novelists), our list of fictions remains unchanged. Who from Gaspard Koenig, Amélie Nothomb, Serge Joncour or Eric Reinhardt will do well in our next issue (August 24)? In the meantime, it’s time to take stock of the books for the first half of 2023. Among the big winners, Lola Lafon and her night in the Anne Frank museum (When you listen to this song), the autobiography of Florent Pagny (Pagny by Florent), Dominique Bona’s essay (Supporters. Kessel and Druon, a family story), the travel diary of François-Henri Désérable (The Wear of a World. A crossing of Iran). As for novels, Maud Ankaoua, Colleen Hoover, Pierre Lemaitre, Virginie Grimaldi, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, Fred Vargas, Mélissa Da Costa and Katherine Pancol stand out.

2. Its smell after the rain

By Cédric Sapin-Defour

It is the novel of friendship that packs. That of a man and his dog, a Bernese mountain dog named Ubac. A unique bond is established between them, thanks to which the narrator refines his philosophy of life. Published on March 29 and carried by the press and by very positive word-of-mouth, the first novel by Cédric Sapin-Defour, teacher and traveler, prefaced by Jean-Paul Dubois, another great lover of the canine race, continues to climb.

11.Robert Oppenheimer. Triumph and tragedy of a genius

By Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin

Released in theaters on July 19, Christopher Nolan’s film, adapted from the biography of the father of the atomic bomb, immediately propelled the 2006 Pulitzer Prize of American historians Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin (published this June 15 in France) into Palmares. A feat for a 912-page “holiday” book!

Britain

Atomic Habits

By James Clear

One hundred weeks in the bestseller list of the Sunday Times and some 400,000 copies sold across the Channel. A brilliant coup by this American photographer specializing in decision-making. In his mega-seller, published in France by Larousse (Nothing can change everything!), he explains how to swap bad habits for good ones. And the world to acclaim it.