If times are tough for bookstores in France, they are even tougher for French bookstores abroad. It is an understatement to say that the 250 points of sale of French books in the world are suffering. Their economic model, which was already uncertain (there is no single price for French books abroad), is weakened by the situation. Their margin has never seemed so small because it must take into account the price of transport, customs fees, the exchange rate, insufficient discounts, too slow delivery times. So they close. Despite the precious help of the CNL (Centre national du livre), booksellers from the other side of the world are at the end of their rope and are closing down.
The Omeisha Bookstore in Tokyo? Closed a little over a year ago. The owner Mr. Okuyama threw in the towel with a twinge of heart because it had been founded by his father in 1947. But, in addition to digital competition and the health crisis, the drop in the number of learners of our language in Japan has got the better of his “French passion”. The branch of the Antoine bookstore in the Beirut souks? Also closed last summer although it belongs to a large communication group. The traveler’s tree, famous French bookstore in Shanghai? Officially closed two years ago due to a “urban renovation”. And that of San José in Costa Rica? Also closed…
So many doors sadly because definitively closed. Latest: Vice Versa, in downtown Jerusalem, has just gone bankrupt. It appears that the owner of the walls, the Armenian Patriarchate, assigned the lease to a gallery owner. Founded twenty-three years ago, it was taken over nearly five years ago by Nathalie Hirschsprung. Like others elsewhere in the world, she points to a double responsibility, not to say: guilt.
“Savage competition!”
On the one hand that of Lireka, a start-up inaugurated in November 2021 for the online sale of French books which targets two million French expatriates as well as some 230 million French speakers. It was launched by promising lower prices than Amazon, identical delivery times but above all free delivery. Its promoters relied on the Arthaud bookstore in Grenoble, which they bought, but it is their only apparent link with the traditional bookstore; to believe that one was needed, all the same, just to reassure. Over time, prices tend to line up, but who cares, since that made it attractive from the start. What foreign bookseller has never seen customers come to sniff out their new releases, if not ask for their advice, photograph a few covers and, once out of the bookstore, click on their smartphone to order them online? And then one wonders why, in their speeches or their press releases, bitterness mixes with anger! “Savage competition!”, denounces Nathalie Hirschsprung.
On the other hand, the responsibility of those who one would suppose to be “natural” partners of French-speaking bookstores but who are not that much. In many countries, they must insist heavily, in vain, that the French Institutes, the Alliances Françaises, the French high schools place their orders for books through them; however, there is a real gap between the political will expressed by the Quai d’Orsay and the reality on the ground. “A real shortfall”, insists Isabelle Lemarchand, president of the International Association of Francophone Booksellers. It is true that most often, school books are purchased in France and cleared by the Consulate General so as not to pay local taxes.
Having been to meet readers of French literature at the Time found in Amsterdam, at La Page in London, at Parenthèses in Hong Kong, at Vice Versa in Jerusalem and at so many others, I can testify to the almost militant dedication of these booksellers. who are so many ambassadors of France all over the world. They bring the French word, language and culture to it in a different way than the institutions. They are the essential complement even if they are still waiting to be really considered as their extension. An irreplaceable showcase. Seeing just one of these bookstores disappear is heartbreaking. What if there was only one…
* Pierre Assouline is a writer and journalist, member of the Goncourt Academy