It’s a summer classic. Those who started in pole position in June-July are rarely overtaken in the weeks that follow. Needless to say, it’s dead calm on the front of our charts this week of July 22 to 28. Little or no entries, whether in essays or fiction. So while waiting for the upheavals of the fall season (459 novels and more than a thousand documents will be published between August 15 and the end of September), let’s dwell on the figures (provided by Edistat), just to turn pale (with jealousy) in front of some of them.
On the trials side, it is the Belgian forensic doctor Philippe Boxho who wins hands down after twenty-seven weeks of triumphant epic: with 128,000 copies sold of his Interview with a corpse. A medical examiner makes the dead talk (Kennes) and 125,000 for The dead have the floor (for France alone, excluding Belgium), the darling of the networks (100,000 followers on Instagram, more than 15 million views of his videos on YouTube) must give ideas to many of his colleagues….
Behind him, points Rabbi Delphine Horvilleur with 60,000 copies sold How are you doing? Conversations after October 7 (Grasset), then comes Dr Jimmy Mohamed who has already sold 37,000 copies of Zero constraints to stay young. There is no age to start ! (Flammarion) and the survivor Salman Rushdie whose new publisher, Gallimard, has sold 30,000 copies of his book The Knife. Reflections Following an Assassination AttemptBelow the 30,000 mark but above that of 20,000, we should point out the presence of the duo Vincent Lemire and Thomas Snégaroff (Israel/Palestine. Anatomy of a ConflictLes Arènes/France Inter), by Élisabeth Badinter, François Sureau, François Lecointre, Guillaume Meurice and Françoise Chandernagor. Finally, let’s not forget – but how could we forget her with her 138 weeks of omnipresence in our charts? – Natacha Calestrémé, author of The Key to Your Energy. 22 Protocols to Free Yourself Emotionally (Albin Michel), which is still selling, four and a half years after its release, at around 1,000 copies per week and has reached 475,000 copies.
3814 awards
© / The Express
Confirmations and some surprises
A pharaonic figure, not very common in essays, but more frequent when dealing with fiction. Precisely, Jean-Baptiste Andrea, the 2023 Goncourt for Watch over her (L’Iconoclaste), holds the upper hand with 560,000 copies sold since August 17th – Morgane Moncomble exceeding it by a few thousand with 575,000 copies sold, but this is the total of the 4 volumes in her series Seasons (Hugo Roman). Following the lucky winner, one of the longevity record holders in our list, Cédric Sapin-Dufour, whose Its smell after the rain (Stock) continues to appeal to dog lovers – 370,000 sales to date.
Next comes a regular among mega-sellers, the Swiss Joël Dicker, who is close to 340,000 copies with A savage animal published by his own publishing house, Rosie & Wolfe. He too has long known the serenity of fulfilled authors: Guillaume Musso, the most popular of French novelists, has surpassed the 300,000 copies mark with his 22nd novel, Someone else (Calmann-Lévy). 250,000 copies!: the formidable sad tiger (POL), by Neige Sinno and her Femina prize, is doing more than well. Just like the surprise of this first half of 2024, the moving Mona’s Eyes (Albin Michel), by Thomas Schlesser, which achieved a very nice 230,000. Just behind him, lurking with volume I of his new series Lakestone (HLab), the young Algerian Sarah Rivens, the very successful author of the flagship black romance saga, Captive.
That’s it for the authors who have sold over 200,000 copies. Obviously, many other novelists are on our list, but let’s keep a few marbles for the next list, which should have remained as unchanged as this week’s.
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