the new king of the charts and this former minister who is filling up – L’Express

Everything is going well for him these days. Yes, Gaël Faye really is the king of the party. While his second novel, Jacaranda (Grasset) appears on the first lists of the Goncourt and the Renaudot, the Franco-Rwandan rapper, famous author of Small Countryis at the top of the best-selling podium according to Edistat (with 43,000 copies sold as of September 1st). And dethrones the young Laura Swan (23 years old) and her volume II of the romance series Troublemaker (HLab).

Let us point out in this regard the few romance authors present in our Top 20 of fictions: Tillie Cole with A Thousand Pieces of Broken Heart (Hachette Romans) in 6th place, the eternal Morgane Moncomble, author of the series Seasons (Hugo Roman), three of whose four volumes are ranked 10th, 16th and 18th, as well as Sarah Rivens and her Lakestone (t. I, HLab) in 19th place.

Otherwise, with the exception of the summer record-breakers, Philippe Collin and Thomas Schlesser, it is the novelists of this autumnal literary rentrée who are investing the prize list. With, in order, after Gaël Faye (and Mélissa Da Costa), Amélie Nothomb, Kamel Daoud, Olivier Norek (just entered in 8th place), Maylis de Kerangal, Olivier Guez, Yasmina Khadra, Aurélien Bellanger, Alix Zeniter and Abel Quentin. As if to say, and it is a joy, holidaymakers have finally taken to the bookstores again.

Jean-Michel Blanquer and Simone Veil at the summit

To acquire some novels but also new essays. In the non-fiction rankings, we thus see the confidences of Jean-Michel Blanquer emerge in 6th position with The Citadel (Albin Michel). When the longest serving Minister of National Education of the Fifth Republic (five years of service) revisits his government experience… Behind him, in 8th place, the same publisher, Albin Michel, places an unpublished work by Simone Veil (1927-2017), For future generations. This is a lecture given to students on the Rue d’Ulm in April 2005, during which the former Minister of Health and President of the European Parliament spoke about her deportation, the memory of the Shoah, the importance of European unity and the role of fiction. Other new arrivals include Antony Beevor and Artemis Cooper, authors of Paris liberated, Paris regained. 1944-1949 (Calmann-Lévy). That is 500 pages in which the British historian and his biographer wife tell us about the first “good days” after four terrible years, the dramas of the purge, the devastated economy and, finally, the Marshall Plan, the rebirth of the intellectual Left Bank and the return of social life.

Closing the ban, the invincible Edgar Morin, 103 years old since the beginning of July, who, after having signed three works since April 24 with three different publishers (Fayard, Zadig/Autrement and Actes Sud), returns to the forefront with Moving towards the essential (Albin Michel), the fruit of conversations with Marc de Smedt on spirituality, male-female relationships, education, creativity, etc. Long life to him!