If we ignore Ana Huang who places two of the novels in her series Twisted (t. IV and I, Hugo Roman) in 2nd and 13th ranks, if we also “forget” Morgane Moncomble, the queen of our list with three titles from her series Seasons (Hugo Roman) placed in 9th, 11th and 15th places, and if we put aside Sarah Rivens present with volume I of Lakestone (HLab) and the 1st volume of Captive (HLAB, 18th) – we have already amply mentioned these three ladies of romance in our comments on the rankings – we will focus on the new title of Michael McDowell (1950-1999), the American “miracle” of Editions Monsieur Toussaint Louverture, which allowed them to glean millions thanks to his series Blackwater (published in 1983 in the United States and in 2022 in France).
In the process, the publishing house created a “McDowell library” and successfully published The Golden Needles in October 2023 (85,000 copies sold). Here is Katie, (already credited with 20,000 copies) which takes 5th place in the fiction charts. A story “with a Gothic aesthetic”, according to its publisher, whose plot is set in New York at the end of the 19th century.
Edouard Louis is also a regular among the best sellers. But he is very much alive and works mainly in the autobiographical register. So, in Monique escapes (Threshold, 10th row), the star of the class defectors talks about his mother, Monique, her new escape and her emancipation. A “short and very moving” novel, much appreciated in our pages by Thomas Mahler.
We will also mention, among the newly arrived, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, whose The light of happiness4th volume of the fresco The Crossing of Times (Albin Michel, 6th place), is timely: its hero, Noam, arrives in Greece in the 5th century BC, while the Athenian city lives to the rhythm of festivities, eloquence competitions and… Olympic Games.
Also note: the work of the novelist and playwright Laurent Gaudé, Terraces(Actes Sud, 16th), a “polyphonic song which reinvents gestures, restores the glances exchanged, the few shared, essential words” taking place on a certain Friday, November 13, 2015 – song directed by Denis Marleau at the Théâtre de la Colline from May 15 to June 9, 2024.
© / The Express
As for the tests, it is Elisabeth Badinter who makes the most notable entry with Gentlemen, one more effort… (Flammarion/Plon) which took 3rd place. The philosopher specializing in the Enlightenment explains the drop in the birth rate in France by the too heavy mental load of women: “If equality between the sexes does not progress more radically, and even in the intimacy of couples, we must not “surprise that they refuse to be the eternal losers,” she notes.
Then come Doctor Réginald Allouche, who proposes with Sugar: public enemy No. 1 (Albin Michel, 6th) instructions “to regulate your blood sugar and lose weight before it’s too late!” and Goncourt jury member Françoise Chandernagor whose River Gold (Gallimard, 15th) evokes his Creuse roots. We will end this brief review with an incongruity: the irruption, in 13th place, of First shocks (La Fabrique éditions), a true book manifesto of the Earth Uprisings movement. After having escaped dissolution in November 2023 before the Council of State, the environmental activist collective continues its fight. “The Uprisings of the Earth are the desire to establish a real balance of power with a view to wresting the earth from industrial and commercial devastation.”
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