Winner of the Renaudot Prize for La panthère des neiges (Gallimard), the writer Sylvain Tesson was the author whose book sold the best in 2019, according to the annual L'Express and RTL awards, which were made public on Wednesday.
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Editorial phenomenon of the year, The snow leopard has sold nearly 500,000 copies. The L'Express / RTL list , unveiled each year in early February and based on sales in France (excluding pockets) over the past year, has a total of 45 names. This year features that of former President Nicolas Sarkozy (7th most read author) who hit the headlines in bookstores with Passions (ed. of L'Observatoire) but also lawyer and essayist Juan Branco who is in 16th place thanks to his anti-Macron Crépuscule pamphlet (Au Diable Vauvert / Massot).
Among the surprises of this list, we find Witches. The undefeated power of women (eds. Zones) of the Swiss journalist and essayist Mona Chollet who occupies the 8th place in the ranking.
Nothomb, Musso and the others
The list to be published on Thursday in L'Express includes most of the authors awarded last year. Thus, Jean-Paul Dubois, winner of the Goncourt with Tous les hommes do not inhabit the world in the same way (éd. de L'Olivier) occupies second place in the ranking. Karine Tuil, winner of the Prix Interallié and Goncourt for high school students with Les choses h umaines (ed. Gallimard) ranks ninth. Laureate of the Grand Prize for the novel of the French Academy with Civilizations (éd. Grasset), Laurent Binet ranks 19th. Best-selling authors such as Guillaume Musso (5th with The Secret Life of Writers , ed. Calmann-Lévy) or Marc Levy (14th with Ghost in Love , ed. Robert Laffont / Versillio) are obviously in the list.
In this ranking, it is once again the Belgian novelist Amélie Nothomb who stands out. The unhappy Goncourt finalist with Soif (éd. Albin Michel) occupies fourth place in the ranking (just behind Michel Houellebecq, for Sérotonine at Flammarion). It is the twenty-first consecutive time (since this prize list exists) that the novelist is one of the most read authors in France.
