The novelist Guillaume Musso whose next book, Life is a novel , is expected in bookstores on May 26, was the most read author during confinement, according to a study by the GfK Institute for Weekly Books.
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“Eight weeks of confinement, the bookstores closed, the collapsing book market. Yet the books have sold, with fiction and pocket size in mind , ” notes the professional magazine on its website.
At the head of sales, we find Guillaume Musso, favorite author of the French for nine years, who was a hit with the pocket edition of The secret life of writers (ed. Pocket Book).
Musso shares the podium with Michel Bussi who takes second place in the ranking with I had to dream too hard and Aurélie Valognes who ranks third in the best sales with La cerise sur leâteau (pocket book ed.).
Michel Bussi succeeds in being cited three times in the Top 20. His latest novel in large format, Au soleil redouté (Presses de la cité), published in February, was the fifth best-selling book during confinement. The pocket edition of Everything on Earth Must Perish (Pocket ed.) Ranks nineteenth.
Aurélie Valognes is also present more than once in the ranking. His latest large-format novel, Born under a good star (ed. Mazarine) ranks seventh among the best-selling books during confinement.
In terms of large formats, there is also Leïla Slimani whose latest novel, Le pays des autres (éd. Gallimard) is tenth. The prize-winner Goncourt's book was released a few days before confinement and Gallimard decided to put it on sale again at the end of the month.
Still on the side of large formats, Pierre Lemaitre ( Mirror of our sentences at Albin Michel), and Agnès Ledig ( Se le dire finally , at Flammarion) found their readers. Their novels are respectively ranked thirteenth and fourteenth in the ranking.
The best-selling book in France in 2019, Asterix's latest album, La fille de Vercingétorix, was also bought a lot during the confinement. The album of the adventures of the Gauls created by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo (disappeared during confinement) is the only comic book in the best-selling ranking and occupies the twentieth place.