The edition is in turmoil. Guillaume Musso, the writer with millions of books sold, who has reigned supreme for almost ten years in the coveted best-seller sector in France, is no longer number 1. It is his competitor and friend, the Swiss Joël Dicker, who settled on his throne. Certainly, last summer, Michel Houellebecq had also overshadowed him by confiscating the first step for a few weeks, but there, these are two writers who play in the same court, that of popular literature.
However, hardly in bookstores, on May 26, the last born of Musso, "Life is a novel" (Calmann-Lévy), had installed immediately and logically at the top of the classification GfK- Books Weekly. The next day came out the new Joël Dicker "The enigma of room 622" (De Fallois) which logically took the place of dolphin. But now after three weeks, Joël chased Guillaume away. And for a month now, the novel by the Swiss writer has been the best-selling in France. The (literary) hit of this early summer is Dicker!
"We are happy and also a little surprised, even if we knew that the book was eagerly awaited," comments Christophe Bardèche. The commercial director of Editions De Fallois believes that the novel of his foal may have benefited from the simultaneous release with Guillaume Musso. A kind of emulation that was not planned at the start. But with the health crisis and the closing of booksellers, all the dates of publication of summer novels have been turned upside down.
To date, of the 680,000 copies of Dicker's book printed in France, 265,000 have already found takers. With French-speaking countries including Switzerland and Belgium, "we have reached 400,000 copies", welcomes its publisher. Still according to De Fallois, sales of "The enigma of room 622" are already 40% times higher than that of his previous novel "The Disappearance of Stephanie Mailer".
At Calmann-Lévy, we relativize by recalling that if Guillaume Musso has published a book for fifteen years every year, the last by Joël Dicker dated March 2018. "There was surely a greater expectation", comments a door- speech which specifies that to date "La Vie est un roman" has sold 260,000 copies in France (more than 26,000 in digital). This is 35% more than "The Secret Life of Writers" (at number of weeks of comparable sales).
"Dicker enjoys a more literary image than Musso"
Will Guillaume Musso risk losing his place as a favorite writer for the French he has held for nine years? We are only in July but the throne is not wavering yet. According to our information, Musso has sold cumulative since January 820,000 novels (all formats) far ahead of number 2, Michel Bussi. Joël Dicker's sales would be 362,000 copies.
And the booksellers, what do they think of this war of numbers in the land of letters? "Musso cannot remain number 1 forever," says a bookseller in eastern Paris. While they are two popular authors, Dicker enjoys a more literary image than Musso. ” This may explain why in independent bookstores, "The enigma of room 622" flows better than "Life is a novel". "Musso, it really was not my cup of tea, intervenes a reader in the bookstore, but I frankly liked his latest novel. I found it well written and original. I had been pleasantly surprised by the author when he had been a guest on the program La Grande librairie, ”continues this young retired nurse. "It's not nice but frankly the last Dicker is not very good," she laughs, grabbing the book by Olivia Ruiz.
Popular Polaris too
The singer's first novel, “The dresser with colored drawers” (JC Lattès), is one of the beautiful surprises of the summer and occupies 6th place in the top 20 of this early summer. It was also a great success, but predictable, for "The lying life of adults", the new novel by Elena Ferrante (Gallimard), which was a huge success with "The Wonderful Friend". Virginie Grimaldi is also doing very well: she is number 4 with "And only last the sweet moments" which, last week, even took second place ahead of Guillaume Musso.
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The other winners of this long vacation period? Thrillers ! "He was twice ..." by Franck Thilliez, "La Vallée" by Bernard Minier and "Femmes sans merci" by Camilla Läckberg, are respectively in 7th, 8th and 9th places.
