That it was number 1 in sales as soon as it was released in bookstores is not surprising, but we were waiting for the first figures to measure the extent of the tsunami.
The biggest release of this literary season in January with a first print run of 300,000 copies, "Anéantir", by Michel Houellebecq, directly takes first place in the Top 20 of the best sellers in the GFK ranking for Livres Hebdo.
In two days - the book was released on January 7 and the ranking covers the week of January 3-9 - the 65-year-old writer has sold 75,000 copies of his new novel, published in a tailor-made luxury collection for him.
According to a professional in the sector, "it's an excellent start in the same vein as the previous Houellebecqs".
The champagne corks will surely jump at its publisher Flammarion!
The GFK figures come directly from “cash outs”, so many copies really bought by readers.
The first trends, this weekend, foreshadowed a great enthusiasm for this anticipatory novel plunging the reader into the presidential campaign of 2027: 164 copies sold from the first day to Joseph Gibert, in Paris, a thousand copies ordered from the bookstore Sauramps de Montpellier (Hérault), one of the largest in France…
Arrival in this top 20 of Karine Tuil with
"
the Decision"
With "Aniantir", the author of "the Map and the Territory" or "Submission" dislodges the comic strip "Asterix and the Griffin" (Albert René) whose sales have exceeded 1.5 million copies and which had been clinging to this weekly top spot for three months.
Note the arrival in this top 20 of Karine Tuil who, with
"
La Decision",
takes fourth place.
And David Foenkinos who takes the seventh with his very good new novel, "Number 2".
Good news for Gallimard, which signs these two highly anticipated works.
We should also point out the fine performance of Éric Vuillard for "Une Sortie honorable"
(
Actes Sud) and Philippe Besson with "Paris-Briançon" (Julliard), both of which also entered the Top 20 best-selling novels, according to the GFK-Livres Hebdo ranking.