The first half is whistled and it is Joël Dicker who takes the advantage.
His latest novel, “A Wild Animal”, released on February 27 by his own publishing house Rosie & Wolfe, had an exceptional start with 81,835 copies sold in one week.
In bookstores on March 5, “Someone else” by Guillaume Musso (Calmann-Lévy) may have recorded a meteoric start with 69,158 books sold, but it is not enough.
But it still climbs onto the first step of the weekly podium, sales of Dicker having increased in the second week to 49,861 copies.
There was France-Brazil for footballers, for French readers, the match of the year, even of the decade, it was clearly Musso-Dicker.
A battle of titans between Guillaume Musso, who has been the biggest book seller in France for twelve years in a row and who intends to regain his title this year, and Joël Dicker, who won the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie French for its best-seller “The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair”, intends to see its thriller establish itself as the best-selling book in France in 2024.
With pocket releases, it's Musso who takes the advantage
Unsurprisingly, their previous books, each released simultaneously in paperback version, sold like hotcakes in their first week: 42,150 copies for “Angélique” by Musso (Le Livre de Pocket), and 22,451 for “L’Affaire”. Alaska Sanders” by Dicker (Rosie & Wolfe).
Therefore, if we add up the sales of the two novels of each, it is Guillaume Musso (111,308 copies) who takes the advantage over Joël Dicker (104,286 copies).
Visit to the printing press, inauguration of a school in his name for one of them, meeting with readers, daily presence on social networks, the two authors have for weeks competed in imagination to attract attention journalists, bloggers and, of course, their fans.
The match has only just begun and it promises to be exciting!