Importance of Top 10 Wishes

The psyche of the country determied today

Sélectionné par la rédaction

This is a first time for the author of Call from an Angel ( L'Appel de l'ange, éditions XO): he is the No. 1 on this list, ahead of Marc Levy. Musso, whose recent books have been set in the United States, mix romance with crime novels. At the age of 37, he has already published eight books with XO. All were successful and all were adapted for the screen. His books make roughly €18 million a year, though he gets only a 10 or 15% share of that.

Marc Levy has been at the top of our list for a few years running but, this year, he has to settle for second place. Only about 60,000 copies separate his two serial sellers. Levy has a sure value as an author as he is able to sell more than 1.5 million copies each year.

Each of his 13 books since If Only It Were True... (Et si c'était vrai...), published in 2000, have been successful.

Thirty years after Me First ( Moi d'abord), her first novel, which met wide acclaim, this author has triumphed with her trilogy about Joséphine Cortès. The trilogy is made up of over 2,000 pages. Katherine Pancol has published 14 books; the early books were mostly directed at a feminine audience. Today, thanks to her phenomenal success, men, women, young and old read her books. And her publishers rub their hands together greedily...

Foenkinos (along with Delphine de Vigan) were this year's surprises. He was on the list for the 2011 Goncourt prize for his last book Les Souvenirs (Gallimard) but his recent book La Délicatesse (Folio) is what won him a place on our list. La Délicatesse was the No. 1 bestseller for months with over 700,000 copies sold. The screen adaptation (written by the author himself with his brother Stéphane and actress Audrey Tautou in the title role) has given him a new spike in sales.

The French queen of crime has always made it onto our list. This former archeologist, discovered by the editor Viviane Hamy, has sold more than six million copies since January 1, 2004. This is to the joy of her loyal readers, who are fond of the delectable investigations of the commissioner Adamsberg. But Vargas has also showed that she can also put her incredible imagination to work in the world of science. In the midst of the bird flu epidemic, she designed an extremely effective plastic hood to protect from the virus.

The author of Sarah's Key ( Elle s'appelait Sarah, Editions Héloïse d'Ormesson, puis Le Livre de poche) lost one place in our list but she has also began to settling in longterm as a name on our list. Her book, adapted for the screen by Gilles Paquet-Brenner and starring Kristin Scott Thomas, relaunched her other books, especially Le Voisin. Rose is her last published book. This French-British author writes in both French and English.

She hasn't yet won the Goncourt prize, nor any other literary prize, but in terms of sales numbers, she ranks with other winners of these prizes. Rien ne s'oppose à la nuit (JC Lattès) was an unexpected bestseller and was our best large print seller. No And Me ( No et moi, adapted by Zabou Breitman) came out as a film at the end of 2010, while Les Heures souterraines (Le Livre de poche) seduced a large public.

Don't be surprised if you've never heard of Françoise Bourdin. This author is never on television and the papers never talk about her books... which aren't considered noteworthy. And yet, for the past few decades, she has published two books a year and each time they are reprinted in the Poche serise. Her loyal readers love her books, which tell stories with characters that remind them of themselves. Her magic recipe for each story is a mix of everyday life, characters we are fond of and hurt feelings.

Since she first published, this Belgian author has made it on our lists. Every year, she publishes a new bok in August with the publishers Albin Michel. Each year, without exception, critics ask if the book is a "good" Nothomb or not. In the end, it doesn't matter and her books still sell no matter what their verdict is. Moreover, their success relaunches sales of the previous books. It is a well-oiled system. Is it too slick? Lately, the public seems to show signs of disinterest. She was No. 3 in our list in 2004 with more than 1,200,000 copies sold, fourth in 2007 with 800,000 copies sold and tenth in 2010 with 500,000 copies sold.

Chattam has never before made it onto our list but he may be here to stay. Maxime Chattam is one of the rare crime writers to actually have studied criminology at university. He has conquered the public, who now await each of his books eagerly. The writer is part of a new generation of French thriller writers influenced by American culture. This year, he owes his ranking on the list to the success of his book Diptyque du temps: Léviatemps et Requiem des abysses (Albin Michel) as well as his sales of Pocket books.

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" Read the original article (in French) by Le Figaro.fr

" Adapted and translated by Brenna M. T. Daldorph

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