France’s Bestselling Books in 2013

Here’s a look at France’s 10 bestselling books for literary lundi this week. This is according to the facts and figures of GfK marketing, and only takes printed books into account i.e. no ebooks.

The winner by nearly a million at 1,634, 490 copies sold is Astérix chez les Pictes (Asterix and the Picts) by Ferri and Conrad, their first book as the replacements for Goscinny and Uderzo. This is surely proof of just how much France loves its BDs (graphic novels). Rors got the English version of this for Christmas from his kind Auntie Hilary and it is a fun book.

E L James takes the stage for 2, 3 and 4 in the list. Cinquante nuances plus sombres (50 Shades Darker) sold 687,510 copies, Cinquante nuances de grey (50 Shades of Grey) 608,240 and Cinquante nuances plus claires (50 Shades Freed) 560,220. Well done Ms James, those are some very impressive sales figures.

Dan Brown topped the bestselling fiction lists in the UK and the USA with Inferno but comes in a commendable 5th in France with sales of 516,280.

One of the books on my ‘to read’ list comes sixth – Demain j’arrête (Tomorrow I stop) by Legardiner, light-hearted chick lit with a cute Christmassy cover.

Seventh is Demain (Tomorrow) by Guillaume Musso, a hugely popular author in France. So popular that his Sept Ans Après comes in at number nine. The two books sold 482,110 and 357,690 respectively.

Splitting the Musso titles is the humorous La Femme Parfaite est une Connasse by Girard. This translates is The Perfect Woman is a Bitch, and it has the subtitle of A Survival Guide for Normal Women. This book sold 393,550. Volume 2 is due out this May. If you look, though, it has very mixed reviews. A lot of one and two star reviews on Amazon, which complain about the brevity (it’s 160 pages) and I get the impression the humour palls a little. However, with those sorts of sales I’m sure the author doesn’t mind the grumbling!

And in tenth place with 383,340 copies sold is Au Revoir Là Haut (Goodbye Up There is my best guess as a suitable translation) by LeMaitre. The book won the Prix Goncourt in 2013. Say no more!