Posted on Jan 7, 2022, 11:15 a.m.
The irreducible Gauls still manage to conquer best-selling books this year.
The new Asterix opus is at the top of the ActuaLitté site ranking, according to provisional GfK data at the end of the year (90 to 95% of bookstores, supermarkets, specialist stores, etc.), for books that have come out. in 2021.
Musso, the Goncourt of the year and several successful authors feature prominently in this top 10, which also includes the work of Eric Zemmour. Detail of the prize list.
“Asterix and the Griffin” exceeds 1.5 million copies
The Asterix phenomenon has struck again. The 39th opus is at the top of this ranking, with 1.54 million copies and 15.2 million euros in turnover. According to its publisher Albert René (Hachette Livre), sales are even more likely to be 1.7-1.8 million with points of sale not counted by GfK (local supermarkets, gas stations, etc.).
It’s almost a classic. “Asterix is number 1 like two years ago, four years ago. As always, that a new album comes out ”, specifies its editor. Thus, in 2019, GfK’s best-selling book list was dominated by “La fille de Vercingétorix” with 1.57 million copies sold.
But the release of the title by Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad also boosts the sales of the entire collection: 850,000 albums from 38 other volumes were sold this year, an increase of 13%. And, in total, some 385 million copies of Asterix – since the 1960s – have been sold, according to data from Albert René (Hachette Livre) at the end of October.
Two Mussos in second and third place
Guillaume Musso, who for more than a decade has been the best-selling fiction author in France each year, according to the “Le Figaro” -GfK ranking, is present on both the second and third step of the 2021 podium with “L ‘inconnue de la Seine’ (around 400,000 copies) and ‘La Vie est un roman’ in pocket (433,532 copies).
In total, the former economics teacher, who has written about twenty novels, has sold some 24 million books in France in total, according to his editor Calmann Levy.
The last Goncourt in fourth place
“The most secret memory of men” by young Senegalese author Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, crowned the 2021 Goncourt Prize, is in fourth position with 377,172 sales, according to ActuaLitté.
It’s more or less like the other Goncourt awards, since according to GfK, the average is 350,000 copies over the last five years.
However, it is less than “The anomaly” of Hervé Le Tellier, Goncourt Prize 2020, which had achieved a feat: at the end of 2020, it was more than 440,000 copies and last spring, its publisher Gallimard had announced that it had reached one million copies.
The work of Eric Zemmour in fifth place
“France has not said its last word” of the polemicist, now presidential candidate, recorded almost 283,000 copies sold, or some 6 million euros in turnover, according to calculations by ActuaLitté.
Eric Zemmour self-published with his own company, Rubempré. A necessity more than a choice after its publisher, Albin Michel, broke their link at the end of June, because of the polemicist’s political ambitions, a few weeks before the book’s release.
By comparison, “Le temps des tempêtes” by Nicolas Sarkozy was the bestseller of the summer of 2020 and peaked at 250,000 copies.
Virginie Grimaldi, Marc Levy, Leïla Slimani, Amélie Nothomb and Bernard Minier complete the ranking
“And that only the sweet moments last”, by Virginie Grimaldi, is in sixth place with almost 280,000 copies sold. Leïla Slimani slips to seventh place with “La guerre, la guerre, la guerre” (251,153 copies), while Marc Levy is in eighth for “9. It happened at night” (almost 234,000 copies).
Amélie Nothomb, winner of the Renaudot prize for “Premier sang”, and Bernard Minier (“La Vallée”) close the very closed ball of the very successful authors.