According to Livres Hebdo / Electre Data Services data, the start of the winter 2022 school year will see the publication of 545 novels (more, therefore, than the fall start, which had 521), i.e. an increase of 9.5% by compared to last year (52 additional titles).
In this sum, there are 385 French fictions including 61 first novels (against 63 in 2021) and 160 foreign novels, against 153 last year. This return to school is the most intense since 2014, underlines Weekly Books. An increase mainly due to the number of French novels, never so high since 2013.
Three leading authors publish a novel in January: Michel Houellebecq, Nicolas Mathieu and Pierre Lemaitre. Heavyweights, both literally and figuratively.
736 pages for the novel by Michel Houellebecq, Goncourt 2010, which tells in Annihilate (Flammarion) a story we are not allowed to release until December 30. 592 pages for the novel by Pierre Lemaitre, Prix Goncourt 2013, which continues with The big world (Calmann-Lévy), his work dedicated to the 20th century, settling here in the Trente Glorieuses.
And finally, Connemara (Actes Sud), the novel by Nicolas Mathieu, Prix Goncourt 2018, has 400 pages and tells the story of Hélène, a forty-something in the midst of an existential crisis and of Christophe, her childhood friend, an “adulescent” always ready to dream .
Other essentials appear in this new season on the French side, such as David Foenkinos (Number two, Gallimard), Karine Tuil (decision, Gallimard), Philippe Besson (Paris-Briancon, Julliard), Frédéric Beigbeder (The Atlantic dam, Grasset), Éric Vuillard (An honorable outing, Actes Sud), Véronique Olmi (The kid, Albin Michel), or Leïla Slimani with the continuation of her family saga (The land of others: Watch us dance, Gallimard)
As for foreign novels, there are also heavyweights, with authors who are making an expected return, such as the Japanese Haruki Murakami (First person singular and Abandon a chat, Belfond), Erri de Luca (Guardian devils, Gallimard), Jon Kalman Stefansson (Your absence is only darkness, Grasset), or Ismail Kadare (Disputes at the top, Fayard).