(Paris) Mélissa Da Costa, best-selling novelist in France in 2023, ended a series of 12 consecutive years during which Guillaume Musso occupied this place, according to data published by Le Figaro Wednesday.
The annual ranking of the 10 best-selling writers in France is established by the GfK institute, a reference for book sales.
It was in 2021 that Mélissa Da Costa, 33 years old today, entered this top 10. Two years later, she is the queen, with 1.275 million copies sold over the year.
Still according to GfK, Phantom pain (released in paperback in February) was on the 9the best-selling book in France last year and All the blue of the sky the 11the.
Another author to exceed one million copies (1.063 million), Virginie Grimaldi, whose greatest success in 2023 was We will be left with thisis second.
Followed by Pierre Lemaitre (853,000 copies), Maud Ankaoua (801,000) and Franck Thilliez (681,000).
Guillaume Musso, who has not published anything new in 2023, apart from a comic book adaptation, fell to sixth place, with 626,000 copies.
He is ahead of two writers who are very little exposed in the media, Marie-Bernadette Dupuy (610,000), author of family sagas, and the Algerian Sarah Rivens (539,000), who is in the ” dark romance “.
Marc Levy (534,000), who appears for 20e consecutive year in this ranking, and Morgane Moncomble (521,000), who enters it for the first time, complete this top 10.
To sell a lot, underlines Archchana Varatharajah, GfK consultant cited by Le Figarotwo genres work better than the others: “romance and novels feel good “.
Mélissa Da Costa, however, claims not to be in either of these two categories, which are too reductive for her taste. “I find that, in literature, women are always very smooth, very consensual […] I like to have heroines, on the contrary, who sting a little,” she told AFP on the occasion of the release of her latest novel in February 2023.
In 2024, this former communications manager plans to have a second child, then to publish her next novel in the fall, with Albin Michel.
Guillaume Musso, who leaves Someone else on March 5 at Calmann-Lévy, hopes to regain its number one position.