Bestsellers Around the World: France

Last month I decided to start a new feature where we have a look at various bestsellers list around the world and compare them to the Australian bestseller list to see what the differences and similarities are.

For this month's version I thought I would incorporate this new feature with Paris in July (hosted by Tamara at Thyme for Tea) and talk about the top books in France. In other words, what all the well read people in Paris would be reading this week! I am not going to do the comparison to the Australian bestseller list, mainly because there are no similarities this week at all.

So here's the top 10 bestselling books in France this week, according to Sens Critique. Please note that all translations are from Google Translate so they might not quite be exact.

1. L'enigme de la chambre 622 by Joël Dicker (The Enigma of Room 622) - A writer visits a palace in the Swiss Alps where years before there was an unsolved murder.

2. La vie secrete des ecrivains by Guillaume Musso (The Secret Life of Writers) - A famous writer withdraws to Meditteranean island. Twenty years later a young writer goes to interview him, but when a body washes up on the shore secrets begin to unravel.

3.. Quand nos souvenirs viendront danser by Virginie Grimaldi  (When Our Memories Will Dance) - A group of people move into a neighbourhood when they are young, sharing their lives. 60 years later they barely talk to each other until the mayor announces he wants to knock down their homes.

4. La vie est un roman by Guillaume Musso  (Life is a Novel) - One day a three year old girl disappears from an apartment in Brooklyn. Across the ocean, a heartbroken author is hiding away. How can he hold the keys to solving the disappearance.

5.  La vie mensongere des adultes by Elena Ferrante (The Lying Life of Adults). From the author of the Neopolitan novel comes a new novel.

6. Et Que Ne Durent Que les Moments Doux by Virginie Grimaldi (And That Only the Sweet Moments Last) - a book about those moments in life that matter.

7. Le Flambeur de la Caspienne by Jean-Christophe Rufin (The Caspian Flambeur) - This book appears to be part of a series featuring a character called Aurel who is assigned to various locations around this world. This time the destination is Azerbaijan, and an embassy where there is a recent mysterious death amongst other things.

8. Luca by Franck Thilliez - According to Goodreads this author writes mysteries/thrillers and horror. The translation of the blurb for this book includes the phrase Everywhere there is terror, so I am thinking this one sits more towards the horror side of his writing!

9. Cupidon a des ailes en carton  by Raphaëlle Giordano (Cupid has cardboard wings) - Firstly, I love the title of this one,  and the description sounds good. A young actress, Meredith, is in love with Antoine, but she feels that she is not ready to settle down. She thinks they need to work on themselves first, and he thinks they need to a tour, a tour of self, of us, of love. They give each other 6 months and 1 day but perhaps Cupid has other ideas.

10. M, le bord de l'abîme by Bernard Minier    (M, the Edge of the Abyss) - A young woman takes a job in Hong Kong, and then finds herself caught up in a nightmare.


A couple of things that stood out for me from this list is that there are multiple entries for Guillaume Musso, who I think writes crime novels, and also for Virginie Grimaldi. I must say that I do like the look of her books. I did check my library to see if there happen to be any translated into English and available at the library but unfortunately there was not. There was a book available from Guillaume Musso! And the other author that I looked for was Raphaelle Giordano. This book wasn't available, but an earlier book called Your Second Life Begins When You Realise You Only Have One is so I will be requesting that one I think.


The other name that pops out from the list is Elena Ferrante. This Italian author has been topping the bestsellers lists for years. Interestingly, the English translation of this novel is not due to be released until September.

Just outside the top 10 there was another book by Franck Thilliez  and a book called La Cerise sur le Gâteau by Aurélie Valognes which translates as The Cherry on the Cake which sounds like something I would like to read. Even further down the list is a book called La Ballade du Serpent et de L'oiseau Chanteur which you might be able to guess the translation for, especially if I tell you the author is Suzanne Collins.

Would any of these books catch your attention in a bookshop if you were in Paris this weekend?

I am sharing this post with Sunday Salon, which is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz