Paris (AFP)
The new novels by Guillaume Musso and Joël Dicker, "Life is a novel" and "The enigma of room 622", rank at the top of book sales, according to the classification of the professional magazine Livres Hebdo published Friday.
Released respectively on May 26 and May 27, the two novels made almost equal sales for their first weekend in bookstores with a slight advantage for the novel by Guillaume Musso.
The two books were due out in late March for Joël Dicker and in late April for the best-selling novelist in France for 10 years. Containment delayed both exits.
Guillaume Musso is also present in 4th position in the Top 20 of best-selling books (all genres and all formats combined) with his previous novel, in pocket format, "The secret life of writers".
In this top 20, Bernard Minier, Agnès Martin-Lugand, Aurélie Valognes and Françoise Bourdin also place two titles, their last large format and their last pocket.
Highly anticipated by the public, the novel by Guillaume Musso, edited by Calmann-Lévy, benefited from a circulation of 400,000 copies while that of the Swiss Joël Dicker, published by éditions De Fallois, was printed in 450,000 copies.
Very affected by the coronavirus epidemic, bookstores, like the whole publishing world, are counting on these bestsellers to relaunch the machine.
Professionals in the sector estimate that they lost 500 million euros during confinement.
© 2020 AFP