The year 2023, that of his sixth book, "Women from the end of the world" (Albin Michel editions), will perhaps be his.

Number three in book sales in 2022, according to the GfK institute, Mélissa Da Costa has placed herself behind formidable competitors.

Guillaume Musso has remained number one for 12 years.

And his following Joël Dicker saw the thriller "The Alaska Sanders Affair" and the publishing house he launched very well.

However, Musso has announced that he should not release anything new this year.

And Dicker apparently prefers publishing in even years.

The young woman, for her part, maintains a hell of a train after two novels last year: "Les Douleurs Phantoms" in February, then "La Doublure" in September.

"I don't write two novels a year," she told AFP.

Sometimes more, usually less.

"Big readership in prison"

The pocket book edition of "Phantom Pains", number one in sales when it was released in early February, is guaranteed to be among the successes of the year.

"Women from the end of the world" has serious assets to also seduce fans who discovered her with her flagship novel, the first, "All the blue of the sky" (2019).

A beautiful trip to New Zealand, characters that the author takes the time to introduce, and impeccable writing.

Novelist Mélissa Da Costa, March 8, 2022 in Paris © JOEL SAGET / AFP/Archives

"You have to focus on people. As in everyday life: it's no use 30 or 40 friends," she considers.

“It is in the slowness, in the silences, in the looks, in the gestures, that a lot happens”.

Her fans are mostly women, who read more novels.

But "in the letters I receive, private messages, I have 40% men," says the author.

"I also have, as surprising as it may seem, a priori a large readership in prison! Male. I received letters from prisoners, with very heavy sentences, who were shedding their tears".

Notoriety is still modest, compared to the most media figures in literature.

"I was never arrested anywhere, nor recognized anywhere," she reports.

"Stinging Heroines"

For how long ?

Even the tabloids are starting to take a look at her.

Like Gala who wondered in mid-February: “Husband, child… What do we know about his private life?”

This is banal, according to this young mother from a small town in Yvelines.

After a first career in communication, her dream of writing took precedence.

And if she earns a very good living today, she who comes from a modest background, leads a very ordinary daily life.

Novelist Mélissa Da Costa, March 8, 2022 in Paris © JOEL SAGET / AFP/Archives

"It's very silly but you don't change overnight (...) I always drive in my old gray Twingo and people say to me: but finally!"

In the photos on her Facebook page, smiling every time, the novelist reveals a little of this life which, in appearance, offers few rough edges.

But in "Les Femmes du bout du monde" as in his other intrigues, all is not rosy.

Betrayals, depression, cruelty, unresolved internal conflicts, unmentionable temptations, various excesses and self-deprecation haunt the characters of Mélissa Da Costa.

"I find that in literature women are always very smooth, very consensual. They are always Madonnas, in generosity, self-sacrifice...", she laments.

"I like to have heroines, on the contrary, who sting a little".

© 2023 AFP