2023-10-16 06:00:00
Behind the big hits of the literary season, there are publishers in need of recognition (ah, the legendary ingratitude of artists…). For once, honor to them. Top eight.
LUDOVIC ESCANDE
GALLIMARD BOY
Tonio Gallimard is happy: he has shielded his literary comeback so as not to repeat the failure of Goncourt 2022 (Brigitte Giraud, winner with Vivre vite, at Flammarion – secondary house of the Madrigall group belonging to Antoine Gallimard – did not make the expected sales ). The archmignon of the moment? Éric Reinhardt (author of Love and the Forests, Comedies Françaises, etc.), who left Stock for Gallimard in 2013 in the hope of winning a Goncourt (La Blanche, straight away, it’s a little more exciting). He’s been waiting for ten years, is she finally the one? Entrusted to the publisher Ludovic Escande (great friend and publisher of Sylvain Tesson and Karine Tuil, among others), the manuscript of his Sarah, Susanne and the writer was also entitled to some corrections from Karina Hocine, powerful number two of the Gallimard family. Head to Drouant to sand the champomy?
Sarah, Susanne and the writer, Gallimard, 432 pages, €22
5 rue Gaston Gallimard, 75007
HUGUES JALLON
ON THE THRESHOLD OF SUCCESS
Word of mouth is all that’s true. The book-biography of Ivan Jablonka (gifted translator, sluggish novelist) Goldman, came out on August 18, but all the accredited critics in Paris were already whispering his name since the Ides of May. Result ? The face of the most consensual musikos in France, J.-J. Goldman, makes the front pages (L’Obs, Libération, Le Point…), and Jablonka, the interview tour. At the Seuil, it was Hugues Jallon, the president of the house, who took care of the author-historian (Jallon replaced Maurice Olender, who died in November 2022). We salute the nice trick. Even if JJ didn’t appreciate the publicity stunt (the singer, retired for more than twenty years, refused to participate in the Jablonka excavations and made it known in Le Canard)… When will the Michel Sardou bio be released?
Goldman, Threshold, 400 pages, €21.90
57 rue Gaston Tessier, 75019
VÉRONIQUE OVALDÉ
GLAM-LITT’ CHEZ ALBIN MICHEL
Less personal development and more priced books. With the arrival of Gilles Haéri (in 2018) then Anna Pavlowitch (in 2022) at the direction of the publishing juggernaut, the specialists of the somewhat flappy bestseller (Da Costa, Calestreme, Lisa Gardner…) or the in-house novel carried by successful names (Amélie Nothomb, Bernard Werber, etc.), have decided to take a more literary turn. Recently, the independent house has acquired around ten authors (including some seeking independence in the face of Bolloré’s takeover of Hachette, Lagardère’s publishing group), such as Tatiana de Rosnay, Serge Joncour, Pascal Quignard… For the start of the school year, their literary endorsement consists of two names: Claire Berest, whose The Thickness of a Hair is edited by the novelist-editor Véronique Ovaldé, and the young first-time novelist Amaury Barthet (with Le Diplôme). Good luck, comrades.
The Thickness of a Hair, Albin Michel, 240 pages, €19.90
22 rue Huyghens, 75014
ISABELLE SAPORTA
FAYARD FAYOTE
It’s the return of Little Nicholas. For two years that he had been toiling on it, he released it with great fanfare, his memoir book: interviews on the front page of Fig mag and Paris Match, advanced release, first printing at 200,000… All published in the house of edition of his friends Lagardère and Bolloré (Nicolas Sarkozy joined the supervisory board of Lagardère in 2020, a group of which the Breton billionaire took control this summer) and under the aegis of Isabelle Saporta (he gets along better with her than with her predecessor, Sophie de Closets, criticized for having published the investigative book The Sarko Years by the Davet-Lhomme duo, the Tif and Tondu of avenue Pierre Mendès-France. And Sarko’s book? A work of 600 pages in which, a sort of Saint-Simon of the 21st century, he guts the Macron court and others. An effective publicity stunt which allows Fayard to climb back up the slope (caused by the flight of several authors following the departure of Sophie de Closets), in line with the sales of Florent Pagny, Prince Harry and the bio of Elon Musk (to be published in September). The Christmas present is there.
Le Temps des combats, Fayard, 592 pages, 28 euros
13 rue du Montparnasse, 75006
STEPHANIE POLACK
SHOCK IN STOCK
While Manu [Carcassonne] – at the head of the house since the death of Jean-Marc Roberts in 2013 – is busy promoting her books in the metaverse (and among these ladies at Femina), her flagship author is doing her media tour. Would Maria Pourchet be the opportunity to see Stock win a Goncourt (the house has not had a lucky winner since 1930…)? More offensive than their rivals (Grasset and Le Seuil have been a little weak in the knees for some time), they count in their ranks the omnipresent press officer Alina Gurdiel and Stéphanie Polack, editor of Maria Pourchet (she upset her at Gallimard from the time she was literary director at Fayard), but also from Blandine Rinkel, Aurélie Filippetti, Marien Defalvard… In short, can’t wait for their return to school in January 2024!
Western, Stock, 304 pages, 20,90 €
21 rue du Montparnasse, 75006
FREDERIC BOYER
P.O.L. POSITION
The most ambitious (and friendly) graphomaniac in Paris has struck once more. After the giga-story of his sex life, Sexual Diary of a Boy of Today (1000 pages on his naughty meetings), Dreyfus, also a luxury freelancer with the colleagues (Eugénie Trochu entrusted him with the interview by Dua Lipa from Back-to-School Vogue), is publishing these days the meta-novel The Third Hand. Behind this tour de force is the new strong man of POL editions, the writer Frédéric Boyer, appointed at the head of this flagship of the Gallimard group following the death of founder Paul Otchakovsky-Laurens in 2018. So far shunned by prices , will Arthur finally be rewarded for all his efforts?
The Third Hand, POL, 496 pages, 24 euros
33 rue Saint-André des Arts, 75006
LISE BOËLL
PLON NATIONAL
The obstinacy of Lise Boëll got the better of the dual governance at the head of Plon (see Technikart 261). Here she is finally alone in her home (her ex-co-director Céline Thoulouze was offered Récamier editions as a consolation prize). It must be said that Boëll has built a formidable reputation with the success of Dora the Explorer and the essays of Éric Zemmour (yes, she does just as well in children’s literature as in horror)… At Plon, she sacrifices willingly the literary season (that has never been their niche) for the benefit of books that sell and whose readership is ready (Stéphane Bern and the Queen of England, Philippe de Villiers and Les Chouans, Eugénie Bastié and the controversy of the moment…). Add to that the benefits of the “Dictionaries for lovers of…” collection and you have the recipe for a big slot machine.
The Queen and France, Plon, 160 pages, €20.90
92 avenue de France, 75013
OLIVIER NORA
TCHAO GRASSET
By signing the Le Monde column in support of the JDD journalists (while Geoffroy Lejeune was catapulted as editor-in-chief of the weekly which came under the Bolloré flag), Olivier Nora expressed his opposition to the Breton Murdoch. The message is clear: following seventeen years of good, loyal and discreet service (he is not as hyperactive as his predecessor, publishing crack Jean-Claude Fasquelle) at the head of Grasset (Hachette group and therefore owned by Lagardère and soon by Bolloré), Nora says goodbye (even if he assured his troops a few days ago that he “was there”). In the meantime, the boss of Grasset is signing a final literary comeback with Sorj Chalandon, formerly of Libé and writer of Le Canard chainé, a serious candidate for a Goncourt (he already won the Goncourt for high school students in 2013 with Le Quatrième mur). Don’t panic for Nora, a nice position awaits her at Hachette.
L’Enragé, Grasset, 416 pages, €22.50
61 rue des Saints-Pères, 75006
By Violaine Epitalon
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