With more than 500 novels published in January and February, two-thirds of which by French-speaking authors, the literary season offers a more generous offer than in 2024.
It's back to winter time. The magazine Weekly Books In January and February, there were 507 novels, including 366 in French and 141 translated. This is 5.8% more than in 2024. « Previous returns have proven to be a little timid » in terms of sales, according to the editorial of the specialized monthly. « However, publishers are keen to renew their offering »with 70 first French novels.
Dozens of new releases are released on January 2, which falls on a Thursday, one of publishers' favorite days of the week for their publications. The headliner that day promises to be the Japanese Haruki Murakami. Its many fans have been waiting for more than a year and a half for the French translation of The City of Uncertain Walls (Belfond editions). It's also the return to bookstores of Vanessa Springora, five years to the day later Consent one of the editorial events of recent years, where the editor looked back on her relationship under the influence with the writer Gabriel Matzneff when she was a teenager. Surname (Editions Grasset) is an investigation into the author's Czech grandfather, of whom she found two photos in Nazi uniform.
New publishing houses
This winter 2025 start is also the launch for newcomers in literary publishing, a market where it is difficult to find a place. Hugo Publishing (Glénat group) inaugurates a dark novels label, called Impact, with Heifer of the American Mary Kate Williams on January 8. The first title from the new publishing house Le Soir Ven, founded by the Swiss Jouvence, is a nice editorial coup: Margo has money problems by American Rufi Thorpe, adapted into a series for Apple TV+ in 2025 with Nicole Kidman. Finally, Les Nouveaux Éditeurs, a group founded by a former boss of Hachette Livre, launched La Tribu editions in February, with Cécile Cayrel (Confession of tenderness) and Jérôme Chantreau(The Transnonain Street Affair).
But readers' attention should be focused above all on sure values, authors seen on television and prize winners. By Leïla Slimani, Goncourt Prize 2016, I will take away the fire at Gallimard, last part of the trilogy The Land of Otherson Morocco after independence, is published on January 8. By Pierre Lemaitre, Goncourt Prize 2013, A bright future by Calmann-Lévy, third part of his tetralogy on the Trente Glorieuses, comes out on January 21. Editions Albin Michel are betting on January 16 on two volumes, i.e. 800 pages and 43.90 euros in total, by Jean-Christophe Grangé, Without sun.
A novel under a pseudonym
Frédéric Beigbeder, in A man alone at Grasset on January 8, recalls his father Jean-Michel, « a Frenchman who thought he was an American when he was English ». And Philippe Besson, in Tell you about my son on January 2 at Julliard, evokes the suicide of a harassed teenager. One of the curiosities is the first novel by a pseudonymous writer, Marceau Miller, with The novel by Marceau Miller (January 17). Its publisher, La Martinière, says it has already paid for translations and an audiovisual adaptation project.
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Among six “must-sees” from Livres Hebdo, two are also on the list of one of the rare literary prizes this January: Your promise by Camille Laurens (Gallimard), RTL-Lire Grand Prix awarded in March, and From our wounds a kingdom by Gaëlle Josse (Buchet-Chastel). Jean Echenoz, Prix Médicis 1983 and Goncourt 1999, also competes in this Grand Prix, with Bristolstill published by Minuit.
