The Swiss Joël Dicker is the only French-speaking writer in the top three of the best-selling books in France in 2024. with his novel “A Wild Animal”.
Photo: KEYSTONE/SALVATORE DI NOLFI
The best-selling book of 2024 in France is the first part of ‘The Maid’, a thriller by the American Freida McFadden, according to the GfK ranking published on Friday. The Swiss novelist Joël Dicker is the only French-speaker in the top 3.
Published by J’ai Lu, the work sold 603,000 copies, ahead of ‘The Midwife of Auschwitz’, by the English writer Anna Stuart (also by J’ai Lu), with 500,000. sales. The two authors are ahead of the Genevan writer Joël Dicker, who comes in 3rd position with ‘A Wild Animal’ and its 425,000 sales.
Overall, there were fewer buyers of new books in 2024 in France: 23 million people acquired at least one book, a decline of 10% over one year, according to this annual GfK barometer.
Romance, a growing sector
In total, consumers purchased 315 million new books, down 3%. In terms of sales, the sector’s turnover is stable, at 4 billion euros (3.76 billion francs).
Second-hand books still represent more or less one book sale in five (18% in 2024) and the digital book reader remains a rare bird (less than 5% of sales).
Mangas and comics suffered the most after a prosperous year in 2023, marked by the release of bestsellers like the latest Asterix or Gaston Lagaffe. Conversely, romance remains one of the few growing sectors.
/ATS
