Bestsellers Around the World: France

 

Once upon a time I had an infrequent feature called Bestsellers Around the World where I would take a look at the bestsellers from a country and see what caught my interest, particularly when I compared it to Australian lists. These days it is even more infrequent as it is something that I save for Paris in July! So, here is this week's bestsellers in France, based on the list from Sens Critique for the week from July 6 to 12.

1 Le Diner (The Dinner Party): A Pick Your Poison Adventure by Freida McFadden

2 La Prof (The Professor) by Freida McFadden

3 Les heures fragiles (Fragile Hours) by Virginie Grimaldi

4 Tata by Valerie Perrin 

5 Un lieu a soi (A room of One's Own) by Virginia Woolf

6 Tout le monde aime Clara (Everyone Loves Clara) by David Foenkinos

7 Quelqu'un d'autre (Someone Else) by Guillaume Musso

8 L'intruse (The Intruder) by Frieda McFadden

9 D'autres printemps (Other Springs) by Virginie Grimaldi

10 A Retardement (Delayed ) by Franck Thilliez

Freida McFadden has really dominated the bestsellers lists over the last couple of years when I have done these posts. I was surprised to see that the number one was a short story though, and it is not one I remember hearing about but that maybe because I don't really read her genre. I did recently read one of her books and I liked it. Just not rushing out to read another one really.

I was surprised when Virginie Grimaldi wasn't on the list last year but she is back with two novels in the top ten this year! I read one of her books a couple of years ago and really liked it. I am tempted to read more, but there are none available in my library system (which isn't really that surprising) and some of her translated novels are more than $30 on Kindle which is too much! 

I own Tata and was hoping to get it read for Paris in July this year but I am rapidly running out of time. I did read Like Water for Flowers for last years Paris in July and really liked it. I think I now have three of her novels waiting for me!

I thought it was interesting to see Virginia Woolf on the list. Seeing it makes me wonder about what has bought it back into the spotlight in France

Franck Thilliez has appeared on a lot of the lists over the years. Delayed was on the list last year so this book has a lot of staying power!

Often when I look at the Australian list there is some crossover, even if it is for an author like Frieda McFadden, but there was none this year!

Previous French lists

2025

2024

2023

2022

2020

I am sharing this with Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz and A Good Book and a Cup of Tea hosted at Hopewell's Library.

Sunday Salon/Paris in July: Bestsellers around the world - France

Once upon a time I had an infrequent feature called Bestsellers Around the World. The idea was that I would take a look at the bestsellers list for that week and compare it to the Australian bestsellers list. It turned out it could be quite challenging and so despite my best intentions I haven't kept it going, although I do roll it out every now and again, particularly for Paris in July.It's not always easy to find current lists that are accessible but I try!

Here are the books the readers of France are reading at the moment based on the bestseller list at Sens Critique! Please note that according to the website the last time this list was updated was in May but it was still the easiest site to navigate when trying to collate a list

La Psy (Never Lie) by Frieda McFadden

La Femme de Menage (The Housemaid) by Frieda McFadden

Les Secrets de la femme de menage (The Housemaid's Secret) by Freida McFadden

Lakestone, tome 2 by Sarah Rivens

A retardement by Franck Thilliez - The title translates to Delayed

La Prof (The Teacher) by Freida McFadden

L'Heure des predateurs by Giuliano da Empoli - Title translates to Hour of the Predators

Norferville by Franck Thilliez

Interieur nuit by Nicolas Demorand - Translates to Interior Night

La femme de meage voit tout by Frieda McFadden - I am not entirely sure which book this is. The title translates as The Cleaning Lady Sees Everything so maybe it is another edition of The Housemaid.


Some observations.

On the lists that I found that were up to date, Frieda McFadden is absolutely dominating the best seller lists in France. When I looked at the lists for Australia for this week, we had two books by her in the top 10 as well.

Franck Thilliez is an author who you consistently see on these lists. It did surprise me that there wasn't a Joel Dicker on the list for this year though.

Just outside the top ten is Maud Ankaoua. This author has had books on the bestseller lists for a number of years now, with the exception of 2024. Her tagline on her website is The novelist who brings us back to the essentials, which sounds like good reading to me.

Interesting, Anna Stuart has two books in the top 20 first with her book La Sage-Femme d'Auschwitz and then with La Sage-Femme de Berlin which have the English titles of The Midwife of Auschwitz and The Midwife of Berlin. Last year her Auschwitz book was number 1 on the list. Whilst there is obviously a strong interest in WWII history around the world, it is surprising to me that it is this author that has such consistently strong results in France. I am going to see if I can get some of her books to read.

When I look back on my previous lists, it is interesting to note that this is the first year since I started doing this 5 years ago that there has been no book by Virginie Grimaldi featured. I did enjoy the one book I read in English by her, so I will try and read more from her. There were also no books by Melissa da Costa whose books I haven't been able to find in English. She also regularly appears on this list.

On a couple of the other extended lists I found, Lucinda Riley's Seven Sisters series was doing very well.

Does anything on this list surprise you?

Top Ten Tuesday/Paris in July: Bestsellers Around the World - France

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme Books I Wish Had More/Less [Insert Your Concept Here] In Them (for example: more/less romance, more/less world building, less info dumping, more/fewer pages, more character development, fewer characters, fewer descriptions, more suspense, etc.)

We are, however, getting to the tail end of Paris in July, a month long celebration of all things French. One of the posts that I try to do for every Paris in July is a look at what is currently on the bestsellers list in France. I call this feature Bestsellers Around the World. I roll it out infrequently, but I do like sharing it so here are the bestsellers for this week based on the bestseller list at Sens Critique! And my post for this week's Top Ten Tuesday.







The Midwife of Auschwitz by Anna Stuart (La Sage Femme d'Autwitchz) - Interesting to see a WWII historical fiction novel at number one on the list.


A Beautiful Life by Virginie Grimaldi (Une Belle Vie) - I read and enjoyed a Virginie Grimaldi book last year and enjoyed it. I will be looking for this one when I can.


Angelique by Guillaume Musso (Angelique) - This is a crime novel, featuring a cop who has a heart attack and then meets a woman who needs help.


The Bartender at the Ritz by Philippe Colin (Le Barman du Ritz) - This is another WWII novel. It does sound interesting!


Seasons, Volume 4: A Summer to Find You Again by Morgane Moncomble (Un été pour te retrouver) - How gorgeous is this cover! This is an author who started out on Wattpad!






Women from the End of the World by Melissa Da Costa (Les femmes du bout du monde) - Melissa Da Costa regularly appears on this list, but I don't think that she has been translated into English yet.


The Bride Wore Yellow Boots by Katherine Pancol (La Mariée portait des bottes jaunes) - This is a family drama set in Bordeaux


The Rift by Franck Thilliez (La Faille) - This is another author who regularly appears on these lists


The Housekeeper by Frieda McFadden (La femme de Menage - It's interesting to see which books cross the language barriers.


Complete Tragedies by Aeschylus (Tragedies Complete) - This one felt a bit like a bit of a curveball! I wonder why it has hit the bestsellers now.


You can find other posts in this series of posts at this link - Bestsellers Around the World

Sunday Salon/Paris in July: Bestsellers Around the World - France

 

Over the last few years I have had a infrequent feature called Bestsellers Around the World. The idea was that I would take a look at the bestsellers list for that week and compare it to the Australian bestsellers list. It turned out it could be quite challenging and so despite my best intentions I haven't kept it going, although I do roll it out every now and again.  For one of my final posts in this year's Paris in July, I thought I would revive it and share a list of the books the readers of Paris are reading at the moment based on the bestseller list at Sens Critique!

Il nous restera ça by Virginie Grimaldi (We Will Have This) - I reviewed another of Grimaldie's books earlier this week. I will read her again. She has appeared on this list everytime I have done this type of post


Sur La Dalle by Fred Vargas (On the Slab) - Book number 12 in the Commissaire Adamsberg mystery seriesJamais plus by Colleen Hoover (Never Again) - This is the first book in the It Ends With Us series. I remember looking in a books shop in The Netherlands and her books were at the top of the list there too!

Jamais Plus by Colleen Hoover (Never Again) - I guess Tik Tok is all over the world! I remember seeing some of Colleen Hoover's books on the bestsellers shelf in The Netherlands when I was there earlier this year too! This is the first book in the It Ends With Us series

La Faiseuse d'étoiles: Unicef by Melissa Da Costa (The Star Maker) - This is another author who has appeared on this list over the last couple of years. Maybe I will see if I can find her to read for next year's Paris in July. The proceeds of this book all go to Unicef

Mon mari by Maud Ventura (My Husband) - This book won France's First Prize Novel in 2021

Tout le bleu du ciel by Mélissa Da Costa (All the Blue of the Sky)  - When Emile is diagnosed with early onset alzheimers at the age of 36, he decides that he wants to take one last trip.

Labyrinthes by Franck Thilliez (Labyrinths) - This author was in last years list too but with a different book!

Kilomètre zéro Le Chemin du bonheur by Maud Ankaoua (Kilometre Zero: The Way to Happiness) - Maelle joins her friend on a healing journey to Nepal. This was on last years list too!

Les Douleurs fantômes by Melissa Da Costa (The Phantom Pains) -

Une Belle Vie by Virginie Grimaldi (A Beautiful Life) - Yes, another Virginie Grimaldi book in the top 10.

In some ways it looks like the lists are pretty stable but when I started this post last week Toshikazu Kawaguchi had a book in the list but now it isn't even in the top 30. Having said that, two of these books were on last years list so it doesn't change that much! This is my third year of doing this feature and there are several names which have come up multiple times now including Melissa Da Costa, Virginie Grimaldi and Franck Thilliez. 

You can see my previous posts here:

July 2022

July 2020

I always find these posts interesting

I am also sharing this post with Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz.