The Swiss author, who signs a new success with this new detective novel, answered questions from BFMTV.
He signs one of the literary boxes of 2022. Joël Dicker took bookstores by storm five weeks ago with The Alaska Sanders Affair, a new novel in the tradition of thrillers that made it a success. The book has already sold 250,000 copies since its release on March 10, in France, Belgium and Switzerland. It is about to be translated into 41 languages.
Readers find the character of Marcus Goldman, whom they met in The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair, the book that revealed Joël Dicker to the general public in 2012. This time, it is about the murder of a young woman, Alaska Sanders, which occurred in 1999 and has never been elucidated. The affair resurfaced eleven years later in an anonymous letter.
Meet his readers
On March 10, the day of the book’s release, the 36-year-old Swiss author went to meet his Parisian public for a signing session. A first for four years, as he explained to BFMTV:
“Four years since there hasn’t been this moment, to touch people, to shake their hands, to pass a book… We need that. This success is also a success of encounters of people (…) with encounters that are always so strong.”
“Writers have a leading role to play”
And the fans had come in large numbers to see the writer. It must be said that Joël Dicker has sold 12 million books over the last ten years. A triumph he tries to explain:
“Perhaps I have a more relaxed approach to what the role of a writer is. I find that we forget that writers have a leading role to play. There is a duty to do this step forward, to get out of our office, out of this world of ours, and go out to people. To be seen but not out of ego, not because we want to be seen or know our name, but because ‘we represent books, literature and living together.”
Like a rockstar, Joël Dicker is embarking on an international tour: he leaves tomorrow for Quebec, and will be in Spain and Italy in June.