2023-11-04 11:58:04
The 2023 literary awards season is in full swing. The opportunity to measure the success in bookstores of the prizes awarded in 2022. This is the grand novel prize of the Académie française 2022The Mage of the Kremlin by Giuliano da Empoli, which ranks first among literary prizes sold, ahead of the Prix Goncourt.
► Goncourt Prize: “Live fast” by Brigitte Giraud
After a tense vote against the Mage du Kremlinthe Goncourt Academy awarded its prize to the author Brigitte Giraud for Live fast (Flammarion), in which the author questions the reasons for the death of her husband in 1999 in a motorcycle accident.
While the Goncourt Prize generally allows sales to increase to more than 350,000, Brigitte Giraud’s novel had sold “only” 198,000 sales at the end of 2022. Receiving the Goncourt Prize still made it possible has Live fast to benefit from a surge in sales. These were multiplied by ten the week following the price announcement,
► Goncourt Prize for high school students: “Beirut-sur-Seine” by Sabyl Ghoussoub
Beirut-sur-Seine (Stock) traces the life of a young man caught between the civil war in Lebanon, his country of origin and his life as a doctoral student exiled in Paris at the end of the 1970s. Through this novel about origins and immigration , it is a bit of the history of his family that Sabyl Ghoussoub, born in Paris and from a Lebanese family, retraces.
When it was published, the novel was not among the best sellers: only 167 copies were purchased per week. After the price was announced, 3,500 copies sold in eight days, putting the book at the top of the week’s novel sales charts.
► Renaudot Prize 2022: “Performance” by Simon Liberati
The journalist Simon Liberati was awarded the Renaudot prize thanks to his book Performance (Grasset). A septuagenarian is caught up in his memories of the Rolling Stones and writes the script for a series about the group, while maintaining an intimate relationship with his 23-year-old stepdaughter.
Nearly two-thirds of sales of Performance were concentrated after the price announcement, according to Edistat. In total, the novel sold 35,000 copies, a figure well below the average for a Renaudot prize (194,000, according to a study by the GfK institute published in 2020).
► Femina Prize 2022: “A dog at my table”, by Claudie Hunzinger
A little dog interferes in the lives of a retired couple, on the fringes of society, and shakes up their habits. This story told in A dog at my table (Grasset) allowed author Claudie Hunzinger, 82, to win the Femina 2022 prize on November 7, 2022.
Most selected novel among the autumn grand prizes, A dog at my table sold 70,000 copies, according to the Grasset publishing house.
► Grand prize for the novel of the French Academy 2022: “The Mage of the Kremlin”, by Giuliano da Empoli
Published on April 14, The Mage of the Kremlin (Gallimard) was favorite to win the Goncourt prize. It is ultimately the members of the jury of the French Academy who will distinguish Giuliano da Empoli. The novel resonates in the news, recounting the journey of someone close to Vladimir Putin.
As soon as it was published, Giuliano da Empoli’s novel appeared in the top 50 of novel sales. With more than 320,000 copies sold at the end of 2022, The Mage of the Kremlin exceeds the Goncourt prize, placing itself in fourth place among the best-selling novels in 2022.
► Prix Médicis 2022: “The Thirteenth Hour”, by Emmanuelle Bayamack-Tam
In The Thirteenth Hour (POL) a teenager evolves in The Church of the Thirteenth Hour, a millennial, feminist, queer and animalist community led by her father. Emmanuelle Bayamack-Tam paints the portrait of an avant-garde and very contemporary society, praised by the jury of the Médicis Prize.
While 245 copies were sold per week, the Medici Prize gave a boost to The Thirteenth Hour, which saw its sales rate instantly double overnight.
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