Tag Archives: Plon

International Fiction Bestsellers

Cafés-philo all over France are abuzz with the newly hip notion of “anti-anti-Americanism,” and the headiest homage to contrarian Frenchness comes from Yves Berger, the legendary literary director of Editions Grasset — and a member of the august Conseil Supérieur de la langue française — who has hit the charts with his Dictionary for Lovers…Continue Reading

Alive and Kicking Aussie Government Breathes Life into Book Biz

Back by popular demand, Australia’s second annual Books Alive promotion — a two-week, federally-funded, book-buying bonanza — kicked off last month as Australian Minister for the Arts and Sport Rod Kemp officially pronounced the campaign’s motto: “lose yourself in a book and find yourself in a bookstore.” During the two week period ending August 15,…Continue Reading

International Fiction Bestsellers

Goodness, Gracious Do-Gooders in Denmark, Laughing Last in France, and Oz Goes Feral in Israel A wave of irrational exuberance crashes over Denmark this month as the nation just can’t stop reading a novel in which the citizens of a small Danish town become pathologically obsessed with doing good deeds for their neighbors. Hitting the…Continue Reading

Bonjour, M. Le Monopoly

The sell-off of French giant Vivendi’s media assets has had buy-out bankers licking their chops the world over. But what does it spell for the increasingly monolithic publishing culture in France? This month Jean Rosenthal, former President of French publisher Stock and currently a translator and consultant to the publishing business, offers a view from…Continue Reading

International Fiction Bestsellers

Damsels In Distress Calmel in Aquitaine, Hermann Does Damascus, And Norway’s Queen of Crime Druids, troubadours, wenches, and the golden-haired, green-eyed Duchess of Aquitaine make for a rambunctious menagerie who all wind up in Eleanor’s Bed, a first novel that’s had ladies-in-waiting sighing all over France. This medieval coming-of-age story from Mireille Calmel unfolds in…Continue Reading

International Fiction Bestsellers

Wine Dark Seas Aegean Fables, France Between the Sheets, and Sweden Says ‘Pippi, Move Over’ A veritable odyssey of titles appears this month on the bestseller list from Greece, at the top of which is The Three Widows by Dora Yiannakopoulou, which traces the lives and friendships of three women who become friends after the…Continue Reading

International Fiction Bestsellers

Beat the Devil Coelho Back in Brazil, Mortier in the Netherlands, And Pleijel Shakes Up Sweden Brazilian high priest of letters Paulo Coelho has conjured up The Devil and Miss Prym after two years of soul searching, and the result is a half-million-copy catechism that’s been deemed a “parable in which the characters show all…Continue Reading