Goncourt 2026 bows to Mélenchon's book at the top of sales last week

The program book of the LFI presidential candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, took the lead in bestsellers after its release, ahead of the novel by Philippe Jaenada awarded the Goncourt Prize, according to figures published Thursday by Livres-Hebdo. L'Avenir en commune, published by the small publishing house La Dispute, dominated the top 20 bestsellers for the week of November 2 to 8 established by NielsenIQ BookData and Livres Hebdo, according to the professional publishing magazine. It sold more than 40,000 copies during the two days following its release on November 6, including 10,000 at Jean-Luc Mélenchon's meeting at Le Bourget on November 7.

For its part, Philippe Jaenada's novel, L'Inconnue du quai de Javel, jumped from 19th to 2nd place in the ranking after obtaining the Goncourt. The novel, published in August by Flammarion, has now exceeded 90,000 copies sold, according to Livres-Hebdo.

“The start of the rebellious candidate's 2027 program represents more than three times that of 2017 and more than five times that of 2022”, his two previous presidential campaigns, underlines the LFI candidate. To meet demand, La Dispute increased the print run of this 160-page work to 300,000 copies, selling for 4.90 euros.

The rebellious MP Clémence Guetté hailed an “unprecedented” success on Tuesday: “We are in the process of making a demonstration of strength from the disruptive left and independent publishing,” she said in a message on X. “We are ahead of Jordan Bardella and Sarah Knafo,” she congratulated herself. The president of the National Rally occupies 9th place in the list with Gouverner (Fayard).