Under the presidency of journalist and writer Jérôme Garcin, this 42e tourbillon edition records a record attendance and a turnover which exceeds one million euros. And made the Corrèze city the other capital of books and great authors. Reporting.
In Brive, it is at the end of the Fair that we count the… books sold. Sunday at 2:30 p.m., a few hours before the end of the Corrèze event, brand new Prix Goncourt with Houris (Gallimard) stands shoulder to shoulder with the regional team of the stage, . 900 novels each. A distinguished lady looks, behind her black quadrangular glasses, for the stand. She imagined that the Prix Renaudot, 650 sales in three days, would be better off than at the end of the row, in the Grasset corner. , Jean Giono Prize and , Femina and French Academy Prize, complete the quinté with 470 and 420 copies sold, far ahead of their pursuers. The turnover continues its incredible progression and this year reached 1,110,000 euros, or 13% more than in 2023. In 2018, it was only 750,000 euros…
This 42e However, the edition had not started under the best auspices. If the “cholesterol train” which transports the literary world to the Cité Gaillarde every autumn has arrived safely, the SNCF has canceled connections this weekend, leading to the withdrawal of a few authors including Jacques Attali. “You realize, it takes us a year to organize everything and them a day to screw us up.”plagues François David, the tireless director of the Fair. When they are not canceled, trains are late. Nearly two hours for the one on Friday evening which carries Matthieu Lartot. It is therefore impossible for the journalist to kick off the rugby match between CAB and Colomiers. He will be present the next day in the new stand of the Amédée-Domenech stadium to talk about surpassing oneself with Mathieu Bosredon, triple gold medalist at the Paralympic Games in Paris this summer in front of 250 people.
President of this edition, is not in the best conditions to stroll under the Georges Brassens hall with the official procession (without Rachida Dati who did not send a note of apology). The former head of Culture at New Obsand former big man of “Masque et la plume” on France Inter, broke one of his shoelaces and his press secretary needs the address of a shoemaker as quickly as possible.
who has planned to appear in two-hour increments on his stand over the three days, is in his little shoes. Barely twenty meters away, sign the book It’s for a friend! (Les Arènes), “Manual for the use of quinquas”, which she wrote with Constance Vergara. He is at stand L4, she at L18. It’s hard to avoid each other. The journalist assures our colleagues of The Mountainshe will greet the former President of the Republic if he comes to see her, because this whole story is behind her. pursues hers, apparently passionately, with the CAB, a club of which she is the godmother. On Friday, the presidential stand, transformed into a cenacle of writers and literary critics, was able to see how much it vibrated with each attempt by the Corrèze rugby players.
François Aubel
In the aisles of the Fair, the deputy for Tulle tells the political journalist Michaël Darmon, author of The Pope and the Matriarch. Secret history of relations between Israel and the Vatican : “You see, I’m bringing you people. » The ex-president even drags behind him two journalists responsible for painting his portrait for a major evening daily and visibly already exhausted by his little jokes and the countless number of hands shakes. Looking at their sullen faces, they will certainly not say “Thank you for this moment”…
Readers sometimes wait two hours to have the blessing of, with the hope of resuming their conversation with the novelist where it left off last year. Seeing them leave, an ecstatic smile on their lips, we say to ourselves that certain readings should be reimbursed by social security. “The authors also tell me that they leave Brive feeling re-energized”explains François David. And not just because they tasted the entire menu of the restaurant La Truffe noire.
At the Algiers Book Festival, it seems that people regret the banning of Kamel Daoud’s book. Not in Brive where the author continued to sign under the eye of his close guard, members of the GIGN who played it rather discreet. The Franco-Algerian author who discovered Brive says his hand hurts because he has initialed so many cover pages. “This is crazy!” This somewhat repairs the legitimate idea that the book industry is in bad shape. An event like this, a large mass, reassures us about the profession! “, he said. Before adding a message to his native country on the microphone of our colleagues from France 3 Limousin: “Countries where people read, access books, without censorship, these are countries to be protected. We hope that these kinds of parties multiply, multiply everywhere! »
Among the authors, there are the lucky ones and the others. Didier Van Cauwelaert signing next to Adriana Karembeu. Roselyne Bachelot seems to be having fun to the right of Jean-Louis Debré, who was seen serving at Francis, the Corrèze culinary institution. A strange team at Éditions du Rocher: Benjamin Castaldi, whose benefits of the “Comme J’aime” diet have yet to be proven, agrees with Dorothée Olliéric, senior reporter for France Télé. Her colleague Maryse Burgot also published her memoirs and advertised them in Brive. Not sure that the two adventurers will go and toast the Cardinal…
Forgotten about the prices – she was in the last square of Goncourt -, consoles herself with the impressive queue which forms in front of her stand. For Franck Thilliez, the line forms a serpentine pattern. Christian Signol has gotten into the habit of signing while standing to keep up with his readers. Unfortunately, he has lost some of his strength at 77 years old and is feeling slightly unwell. He will not sign Sunday. Political books don’t really catch on. MEP Gilles Boyer or Camille Pascal, Nicolas Sarkozy’s former advisor, can unfortunately testify to this, who watch with envy the slaughter of the American friend who runs on zero Coke.
Attendance at the Fair reached a record this year with 80,000 visitors, almost twice the Brive population. “Now we will have to manage the frustrations. We don’t grow up without difficulty. It’s the harsh law of numbers”recognized Frédéric Soulier, the Les Républicains mayor of the Corrèze city at the end of the demonstration. The first evening, 400 people had to be turned away for Gaël Faye’s musical reading at the theater. All the conferences were full. For that of Bernard Werber, who came to promote his latest novel, The Waltz of Souls, many spectators had to sit on the floor. Some religiously followed the masterclass of Jan Harlan, the producer of Kubrick’s greatest films. Simeio editions, based in Lanzac, north of the Lot, had the good idea of having him recount his memories linked to Barry Lyndona film which, among its cult of worshipers, included the late Michel Ciment.
Two journalists ask Jérôme Garcin what is the sentence from one of his books that he would highlight above all the others. He has it and it is not from him but from the great Jean Prévost, Ernest Hemingway’s ring companion: “In my life, I violently defend moderate ideas. » “You see, it’s not very LFI”laughs Garcin, amazed by “this crazy machine” that the Book Fair represents and happy to have been able to program those he loves this year, like this meeting between Marthe Keller and Rachida Brakni or his reunion with his old friends from “Masque et la plume”. And this “serious, joyful and modest” president (dixit François David) concludes: “I know I can only run for one term as president, but I can’t stand it if you don’t invite me back another time. »
