The novelist Frédéric Beigbeder, loyal to Grasset editions for nearly 30 years, has chosen Albin Michel to publish a book of "confessions", this publisher announced on Wednesday. Confessions of a Slightly Overwhelmed Heterosexual, where he explains that "after 50, life is an endless aftermath," is due out April 6, according to the publisher's schedule.
"I always wanted to be transgressive without knowing that I was a conformist. Today, I feel better in an Augustinian monastery than in a brothel, and the military amuse me more than the fashionistas,” adds the author. "He comes to us for this book," commented a source within Albin Michel, interviewed by AFP.
Frédéric Beigbeder has thus not severed his ties with Grasset, a house which has published all his novels from Vacances dans le coma in 1994, to Un barrage contre l'Atlantique in 2022, including his bestsellers 99 francs, in 2000, and A French Novel, Prix Renaudot 2009.
The 57-year-old novelist tried in November to be elected to the French Academy, but only obtained between 7 and 9 votes in each of the four rounds of voting, when 13 were needed for an absolute majority. Albin Michel is a publisher owned by a family group while Grasset belongs to Hachette Livre (Lagardère), which is being bought out by Vivendi and billionaire Vincent Bolloré.
