Michel Bussi

Biography

Bussi was born on 29 April 29, 1965 in Louviers, Eure. He began writing in the 1990s. He wrote his first novel, set around the Normandy landings, when he was a young geography lecturer at the University of Rouen, but it was rejected by several publishing houses. He then wrote short stories, but they too were rejected.

Ten years later, inspired by a trip to Rome at the peak of popularity of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, and back in Rouen with his IGN papers, after reading a centenary edition of Arsène Lupin by Maurice Leblanc he resumed work on his manuscript until in 2006, as Code Lupin, it found an academic publisher, Éditions des Falaises. The first manuscript was reworked nine times.

Bussi publishes a book a year, but they can take several years to become popular. For example, Mourir sur Seine (2008) and Nymphéas Noirs (2011) had only modest initial success, but paperwork editions, serialisations and above all his master work Un avion Sans Elle have propelled him into the limelight.

Most of his novels are set in Normandy. His local topicality, together with his teaching and research in Normandy, won him the title of Parrain Officiel (official sponsor) during the 2014 Normandy Festival, a regional festival celebrated throughout Normandy and beyond.

In 2013, Bussi was eighth in the Le Figaro/GfK list of bestsellers His latest book, N’oublier jamais ("Never forget", May 2014), put Normandy at the heart of the action.

Career

Bussi's first novel, Code Lupin, sold more than 7,000 copies, and in 2010 was serialialised over thirty days by the Paris Normandie daily newspaper. In 2007, his second novel, Omaha Crimes, won the French: 'Prix Sang d'Encre' ("Blood Writing Prize") of the town of Vienne, Isère, the 2008 prize for first detective novel at Lens, Pas-de-Calais, the 2008 schools writing prize at Caen, the 2008 Octave-Mirbeau prize at the Trévières Literary Festival, and the 2008 Ancres Noires by Le Havre, beating some of the best thriller writers of the year.

In 2008, his third novel, Mourir sur Seine ("Death on the Seine"), was published to coincide with the Rouen Regatta. It sold several thousand copies within weeks. It won the Basse-Normandie Regional Committee Prize (Queen Mathilde Prize).

In 2009, his fourth novel, Sang famille ("Family blood"), aimed at both an adult and teenage audience, was published.

In 2010, he contributed to the Les Couleurs de l'instant ("Colours of the Moment") anthology of short stories with French: 'T'en souviens-tu mon Anaïs?' ("Do you remember my Anaïs?"), set in Veules-les-Roses and based on the "legend" of Anaïs Aubert. The same year, he changed publishers to Presses de la Cité. His novel Nymphéas noirs ("Black Waterlilies"), a cloak-and-dagger thriller set in Giverny, the home of Claude Monet, was published on 20 January 2011. It was critically praised and became a best seller, winning the Readers' Award at the Cognac Thriller Festival, Cognac, the Mediterranean Thriller Prize at the Villeneuve-lès-Avignon Festival, and the Michel Lebrun Grand Prize of the 25th hour of Le Mans, the Readers' Priye at Sang d'Encre of Vienne, and the Gustave Flaubert Grand Prize of thet Norman Writers' Guild, becoming the best-selling French detective novel of 2011. It was issued in paperback on 5 September 2013.

In January 2012, his novel Un Avion Sans Elle was republlished by Presses de la Cité. Even though this novel is faithful to the genre with psychological plots based on misdirecting and manipularing the reader, mixing the past and the present, this is the first work that is not set in Normandy. The critic Gérald Collard called it the thriller of the year. In its first year of publication it was awarded the Maison de la Presse award, Popular Novel Award Best French-language Detective Novel (at Montigny-Les-Cormeilles). It sold more than 400,000 copies in France, and has been sold in translation in 26 countries worldwide including Spain, Germany, Italy, Russia, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Japan, Korea, Lithuania, Portugal, Taiwan, England, Israel, Brazil, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Norway, Greece, Turkey, Netherlands, Vietnam, Latvia, Romania and Serbia. The rights have been bought for a film. From September 2013 it was serialized daily in l'Est Républicain for over 200 days.

In March 2013, La Cité published Michel Bussi's seventh novel, Ne lâche pas ma main ("Don't Let Go of My Hand"). The plot takes place on the tropical island of Réunion. Such a lovers' paradise becomes hell when a woman disappears from her hotel room. Her husband, suspected of her murder, runs away with their daughter, and the police give chase. The novel was finalist for the 2012 Relay Travellers' Award for May 2012, finalist for the Grand Prix for Detective Fiction, and won the 2013 Island Novel Award. Television rights were sold.

In May 2014, La Cité published his eighth novel, N'oublier jamais ("Never forget"), and his novel Ne lâche pas ma main was released in paperback simultaneously by Pocket.

Omaha Crimes

Mourir sur Seine

Nymphéas noirs

Un avion sans elle

Ne lâche pas ma main