gensAgnes Martin-Lugand wrote a novel in Paris, self-published it in December 2013 and when it caught on with a wide readership, her writing career took off. Now her debut novel “Happy People Read and Drink Coffee” is being translated to English and is set for a Spring 2016 publication date, with The Weinstein Company (TWC) doing the book and adapting it for a Hollywood movie.

The French title is ”Les gens heureux lisent et boivent du cafe.” According to The Wrap in Hollywood, Martin-Lugand’s work was ”a self-publishing smash success in France, where the book outsold ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ and landed at the top of the French Kindle bestseller list in 2013.”

A psychology major, the author grew up in the north of France with a love of literature and just two years ago turned to writing as a creative outlet.

”Les gens heureux lisent et boivent du cafe” follows a the main character in the book, a woman named Diane, who has lost her husband and daughter in a car accident in Paris a year earlier. She goes to Ireland to grieve and discovers, guess what, love, again!

The French publisher Michel Lafon plans to release Martin-Lugand’s follow-up novel titled “Entre mes mains le bonheur se faufile” later this month in France, and it will surely get translated later on to English, too. And 15 other languages as well. This author’s a keeper.

I’m hoping a TeleRead reader here will leave a translation of the second novel in the comments section below, s’il vous plait. Something like “Between my hands, happiness sneaks up on me.”

With a huge future ahead of her, Martin-Lugand, starting out with a modest self-published effort, has hit paydirt.

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