Amélie Nothomb leaves Albin Michel for Gallimard after 35 novels since 1992

The announcement

Amélie Nothomb said in a statement sent to AFP on Monday, 9 November, that she is leaving Albin Michel for Éditions Gallimard. Until then the novelist had not confirmed reports, first carried by Le Parisien, that the move was coming, and neither publisher had commented. The 60-year-old Belgian writer said she had told Antoine Gallimard, the chief executive of Gallimard, that she would publish her next 35 novels with the house. She has published 35 novels with Albin Michel since 1992, when Hygiène de l'assassin appeared. L'adolescence du perroquet, released in August 2026, will be her last novel with Albin Michel.

“I am joining Éditions Gallimard, which has done me the honour of welcoming me.”

Her stated reasons

Nothomb tied her departure to the decision by Francis Esmenard, her editor at Albin Michel, to step back, and thanked him for his trust, advice and loyalty. She also said she regretted the direction taken by the publisher's new management, and she was blunt about it in the statement. She described the partnership with Albin Michel as now impossible, while promising not to forget the teams who had worked on her books. Her account frames the break as a matter of values and working methods rather than of contract terms.

“The partnership with Albin Michel is now impossible, but I will not forget the teams who worked on my success.”

The Godfernaux dismissal

Nothomb cited the dismissal of Florence Godfernaux, Albin Michel's communications and press director, as evidence of the change. She called Godfernaux a friend of 33 years and described her as a talented press officer. Godfernaux was dismissed this summer. Le Monde, which says it consulted a report by the HR consultancy ACCA Consultants, quoted findings that moral harassment could be established in connection with allegations against her, and that remarks of a sexual nature could be classed as ambient sexual harassment. The same account describes insulting remarks, degrading nicknames and a climate of fear and omertà in the press department. Le Parisien reported that the dismissal was the trigger for the move. Mickaël Palvin, a former Albin Michel executive, posted on Instagram that Godfernaux would now work independently and edit Nothomb's next novel, a claim the publishers have not confirmed.

Career and her place at the publisher

Nothomb, 60, is a member of the Académie royale de littérature de Belgique and divides her time between Paris and Brussels, with a particular passion for Japan. She has never won the Goncourt, but she received the Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française in 1999 and the Prix Renaudot in 2021. Her work has been translated into about forty languages. La Libre described her small office on the ground floor of Albin Michel's building, a former forge near the Montparnasse cemetery where the publisher has been based since 1910. There she answered her readers' mail each morning, a daily routine that the outlet presents as a sign of how close she stayed to her readers. BFMTV framed the move as joining the Madrigall group, of which Gallimard is part.