What and whom about the “Happy People Read and Drink Coffee” by Agnès Martin-Lugand (video)

Within 10 years of its publication, 35 countries acquired the copyright to translate this novel. More than 3.5 million copies have been sold. The book “Happy People Read and Drink Coffee” is in the top ten of the most-read French novels of Figaro. “Regardless of the rejections I received, I wanted my novel to simply exist. I thought, I would put it on the online platform, and it would be a success because I already understood I must write, even only for myself”.

After only three weeks on the list of thousands of books, the love drama "Happy People Read and Drink Coffee" became the most popular book on Amazon, appearing at the top. “Right then, Michel Lafon's publishing house contacted me on Facebook and offered to publish my book”.

In the novel, 30-year-old Diana loses her husband and four-year-old daughter in an accident. The colors of life are fading for the woman who owns a literary cafe named “Happy People Read and Drink Coffee". How to deal with grief when you dream of dying instead of living?

While writing the novel, psychologist Agnès Martin-Lugand used all her professional skills and penetrated the mental state of the character she created, presenting all the shades of the fragile woman's feelings. “Once, in a family evening, I was sitting looking at my 1.8-year-old son and my husband and thinking what would happen to me if I lost them. I was immediately overwhelmed with anxiety. I realized that I would bury myself somewhere and wish to be left alone. That's how I started writing”.

To survive the tragedy that befell her and regain her strength, Lugand's heroine travels to a deaf Irish village, where the events of the novel develop. Taking just half a step from enmity to love, a young man with no less wounds than Diana and also troubled by life falls in love with her and tries to bring her back to life.