A controversial book claiming France is becoming a “savage” nation with thousands of thefts, rapes and attacks going unreported daily has turned into an unlikely best seller.
Flying in the face of the traditional image of a country seen as the land of good living, ‘France, A Clockwork Orange’ claims that mainstream politicians and the media have long masked a far more disturbing reality: it is rapidly descending into mindless violence and incivility.
“Nobody should ignore the reality,” the book claims, namely that “every 24 hours 13,000 thefts, 2,000 attacks and 200 rapes” take place in France – figures far higher than official national statistics.
Claiming to lift the lid on a taboo – “the ‘ensavagement’ of a nation” – it has been dismissed by some commentators and criminologists as biased, unscientific and downright racist, peddling far-Right theories linking crime and immigration.
Marine Le Pen urged everyone to “read it and get others to read it”
But since its release mid-January, the book by Laurent Obertone, the pseudonym of a previously unknown 28-year old journalist, has sold 35,000 copies and a fresh print run of 20,000 is on sale. It reached fifth in France’s weekly Ipsos-Livres Hebdo bestseller list and is currently third in Amazon’s most requested book rankings.
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