On Thursday 19 September, Editions Robert Laffont announced the death of its president and CEO, Sophie Charnavel, at the age of 47, following a long illness. “He had an uncommon talent for assembling teams and quickly brought Robert Laffont’s house back into the spotlight”the company said in a press release.
“She was considered in her professional environment as an editor of documents (of blows, said the jealous ones), but she had a very clear vision of the manuscripts that we sent her and she dissected them with great delicacy”wrote in the express one of the novelists he edited, Louis-Henri de La Rochefoucauld.
Sophie Charnavel joined the Editis group in 2018 from Plon and Presses de la Renaissance, and since 2020 has been the head of one of the group’s most prestigious houses, Robert Laffont. She had previously worked for Hachette, Denoël, Stock, Privé, Flammarion and Fayard.
Many tributes
“Cancer killed Sophie Charnavel, editor and human rights activist. A being of light has left us. Her gaze still pierces the night of her departure. Many cry and are already looking for her in their stunned memory.”wrote, in X, the leader of La France insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, whose book Do better! Towards a citizen revolution It was published by Robert Laffont in 2023.
“His career in publishing was impressive, as was his talent, his open-mindedness and his selflessness in entering this profession.”The former “rebel” and co-founder of After (the Association for an ecological and social republic) Raquel Garrido, said, highlighting “solidarity actions” which he carried out in Seine-Saint-Denis “giving books to young people “.
Former Justice Minister and writer Christiane Taubira wondered about X: “How did our joy-digger, Sophie Charnavel, manage to close her eyes, those eyes that devoured books almost as well as her heart? »
