PARIS: A memoir by France's former first lady Valerie Trierweiler that spills the beans on her tumultuous relationship with President Francois Hollande has become the best-selling book on Amazon France in just one day.
"Thank You For This Moment" comes out on Thursday, and extracts published ahead of its release in glossy magazine Paris-Match and daily Le Monde are far from kind to the Socialist leader, who split up with Trierweiler in January after his affair with actress Julie Gayet came to light.
The book, written in utmost secrecy and printed in Germany to avoid any leaks, had already become the best-selling book on Amazon France on Wednesday, jumping to the number one spot in just one day.
In so doing, it overtook the hugely popular erotic novel "Fifty Shades Of Grey", which has spent 224 days in the top 100 and is now the French site's fifth best-selling book.
In her memoir, Trierweiler paints Hollande as a cold, at times uncaring man who has been "de-humanised" by power and belittles the poor, far from his self-styled image as "Mr Normal" and light years away from the "electric" start to their relationship in 2005.
The glamorous journalist, now 49, got together with Hollande while he was in a relationship with Segolene Royal herself a former presidential candidate and the pair began a secret liaison.
Hollande subsequently left Royal, the mother of his four children, for Trierweiler, who became the de facto first lady of France after he was elected in 2012 despite the fact the pair were not married.
But in an 18-word statement in January, he announced his relationship was over with Trierweiler, whom he had once described as "the love of my life."
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