| Mélissa Da Costa | |
| Birth Date: | 7 August 1990 |
| Occupation: | Novelist |
| Language: | French |
| Genre: | Feel-Good |
| Notable Works: | Tout le bleu du ciel |
| Awards: | Prix Alain-Fournier (2020), Prix du roman Cezam (2020), Prix Babelio (2022) |
Mélissa Da Costa (born 7 August 1990) is a French novelist and author of bestsellers.
Mélissa Da Costa grew up in the countryside in the department of Ain, near Mâcon.[1] Her father worked in construction, and her mother was a childcare assistant.[2] She has two sisters: Jeanne, who became a midwife, and Clara, who works as an activities coordinator in a nursing home.[3]
She started writing poetry, stories, and novels when she was seven years old.[4] Feeling that she wasn't cut out to be a writer, she pursued a degree in economics. From 2008 to 2011, she studied economics and management at IAE Lyon. Later, she worked as a communications officer for a city council in Isère, focusing on energy and climate issues.[5] She also took courses in aromatherapy, naturopathy, and sophrology.
Mélissa Da Costa is married to a graphic designer and has two children.[6] She lives in the Paris region.
After writing four novels, Mélissa Da Costa decided to self-publish two of them on the platform Amazon, but they didn't find much success. In 2018, she uploaded one of her novels to the self-publishing platform monbestseller.com, where she was discovered and published by a small publishing house, Carnets Nord. The novel, later titled Tout le bleu du ciel, which deals with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease and tells the story of a young man with a terminal diagnosis who embarks on a journey with a stranger, achieved significant success in paperback.[7]
In May 2020, having reached a point where she could support herself through her writing, she left her job as a communications officer. Her success continued with subsequent titles published by Albin Michel: Les Lendemains (2020), Je revenais des autres (2021), Les Douleurs fantômes (2022), La Doublure (2022), and Les Femmes du bout du monde (2023). In 2023, she also wrote La Faiseuse d'étoiles, with proceeds going to UNICEF.[8]
Her novels have been considered bestsellers: by 2021, they ranked among the top 10 best-selling books in France.[9] [10] In January 2023, Mélissa Da Costa was listed among the ten best-selling French authors of 2022 by Le Figaro. She ranked third, behind Guillaume Musso and Joël Dicker, with 844,547 copies sold that year.[11] In 2024, according to a report by Le Figaro, Mélissa Da Costa became the most-read author in France, surpassing Guillaume Musso, who had held that position for twelve years.[12]
Although often classified as a feel-good author, Mélissa Da Costa rejects this label.