J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy debuted at #3 on the fiction chart in Spain in December, good enough to place it right behind Fifty Shades of Grey, which held steady at #2. Neither book was able to knock The Tango of the Old Guard by Arturo Pérez-Reverte from its spot atop the chart. On the nonfiction side in Spain, former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar’s autobiography, Memoires I, debuted at #2, landing just behind the third and final volume in the Pope’s Jesus of Nazareth series, The Infancy Narratives.
Chef Jamie Oliver saw his book, Jamie’s 15-Minute Meals, hit #4 in the Netherlands, where it landed behind Michel van Egmond’s Gijp, which jumped to #3 from #15 last month. Oliver has had huge success in the U.S., beginning with The Naked Chef in 2000 (Hyperion), which to date has sold over 120,000 copies at outlets tracked by Nielsen BookScan and is still his biggest seller. In total, Hyperion has published eight books by Oliver and each has sold more than 50,000 copies each.
Oliver was overshadowed in the Netherlands, though—and France and Spain, for that matter—by the Fifty Shades trilogy, which appeared on all three charts this month. The three books that make up the trilogy made the top six in the Netherlands, and in France only Joël Dicker’s The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair was able to sell more in fiction.
International Bestsellers
| Netherlands | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Combined | |||
| 1 | Vijftig tinten grijs Fifty Shades of Grey E.L. James Prometheus | 4 | Jamie in 15 minuten Jamie’s 15-Minute Meals Jamie Oliver Kosmos |
| 2 | Andy van der Meijde. Geen genade Andy van der Meijde: No Mercy Thijs Slegers Voetbal International | 5 | Vijftig tinten donkerder Fifty Shades Darker E.L. James Prometheus |
| 3 | Gijp Gijp Michel van Egmond De Buitenspelers | 6 | Vijftig tinten vrij Fifty Shades Freed E.L. James Prometheus |
| For week ending December 30, 2012, used by arrangement with Stichting CPNB | |||
| France | ||
|---|---|---|
| Fiction | Nonfiction | |
| 1 | La vérité sur l’affaire Harry Quebert The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair Joël Dicker Ed. de Fallois/L’Age d’homme | Le dictionnaire de Laurent Baffie The Dictionary of Laurent Baffie Laurent Baffie Editions Kero |
| 2 | Fifty shades, vol. 1: Cinquante nuances de Grey Fifty Shades of Grey E.L. James Lattès | Tout seul All Alone Raymond Domenech Flammarion |
| 3 | Le sermon sur la chute de Rome The Sermon on the Demise of Rome Jérôme Ferrari Actes Sud | Carnets secrets Secret Notebooks Jean-Luc Delarue Archipel |
| For week ending December 23, 2012, used by arrangement with Livres Hebdo/Ipsos | ||
| Spain | ||
|---|---|---|
| Fiction | Nonfiction | |
| 1 | El tango de la Guardia Vieja The Tango of the Old Guard Arturo Pérez-Reverte Alfaguara | La infancia de Jesús Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives Joseph Ratzinger Planeta |
| 2 | Cincuenta sombras de Grey Fifty Shades of Grey E.L. James Grijalbo | Memorias I Memories I José María Aznar Planeta |
| 3 | Una vacante imprevista The Casual Vacancy J.K. Rowling Salamandra | El arte de no amargarse la vida The Art of Not Making Our Lives Miserable Rafael Santandreu Oniro |
| For week ending January 4, 2013, used by arrangement with El Cultural | ||
