Debuts Dominated In April

France saw a new top-selling title on its fiction chart in April with Marc Levy’s Another Idea of Happiness, published April 24. Levy bumped the previous #1 book, Guillaume Musso’s Central Park, to the #2 spot. The second book in Katherine Pancol’s Muchachas series, Muchachas, Vol. 2, followed at #3.

The top of Sweden’s fiction list was dominated by new releases. Majgull Axelsson’s My Name Is Not Miriam took the top spot, followed by The Little Old Lady Strikes Again by Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg at #2. In the third slot was Child of the Shadows, the 15th book in Anna Jansson’s Maria Wern series.

The film adaptation of Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief opened in Italian theaters at the end of March, bumping the novel up from the #13 spot on Italy’s combined chart to #1 (Knopf published the novel in the U.S. in 2006). In another example of the page-to-screen effect, Divergent, the first book in Veronica Roth’s phenomenally popular trilogy of the same name, also hit high on the list, debuting at #3 (the film adaptation premiered in Italy on April 3). Beppe Severgnini’s Life Is a Journey was sandwiched by the international bestsellers at #2.

On the nonfiction front, And Do Not Forget to Be Happy by Christophe André led the pack on France’s list in April. The book bumped France’s previous nonfiction top-seller, Traveling Absurdly by Stéphane de Groodt and Christophe Debacq, to the #3 spot, with Philippe Torreton’s Granny holding firm at #2.

In April, the top two Swedish nonfiction titles were new to the list. The Hunt for Captain Dress, by Jonas Trolle, took the #1 spot, with Eva Robild’s Cultivate in Raised Bed, a gardening how-to, at #2.

International Bestsellers

France

Sweden

Italy