The top three bestselling novels in France last month were new to the country’s fiction list, with Emmanuel Carrère’s The Kingdom coming in first. The “historical epic” tells the story of the beginnings of Christianity, at the end of the first century C.E. At #2 on the chart was Pétronille, a “story of friendship between two young women” by Amélie Nothomb. Eric Reinhardt’s Love and Forests came in third.
Bernhard Schlink, author of The Reader, topped Germany’s fiction list in August with The Woman on the Stairs. The novel, which centers on a famous painting that has been missing for decades and suddenly turns up, is about “sympathy, property, and loss... and the happiness of a love that knows its own finite nature.” A translation of Dave Eggers’s The Circle, published in the U.S. by Knopf/McSweeney’s in October 2013, landed at #2.
American novelists dominated Spain’s fiction list last month, with the Spanish edition of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars hitting #1. The film adaptation opened in Spanish theaters on July 4. A translation of Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch sat at #2 on the list, and John Green rounded out the top three with his 2008 novel, Paper Towns (casting for the forthcoming film adaptation is underway).
Cécile Duflot’s From the Inside claimed the top spot on France’s nonfiction list. In the book, Duflot recalls her time as French housing minister (she lost the post in March during a cabinet reshuffle) and offers a scathing critique of President François Hollande.
In Germany, Wilhelm Schmid held on to the top nonfiction spot with Equanimity, a “pragmatic” look into the “art of dealing with growing older.”
International Bestsellers
France
| Fiction | Nonfiction | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Le royaume The Kingdom Emmanuel Carrère POL | De l’intérieur From the Inside Cécile Duflot Fayard |
| 2 | Pétronille Pétronille Amélie Nothomb Albin Michel | Un été avec Proust A Summer with Proust Laura El Makki et al. Ed. des Equateurs/France Inter |
| 3 | L’amour et les forêts Love and Forests Eric Reinhardt Gallimard | 1 kilo de culture générale 1 Kilo of General Culture Florence Braunstein and Jean-François Pépin PUF |
Germany
| Fiction | Nonfiction | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Die Frau auf der Treppe The Woman on the Stairs Bernhard Schlink Diogenes | Gelassenheit Equanimity Wilhelm Schmid Insel |
| 2 | Der Circle The Circle Dave Eggers Kiepenheuer & Witsch | Die Würde ist antastbar Human Dignity Is Violable Ferdinand von Schirach Piper |
| 3 | Das Pubertier Teens Jan Weiler Kindler | Der Crash ist die Lösung The Crash is the Solution Matthias Weik and Marc Friedrich Eichborn |
For the week ended Aug. 31; used by arrangement with Buchreport.
Spain
| Fiction | Nonfiction | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bajo la misma estrella The Fault in Our Stars John Green Nube de tinta | The Book Troll The Book Troll El Rubius Temas de hoy |
| 2 | El jilguero The Goldfinch Donna Tartt Lumen | Las gafas de la felicidad The Glasses of Happiness Rafael Santandreu Grijalbo |
| 3 | Ciudades de papel Paper Towns John Green Nube de tinta | Yo fui a EGB I Went to EGB Javier Ikaz and Jorge Díaz Plaza & Janés |
For the week ended Sept. 5; used by arrangement with El Cultural.
