International Bestsellers: May 2016

For the third month running, Guillaume Musso’s Brooklyn Girl topped the fiction charts in France in May. Camilla Läckberg’s The Ice Child, her latest psychological thriller to feature Det. Patrik Hedström, followed at #2.

The autobiography of popular singer, songwriter, and actor Renaud Séchan, Like a Lost Child, took the top slot on France’s nonfiction list. Best known by his first name, Renaud has had such French-language hits as ”Dès que le vent soufflera,” “Laisse béton,” “Morgane de toi,” and “Mistral gagnant.” In second place on the French nonfiction list was You Will Not Have My Hate by Antoine Leiris, who expands on an open letter he wrote to the terrorists who killed his wife in the attacks in Paris on Nov. 13, 2015. Penguin Press will release the book in the U.S. in October.

In Italy, Andrea Camilleri’s latest Insp. Salvo Montalbano detective novel, The Other End of the Wire, was #1 on the combined fiction and nonfiction lists. Hanging on at the tail end of the top six, England’s Jojo Moyes made the list, with After You beating out Me Before You.

In Spain, telejournalist and novelist Mónica Carrillo’s I Forgot to Tell You That I Love You was #1 on the fiction charts and Elsa Punset’s The Book of Little Revolutions crowned the nonfiction list. Punset, a Spanish writer and philosopher specializing in emotional intelligence (and the daughter of the science writer Eduardo Punset), lays out what the Spanish Bookstage calls a “handful of quick routines” to promote well-being.

France

For the week ended May 29; used by arrangement with GFK/Livres Hebdo

Italy

For the week ended May 29; used by arrangement with Informazioni Editoriali

Spain

For the week ended June 7; used by arrangement with El Cultural

United Kingdom

Paula Hawkins’s The Girl on the Train rode to the top of the charts in the U.K. in May, with Joe Wicks’s Lean in 15 in the #2 slot. David Walliams’s story collection about 10 terrible kids, The World’s Worst Children, was at #3, and John Grisham’s legal thriller Rogue Lawyer was #4. Rounding out the top five was The Road to Little Dribbling, Bill Bryson’s travelogue memoir.

Australia

David Baldacci’s The Last Mile, the second novel in his new Amos Decker series, was #1 on the combined fiction and nonfiction lists in Australia in May, with Nora Roberts’s The Obsession at #2. Danielle Steel’s latest, The Apartment, came in at #3, with The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins at #4.

New Zealand

The Great New Zealand Baking Book took the top slot in the country’s combined lists in May, with Nadia Lim’s What’s for Dinner? taking the #5 slot. Hawkins, Baldacci, and Roberts are on the list here as well, with The Girl on the Train, The Last Mile, and The Obsession in slots #2, #3, and #4, respectively.

Source: Nielsen BookScan