'Auntie Mame' Surprises in Italy

Lots of new titles landed on bestsellers lists overseas in September, none more curious than the #1 seller in Italy, Auntie Mame. First released in the U.S. in 1955, Mame was written by the American cultural satirist Edward Everett Tanner III using the pseudonym Patrick Dennis. Mame spent a long run on the New York Times bestseller list when it was first released along with two other Tanner titles, Guestward Ho! and The Loving Couple. The most recent American edition of Mame was published in trade paperback in 2001 by Broadway; the edition is still in print and has sold 70,000 copies.

In Germany, the fifth title in the Inspector Kluftinger series beat out the English-language edition of The Lost Symbol for top spot on the fiction list. Unlike Symbol author Dan Brown, the writing team of Volker Klüpfel and Michael Kobr do not have an American publisher. In third place on the French fiction list is the most recent novel from Marie NDiaye. NDiaye won France's Prix Femina in 2001 for Rosie Carpe, which was released in the U.S. in 2004 by the University of Nebraska Press.

The most interesting new nonfiction book for American audiences is in Sweden, where The Truth About IKEA takes a critical look at the inner workings of the company by a former executive, Johan Stenebo. It debuted in the fifth spot; no U.S. publisher yet.

International Bestsellers