With Knopf set to release Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 this week in the U.S., the latest novel from the award-winning Japanese author was an instant bestseller in Japan and debuted at #3 in France in September. Topping the French fiction chart last month was The Passenger, the most recent thriller from the Paris-born author Jean-Christophe Grangé. Grangé has been published in the U.S. by a couple of different houses with limited success.

The hottest novel in Germany in September was The Collini Case. The author, Ferdinand von Schirach, is a well-known German lawyer and the grandson of a former head of the Hitler Youth in the 1930s. Two of his short story collections have sold 800,000 copies in Germany, and The Collini Case, his debut novel, while set in 2001 Berlin, examines the history of the Third Reich as the main character looks into the murder of a German industrialist. Penguin’s U.K. division bought world English rights to the novel before the Frankfurt Book Fair.

In Sweden, Jens Lapidus’s Life Deluxe continued its long grip on the #1 ranking, holding off new books by Camilla Läckberg and Katerina Janouch. Life Deluxe is the third book in a mystery trilogy, with Pantheon set to release the first title, Easy Money, in November. Läckberg has been a steady seller in the U.S. since Pegasus Books first published her The Ice Princess in spring 2010. Janouch has published both fiction and nonfiction works in Sweden, but has not yet been published in the U.S.

International Bestsellers: October 2011

Germany

Fiction

Schoßgebete
Spread..., Pray, Screw
Charlotte Roche
Piper


Der Fall Collini
The Collini Case
Ferdinand von Schirach
Piper

Erlösung
Message in a Bottle
Jussi Adler-Olsen
dtv premium

Nonfiction

Ein Schnupfen hätte auch gereicht
A Simple Cold Had Been Good Enough, Too
Gaby Köster
Scherz

Der feine Unterschied
The Little Difference
Philipp Lahm
Kunstmann

Cashkurs
Cash Course
Dirk Müller
Droemer

France

Fiction

Le passager
The Passenger
Jean-Christophe Grangé
Albin Michel


Rien ne s’oppose à la nuit
Nothing Prevents the Night
Delphine de Vigan
Lattès

1Q84
1Q84
Haruki Murakami
Belfond

Nonfiction

La République des mallettes: enquête sur la principauté française de non-droit
The Republic of Hidden Agendas: An Inquiry on Unlawful Actions in France
Pierre Péan
Fayard

Sarko m’a tuer
The French President Has Killed Me
Gérard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme
Stock

L’échéance: Français, vous n’avez encore rien vu…
Due Date: French Citizens, You Haven’t Seen Anything Yet
François de Closets with Irène Inchauspé
Fayard

Sweden

Fiction

Livet Deluxe
Life Deluxe
Jens Lapidus
Wahlström & Widstrand

Änglamakerskan (Förhandsupplaga)
The Angel Maker (exclusive pre-order edition)
Camilla Läckberg
Bokförlag Forum

Tigerkvinnan
Tiger Woman
Katerina Janouch
Piratförlaget

Nonfiction

Fågelsång: 150 svenska fåglar och deras läten—Kompaktutgåvan
Birdsongs: 150 Swedish Birds and their Sounds—Compact Edition
Lars Svensson & Jan Pedersen
Max Ström Bokförlag

Motormännens Sverige Vägatlas 2011
Swedish Automobile Association’s Roadatlas Sweden 2011
Swedish Automobile Association
Norstedts Förlag

Det du inte såg
What You Didn’t See
Patrik Sjöberg and Markus Lutteman
Norstedts Förlag