Six of the top 10 titles on France's fiction list were new. Prix Goncourt winner Mathias Énard landed at #2 with Tell Them About Battles, Kings and Elephants. (Open Letter just released Énard's Zone here; PW gave it a starred review.) Life Is Short and the Desire Endless by Patrick Lepeyre was at #4; Apocalypse Baby by feminist provocateur Virginie Despentes, billed as "social satire, thriller, and contemporary lesbian romance," was at #5; and Maylis de Kerangal's Birth of a Bridge, which won the Prix Médicis 2010, was at #6. Lower down on the list, an American, Charlaine Harris, debuted with Dead in the Family (published here by Ace) at #9. And Finnish author Sofi Oksanen's Purge, about the Soviet occupation of Estonia, is back on the list; Grove/Atlantic has U.S. rights.
In Germany, debuts included Untamed, which is the fourth novel of the vampire fantasy series House of Night by American author P.C. Cast and her daughter Kristin Cast, published here by St. Martin's, at #2. A comedic novel, Don't Tell Dad! by Dora Heldt, was #4; Heldt is a former bookseller who has worked as a sales rep for a major German publisher since 1992. Also new were This Body of Death by Elizabeth George (published here by Harper) at #7 and Sophie Kinsella's Mini Shopaholic (published here by Dial) at #9.
Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in October, debuted at #1 in Spain with The Dream of the Celt (not out yet in English). Eduardo Mendoza's Quarrel Among Cats landed at #4 and Juan José Millás's What I Know About Little Men came in at #10.
International Bestsellers
France
Fiction
La carte et le territoire
The Map and the Territory
Michel Houellebecq
Flammarion
Parle-leur de batailles, de rois et d'éléphants
Tell Them About Battles, Kings, and Elephants
Mathias Énard
Actes Sud/Leméac
Purge
Purge
Sofi Oksanen
Stock
Nonfiction
Indignez-vous!
Raise in Protest!
Stéphane Hessel
Indigène
Rappelle-moi
Remember Me
Michel Drucker
Robert Laffont
3 096 jours
3,096 Days
Natascha Kampusch
Lattès
Germany
Fiction
Sturz der Titanen
Fall of Giants (The Century Trilogy. Vol.1)
Ken Follett
Bastei Lübbe
Ungezähmt
Untamed: A House of Night Novel
P. C. Cast; Kristin Cast
Fischer FJB
Erbarmen
The Woman in the Cage
Jussi Adler-Olsen
DTV premium
Nonfiction
Deutschland schafft sich ab
Germany Does Away with Itself
Thilo Sarrazin
DVA
Life
Life
Keith Richards
Heyne
Auf dem roten Teppich
On the Red Carpet
Loki Schmidt
Hoffmann und Campe
Spain
Fiction
El sueño del celta
The Dream of the Celt
Mario Vargas Llosa
Alfaguara
La caída de los gigantes
Fall of Giants (The Century Trilogy. Vol.1)
Ken Follett
Plaza & Janés
El tiempo entre costuras
The Time Between Seams
María Dueñas
Temas de hoy
Nonfiction
No consigo adelgazar
The Dukan Diet (original French title Je ne sais pas maigrir)
Pierre Dukan
RBA
El desmoronamiento de España:
El Informe Recarte II
The Report Recarte II
Alberto Recarte
La esfera de los libros
¿Qué hace una persona como yo en una crisis como esta?
What Does a Person Like Me Do in a Crisis Like This?
Leopoldo Abadía
Espasa
