International Bestselling Books: March 2009

Lots of new titles hit the bestseller lists abroad in February, including Breaking Dawn, which debuted at #1 in Germany, giving author Stephenie Meyer a clean sweep of the top three spots on that country's fiction list. In nonfiction, a book of short interviews with former prime minister Helmut Schmidt landed in the third spot; Schmidt's autobiography, Off Duty, stayed at #1.

The top six bestsellers on France's nonfiction list were all new in February. Me Nojoud, in the top spot, joins the growing list of memoirs by children from repressive countries. Ali was married and, with help, divorced at age 10 in Yemen.

Every title on Sweden's top 10 fiction list—except #3, The Heart Never Gets Wrinkled—was new in February. Debuting at #1 is the newest from novelist Carl-Johan Vallgren; his Horrific Sufferings of the Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot, was published in the U.S. by HarperCollins in March 2007. Because some European countries list memoirs as fiction, Ann Heberlein's book about her struggle with depression landed at #2 on Sweden's fiction list. British author Mark Bellingham, whose thrillers have been well reviewed in the U.S., had the #4 fiction title, Death Message; it will be published in the U.S. this fall by Harper.