International Bestsellers: November 2013: New Titles Rule The Lists

Newcomers to the international bestseller lists locked down the top spots in several markets in October. Haruki Murakami’s much anticipated novel Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, the author’s first since 1Q84, hit #1 on Spain’s fiction list (Knopf will publish a translation in the U.S. in fall 2014). Anna Gavalda led the French list with her new novel Billie, which tells the story of a man and a woman who try to hit the restart button on their relationship.

New releases occupied the top three spots on Sweden’s fiction list last month. Leif G.W. Persson’s The True Story of Pinocchio’s Nose, billed as a “wicked fairy tale for grown-up children,” grabbed #1. The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson landed in the #2 spot (HarperCollins will publish a translation in the U.S. in April 2014).

On the nonfiction side, María de Villota’s Life is a Gift landed on the Spanish list at #1. De Villota, a Formula One test driver, died in October at the age of 33, just prior to the book’s publication. I Can Promise and Promise, Fernando Ónega’s biography of Adolfo Suárez, Spain’s first democratically elected prime minister after the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, debuted in the #2 spot. Hanging on to the #1 spot on France’s nonfiction chart was Lorànt Deutsch’s Hexagon: On the Road of French History, a collection of biographies of 26 famous French men and women throughout history. Cécilia Attias’s A Desire for Truth landed on the country’s nonfiction list at #2. And another newbie, From Light to Oblivion, journalist and TV host Michel Drucker’s account of his life in show business, hit the #3 spot.

International Bestsellers

Spain

France

Sweden