A Worthy Atonement

Ian McEwan's bestseller Atonement debuts at #2 on PW's trade paperback list, and while it just missed winning England's prestigious Booker Award, it did hit the NBCC target, taking the prize for the best fiction in 2002. That accolade, plus very strong bookseller support, made for huge first-week sales. Anchor Books followed a first printing of 325,000 with a second of 100,000 copies. The Doubleday hardcover, published last March, has about 250,000 copies in print and was on our hardcover bestseller list for 12 weeks, reaching as high as #5. McEwan will be in the States next month for three reading appearances, two in New York City—at Symphony Space for NPR's Selected Shorts program (Apr. 27) and at the 92nd Street Y (Apr. 28)—plus he'll be at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania.