Germans Buy Follett; Spain Loves Rowling
by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 4/21/2008
Ken Follett’s international bestseller World Without End has taken the top spot on the German fiction list; it’s followed by Wetlands, a steamy autobiographical first novel by a young female former TV host. On the nonfiction list a new and controversial title, Why Do You Kill, Zaid, appears at #9. The book, written by a former conservative parliament member, accuses the Christian West of being as cruel as Muslim terrorists.
In France readers have flocked to Anna Gavalda’s 600-page novel The Consoler, at #1 on the list, while American novelist Harlan Coben’s crime thriller The Woods is at #3. In nonfiction, the French public’s continuing fascination with president Nicolas Sarkozy continues with This Will End Badly at #1, a critique by a conservative former minister of culture of Sarkozy’s presidential style.
Spanish readers embraced American and English titles up and down the list. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is at #1; Follett’s World Without End at #3; Philip Roth’s Exit Ghost is at #6; and Martin Amis’s House of Meetings is at #8. The nonfiction list features Rhonda Byrne’s self-help bestseller, The Secret, at #1; at #2 is The Dog Whisperer by Cesar Millan, the Dr. Phil of the canine world.
International Bestsellers
| Fiction | Nonfiction | |
| 1 | World Without End Ken Follett Lubbe | I Am Off for a Little While Hape Kerkeling Malik |
| 2 | Wetlands Charlotte Roche DuMont | Viva Polonia Steffen Moller Scherz |
| 3 | Amateur Play Volker Klupfel Piper | Who Am I, and How Many Richard Precht Goldmann |
| For week ending March 23, used by arrangement with Buchreport. | ||
| Fiction | Nonfiction | |
| 1 | The Consoler Anna Gavalda Dilettante | This Will End Badly Francois Leotard Grasset |
| 2 | The Girl with the Dragon Stieg Larsson Actes Sud | The French Divorce: The People Against the Elites Francois de Closets Fayard |
| 3 | The Woods Harlan Cohen Belfond | The World According to Monsanto Marie-Monique Robin La DeCouverte |
| For week ending March 23, used by arrangement with Livres Hebdo/Ipsos. | ||
| Fiction | Nonfiction | |
| 1 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows J.K. Rowling Salamandra | The Secret Rhonda Byrne Urano |
| 2 | The Boy in the Striped Pajamas John Boyne Salamandra | The Dog Whisperer Cesar Milan Aguilar |
| 3 | World Without End Ken Follett Plaza & Janes | A Body for All the Life Txumari Alfaro Ediciones B |
| For week ending March 23, used by arrangement with El Cultural. | ||
