Mysteries on Top in Sweden, Italy
By Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 9/15/2008
While there was little turnover on the bestseller lists from some major European countries, there was plenty of new fiction in Sweden, led by The Tale of Mr. Roos, which debuted at #2. Author Hakan Nesser has won several Swedish awards for his crime novels; Mr. Roos is his third book to feature Gunnar Barbarotti. Nesser's Inspector Van Veeteren novels are published in the U.S. by Vintage. Two other mysteries, The Dark Angel by Mari Jungstedt, and He Who Kills the Dragon by Leif GW Persson, were #6 and #7, respectively.
One of Italy's most popular authors, Andrea Camilleri, had the third top-selling title in August—The Gatekeeper. Camilleri is best known for his Inspector Montalbano mysteries, published in the U.S. by Penguin. At #6 is Oriana Fallaci's posthumously published A Hat Full of Cherries. The controversial journalist and author worked on this novel about the history of her family for 10 years before her death. And Italy is just the latest country to see Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo hit the bestseller list, debuting at #8. Larsson's The Girl Who Played with Fire landed in the 12th spot.
Among the new bestsellers in Germany last month were Stephenie Meyer's The Host, at #2 in fiction, and Randy Pausch's The Last Lecture, which returned to the nonfiction list at #5 following Pausch's death.
