International Bestsellers: Vampires, Children And Politics
-- Publishers Weekly, 2/23/2009
Vampires certainly travel well. Stephenie Meyer's tale of love among the undead is as popular in Europe as it is here in the U.S. New Moon has taken the #2 spot on the German fiction list, while the first two book in the series hold the top two spots on the Italian fiction list.
Politics always manages to capture European readers, and this month's lists are no different. In Germany, former chancellor Helmut Schmidt's Off Duty, a political memoir, takes the #2 spot on the nonfiction list, while Patrick Rambaud's mock chronicle of a French king serves as a vehicle to lampoon French president Nicolas Sarkozy. The #2 and #3 titles on the French nonfiction list—Jacques Attali's The Crisis and Bernard Pivot's 100 Expressions We Must Save, on cultural politics around the French language, provide two variations on the European political broadside.
Parenting is the topic of two bestsellers by German author Michael Winterhoff. The books, Little Bullies Do Not Have to Be and Why Our Children Are Bullies, are #1 and #3 on the German nonfiction list. And in France, where (perhaps presciently) memoirs are categorized as fiction, Jean-Louis Fournier's book on his handicapped children, Where Are We Going, Dad?, is #3.
| Germany | ||
| Fiction | Nonfiction | |
| 1 | Fame Daniel Kehlmann Rowohlt | Little Bullies Do Not Have to Be Michael Winterhoff Gütersloher Verlagshaus |
| 2 | New Moon: The Twilight Saga, Book 2 Stephenie Meyer Carlsen | Off Duty: A Balance Helmut Schmidt Siedler |
| 3 | Whispers of the Dead Simon Beckett Wunderlicht | Why Our Children Are Bullies Michael Winterhoff Gütersloher Verlagshaus |
| For week ending January 28, used by arrangement with Buchreport | ||
| France | ||
| Fiction | Nonfiction | |
| 1 | Second Chronicle of the Reign of Nicolas 1st Patrick Rambaud Grasset | Ocean's Songs Olivier de Kersauson Le Cherche Midi |
| 2 | Man in the Dark Paul Auster Actes Sud | The Crisis—and What Is Next? Jacques Attali Fayard |
| 3 | Where Are We Going, Dad? Jean-Louis Fournier Stock | 100 Expressions We Must Save Bernard Pivot Albin Michel |
| For week ending January 28, used by arrangement with Livres Hebdo/Ipsos | ||
| Italy | ||
| Fiction | Nonfiction | |
| 1 | Twilight: The Twilight Saga, Book 1 Stephenie Meyer Fazi | The Furious Jolanda Luciana Littizzetto Mondadori |
| 2 | New Moon: The Twilight Saga, Book 2 Stephenie Meyer Fazi | Yesterday's Bread Enzo Bianchi Einaudi |
| 3 | The Loneliness of the First Numbers Paolo Giordano Mondadori | School of Cooking Antonella Clerici and Anna Moroni Mondadori |
| For week ending January 8, used by arrangement with Informazioni Editoriali | ||
