New titles dominated the top spots on February’s bestseller lists across foreign markets. Alan Friedman’s Kill the Leopard, published February 12, landed in the top spot on Italy’s combined list last month. In the book, American journalist Alan Friedman takes a nonfiction look into Italy’s fall into a fiscal crisis, and how the country can get its growth and employment back on track. Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep, a sequel to The Shining, was new to the list at #2, with Italian writer Michele Serra’s latest novel, The Liars, falling one spot to #3.
In Germany, British crime novelist Simon Beckett’s standalone thriller, Stone Bruises, was new to the list at #1. Beckett reached prominence in Germany with his David Hunter series—the first installment, Chemistry of Death, sold more than one million copies in the country. Beckett bumped the previous #1 novel on the chart, Jonas Jonasson’s The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden (published by Ecco in the U.S. in April), which landed at #2. Haruki Murakami’s Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, coming from Knopf in August, fell one spot to #3.
History of Nonsense, Joaquín Leguina’s analysis of the government under former Spanish Prime Ministe José Zapatero, was new to the nonfiction chart in Spain, hitting the country’s top spot. On the fiction side, Isabel Allende’s Ripper (Harper released the book stateside in January) was once again the bestselling novel in the country, followed by Frederick Forsyth’s The Kill List, new to the chart at #2.
International Bestsellers: Italy
| Combined | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ammazziamo il gattopardo Kill the Leopard Alan Friedman Rizzoli | 4 | Sei per la Sardegna You Are For Sardinia — Einaudi |
| 2 | Doctor Sleep Doctor Sleep Stephen King Sperling & Kupfer | 5 | Braccialetti rossi. Il mondo giallo The Yellow World Albert Espinosa Salani |
| 3 | Gli sdraiati The Liars Michele Serra Feltrinelli | 6 | Polvere Dust Patricia D. Cornwell Mondadori |
Germany
| Fiction | Nonfiction | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Der Hof Stone Bruises Simon Beckett Wunderlich | Der neue Tugendterror The New Virtue Terror Thilo Sarrazin DVA |
| 2 | Die Analphabetin die rechnen konnte The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden Jonas Jonasson carl´s books | Anziehungskraft Attraction Guido M. Kretschmer Edel Books |
| 3 | Die Pilgerjahre des farblosen Herrn Tazaki Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage Haruki Murakami DuMont | Da geht noch was It’s Never Too Late: Turning the bend at 65 Christine Westermann Kiepenheuer & Witsch |
Spain
| Fiction | Nonfiction | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | El juego de Ripper Ripper Isabel Allende Plaza & Janés | Historia de un despropósito History of Nonsense Joaquín Leguina Temas de hoy |
| 2 | La lista The Kill List Frederick Forsyth Plaza & Janés | Yo fui a EGB I Went to Javier Ikaz & Jorge Díaz Plaza & Janés |
| 3 | En la orilla On the Shore Rafael Chirbes Anagrama | El dilema de España The Dilemma of Spain Luis Garicano Península |
