Leïla Slimani’s thriller Chanson douce, which opens with the killing of two children by their caretaker, took the top spot on the fiction bestseller list in France at the end of November. Earlier that month, the book won the Prix Goncourt, France’s top literary award. Slimani is a former journalist for the French-language African news magazine Jeune Afrique. In nonfiction, Révolution, by Emmanuel Macron, is #1. Macron, the former adviser to French President François Hollande, uses the book to take both the rightist and leftist parties in the French Republic to task for policies pursued over the past 30 years.
On the combined fiction and nonfiction lists in Italy, Alessandro D’Avenia’s L’arte di essere fragili is #1. Long respected in Italy for his often-bestselling literary works, poet D’Avenia teaches literature in Milan and has written several screenplays in addition to his collections. Here, he examines the life of renowned Italian poet and thinker Giacomo Leopardi.
Spain sees Dolores Redondo’s Todo esto te daré—which won the biggest Spanish-language literary prize, the Planeta Prize, in November—at #1 on its fiction list. On the nonfiction list, the self-help book Los secretos que jamás te contaron, by the multitalented Albert Espinosa, is #1. Trained as an industrial engineer, Espinosa has worked as a screenwriter, playwright, writer, actor, director, and newspaper columnist at El Periódico de Catalunya.
France
| Fiction | Nonfiction | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chanson douce Soft Song Leïla Slimani Gallimard | Révolution Revolution Emmanuel Macron XO |
| 2 | Petit pays Little Country Gaël Faye Grasset et Fasquelle | Vaincre le totalitarisme islamique Conquering Islamic Totalitarianism François Fillon Albin Michel |
| 3 | Ta deuxième vie commence quand tu comprends que tu n’en as qu’une Your Second Life Begins When You Understand That You Only Have One Raphaëlle Giordano Eyrolles | Un président ne devrait pas dire ça...: les secrets d’un quinquennat A President Should Not Say That: Secrets of Five Years in Office Fabrice Lhomme & Gérard Davet Stock |
For the week ended Nov. 27; used by arrangement with GFK/Livres Hebdo
Italy
| Combined Fiction and Nonfiction | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | L’arte di essere fragili The Art of Being Fragile Alessandro D’Avenia Mondadori | 4 | Harry Potter e la maledizione dell’erede Harry Potter and the Cursed Child J. K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne Salani |
| 2 | La paranza dei bambini The Children’s Fishing Boat Roberto Saviano Feltrinelli | 5 | Veri amici True Friends Mates Mondadori Electa |
| 3 | La dieta della longevità The Longevity Diet Valter Longo Vallardi A. | 6 | L’estate fredda Cool Summer Gianrico Carofiglio Einaudi |
For the week ended Nov. 16; used by arrangement with Informazioni Editoriali
Spain
| Fiction | Nonfiction | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Todo esto te daré All This I Will Give You Dolores Redondo Planeta | Los secretos que jamás te contaron The Secrets I Never Told You Albert Espinosa Grijalbo |
| 2 | Pasa la noche conmigo Spend the Night with Me Megan Maxwell Planeta | Mi dieta cojea My Diet Limps Aitor Sánchez García Paidós |
| 3 | Falcó Falco Arturo Pérez-Reverte Alfaguara | El universo en tu mano The Universe in Your Hand Cristophe Galfard Blackie Books |
For the week ended Nov. 30; used by arrangement with El Cultural
