Winning the third annual German Book Award for fiction propelled Julia Franck's Lunch Lady to the top of that country's charts at the end of October. Lunch Lady explores the poverty-stricken childhood of the books' main character, who was abandoned by his mother just after World War II. To date, Franck has not been published in the U.S. In second place on the German fiction list is an author with a huge American following, Cornelia Funke, whose Inkdeath is the final volume in her Ink trilogy. Inkdeath will be published by Scholastic/Chicken House in fall 2008.
Another children's fiction title selling well overseas is The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, which remains at #1 in Spain. The book hit PW's children's bestsellers list when it was released in hardcover by Random House last fall. Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate, which PW described as “obviously modeled after War and Peace,” was confiscated by the KGB shortly after Grossman wrote it in the 1960s and is #2. A new edition from Vintage was published in the U.S. last year. In third place, Your Face Tomorrow is the final volume in Javier Marias's acclaimed spy trilogy; the first two books were released in the U.S. by New Directions, which will bring out the last volume in 2009.
France | ||
Fiction | Nonfiction | |
1 | Headache at SchoolDaniel Pennac Gallimard | Anti-Cancer: How to Prevent and Fight It with Our Natural DefensesDavid Servan-Schreiber R. Laffont |
2 | We, the Gods: The Mystery of the GodsBernard Werber Albin Michel | A Life in DisorderMarcel Rufo Anne Carrière |
3 | The Hedgehog's EleganceMuriel Barbery Gallimard | The Big Body from BeneathBernard-Henri Levy Grasset |
For week ending October 27, used by arrangement with Livres Hebdo. | ||
Germany | ||
Fiction | Nonfiction | |
1 | Lunch LadyJulia Franck S. Fischer | I Am Off for a Little WhileHape Kerkeling Rowohlt Berlin |
2 | InkdeathCornelia Funke Dressler | The God DelusionRichard Dawkins Ullstein |
3 | TannodAndrea Schenkel Edition Nautilus | The SecretRhonda Byrne Arkana |
For week ending October 27, used by arrangement with Buchreport. | ||
Spain | ||
Fiction | Nonfiction | |
1 | The Boy in the Striped PajamasJohn Boyne Salamandra | Jesus of NazarethPope Benedict XVI La Esfera de los Libros |
2 | Life and FateVasily Grossman Galaxia Gutenberg | The Journey to LoveEduardo Punset Destino |
3 | Your Face TomorrowJavier Marias Alfaguara | As the River FlowsPaulo Coelho Planeta |
For week ending October 27, used by arrangement with El Cultural. |