The top three bestselling novels in France last month were new to the country’s fiction list, with Emmanuel Carrère’s The Kingdom coming in first. The “historical epic” tells the story of the beginnings of Christianity, at the end of the first century C.E. At #2 on the chart was Pétronille, a “story of friendship between two young women” by Amélie Nothomb. Eric Reinhardt’s Love and Forests came in third.

Bernhard Schlink, author of The Reader, topped Germany’s fiction list in August with The Woman on the Stairs. The novel, which centers on a famous painting that has been missing for decades and suddenly turns up, is about “sympathy, property, and loss... and the happiness of a love that knows its own finite nature.” A translation of Dave Eggers’s The Circle, published in the U.S. by Knopf/McSweeney’s in October 2013, landed at #2.

American novelists dominated Spain’s fiction list last month, with the Spanish edition of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars hitting #1. The film adaptation opened in Spanish theaters on July 4. A translation of Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch sat at #2 on the list, and John Green rounded out the top three with his 2008 novel, Paper Towns (casting for the forthcoming film adaptation is underway).

Cécile Duflot’s From the Inside claimed the top spot on France’s nonfiction list. In the book, Duflot recalls her time as French housing minister (she lost the post in March during a cabinet reshuffle) and offers a scathing critique of President François Hollande.

In Germany, Wilhelm Schmid held on to the top nonfiction spot with Equanimity, a “pragmatic” look into the “art of dealing with growing older.”

International Bestsellers

France

Fiction Nonfiction
1 Le royaume
The Kingdom
Emmanuel Carrère
POL
De l’intérieur
From the Inside
Cécile Duflot
Fayard
2 Pétronille
Pétronille
Amélie Nothomb
Albin Michel
Un été avec Proust
A Summer with Proust
Laura El Makki et al.
Ed. des Equateurs/France Inter
3 L’amour et les forêts
Love and Forests
Eric Reinhardt
Gallimard
1 kilo de culture générale
1 Kilo of General Culture
Florence Braunstein
and Jean-François Pépin
PUF

Germany

Fiction Nonfiction
1 Die Frau auf der Treppe
The Woman on the Stairs
Bernhard Schlink
Diogenes
Gelassenheit
Equanimity
Wilhelm Schmid
Insel
2 Der Circle
The Circle
Dave Eggers
Kiepenheuer & Witsch
Die Würde ist antastbar
Human Dignity Is Violable
Ferdinand von Schirach
Piper
3 Das Pubertier
Teens
Jan Weiler
Kindler
Der Crash ist die Lösung
The Crash is the Solution
Matthias Weik and Marc Friedrich
Eichborn

For the week ended Aug. 31; used by arrangement with Buchreport.

Spain

Fiction Nonfiction
1 Bajo la misma estrella
The Fault in Our Stars
John Green
Nube de tinta
The Book Troll
The Book Troll
El Rubius
Temas de hoy
2 El jilguero
The Goldfinch
Donna Tartt
Lumen
Las gafas de la felicidad
The Glasses of Happiness
Rafael Santandreu
Grijalbo
3 Ciudades de papel
Paper Towns
John Green
Nube de tinta
Yo fui a EGB
I Went to EGB
Javier Ikaz and Jorge Díaz
Plaza & Janés

For the week ended Sept. 5; used by arrangement with El Cultural.