The top of France’s nonfiction list took on a political bent in October, with an exposé of French president François Hollande penned by investigative journalists Fabrice Lhomme and Gérard Davet after five years of research. Novelist Laurent Gounelle examines the junction where faith and doubt meet in his latest novel, And You Will Find the Treasure That Sleeps in You, which follows communications specialist Alice, an atheist, as she helps her childhood friend Jeremiah to become a country priest.

In Germany, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts 1 and 2—the first play in J.K. Rowling’s megabestselling series, which she cowrote with Jack Thorne and John Tiffany—continues to sell well, taking the second slot on the fiction list. Bruce Springsteen is enough of a boss to land in the third slot on the nonfiction chart with his recent memoir, Born to Run. At #2 in nonfiction is Against Hate, by the winner of the 2016 German Book Trade Peace Prize, German journalist Carolin Emcke, who reports frequently from war zones and whose work focuses on regions in crisis.

Italy finds Rowling and co. up on top of its combined lists with Cursed Child. Foreign thrillers proved popular in the country in October as well, with The Book of Baltimore by Switzerland’s Joël Dicker and The Ice Child by Sweden’s Camilla Läckberg settling into the fourth and fifth slots on the combined list, respectively.

Fiction

Fiction Nonfiction
1 Et tu trouveras le trésor qui dort en toi
And You Will Find the Treasure That Sleeps in You
Laurent Gounelle
Kero
Un président ne devrait pas dire ça...
A President Should Not Say That
Fabrice Lhomme, Gérard Davet
Stock
2 Demain les chats
Cats of Tomorrow
Bernard Werber
Albin Michel
Guide des égarés
Guide of the Lost
Jean d’ Ormesson
Gallimard
3 Petit pays
Little Country
Gaël Faye
Grasset et Fasquelle
Sur les chemins noirs
On the Black Paths
Sylvain Tesson
Gallimard

For the week ended Oct. 30; used by arrangement with GFK: Livres Hebdo

Germany

Fiction Nonfiction
1 Das Paket
The Package
Sebastian Fitzek
Droemer
Wunder wirken Wunder
Miracles Work Wonders
Eckart von Hirschhausen
Rowohlt
2 Harry Potter und das verwunschene Kind
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
J.K. Rowling et al.
Carlsen
Gegen den Hass
Against Hate
Carolin Emcke
S. Fischer
3 Im Wald
In the Woods
Nele Neuhaus
Ullstein
Born to Run
Born to Run
Bruce Springsteen
Heyne

For the week ended Oct.. 30; used by arrangement with Buchreport

Italy

Combined Fiction and Nonfiction
1 Harry Potter e la maledizione dell’erede
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
J.K. Rowling et al.
Salani
4 Il libro dei Baltimore
The Book of Baltimore
Joël Dicker
La nave di Teseo
2 Dieci e lode
Full Marks
Sveva Casati Modignani
Sperling & Kupfer
5 Il domatore di leoni
The Ice Child
Camilla Läckberg
Marsilio
3 Veri amici
True Friends
Mates
Mondadori Electa
6 L’imperfetta meraviglia
The Imperfect Marvel
Andrea De Carlo
Giunti Editore

For the week ended Oct. 16; used by arrangement with Informazioni Editoriali