A few weeks ahead of the release of Peter Wohlleben’s The Inner Life of Animals: Love, Grief, and Compassion—Surprising Observations of a Hidden World, his first title, The Hidden Life of Trees, was the #1 nonfiction book in France in August and in third place in his native Germany. Canada’s Greystone Books published Trees in North America, where it was a bestseller, and has set a 70,000-copy first printing for The Inner Life of Animals, which is set to publish on November 7 in Canada and the U.S.

In fiction, well-known names topped the lists in France, Germany, and Sweden. Amelie Nothomb’s newest novel, Strike the Heart, landed in the top spot in France when it was released there in the last week of August. Germany’s fiction list was led by Elena Ferrante’s Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay. The summer of 2017 has been a good one for Ferrante: in July, her My Brilliant Friend finished the month in the second spot on the German fiction bestseller list, and the first and third spots on the fiction bestseller list in Sweden went to The Story of the Lost Child and Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay. In August, Lost Child was #3 on the fiction bestseller list there. The top spot in Sweden last month was claimed by 1968, the seventh volume in Jan Guillou’s Great Century series.

France

Fiction Nonfiction
1 Frappe-toi le coeur
Strike the Heart
Amélie Nothomb
Albin Michel
La vie secrète des arbres
The Hidden Life of Trees
Peter Wohlleben
Les Arènes
2 La tresse
The Braid
Laetitia Colombani
Grasset
La Fontaine: 1621–1695, une école buissonnière
La Fontaine: 1621–1695, a School for Playing Hooky
Erik Orsenna
Stock
3 Quand sort la recluse
When the Recluse Comes Out
Fred Vargas
Flammarion
Votre cerveau
Your Brain
Michel Cymes
Stock

For the week ended Aug. 27; used by arrangement with GFK/Livres Hebdo

Germany

Fiction Nonfiction
1 Die Geschichte der getrennten Wege
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
Elena Ferrante
Suhrkamp
Heilen mit der Kraft der Natur
Healing with the Power of Nature
Andreas Michalsen
Insel
2 Die Geschichte der Bienen
The History of Bees
Maja Lunde
Btb
Wir können nicht allen helfen
We Can’t Help Everyone
Boris Palmer
Siedler
3 Prinzessin Insomnia & der alptraumfarbene Nachtmahr
Princess Insomnia and the Nightmare-Coloured Nightmare
Walter Moers
Knaus
Das geheime Leben der Bäume
The Secret Life of Trees
Peter Wohlleben
Ludwig

For the week ended Aug. 27; used by arrangement with Buchreport

Sweden

Fiction Nonfiction
1 1968
1968
Jan Guillou
Piratförlaget
Food Pharmacy: kokboken
Food Pharmacy: The Cookbook
Mai Clase & Lina Nertby Aurell
Bonnier Fakta
2 Pappas pojke
Daddy’s Boy
Emelie Schepp
HarperCollins Nordic
Hjärnstark
Brain Power
Anders Hansen
Fitnessförlaget
3 Det förlorade barnet
The Story of the Lost Child
Elena Ferrante
Norstedts
Omgiven av idioter
Surrounded by Idiots
Thomas Erikson
Hoi Förla

For the week ended Aug. 17; used by arrangement with Svensk Bokhandel