Ken Follett’s latest novel, A Column of Fire, has taken the top slots on the fiction bestseller lists in both France and Germany, with Swedish author David Lagercrantz’s The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye filling in the second spot in France and Norwegian Jo Nesbø’s new thriller The Thirst at number two in Germany. In Italy, Follett’s 900-plus-page opus is #2, trailing behind Dust and Shadow, the new installment of Antonio Manzini’s series starring sleuth Rocco Schiavone.

In nonfiction, the French are taken with a pair of heady titles: Israeli author Yuval Noah Harari’s Homo Deus, which sits at #1, is followed by neuropsychologist Boris Cyrulnik’s examination of the importance of spirituality to humans, Psychotherapy from God.

In Germany, forester Peter Wohlleben has another hit with his follow-up to his global bestseller The Secret Life of Trees. The new book, The Secret Network of Nature, discusses how modern technology is an echo of nature’s own “wood wide web,” among other topics. The book, under the name The Inner Life of Animals, will be released November 7 in North America by Greystone Books with a 70,000-copy first printing. At #2 in Germany is Axel Hacke’s essay that questions what is the right way to live in a world where ethics always seem to be compromised.

No nonfiction cracked the top six on the Italian list.

France

Fiction Nonfiction
1 Une colonne de feu
A Column of Fire
Ken Follett
Robert Laffont
Homo deus: une brève histoire de l’avenir
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
Yuval Noah Harari
Albin Michel
2 La fille qui rendait coup pour coup
The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye
David Lagercrantz
Actes Sud
Psychothérapie de Dieu
Psychotherapy from God
Boris Cyrulnik
Odile Jacob
3 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

For the week ended Oct. 1; used by arrangement with GFK/Livres Hebdo

Germany

Fiction Nonfiction
1 Das Fundament der Ewigkeit
A Column of Fire
Ken Follett
Bastei Lübbe
Das geheime Netzwerk der Natur
The Secret Network of Nature
Peter Wohlleben
Ludwig
2 Durst
The Thirst
Jo Nesbø
Ullstein
Über den Anstand in schwierigen Zeiten...
On Decency in Difficult Times…
Axel Hacke
Kunstmann
3 Die Geschichte der Bienen
The History of Bees
Maja Lunde
Btb
Kontrollverlust
Loss of Control
Thorsten Schulte
Kopp

For the week ended Oct.. 15; used by arrangement with Buchreport

Italy

Combined Fiction and Nonfiction
1 Pulvis et umbra
Dust and Shadow
Antonio Manzini
Sellerio Editore Palermo
4 Tempo da elfi
Time of the Elves
Francesco Guccini & Loriano Macchiavelli
Giunti Editore
2 La colonna di fuoco
A Column of Fire
Ken Follett
Mondadori
5 L’Arminuta
L’Arminuta (The Returned)
Donatella Di Pietrantonio
Einaudi
3 Le otto montagne
The Eight Mountains
Paolo Cognetti
Einaudi
6 Storie della buonanotte per
bambine ribelli
Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls
Francesca Cavallo & Elena Favilli
Mondadori

For the week ended Sept. 17; used by arrangement with Informazioni Editoriali