A satirical Swedish novel, a favorite Sicilian detective, and teen dystopian romance top the bestseller lists in Germany, Italy, and Brazil. Novels by native authors are popular in Argentina and Russia, and everyone loves Jojo Moyes!

Have you ever wondered what books are popular with readers in other countries? We thought it would be fun to take a look at a few bestseller lists from around the world to see what people are reading. We’ve started with current bestsellers from five countries, and we’ll take a look at bestseller lists from other countries in future posts. Wherever possible, links to find the titles in different languages in the library catalog are included.

If you’re interested in bestsellers in the U.S., the NYPL Recommends team suggests readalikes for the top New York Times fiction bestsellers each week. (Jojo Moyes tops that list this week, too.)

Germany

Hitman Anders and the Meaning of It All by Swedish author Jonas Jonasson is at the top of Der Spiegel’s hardcover fiction list this week (Mörder Anders und seine Freunde nebst dem einen oder anderen Feind.)  Some of Jonsson’s previous novels are currently available to borrow in English, Spanish, Korean, and Italian.

Jojo Moyes’s 2005 novel The Ship of Brides (Über uns der Himmel, unter uns das Meer) is at the top of the German paperback bestseller list and available in the original English at NYPL. Translations of other novels by Jojo Moyes are currently available to borrow in Russian, Spanish, Korean, Polish, and Italian.

Italy

The latest Commissario Montalbano novel by Andrea Camilleri, L’altro capo del filo (The Other End of the Line)  tops the IBS.it bestseller list this week. This novel has not been translated into English yet, but you can borrow many other novels by  Camilleri in the original Italian or translations in English or Spanish from NYPL. The first novel in the Montalbano series is La forma dell’acqua / The Shape of Water / La forma del agua.

Some other fiction titles in Italy’s top ten this week are After You by Jojo Moyes (Dopo di te), Maestra by Lisa Hilton, and Caffè Amaro (Bitter Coffee) by Italian author Simonetta Agnello Hornby. This novel has not been translated into English yet, but some of the author’s earlier historical novels are currently available at NYPL in Italian, English, and Spanish.

Brazil

Jojo Moyes also has a strong presence on Brazil’s May bestseller list. Me Before You (Como eu era antes de você) is number two and After You (Depois de você) is number seven. The Crown (A coroa), the final installment in Kiera Cass's popular YA series, is in the number one spot. NYPL has novels in Kiera Cass’s Selection series to borrow in Spanish, Polish, and Russian, as well as in English.

Argentina

La salvaje de Boston by Gloria V. Casañas and La novela de mi vida by Marcos Aguinis, appear in the top five of Argentina’s Revista Ñ* fiction bestseller list this week. NYPL does not have these 2016 titles yet, but other books by these authors are available to borrow in Spanish. And international favorite Me Before You / Yo antes de ti by Jojo Moyes is number four on this week’s list. [*You can access Revista Ñ through the PressReader database, which includes current newspapers and magazines from more than 100 countries.]

Russia

Me Before You / До встречи с тобой is also a bestseller at Russia’s largest online bookstore, Ozon. Some other bestselling titles currently on Ozon include Zuliekha Opens Her Eyes / Зулейха открывает глаза, the debut novel by Guzel Yakhina, winner of Russia’s Big Book prize in 2015. This novel has not been translated into English yet. The suspense epic Shantaram / Шантарам  by Australian author Gregory David Roberts, and Ayn Rand's positivist classic Atlas Shrugged / Атлант расправил плечи  are also popular.

Do you check the bestseller list from any other countries? Let us know in the comments.

​Many thanks to Marianna Vertsman for help with the Russian bestsellers! Leslie Bernstein and Adriana Blancarte-Hayward also contributed to this post.