From tales of alienation to comforting novels set in bookshops, Japanese authors have written nearly half of this year’s bestselling translated novels in the UK. What’s their secret?• Read an an exclusive Q&A with Haruki MurakamiAnyone who has been in a bookshop in the last few years will have noticed that Japanese fiction is experiencing an extraordinary boom. In 2022, figures from Nielsen BookScan showed that Japanese fiction represented 25% of all translated fiction sales in the UK. The dominance is even more striking this year: figures obtained by the Guardian show that, of the top 40 translated fiction titles for 2024 so far, 43% are Japanese, with Asako Yuzuki’s satirical, socially conscious crime novel Butter topping the list. Butter also won the breakthrough author award at this year’s Books Are My Bag readers awards, which are curated by booksellers and voted for by the public.The popularity of modern Japanese fiction is not a new phenomenon in the UK, of course. In the 1990s, two writers broke through and became cult hits in this country. Haruki Murakami, a worldwide literary phenomenon, took off in Britain when Harvill Press published The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle in 1998. Scott Pack, who ran Waterstones’ buying team in the early 2000s, is a big Murakami fan and remembers giving him “lots of attention. Whatever books of his came out, we got massively behind.” This week, Murakami publishes his 15th novel The City and Its Uncertain Walls, about a man who travels... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2024-11-23 09:00:37 UTC ]
Robert Galbraith has held the Official Top 50 number one spot for a second week running, with Lethal White (Sphere) selling 15,244 copies through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-10-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Robert Galbraith’s fourth Cormoran Strike title Lethal White (Sphere) has proved deadly to Bob Woodward’s Fear (S&S), striking the UK Official Top 50 number one spot in its first three days on sale through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-09-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Despite the heatwave and the World Cup in Russia, the UK print market sold 42 million books for £344.2m between the first week of June and the third week of August, via Nielsen BookScan's TCM. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-09-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ella Mills' Deliciously Ella: The Plant-Based Cookbook (Yellow Kite) has ousted Dan Brown's Origin (Bantam) from the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, according to Nielsen BookScan's Total Consumer Market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-08-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Wales and the West is emerging as the area with the fastest-growing book sales of 2018 so far, according to fresh statistics from Nielsen BookScan. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-08-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Dan Brown’s fifth Robert Langdon title Origin (Corgi) has spent a third week running at the UK Official Top 50 number one, selling 36,723 copies through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-08-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Solid but unspectacular growth in print value and volume has been posted through Nielsen BookScan in the first half of 2018, with range the key in the absence of a breakout trend. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-07-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Studio Press has bought three fiction titles from Casey Stoney MBE, based on the former England Women’s captain’s life "on and off the pitch". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-07-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sophie Kinsella’s Surprise Me (Black Swan) has elbowed John Grisham from the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, selling 19,104 copies in its first three days on sale through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-07-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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David Walliams and Tony Ross’ The World’s Worst Children 3 (HarperCollins) has scored a third straight week in the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, selling 32,809 copies through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-06-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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David Walliams’ The World’s Worst Children 3 (HarperCollins) has held the UK Official Top 50 number one spot for a second week, selling 46,930 copies for £336,714 through Nielsen BookScan, for his 38th overall number one in total. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Gail Honeyman's Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (Harper) has returned to the UK Official Top 50 number one spot with 22,040 copies sold through Nielsen BookScan's Total Consumer Market, ousting Lee Child's The Midnight Line (Bantam). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-05-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Michael Kogge’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Dean & Son) has ascended into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, selling 62,104 copies through Nielsen BookScan’s TCM. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-04-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Gail Honeyman's Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (Harper) has once again held the UK Official Top 50 number one, with 24,729 copies through Nielsen BookScan's Total Consumer Market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-04-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tom Fletcher and Shane Devries’s World Book Day title Brain Freeze (Puffin) has nipped into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, leapfrogging three-week wonder Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (Harper), with 37,879 copies sold through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-03-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury (Little, Brown) has blazed into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, ousting Tom Kerridge’s Lose Weight for Good (Absolute) and selling 41,202 copies for £620,851, according to Nielsen BookScan's Total Consumer Market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-01-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Booksellers hail strong sales for Donald Trump exposé, but Tom Kerridge’s diet book sets the most British tills ringingAlmost 60,000 print copies of Michael Wolff’s Donald Trump exposé Fire and Fury were sold in the UK last week, but the British public’s New Year’s resolutions meant the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-01-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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E L James’ Darker (Arrow) has shackled the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, selling 85,532 copies for £346,838, according to Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bonnier Publishing imprint Studio Press has acquired three illustrated children’s fiction titles from TV presenter and Paralympian, Ade Adepitan. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-11-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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David Walliams’ Bad Dad (HarperCollins) has accelerated by 21% in volume week-on-week for its second week in the Official UK Top 50 number one spot, selling 112,672 copies through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-11-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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