IN BRIEF Top 10 Australia


A finance title has dominated Down Under for many years, but under the surface there are some unusual bestsellers...


Text Kiera O’Brien 3 Fast progress for Mosley


King of diabetes prevention Michael Mosley’s ultra- restrictive diet book, The Fast 800, charted third in Australia, selling 134,009 copies to date.


6


Kinney one of few from kids’ sector


The Wide Sargasso Sea of the Wimpy Kid series, Kinney’s Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid charmed the Aussies, with 89,976 copies sold to date. Once rammed with kids’ books, the Australian charts were more skewed towards non-fiction this year, with only one title for Griffiths and Kinney apiece, and Walliams absent entirely. However, the territory’s children’s sector is up for the year to date, with volume and value up nearly 3% on 2018.


9


Michelle Obama may be the former First


Lady of the US, but her reach is international—her memoir Becoming has hit both the Australian and South African charts, on top of selling nearly 700,000 copies in the UK.


12 17th October 2019


Bestseller Lists Australia Top 10


1


Barefoot, forward


of the charts


Scott Pape’s blockbuster The Barefoot Investor continues to reign atop the Australian book charts, with 184,161 copies sold in 2019 so far. In total, the personal finance guide has shifted more than 1.2 million copies, to become the territory’s third-bestselling book of all time—and Australia hasn’t had a recession since 1992. Coincidence?


4


Trent Dalton’s coming-of-age novel


Boy Swallows Universe has beaten fellow Southern Hemisphere dweller Heather Morris to the fiction top spot, with 114,381 copies sold in 2019.


7 Eleanor remains in fine fettle


Last year’s bestseller in Austrailia, Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, has carried on its rampage across the charts, selling 82,165 copies in 2019 alone.


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Top


2


Andy proves more than handy with Terry’s help


Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton’s The 117-Storey Treehouse is the 2019 kids’ bestseller in Oz, with home- grown Griffiths beating global superstars Jeff Kinney and David Walliams to the top. Every title in the Treehouse series has sold more than 300,000 copies—apart from July 2018’s 104-Storey Treehouse, which is on 298,144—boosting Griffiths’ Australian total to a towering 13 million books sold.


5


Hemsworth boosts Manson into the top five


American author Mark Manson’s The Subtle of Not Giving a F*ck has been a perennial bestseller in Australia since 2017, when it was recommended on Instagram by Aussie actor Chris Hemsworth—star of Marvel movie “Thor” and, most importantly, a former “Home and Away” actor. In 2019 alone, the sweary title has continued its blue streak across the charts Down Under, selling 91,613 copies for the year to date to bag fifth place overall.


8


Morris maintains form with Tattooist


Heather Morris’ Holocaust romance The Tattooist of Auschwitz has been a bestseller all over the world—it is currently the second-best- selling book of the year in the UK—and it is no different in her home territory, with the paperback edition shifting 227,484 copies since its publication in February 2018. Its sales have held up consistently well through- out 2019, with its 81,088 copies sold good enough to score eighth place in the Australian chart.


Pascoe’s dark take on Aboriginal history a hit


year’s prize winner


Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu turned the tables on conventional wisdom of Aboriginal history, revealing the idea of a hunter-gatherer society to be a “convenient lie”, used by colonists to justify their disposses- sion. Instead, Pascoe immersed himself in diaries by explorers from the time and found Aboriginal people had farmed the land and lived in large villages. Dark Emu won the nation’s Book of the Year Award, and has gone on to sell 64,883 copies. Pascoe has since been awarded the Australian council award for lifetime achivement in literature. A children’s version—Young Dark Emu—was released earlier this year.


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