IN BRIEF Top 10 Spain


Historical fiction is in vogue in Spain judging by its top 10, with self-help and thrillers also proving popular with book buyers


Text Kiera O’Brien 3


Pérez-Reverte’s Semanal collection proves a hit


historical hit


Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s weekly column in Spanish newspaper XL Semanal, titled “Patente de Corso”, covered the history of Spain for four years, and the book of all 91 columns collated, Una Historia de España, has sold 91,382 copies in the territory. Interestingly, Pérez-Reverte is the second European journalist-turned-author to have a huge hit with a historical book about his nation’s history, with Antonio Scurati’s M. Il Figlio del Secolo a bestseller in Italy (see p13). However, Pérez-Reverte could write almost anything and his Spanish fans would flock to buy it: his total volume sales in Spain stand in excess of 4.2 million units.


5 Isabel’s Largo success


Isabel Allende’s Largo Pétalo de Mar has sold 71,785 copies so far in 2019. The Chilean author is particularly beloved in Spain, with 2.1 million books sold to date.


8


Ríos serves up his Real Food manifesto


Carlos Ríos’ Come Comida Real (Eat Real Food) arrives hot on the heels of a Spanish obesity study which found that the nation has three million more overweight people than it did a decade ago—all told, some 62% of the nation is overweight, according to the report. Dietitian and nutritionist Ríos created the Realfooding movement through his Instagram account, and his book extolling his ideas has sold a weighty 67,966 copies since March.


16 17th October 2019 6


The boy on the train remains on track


Javiar Castillo’s Todo lo Que Sucedió con Miranda Huff (Everything that Happened with Miranda Huff) has shifted 71,036 copies this year, a haul good enough to chart sixth. Castillo is known as “el chico del tren” (“the boy on the train”) on his home turf, because he wrote his books while commuting via train to his day job, as a financial adviser in Málaga. His first two psychological thrillers have sold more than 300,000 copies between them to date.


9


Albert Espinosa’s Lo Mejor de ir es


Volver (The Best Thing to Do is Go Back) has sold 66,029 copies in his homeland. The author has shifted more than 1.7 million books in Spain.


year’s This


Bestseller Lists Spain Top 10


1


All go for Santi’s Yo


of the charts


Santiago Posteguillo’s Roman Empire-set historical title Yo, Julia (I, Julia) has stormed to the top of the Spanish chart, selling 106,906 copies. Released in November 2018, the title has sold just under a quarter of a million copies in the territory in total, making it Posteguillo’s bestseller by some distance.


Top


2 Good Things Happen


Marian Rojas’ Cómo Hacer Que te Pasen Cosas Buenas (How to Make Good Things Happen to You) is Spain’s non-fiction bestseller of 2019 to date, with in excess of 100,000 copies sold.


4


Red Queen posts majestic sales to make top five


ing among Spanish thriller fans, with Reina Roja (Red Queen) selling 88,607 copies in 2019. The award-winning journalist also writes children’s books, with his middle-grade space opera saga Alex C lt:olt: Cadete Espacial (Space Cadet) becoming an instant bestseller upon its release in 2017.


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Juan Gomez-Jurado’s La Trama series returned to much rejoic- er


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7


The Spanish love big books and they


cannot lie: political journalist Julia Navarro’s Tú No Matarás (You Shall Not Kill) is a historial epic about the Spanish Civil War—and it runs to a hefty 991 pages.


10


The Whole Truth is nothing but a success


Elísabet Benavent’s books have sold more than 1.5 million copies in Spain alone, and her latest title, oda la T da la Verdad de Mis Mentiras (The WholeWhole Truth of My Lies)—in which a groupgr of friends embark on a road-trip hen party in a motorhome—has not let the side down, shifting 63,802 copies since February this year, and beating Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens into the top 10.


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