SPRING PAPERBACK PREVIEW
but such a knotty and morbid
family history is going to be
a difficult sell as Man Booker
winners go.
Melissa Nathan
Acting Up
Arrow, £6.99, 27th,
9780099505792
A reissue of the
late Melissa
Nathan’s first
novel. The
Nanny sold
nearly 200,000 copies, while the
reissue of Persuading Annie has
sold 100,000.
Stephen Clarke
Merde Happens
Black Swan, £5.99, 24th, 9780552773515
Merde Actually sold 90,000
copies—just over half his first
title. Perhaps the joke’s wearing
thin.
Graham Swift
Tomorrow
Picador, £7.99, 7th, 9780330450263
This was given a rough ride by
some critics, but I thought this
was his best since Waterland.
Hardback sales were respectable
and it should make the top
10 in bestseller lists.
Iain Banks
The Steep Approach
to Garbadale
Abacus, £7.99, 6th,
9780349119281
My Banks
reader felt that
the characters
lacked depth,
but Little, Brown’s new look
is gorgeous and it promises
plenty of media activity.
Andrew Marr
A History of Modern Britain
Pan, £8.99, 7th, 9780330439831
The TV series was excellent
and the book fleshes it all out
fascinatingly. The hardback
sold more than 50,000, even
before the Christmas rush.
Piers Morgan
Don’t You Know
Who I Am?
Ebury, £7.99, 6th,
9780091913922
This probably
won’t quite
match the
160,000
paperback sales of The Insider.
Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Imperial Life in the Emerald City
Bloomsbury, £8.99, 3rd, 9780747592891
The riveting, Samuel Johnson
Prize-winning account of how
the US tried to rebuild Iraq
in its own image. A film with
the same director/lead team
as the Bourne series is in
development.
Jennifer Worth
Call the Midwife
Orion, £6.99, 6th,
9780753823835
This powerful,
well-told
account of 1950s
midwifery has
sold 18,000 in
hardback without supermarket
support, and should press the
same buttons as “Vera Drake”.
Patrick Bishop
Bomber Boys
Perennial, £7.99, 3rd,
9780007192151
This sold more
than 15,000 in
hardback and
the paperback
of Afghanistanbased
3 Para follows in June.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Infidel
Pocket, £7.99, 3rd,
9781416526247
The author
has global
recognition as a
spokesperson for
moderate Islam
and women’s rights. Moving
and insightful, it has already
sold nearly 25,000 copies in
C-format and the mass market
edition may well be as big as Ed
Husain’s The Islamist.
BUBBLING UNDER
Michael Byrnes
The Sacred Bones
Pocket, £6.99, 3rd,
9781847390127
Despite a murky
cover, the Cformat
of this
title about the
search for the
bones of Christ sold 20,000
in a very crowded field. A
bright new treatment should
benefit from a planned major
marketing spend.
Lucy Dawson
His Other Lover
Sphere, £6.99, 20th, 9780751540529
My reader describes this as
“bitch lit”, which is a new one
on me, and compared the
author to Adele Parks.
www.thebookseller.com The Bookseller Spring Paperback Preview | 4 January 2008 17
Michael Chabon
The Yiddish
Policemen’s Union
Perennial, £7.99, 3rd,
9780007150939
It’s been a
while since the
Pulitzer-winning
The Amazing
Adventures of Kavalier & Clay,
but, as a fan, I’d say this is
almost as good.
Jacquelyn
Mitchard
Still Summer
John Murray, £6.99,
6th, 9780719521201
With a
supermarket
deal, the author
of the first-ever
Oprah pick may finally make it
big in the UK.
Catherine Bailey
Black Diamonds
Penguin, £8.99, 6th, 9780141019239
This story of a Yorkshire
mining dynasty has sold an
extraordinary 15,000 copies in
hardback and fits the growing
market for popular history
aimed at women as much as
men.
ONES TO WATCH
Olivia
Lichtenstein
Mrs Zhivago of
Queen’s Park
Orion, £6.99, 6th,
9780752882475
Impossible not
to enjoy and the
author is wellconnected
in media circles.
Nicola Barker
Darkmans
Perennial, £8.99, 3rd, 9780007193639
I hope that Barker’s deserved
Man Booker shortlisting will
encourage people to take
the plunge with these 838
rewarding pages.
it’s blingin’!
Olivia Darling
Vintage
Hodder, £6.99, 6th,
9780340950791
A bonkbusting
paperback
original, with a
cover so shiny
Miranda July
No One Belongs Here More Than You
Canongate, £6.99, 6th, 9781847671165
In C-format, the writer, director
PRODUCT PREVIEW
and star of “Me and You and
Everyone We Know” defied all
expectations for literary short
stories.
APRIL
GIANTS
Patricia
Cornwell
Book of the Dead
Sphere, £7.99, 3rd,
9780751534054
After a year
without forensic
examiner Dr
Kay Scarpetta, Cornwell’s
paperback return will be in Bformat
for the first time. Sales
will probably top half a million.
Michael
Connelly
The Overlook
Orion, £6.99, 2nd,
9780752882734
Orion hopes
to break the
400,000 barrier
with the latest
Harry Bosch thriller from
Connelly, whose accolades
range from the Crime Writers’
Association Gold Dagger to
“Richard & Judy” selection. The
paperback features a new final
chapter.
Jodi Picoult
Nineteen Minutes
Hodder, £6.99, 17th, 9780340935798
TV ads will support the biggestselling
female author in the UK.
Joanne Harris
The Lollipop Shoes
Black Swan, £5.99, 21st, 9780552773157
Featuring Vianne from
Chocolat, this should see Harris
back at the top of the charts.
Wilbur Smith
The Quest
Pan, £7.99, 4th,
9780330412728
The fourth in his
hugely popular
Ancient Eygpt
series, this
sold more than
200,000 in hardback—26% up
on the previous instalment—
and the previous three get
long-overdue new jackets in the
same style.
Nick Hornby
Slam
Penguin, £6.99, 3rd, 9780141321400
Strong reviews have prompted
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