Acclaimed McCann tops bestseller list
Thursday December 24 2009
Novelist Colum McCann has emerged as the bestselling author in Ireland in 2009.
Figures compiled by Nielsen Bookscan for the last full week before Christmas show McCann's acclaimed 'Let The Great World Spin' was the bestselling book in the original fiction category. These figures are important because this is the week of the highest book sales every year.
In second place on the list was Marian Keyes with 'The Brightest Star in the Sky' and third place was taken by Dan Brown with 'The Secret Symbol'.
McCann's success comes as no surprise since his novel won the National Book Award in America last month and, in recent weeks, it has featured on almost every 'Books of the Year' list.
The book is a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic and was hailed by the American media as the most important post-9/11 novel. The 'New York Times' described it as "one of the most electric, profound novels in years".
'Let The Great World Spin' begins with Philippe Petit's breathless 1974 high-wire walk between the World Trade Centre towers and tells the stories of some of the people below: junkies, cops, prostitutes, a priest, a judge and some grieving mothers who lost sons in Vietnam. The stories are interwoven into a portrait of the city at that time, overladen with a sense of foreboding about what is to happen years later.
Also featuring in the Top 10 were 'Coming Home' by Patricia Scanlan at No 4, 'The Book of Tomorrow' by Cecelia Ahern at No 5, 'Rhino What You Did Last Summer' by Ross O'Carroll-Kelly at No 7, and the veteran bestseller Maeve Binchy still showing she has what it takes with her latest book 'The Return Journey' at No 10.
The Nielsen Bookscan is the official guide to book sales in all outlets across the country.
- John Spain
Irish Independent
