YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 19, ARMENPRESS. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez tops this week's "Bestseller Books List" introduced by "Armenpress" News Agency. One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the multi-generational story of the Buendía family, whose patriarch, José Arcadio Buendía, founds the town of Macondo, the metaphoric Colombia.

The widely acclaimed book, considered by many to be the author's masterpiece, was first published in Spanish in 1967, and subsequently has been translated into thirty-seven languages and has sold more than 30 million copies. The magical realist style and thematic substance of One Hundred Years of Solitude established it as an important, representative novel of the literary Latin American Boom of the 1960s and 1970s, which wasstylistically influenced by Modernism (European and North American) and the Cuban Vanguardia (Vanguard) literary movement. One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad, and alive with unforgettable men and women -- brimming with truth, compassion, and a lyrical magic that strikes the soul -- this novel is a masterpiece in the art of fiction.

"Love in the Time of Cholera" again by Márquez occupies the second position. In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry a wealthy, well-born doctor, Florentino is devastated, but he is a romantic. As he rises in his business career he whiles away the years in 622 affairs--yet he reserves his heart for Fermina. Her husband dies at last, and Florentino purposefully attends the funeral. Fifty years, nine months, and four days after he first declared his love for Fermina, he will do so again.

"Memories of My Melancholy Whores" again by Columbian author Gabriel García Márquez occupies the third place in this week's "Bestseller Books List". The book was translated into Armenian from the Russian version by Hovhannes Ayvazyan in 2010. "Memories of My Melancholy Whores" is dedicated to the love affairs of an old journalist, who falls in love with a young girl.

"The Little Prince" by French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry occupies the fourth place. The novella is both the most read and most translated book in the French language, and was voted the best book of the 20th century in France. The book was translated into more than 250 languages and dialects, as well as Braille.

Saint-Exupéry, a laureate of several of France's highest literary awards and a reserve military pilot at the start of the Second World War, wrote and illustrated the manuscript while exiled in the United States after the Fall of France. He had travelled there on a personal mission to persuade its government to quickly enter the war against Nazi Germany. In the midst of personal upheavals and failing health he produced almost half of the writings he would be remembered for, including a tender tale of loneliness, friendship, love and loss, in the form of a young prince fallen to Earth.

St. Gregory of Narek’s ''The Book of Lamentations'' occupies the fifth position of the bestseller books list introduced by "Armenpress" News Agency. The mystical poem "Book of Lamentations" has been translated into many languages and has played a significant role in the development of the Armenian literary language. In 95 grace-filled prayers St. Gregory draws on the exquisite potential of the Classical Armenian language to translate the pure sighs of the broken and contrite heart into an offering of words pleasing to God. The result is an edifice of faith for the ages, unique in Christian literature for its rich imagery, its subtle theology, its Biblical erudition, and the sincere immediacy of its communication with God. This masterpiece by St. Gregory of Narek has always been included in our bestseller books list. 

"The Book of Mher's Door" by Armenian author Levon Khechoyan, of holy memory, occupies the sixth position of the bestseller books list introduced by "Armenpress" News Agency. . The Armenian novelist and short story writer, was born in 1955 in the village of Baralet in the Akhalkalack region of Georgia and since 1987 lived in the town of Hrazdan in the Kotayk province of Armenia.

In 1983 he graduated from the Armenian Pedagogical Institute receiving an M.A. in philology. Although he started writing as a teenager, his first works were not published until 1988 in local periodicals. His first collection of short stories, Trees of Incense, was published in 1991. Many of his short stories have been translated into Russian and Ukrainian. By 1994 his works periodically appeared in a Moscow-based literary weekly, “Literaturnaya Gazeta” and in literary magazines “Druzhba Narodov”, “Grani”, and “Lepta”.

''The Book of Lamentations: Hymns'' by St. Gregory of Narek occupies the seventh place of this week's "Bestseller Books List" introduced by "Armenpress" News Agency.

“The Contract Suiciders” by Vahram Sahakyan occupies the eighth place.

"The Reader", novel by German writer Bernhard Schlink, occupies the final position of the bestseller books list introduced by "Armenpress" News Agency. The Reader by German law professor and judge Bernhard Schlink was published in Germany in 1995 and in the United States in 1997. The story is a parable, dealing with the difficulties post-war German generations have had comprehending the Holocaust.

The Armenian version of prominent Azerbaijani writer Akram Aylisli's "Stone Dreams" published by "Edit Print" publishing house occupies the final position of the bestseller books list introduced by "Armenpress" News Agency. Artak Vardanyan translated the novel into Armenian. Aram Ananyan authored the preface of the book and the publication was edited by Seyranuhi Geghamyan. Aylisli's "Stone Dreams" novel caused a lot of noise and hysteria in Azerbaijan. On February 7, 2013, the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev signed a presidential decree that stripped Aylisli of the title of "People's Writer" and the presidential pension. Earlier, Aylisli confirmed reports that his son, a customs official, and wife were dismissed from their jobs.

Completed by Roza Grigoryan