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This week, Armenpress presents the latest edition of its Yerevan Bestseller project, featuring the top 10 bestselling translated fiction titles based on book sales in June.
Joanne Harris' Chocolat tops the list. The novel tells the story of the quiet French village of Lansquenet, where little has changed for years until the arrival of the mysterious Vianne Rocher and her daughter on the eve of Lent. As Vianne opens a chocolate shop, the novel explores whether she can preserve it in a tightly knit community bound by strict religious traditions.
Second is Nora Ikstena's Soviet Milk, a novel that follows three generations of women from the same family. Through an accessible narrative, the author portrays the social environment of Soviet Latvia during her childhood and youth, depicting the moral vacuum that gradually crushed people from within. At the center of the story is a talented gynecologist who understands others deeply and helps many through her profession, yet finds herself unable to cope with her own life. The novel's title refers to a mother's deliberate decision to deprive her daughter of breast milk in an attempt to spare her from inheriting her pain and despair.
Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code ranks third. In the novel, symbologist Robert Langdon investigates the mysterious murder of one of the Louvre's curators. As the story unfolds, readers are taken back in time through episodes from the life of Christ and Dan Brown's interpretation of Leonardo da Vinci's works.
Fourth is Haruki Murakami's South of the Border, West of the Sun. Hajime appears to have an ideal life: he is a successful businessman with a loving wife and children. Everything changes when Shimamoto, his first love from adolescence, unexpectedly reappears, blurring the line between reality and illusion. Published in 1992, the novel explores love, passion, life-changing decisions, lost opportunities and mystery.
Fifth is Tracy Chevalier's Girl with a Pearl Earring. More than the story behind a famous portrait, the novel recounts the relationship between painter Johannes Vermeer and his muse in seventeenth-century Delft. Chevalier's meticulous historical research vividly recreates the atmosphere of the Dutch Golden Age.
Sixth is Mark Aren's The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The novel offers the Armenian author's own take on the legendary detective and his loyal companion Dr. Watson. Blending intrigue, seemingly unrelated facts and unexpected solutions with parallels between past, present and future, Armorica and Armenia, and British and Armenian history, the book presents a fresh interpretation of the classic detective universe.
Seventh is Gregory David Roberts' Shantaram, the internationally acclaimed novel that follows a fugitive seeking redemption in the streets of Bombay while exploring themes of love, destiny, friendship and personal transformation.
Eighth is Franck Thilliez's Puzzle. The psychological thriller follows Ilan and Chloé, participants in the mysterious game "Paranoia," where the winner is promised €300,000. The game leads them to an abandoned psychiatric hospital in the French Alps, where eight people were murdered a year earlier. Once again, eight players enter the game—but not all of them are expected to survive.
Ninth is Elif Shafak's The Bastard of Istanbul. The novel explores numerous internal contradictions of Turkish society, with the Armenian Genocide occupying a central place as an unresolved historical and psychological issue. Following its publication, Shafak faced prosecution in Turkey under Article 301 for "insulting Turkishness." The book was effectively unavailable during the trial and became freely available only after the author was acquitted.
Rounding out the top ten is Jo Nesbø's The Snowman. Set in and around Oslo, the novel follows detective Harry Hole as he investigates the disappearance of several women. Convinced that the cases are connected, Hole searches for a pattern while confronting a chilling mystery: a snowman is found at every crime scene. Widely regarded as one of the defining works of Scandinavian crime fiction, the novel has been translated into dozens of languages and adapted into a feature film in 2017.