YEREVAN BESTSELLER 4/75 - ‘The Painted Veil’ by Somerset Maugham is in the list

YEREVAN, AUGUST 25, ARMENPRESS. The exclusive project of ARMENPRESS entitled ‘Yerevan Bestseller’brings the top ten bestselling books of Yerevan every week.

Mark Aren’s ‘Where Wild Roses Bloom’ is this week’s bestselling book of Yerevan.

The story describes the inner world of an Armenophobic Turkish former serviceman, when he, already an old man, suddenly hears a lullaby song that reminds him of his mother and later finds out that the song is in Armenian: realizing his parents were Armenians. He spends his remaining life searching the graves of his parents, without knowing that it was a misunderstanding.

Edgar Harutyunyan’s ‘Unfound Chamomiles’this week is ranked 2nd. This is the second book of the author. ‘Unfound Chamomiles’ is about human relationship, love, friendship and betrayal.

Nobel Prize LaureateSvetlana Alexievich’s ‘The Last Witnesses’is 3rd.

Alexievich is aBelarusianinvestigative journalistand non-fiction prose writer who writes in Russian. She was awarded the 2015Nobel Prize in Literature"for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time".She is the first writer from Belarus to receive the award.

‘The Fault in Our Stars’is the sixthnovelby authorJohn Green, published in January 2012. The title is inspired by Act 1, Scene 2 ofShakespeare's playJulius Caesar, in which the noblemanCassiussays toBrutus: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, / But in ourselves, that we are underlings." The story is narrated by Hazel Grace Lancaster, a sixteen-year-old girl withcancer. Hazel is forced by her parents to attend a support group in the "Literal Heart of Jesus" where she subsequently meets and falls in love with 17 year old Augustus Waters, an ex-basketballplayer andamputee. The novel is ranked 4th.

‘The Painted Veil’ by Somerset Maugham is ranked 5th. Maugham uses a third-person-limited point of view in this story, where Kitty Garstin is thefocal character. Garstin, a pretty upper-middle class debutante, squanders her early youth amusing herself by living a social high life, during which her domineering mother attempts to arrange a "brilliant match" for her. Her mother, convinced that her eldest daughter has "missed her market", urges Kitty to settle for the rather “odd” Walter Fane, a bacteriologist and physician, who declares his love for Kitty. Shortly before Doris’s much grander wedding, Kitty and Walter depart as newlyweds to his post in Hong Kong.

‘TheAlchemist’by Brazilian writerPaulo Coelhois 6th.Originally written inPortuguese, it became an international bestseller translated into some 70 languages as of 2016. Anallegoricalnovel,The Alchemistfollows a youngAndalusianshepherd in his journey toEgypt, after having a recurring dream of finding treasure there.

Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s‘The Great Gatsby’comes next. It was first published in 1925, and is considered one of the typical works of American literature of the "jazz era".

‘Dandelion Wine’, 1957novelbyRay Bradburythis week is ranked 8th. The novel is taking place in the summer of 1928 in the fictional town of Green Town, Illinois, based upon Bradbury's childhood home ofWaukegan, Illinois. It was translated from English by Zaven Boyadjyan.

Alice Munro’s ‘Selected Stories’ is ranked 9th in the list.

‘The Autumn of the Patriarch’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez concludes the bestselling list of the week.

The following bookstores took part in a survey for the bestseller project: Bookinist (53-74-13), Hay Girk (54-07-06) and Zangak (23 26 49).

Yerevan Bestseller project presented by Angela Hambardzumyan