Yerevan Bestseller 4/77: ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ & ‘The Lady with the Camellias’ debut in weekly Top 10

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 8, ARMENPRESS. The exclusive project of ARMENPRESS, Yerevan Bestseller, presents the weekly top10 bestselling books in Yerevan city.

This week’s bestseller is Mark Aren’s Where Wild Roses Bloom. The story evolves around an elderly Turkish soldier and his attempts to find the graves of his parents, who he thinks were Armenians. A movie adaptation of the story will soon be filmed.

The second bestselling book is Edgar Harutyunyan’s Unfound Chamomiles. The novel is about human relationships, love, friendship and betrayal.

‘TheAlchemist’by Brazilian writerPaulo Coelhois 3rd this week. 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.

‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’is next. Itis a 2006Holocaustnovel byIrish novelistJohn Boyne. Unlike themonths of planning Boyne devoted to his other books, he said that he wrote the entire first draft ofThe Boy in the Striped Pyjamasin two and a half days, barely sleeping until he got to the end.

La Dame aux Camélias(literally is anovelbyAlexandre Dumas,fils, first published in 1848, and subsequentlyadaptedby Dumas for thestage.La Dame aux Caméliaspremiered at theThéâtre du VaudevilleinParis, France on February 2, 1852. The play was an instant success, andGiuseppe Verdiimmediately set about putting the story to music. His work became the 1853operaLa Traviata, with the female protagonist, Marguerite Gautier, renamed Violetta Valéry.

In the English-speaking world,La Dame aux Caméliasbecame known asCamilleand 16 versions have been performed atBroadway theatresalone.

The novel is ranked 5th in this week’s bestselling list.

‘Fahrenheit 451’byRay Bradburycomes next. ‘Fahrenheit 451’ is a dystopian novel published in 1953. It is regarded as one of his best works. The novel presents a future American society where books are outlawed and "firemen" burn any that are found. The title refers to the temperature that Bradbury understood to be the autoignition point of paper.

L'Hommeen amour (The Man in Love) by Belgian writer Camille Lemonnier is7th in the list.

This novel became the target of harsh criticism at the time when it came out, largely due to “indecent” content and “immoral ideas”. The protagonists in the story are fully submerged into the burning flames of passion and love. They try to be harmonious with the nature, and most of all they value their freedom.

Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s‘The Great Gatsby’is 8th. It was first published in 1925, and is considered one of the typical works of American literature of the "jazz era". Last week, the novel was ranked 9th .

Animal Farmis anallegoricalnovella byGeorge Orwell, first published in 1945.The novel is 9th this week. According to Orwell, the book reflects events leading up to theRussian Revolution of 1917and then on into theStalinist eraof theSoviet Union.Orwell, ademocratic socialist,was a critic ofJoseph Stalinand hostile to Moscow-directedStalinism, an attitude that was critically shaped by his experiences during theSpanish Civil War.

The Grapes of Wrathis an Americanrealistnovel written byJohn Steinbeckand published in 1939. The novel is 10th in the bestselling list.The book won theNational Book AwardandPulitzer Prizefor fiction, and it was cited prominently when Steinbeck was awarded theNobel Prizein 1962.

Set during theGreat Depression, the novel focuses on the Joads, a poor family oftenant farmersdriven from theirOklahomahome by drought, economic hardship, agricultural industry changes and bank foreclosures forcing tenant farmers out of work. Due to their nearly hopeless situation, and in part because they are trapped in theDust Bowl, the Joads set out for California. Along with thousands of others, they seek jobs, land, dignity, and a future.

Yerevan Bestseller presented by Angela Hambardzumyan