YEREVAN BESTSELLER 4/104: Philip Roth’s controversial Portnoy’s Complaint debuts in weekly chartbuster list

YEREVAN, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS. Yerevan Bestseller - anARMENPRESSexclusivebringing the top ten weekly bestselling books of the Armenian capital continues to present top choices of local readers.

One Hundred Years of Solitude, the landmark1967novelbyColombianauthorGabriel García Márquezthat tells the multi-generational story of the Buendía family, whose patriarch, José Arcadio Buendía, founds the town ofMacondo, a fictitious town in the country ofColombia, is the bestseller in Yerevan this week. One Hundred Years of Solitudehas been translated into 37 languages and has sold more than 30 million copies.

The second spot goes to Portnoy's Complaint, a 1969 American novel that turned its authorPhilip Rothinto a major celebrity, sparking a storm of controversy. The novel tells the humorousmonologueof "a lust-ridden, mother-addicted young Jewish bachelor," who confesses to his psychoanalyst in "intimate, shameful detail, and coarse, abusive language.”

Armenian writer Mark Aren’s Where Wild Roses Bloom is third this week.

The story is about an Armenophobic Turkish former serviceman who finds out that his parents were Armenians. He spends his remaining life searching the graves of his parents, without knowing that it was a misunderstanding.

A Guest for the Night by Nobel Prizelaureate writer Shmuel Yosef Agnon comes next. The novel is Agnon's depiction of how all modern movements aside from Zionism secularism, Haskalah, socialism, communism failed to provide a viable alternative to traditional life.

The Walk by Swiss writer Robert Walser is 5th. In 1955 the novel was translated into English byChristopher Middleton; it was the first English translation of his writing and the only one that would appear during his lifetime. The novel displays many of his writerly personas, among them the melancholic, the ironist, the romantic, and the high modernist.The Walkwas originally published in 1917

Hopscotch byArgentinewriterJulio Cortázar comes next. Written in Paris, it was published in Spanish in 1963 and in English in 1966.Hopscotchis astream-of-consciousnessnovel which can be read according to two different sequences of chapters. This novel is often referred to as acounter-novel, as it was by Cortázar himself.

Armenian writer Edgar Harutyunyan’s Unfound Chamomilesis 7th this week. This is the second book of the author. Unfound Chamomiles is about human relationship, love, friendship and betrayal.

Stefan Zweig’s Collected Storiesis ranked 8th. Zweig was an Austrian novelist, playwright, journalist and biographer. At the height of his literary career, in the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most popular writers in the world.

Armenian writer Narine Abgaryan'sThree Apples Fell From The Skyis 9th in the list. The story evolves around a mountainous village and its residents.

The Alchemist by Brazilian authorPaulo Coelho rounds up the top 10 this week. It was first published in 1988. Originally written inPortuguese, it became an international bestseller translated into some 70 languages as of 2016. Anallegoricalnovel,The Alchemistfollows a youngAndalusianshepherd in his journey to thepyramids of Egypt, after having a recurring dream of finding treasure there.

Over the years there have been film and theatrical adaptations of the work and musical interpretations of it.

English –translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan