YEREVAN BESTSELLER 5/3 – Readers prefer Hermann Hesse, Erich Maria Remarque, Paulo Coelho 

YEREVAN, APRIL 20, 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’again tops the bestselling list of the week.

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.

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

Armenian writerEdgar Kostandyan’s ‘Ordinary Country’is third.

Armen Niazyan’s ‘Hold my hand: I am afraid’captures the 4th place. The book consists of three parts – stories, thoughts and poems the focus of which is the following: be careful towards human beings, not ignore them who need us.

‘Arch of Triumph’comes next. It is a 1945 novel byErich Maria Remarqueabout stateless refugees inParis beforeWorld War II. It was his second worldwide bestseller afterAll Quiet on the Western Front, written during his exile in the United States.

Armenian writerDavit Samvelyan’s ‘Winter of Roden’is ranked 6th in this week’s list.

Edgar Harutyunyan’sanother book‘Art of Devotion or Ode to Rose’is 7th in this week’s list.

‘TheAlchemist’by Brazilian writerPaulo Coelhois 8th. 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.

‘Steppenwolf’novel by German-Swiss authorHermann Hesseis next. Originally published in Germany in 1927, it was first translated into English in 1929. Combining autobiographical and psychoanalytic elements, the novel was named after the lonesome wolf of the steppes. The story in large part reflects a profound crisis in Hesse's spiritual world during the 1920s while memorably portraying the protagonist's split between his humanity and his wolf-like aggression and homelessness. Hesse would later assert that the book was largely misunderstood.

‘The Fault in Our Stars’ byJohn Green, published in January 2012, concludes this week’s top 10. 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 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

English –translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan