The Boy Who Sold
In case anyone doubted, Harry Potter can still storm the book world. In the first few days of publication, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child sold more than 2 million copies in print in the U.S. and Canada alone. (The next best-selling titles of 2016, for comparison, have sold in the 300k-500k range). And with more than 4.5 million copies in print already, there is no question that it will be the best-selling book of 2016 and might even be enough to move the needle on the industry’s year on the whole.
The Underground Railroad Emerges as the It Book of 2016
Colson Whitehead has had quite a week. First, Oprah announced that The Underground Railroad would be the next selection in the dormant Oprah’s Book Club. Doubleday even moved up the publication date by six weeks so that The Underground Railroad was available to buy the day of the announcement.
Next, in a move I don’t recall ever seeing before, The New York Times printed a 16,000-word excerpt of The Underground Railroad as a standalone section in this weekend’s edition. The literati pre-publication buzz around the book has been excellent, but these two developments make The Underground Railroad the most visible literary title of the year.
Thought Police in Action
Faizah Shaheen, a mental health professional in the U.K., was detained by police and interrogated after her flight landed at Dorchester airport.
The reason? She was reading a book about Syria. A crewmember saw Shaheen reading Syria Speaks: Art and Culture from the Front Line and reported it to police. Shaheen was interrogated and released.
This Week in Books is sponsored by After Anna by Alex Lake.
The real nightmare starts when her daughter is returned.
A bone-chilling psychological thriller that will suit fans of Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn, Daughter by Jane Shemilt, and The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.
A girl is missing. Five years old, taken from outside her school. She has vanished, traceless.
The police are at a loss; her parents are beyond grief. Their daughter is lost forever, perhaps dead, perhaps enslaved.
But the biggest mystery is yet to come: one week after she was abducted, their daughter is returned.
She has no memory of where she has been. And this, for her mother, is just the beginning of the nightmare.