Pups, vampires and a president: The bestselling books of 2020 – Sydney Morning Herald

What is striking this year is the continuing absence of one of the staples of many annual bestseller lists, international and American fiction, particularly crime. And colouring books for adults whatever happened to them? It might have been timely for them to reappear.

A decade ago, the top 10 was dominated by Stieg Larsson, the author of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, American childrens writer Jeff Kinney, with the only Australian presence a cookbook by the inaugural winner of MasterChef, Julie Goodwin. Five years earlier, Australian readers had been in the grip of Dan Brown and the phenomenon of The Da Vinci Code (five titles in the top 10, including an illustrated Da Vinci Code).

Last year novelists Delia Owens (Where the Crawdads Sing) and Stephenie Meyer (Midnight Sun) were the only US authors in the top 10, although Barack Obamas memoir, A Promised Land, which was the bestselling book at Christmas, hovered outside the top 10 having sold more than 111,000 copies since publication in the middle of November.

Trent Dalton's incredibly popular first novel, Boy Swallows Universe, outsold his latest one last year, but it was a close-run affair.Credit:Paul Harris

But in an unprecedented year for all retailers, enduringly popular authors put in sterling performances.

Dymocks managing director Mark Newman said his 57-shop chain had definitely seen a trend towards Australian stories. ''This really kicked off with the phenomenon that was The Dry by Jane Harper. When this was first released in 2016 we began to notice other Australian books moving up the bestseller list. This year has been particularly strong for Australian authors with new books.''

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Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton sold more than 147,000 copies of the latest instalment in their Treehouse series, and Scott Papes The Barefoot Investor, which held the top spot in 2018 and 2019, managed to sell more than 140,000 copies despite having been published more than four years ago.

Trent Daltons hugely successful first novel, Boy Swallows Universe, which was published in March 2019, outsold his second, All Our Shimmering Skies, by more than 7000 copies to finish in sixth spot. After Pape, it was the second most popular Australian book for adults.

Melbourne crime writer Harpers fourth novel, The Survivors, sold more than 125,000 copies in little more than three months. (Its a been good few months for her with the screen version of The Dry receiving enthusiastic reviews.)

The publication of Julia Bairds Phosphorescence about awe, wonder and the things that sustain you when the world goes dark certainly struck a timely chord when published last March and sold nearly 121,000 copies.

The 100-year-old Australian author who wrote The Happiest Man on Earth, Eddie Jaku, would have been pretty happy to sell about 110,000 copies of his memoir of surviving the Holocaust, while readers didnt seem fazed that Lee Child had started writing his popular Jack Reacher series with his younger brother, Andrew. The latest instalment, The Sentinel, was snapped up about 105,000 times.

In the solely Australian top 20, Bruce Pascoes consistently popular Dark Emu finished just behind Jaku, while Matthew Reillys latest crash-bang-wallop thriller, The Two Lost Mountains, was one spot behind him in eighth. Heather Morris The Tattooist of Auschwitz came next, followed by Pip Williams acclaimed first novel, The Dictionary of Lost Words. Malcolm Turnbulls memoir, A Bigger Picture, finished one spot outside the Australian top 10.

Mr Newman said 2020 had in the end been quite a good year for the book trade. ''After a slow start to the year and the initial impact of the closure of retail in March/April, sales of books mirrored the overall increase in retail sales during COVID.'' He said economic forecasts pointed to a positive retail outlook for the majority of 2021.

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Jason Steger is Books Editor at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald

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Pups, vampires and a president: The bestselling books of 2020 - Sydney Morning Herald