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Heather Morris’ The Tattooist of Auschwitz (Zaffre) has returned to the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, leapfrogging C J Sansom’s Tombland (Mantle) just a week after the seventh Matthew Shardlake title itself elbowed Morris’ debut off the top. The Tattooist… sold 29,968 copies through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market, claimed a fourth week atop the Mass Market Fiction top 20 and topped 100,000 copies sold in paperback—beating fellow debut Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (HarperCollins) by 1,729 copies at the same stage in its publication life.
In the first chart after its Man Booker Prize win, Anna Burns’ Milkman (Faber) leapt 882% to 9,466 copies, claiming ninth place. But for its first full week of sales post-win, it has nearly doubled that volume, climbing to fourth place overall. At 18,786 copies sold last week, Milkman has posted the highest volume for any winner in the BookScan era in the week following the announcement, besting even Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall (Fourth Estate)—which went on to sell over a million copies across all editions—by just under 1,000 units.
Sarah J Maas’ Kingdom of Ash (Bloomsbury Children's) thundered into the Children’s number one spot, bringing Liz Pichon’s three-week reign to an end. The US fantasy author has already swiped the kids’ top spot once this year, with A Court of Frost and Starlight ascending to the throne in May. Kingdom of Ash becomes her fourth title to go straight to the top spot, but Maas seems to have trouble retaining her crown—she’s never held the Children’s number one for more than one week.
John Grisham’s The Reckoning (Hodder & Stoughton) was the highest new entry in the Original Fiction chart, though Sansom’s Tombland held the top spot by over 16,000 copies.
Both non-fiction number ones stayed the same. The Supervet Noel Fitzpatrick’s Listening to the Animals (Trapeze) sold 13,067 copies to held the Hardback Non-Fiction number one for a second week, and Adam Kay’s This is Going to Hurt (Picador) chalked up a 27th week as Paperback Non-Fiction number one. The junior doctor memoir is now within touching distance of the record for non-consecutive weeks in the chart’s top spot—currently held by Pan Macmillan stablemate Joe Wicks’ Lean in 15 (Bluebird), with 35.
However, Edith Eger’s The Choice (Rider & Co) made a strong debut into Paperback Non-Fiction, in second place—displacing Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens from second place for the first time since July.
Michael Morpurgo’s The Snowman (Puffin), inspired by the Raymond Briggs original, was the highest new entry in the Pre-School top 20, in ninth place. However, Halloween-related titles still ruled the roost, with Allan & Janet Ahlberg’s Funnybones (Puffin) racking up a third consecutive week in the top spot.