From rollason@dialup.francenet.fr Mon Jan 20 19:17:37 1997
Date: Thu, 09 Jan 1997 19:59:47 GMT
From: CHRISTOPHER ROLLASON <rollason@dialup.francenet.fr>
To: grewals@acf2.NYU.EDU
Subject: Rushdie's 'Moor': some sales figures

Today's edition (9-1-97) of the London daily 'The Guardian' has a list
(second section, P. 10) of the 100 best-selling new paperbacks in the
UK for 1996.

Salman Rushdie's 'The Moor's Last Sigh' (released in paperback by
Vintage in July 96) is one of the few literary novels to have made it
into the top 100. It is at No 59, one place under David Lodge's
'Therapy' and four notches above Pat Barker's
'The Ghost Road', which pipped 'Moor' for the Booker Prize.

The sales figure quoted is 172,403 copies, broken down into 80,421 in
the UK and 91,982 export.

Of course, these figures do not include hardback sales of the UK
edition; or the US editions, hardback or paperback; or sales of the
work in translation; or, presumably, sales in India. Still, they are
interesting, and it is noteworthy that (something rare in this list)
the export sales exceed UK sales. Does this testify to Rushdie's
status as an international writer, or does it mean that the
politically correct faction in the UK is boycotting his post-fatwa
work?

Chris Rollason

Christopher Rollason
Metz, France
rollason@dialup.francenet.fr

'but would not change my free thoughts for a throne' (Byron)