'Mister Pip' tops bestseller list for year

Lloyd Jones' book Mister Pip has become the best of the bestsellers list for 2007.

More than 46,000 copies of the book have been sold in New Zealand. Another 25,000 copies have been sold in Australia and the book was now available in 30 countries worldwide, said Penguin Books publishing director Geoff Walker.

Talks were well advanced for the rights to base a film on the book.

Mr Walker said the achievement topped off an extraordinary year of awards. Mister Pip won the Montana Medal for fiction and poetry at this year's Montana New Zealand Book Awards, was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize and won the Commonwealth Prize for writing.

The bestsellers lists are compiled fortnightly by Booksellers New Zealand, and a bestsellers list for Children & Teenagers is produced monthly.

This year's bestselling books were:

New Zealand fiction: Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (Penguin Books).

New Zealand non-fiction: Edmonds Cookery Book (Hachette Livre New Zealand)

International fiction: The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (Penguin/Viking).

International non-fiction: The Secret by Rhonda Byrne (Simon and Schuster).

- NZPA