VOL.69/2024.04

South Korea's July Bestsellers

Aggregate data as of the second week of July

2017.7.28

Haruki Murakami's Killing Commendatore Parts 1, 2 Dominate Bestseller Lists for Two Weeks

Japanese author Haruki Murakami's Killing Commendatore has topped the bestseller list at YES24 for two consecutive weeks after it went on sale on July 12, with parts one and two sitting at No.1 and No.2 of the list, respectively. The novel, split into two parts, saw 3,174 copies snapped up by readers on release day. When including pre-orders that began on June 30, there have been roughly 18,000 copies sold, kicking up another storm of demand for Murakami's books. When compared to the writer's previous work IQ84, this latest release has already seen more than twice the number of pre-orders despite a shorter ordering period, reflecting the high interest of readers as this is Murakami's first novel in seven years. Readers in their 30s made up 42 percent of the consumer base for Killing Commendatore. Men in their 30s showed the most interest in the new release, accounting for 21.7 percent of sales.

Popular writers boost novel sales, including Keigo Higashino's Dangerous Venus, Ae-ran Kim's Outside is Summer

In hand with Murakami's success this summer, novels are all the rage with Korean readers. Young-ha Kim's Only Two stayed at No. 3 on the bestseller list for a third straight week, while Nam-joo Jo's Ji-young Kim Born in '82 sat at No. 8 on the list for a second week. The first part of Slumber by French writer Bernard Werber, uniquely popular among Korean readers, stepped down one place from the previous week to No. 9. The second part of Werber's novel stood four places lower at No. 11, but has still managed to remain near the top of the list. Keigo Higashino's new release Dangerous Venus climbed up four spots to sit at No. 10. Meanwhile, Korean writer Ae-ran Kim's story collectionoutside in summer inched up one spot to No. 15. This is Kim's first release in five years.

 〈South Korean Top 15 Bestsellers, July 2017〉

Written by Seung-yeon Yoo (New-media Team, Assistant Manager)