Booker Prize Fires Up Kelly Gang

Latest BookTrack figures show that Australian sales of Peter Carey's "True History of the Kelly Gang" have gone through the roof since the book won the world-renowned Booker Prize, reporting five times as many sales as before the prize was announced.

The win, announced on October 18th, made the book Australia's number one fiction novel during the weeks ending October 20 and 27, based on the combined sales of two paperback editions available on the market. Before the announcement it was listed as number eleven.

"The Booker Prize brought so much media attention to Peter Carey that his book seems to have grown legs, with the bulk of sales happening immediately after the announcement," said Kirsty Ward, client service manager, BookTrack Australia.

Atonement, runner up to Peter Carey's novel in the Booker Prize, is also selling well in Australia, climbing from No. 44 to No. 14 on the bestseller list with sales doubling in one week. The book, by British author Ian McEwan, is the number one fiction title in the UK for the third week running.

BookTrack is a joint venture between ACNielsen and J Whitaker & Sons, operator of the successful BookTrack service in the UK. BookTrack Australia collects transactional sales data from over 700 booksellers nationwide and produces a weekly Top 5000 best seller chart for the Australian book industry.

For further information visit www.acnielsen.au

All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

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