Agency Report –
The memoirs of former German chancellor Angela Merkel are having a “sensational” run, her publisher said on Saturday, two months after the book’s release.
“We are still selling around 12,000 copies a week, which is sensational,” publisher Kerstin Gleba of Kiepenheuer & Witsch told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily.
In the autobiography, entitled “Freedom: Memoirs 1954 – 2021,” Germany’s first female chancellor reflects on her life and 16 years in office across 736 pages.
The hardcover edition, which has been translated into English and other languages, costs a hefty €42.
About one-third of the readership is under 40, the publisher said, with many young people also attending book signings.
“It was very important to us and the authors to reach a young audience as well,” said Gleba, noting that an interview with comedian and television presenter Hazel Brugger attracted 1.5 million views on YouTube and was widely shared on social media.
“I think the book can also offer something to people who are not so familiar with the political scene, due to Angela Merkel’s special life story,” Gleba added.
By Christmas, she said 600,000 copies had been sold in Germany, while 40,000 were sold in Britain in the first few weeks and 25,000 in the United States.
Gleba said the book, co-written with Merkel’s long-time political adviser Beate Baumann, topped the bestseller list in the Netherlands and was among the most-sold books in Italy and Scandinavia.
