TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of January 25, 1981

FictionNonfiction
WeekMonth
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1
THE COVENANT
James A. Michener
Cover of THE COVENANT

THE COVENANT

by James A. Michener · Random House

25 wks at #1 · 14 on list
2
1
THE KEY TO REBECCA
Ken Follett
Cover of THE KEY TO REBECCA
3
3
ANSWER AS A MAN
Taylor Caldwell
Cover of ANSWER AS A MAN

ANSWER AS A MAN

by Taylor Caldwell · Putnam's

5 wks on list

"The powerful odyssey of a man of passionate principles in a decadent age ... A valiant man, haunted by forbidden yearnings. An innocent Pennsylvania town, under siege by the forces of corruption, a widening net of scandal and tragedy, threatening both the good and the evil alike.

4
2
FIRESTARTER
Stephen King
Cover of FIRESTARTER

FIRESTARTER

by Stephen King · Viking Press

23 wks on list

Master storyteller Stephen King presents the classic #1 New York Times bestseller—now a major motion picture! Andy McGee and Vicky Tomlinson were once college students looking to make some extra cash, volunteering as test subjects for an experiment orchestrated by the clandestine government organization known as The Shop. But the outcome unlocked exceptional latent psychic talents for the two of them—manifesting in even more terrifying ways when they fell in love and had a child. Their daughter, Charlie, has been gifted with the most extraordinary and uncontrollable power ever seen—pyrokinesis, the ability to create fire with her mind. Now the merciless agents of The Shop are in hot pursuit to apprehend this unexpected genetic anomaly for their own diabolical ends by any means necessary...including violent actions that may well ignite the entire world around them as Charlie retaliates with a fury of her own...

6
2
LOON LAKE
E.L. Doctorow

LOON LAKE

by E.L. Doctorow · Random House

17 wks on list

During the Great Depression of the '30s, a passionate, young New Jersey man leaves home to find his fortune. What he finds is a life so different from his own that it changes his destiny. A haunting story of dreams and desires, repackaged to match Doctorow's other bestsellers. Reprint from Bantam. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

9
2
THE FIFTH HORSEMAN
Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre

THE FIFTH HORSEMAN

by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre · Simon & Schuster

20 wks on list

The threat of Libya's Colonel Quaddafi to explode a three-megaton nuclear bomb hidden in New York, unless an autonomous Palestinian state is immediately established, affects the lives of ordinary citizens, politicians, secret agents, and terrorists from Washington to Jerusalem.

10
2
RAGE OF ANGELS
Sidney Sheldon
Cover of RAGE OF ANGELS
11
1
THE ORIGIN
Irving Stone

THE ORIGIN

by Irving Stone · Doubleday

22 wks on list

Details the life of Charles Darwin from his notable trip as a naturalist on the Beagle through his mature career as a widely respected but still controversial scientist.

14
1
THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR
Jean M. Auel
Cover of THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR

THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR

by Jean M. Auel · Crown

14 wks on list

This enhanced eBook includes: • Eight never-before-seen video interviews with Jean M. Auel where she discusses The Clan of the Cave Bear and the Earth’s Children® series: “You Must Be Able to Change in Order to Survive,” “Jondalar and Ayla,” “On Language," “Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals: The Crossbreeding Question,” “On Research (and Glaciers),” “The Domestication of Horses and Wolves,” “The Painted Caves,” and “What Is It Like Finishing a Series?” • An excerpt from The Land of Painted Caves • An Earth’s Children® series sampler • A text Q&A with Jean M. Auel • The full text of the novel This novel of awesome beauty and power is a moving saga about people, relationships, and the boundaries of love. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read Through Jean M. Auel’s magnificent storytelling we are taken back to the dawn of modern humans, and with a girl named Ayla we are swept up in the harsh and beautiful Ice Age world they shared with the ones who called themselves The Clan of the Cave Bear. A natural disaster leaves the young girl wandering alone in an unfamiliar and dangerous land until she is found by a woman of the Clan, people very different from her own kind. To them, blond, blue-eyed Ayla looks peculiar and ugly—she is one of the Others, those who have moved into their ancient homeland; but Iza cannot leave the girl to die and takes her with them. Iza and Creb, the old Mog-ur, grow to love her, and as Ayla learns the ways of the Clan and Iza’s way of healing, most come to accept her. But the brutal and proud youth who is destined to become their next leader sees her differences as a threat to his authority. He develops a deep and abiding hatred for the strange girl of the Others who lives in their midst, and is determined to get his revenge.

15
NEW
CONGO
Michael Crichton
Cover of CONGO

CONGO

by Michael Crichton · Knopf

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Jurassic Park and Timeline comes a gripping thriller about the shocking demise of eight American geologists in the darkest region of the Congo. “Thrilling.” —The New York Times Book Review Deep in the African rainforest, near the ruins of the Lost City of Zinj, a field expedition is brutally killed. At the Houston-based Earth Resources Technology Services, Inc., a horrified supervisor watches a gruesome video transmission of that ill-fated group and sees a haunting, grainy, man-like blur moving amongst the bodies. In San Francisco, an extraordinary gorilla named Amy, who has a 620-sign vocabulary, may hold the secret to that fierce carnage. Immediately, a new expedition is sent to the Congo with Amy in tow, descending into a secret, forbidden world where the only escape may be through the grisliest death.

Historical bestseller data sourced from the New York Times Book Review, archived by Hawes Publications.