TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of November 22, 1981

FictionNonfiction
WeekMonth
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6
RABBIT IS RICH
John Updike
Cover of RABBIT IS RICH

RABBIT IS RICH

by John Updike · Knopf

5 wks on list

It's 1979 and Rabbit is no longer running. He's walking, and beginning to get out of breath. That's OK, though - it gives him the chance to enjoy the wealth that comes with middle age. It's all in place: he's Chief Sales Representative and co-owner of Springer motors; his wife, at home or in the club, is keeping trim; he wears good suits, and the cash is pouring in. So why is it that he finds it so hard to accept the way that things have turned out? And why, when he looks at his family, is he haunted by regrets about all those lives he'll never live?

8
4
GORKY PARK
Martin Cruz Smith
Cover of GORKY PARK

GORKY PARK

by Martin Cruz Smith · Random House

33 wks on list

A triple murder in a Moscow amusement center: three corpses found frozen in the snow, faces and fingers missing. Chief homicide investigator Arkady Renko is brilliant, sensitive, honest, and cynical about everything except his profession. To identify the victims and uncover the truth, he must battle the KGB, FBI, and the New York City police as he pursues a rich, ruthless, and well-connected American fur dealer. Meanwhile, Renko is falling in love with a beautiful, headstrong dissident for whom he may risk everything. -- Book Description.

9
NEW
A FLAG FOR SUNRISE
Robert Stone
Cover of A FLAG FOR SUNRISE

A FLAG FOR SUNRISE

by Robert Stone · Knopf

1 wks on list

A priest, a nun, an anthropologist with CIA connections, a soldier of fortune and the contraband runners he joins are all drawn into events in a Central American country on the brink of revolution.

13
4
REMEMBRANCE
Danielle Steel
Cover of REMEMBRANCE

REMEMBRANCE

by Danielle Steel · Delacorte Press

3 wks on list

THE WORLD'S FAVOURITE AUTHOR ONE BILLION COPIES SOLD The last thing she was looking for was love . . . Serena was almost too beautiful. Yet behind her aristocratic face there was something hurt, something closed. When she went back to the family palace in Rome after the Second World War she was searching for a shining fragment of the past to hold her heart. The last thing she was looking for was love. But the past was about to vanish for ever, consumed in love so complete it made Serena dissolve with passion in the warm Italian night. All she had treasured before had been taken from her - would it last this time? Or would the priceless promise of love for a lifetime live only in the bittersweet heartbreak of remembrance? An epic and romantic tale from one of the best-loved writers of all time. Perfect for fans of Penny Vincenzi, Lucinda Riley and Maeve Binchy PRAISE FOR DANIELLE STEEL: 'Emotional and gripping . . . I was left in no doubt as to the reasons behind Steel's multi-million sales around the world' DAILY MAIL 'Danielle Steel is undeniably an expert' NEW YORK TIMES

14
1
NIGHT PROBE!
Clive Cussler
Cover of NIGHT PROBE!

NIGHT PROBE!

by Clive Cussler · Bantam

13 wks on list

A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Cussler is hard to beat' Daily Mail The page-turning Dirk Pitt classic from multi-million-copy king of the adventure novel, Clive Cussler. May 1914. Two diplomats hurry home by sea and rail, each carrying a document of world-changing importance. Then the liner Empress of India is sunk in a collision, and the Manhattan-Line express plunges from a bridge - both dragging their VIP passengers to watery oblivion. Tragic coincidence or conspiracy? In the energy-starved, fear-torn 1980s, Dirk Pitt discovers that those long-lost papers could destroy whole nations, throwing him into his biggest challenge yet. Racing against hired killers, he launches his revolutionary deep-sea search craft and faces the horrors of the sea bed to hunt for the documents. 'Night Probe' has begun . . . 'Clive Cussler is the guy I read' Tom Clancy 'The Adventure King' Daily Express

15
NEW
NO TIME FOR TEARS
Cynthia Freeman
Cover of NO TIME FOR TEARS

NO TIME FOR TEARS

by Cynthia Freeman · Arbor House

This "ambitious" New York Times bestseller tells the multigenerational saga of a Russian-Jewish family who emigrates to America and eventually Israel ( Los Angeles Times Book Review). Chavala Rabinsky is sixteen when her mother dies and she becomes the caretaker of her five siblings. Beautiful and wise beyond her years, Chavala catches the eye of Dovid Landau, a poor cobbler whose dreams transform her life when he marries her. But Odessa, Russia, is a dangerous place in 1905. The Landaus flee the pogroms of their homeland for Ottoman-ruled Palestine—until escalating violence forces the family to become wanderers again. Rich in passion and scope, No Time for Tears sounds a call of love and liberation that will ring out for generations to come.

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