TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of October 6, 1985

FictionNonfiction
WeekMonth
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1
LAKE WOBEGON DAYS
Garrison Keillor
Cover of LAKE WOBEGON DAYS

LAKE WOBEGON DAYS

by Garrison Keillor · Viking Press

6 wks at #1 · 6 on list

“Lake Wobegon Days is about the way our beliefs, desires and fears tail off into abstractions--and get renewed from time to time. . . this book, unfolding Mr. Keillor's full design, is a genuine work of American history.” —The New York Times “A comic anatomy of what is small and ordinary and therefore potentially profound and universal in American life…Keillor’s strength as a writer is to make the ordinary extraordinary.” —Chicago Tribune “Keillor’s laughs come dear, not cheap, emerging from shared virtue and good character, from reassuring us of our neighborliness and strength….His true subject is how daily life is shot with grace. Keillor writes a prose that can be turned to laughter, to tears…to compassion or satire, to a hundred effects. He is a brilliant parodist.” —San Francisco Chronicle

6
3
A MAGGOT
John Fowles
Cover of A MAGGOT

A MAGGOT

by John Fowles · Little, Brown

4 wks on list

I 1736 rejser et lille selskab gennem et øde landskab i Sydvestengland. I forhørsprotokoller, breve og avisartikler afdækkes lag for lag den gådefulde historie om rejsens formål

8
1
THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER
Tom Clancy
Cover of THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER

THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER

by Tom Clancy · Naval Institute Press

29 wks on list

Both the Americans and the Soviets commence an intense naval search when a trusted and skilled Soviet naval officer defects--using the USSR's most valuable nuclear submarine as his escape vehicle

9
4
THE FOURTH DEADLY SIN
Lawrence Sanders

THE FOURTH DEADLY SIN

by Lawrence Sanders · Putnam

12 wks on list

The First Deadly Sin set the standard by which thrillers are measured--and The Fourth Deadly Sin surpassed it. In Lawrence Sanders's most compelling novel ever, ex-cop Ed Delaney must crack the high-profile case of a brutally murdered psychiatrist by investigating six suspects--the doctor's own patients... * A Literary Guild? Selection

10
5
THE RED FOX
Anthony Hyde
Cover of THE RED FOX

THE RED FOX

by Anthony Hyde · Knopf

2 wks on list

Een Amerikaanse journalist gaat op verzoek van een vriendin op zoek naar haar verdwenen stiefvader en raakt daardoor verzeild in een gevaarlijk spionagecomplot.

13
2
THE CIDER HOUSE RULES
John Irving
Cover of THE CIDER HOUSE RULES

THE CIDER HOUSE RULES

by John Irving · Morrow

20 wks on list

Dr. Wilbur Larch does the "Lord's work" at his isolated orphanage and prepares Homer Wells to take his place.

14
NEW
LESS THAN ZERO
Bret Easton Ellis
Cover of LESS THAN ZERO

LESS THAN ZERO

by Bret Easton Ellis · Simon & Schuster

3 wks on list

In 1985, Bret Easton Ellis shocked, stunned and disturbed with his debut novel, Less Than Zero. Published when he was just twenty-one, this extraordinary and instantly infamous work has done more than simply define a genre, it has become a rare thing: a cult classic and a timeless embodiment of the zeitgeist. It continues to be a landmark in the lives of successive generations of readers across the globe. Filled with relentless drinking in seamy bars and glamorous nightclubs, wild, drug-fuelled parties, and dispassionate sexual encounters, Less Than Zero – narrated by Clay, an eighteen-year-old student returning home to Los Angeles for Christmas – is a fierce coming-of-age story, justifiably celebrated for its unflinching depiction of hedonistic youth, its brutal portrayal of the inexorable consequences of such moral depravity, and its author’s refusal to condone or chastise such behaviour.

15
NEW
THE SECRETS OF HARRY BRIGHT
Joseph Wambaugh
Cover of THE SECRETS OF HARRY BRIGHT

THE SECRETS OF HARRY BRIGHT

by Joseph Wambaugh · Morrow

1 wks on list

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Raucous cops, outlaw bikers, and suntanned celebrities collide in a steamy landscape swirling with natural beauty and unnatural death. Seventeen months ago the California desert revealed the remains of Jack Watson. The rich man’s son was found incinerated in a Rolls-Royce, a bullet in his head. Now, a year and a half later, Los Angeles Police Department homicide detective Sidney Blackpool is called into the desert to take on the case. But what begins for Blackpool as an investigation sandwiched between golf games in nearby Palm Springs quickly becomes an obsession. For the savage beauty of the wastelands holds many secrets. Secrets that stir up Blackpool’s long-suppressed nightmares of his own son’s death. Secrets that threaten to destroy an entire police department. Secrets that, by rights, should remain forever buried by the wind in the ageless desert sands. In this riveting novel, bestselling author Joseph Wambaugh jolts our emotions while entertaining us with his special brand of bawdy, beautiful, dark humor.

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