TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of April 25, 1999

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2
NEW
THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON
Stephen King
Cover of THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON

THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON

by Stephen King · Scribner

1 wks on list

When Trisha McFarland gets lost in the woods of Maine she imagines her hero, relief pitcher Tom Gordon, is with her and will help her survive against the beast trying to kill her.

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THE TESTAMENT
John Grisham
Cover of THE TESTAMENT

THE TESTAMENT

by John Grisham · Doubleday

10 wks on list

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In a plush Virginia office, a rich, angry old man is furiously rewriting his will. With his death just hours away, Troy Phelan wants to send a message to his children, his ex-wives, and his minions—a message that will touch off a vicious legal battle and transform dozens of lives. Nate O'Riley is a high-octane Washington litigator who's lived too hard, too fast, for too long. His second marriage in a shambles, and he is emerging from his fourth stay in rehab armed with little more than his fragile sobriety, good intentions, and resilient sense of humor. Returning to the real world is always difficult, but this time it's going to be murder. Rachel Lane is a young woman who chose to give her life to God, who walked away from the modern world with all its strivings and trappings and encumbrances, and went to live and work with a primitive tribe of Indians in the deepest jungles of Brazil. In a story that mixes legal suspense with a remarkable adventure, their lives are forever altered by the startling secret of The Testament. Don’t miss John Grisham’s new book, THE EXCHANGE: AFTER THE FIRM!

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NEW
A NEW SONG
Jan Karon
Cover of A NEW SONG

A NEW SONG

by Jan Karon · Viking Press

1 wks on list

In A New Song, Mitford's longtime Episcopal priest, Father Tim, retires. However, new challenges and adventures await when he agrees to serve as interim minister of a small church on Whitecap Island. He and his wife, Cynthia, soon find that Whitecap has its own unforgettable characters: a church organist with a mysterious past, a lovelorn bachelor placing personal ads, a mother battling paralyzing depression. They also find that Mitford is never far away when circumstances "back home" keep their phone ringing off the hook. In this fifth novel of the beloved series, fans old and new will discover that a trip to Mitford and Whitecap is twice as good for the soul.

12
THE POISONWOOD BIBLE
Barbara Kingsolver
Cover of THE POISONWOOD BIBLE

THE POISONWOOD BIBLE

by Barbara Kingsolver · Harper Flamingo

26 wks on list

The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it—from garden seeds to Scripture—is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa. The novel is set against one of the most dramatic political chronicles of the twentieth century: the Congo's fight for independence from Belgium, the murder of its first elected prime minister, the CIA coup to install his replacement, and the insidious progress of a world economic order that robs the fledgling African nation of its autonomy. Against this backdrop, Orleanna Price reconstructs the story of her evangelist husband's part in the Western assault on Africa, a tale indelibly darkened by her own losses and unanswerable questions about her own culpability. Also narrating the story, by turns, are her four daughters—the self-centered, teenaged Rachel; shrewd adolescent twins Leah and Adah; and Ruth May, a prescient five-year-old. These sharply observant girls, who arrive in the Congo with racial preconceptions forged in 1950s Georgia, will be marked in surprisingly different ways by their father's intractable mission, and by Africa itself. Ultimately each must strike her own separate path to salvation. Their passionately intertwined stories become a compelling exploration of moral risk and personal responsibility. Dancing between the dark comedy of human failings and the breathtaking possibilities of human hope, The Poisonwood Bible possesses all that has distinguished Barbara Kingsolver's previous work, and extends this beloved writer's vision to an entirely new level. Taking its place alongside the classic works of postcolonial literature, this ambitious novel establishes Kingsolver as one of the most thoughtful and daring of modern writers.

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RIVER'S END
Nora Roberts
Cover of RIVER'S END

RIVER'S END

by Nora Roberts · Putnam

6 wks on list

Four-year-old Olivia MacBride's parents were Hollywood's golden couple - until the monster destroyed their beautiful home and took Livvy's mother away from her for ever. The monster with her father's face... Protected by her grandparents, Olivia grows up in the sanctuary of the lush rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula, and learns to bury the past deep within her. Despite the years that have passed, she still yearns to know the truth about her childhood. And now she just might get the chance. Noah Brady, a young writer, wants to tell the story that has become a part of Hollywood history. But before Olivia can confront her past, she must safeguard her future. For the monster walks again...

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APOLLYON
Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins

APOLLYON

by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins · Tyndale

9 wks on list

THE FIFTH TRUMPET JUDGMENT-A PLAGUE OF SCORPION LIKE LOCUSTS LED BY APOLLYON, CHIEF DEMON OF THE ABYSS-IS SO HORRIFYING THAT MEN TRY TO KILL THEMSELVES BUT ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DIE.

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