Suddenly, it was everywhere': why some books become blockbusters overnight

"Seemingly out of nowhere, the same book starts appearing across multiple social media feeds. On the bus, you'll spot two copies of the same title in one day. A friend says, Have you read this yet?, to which you respond, Someone was just telling me about it the other day. These are the sleeper hits that seem to materialise without warning. They are not stacked high on the new release tables."

"For a long time, the lifecycle of a book followed a similar ritual: publication-week fanfare, a few reviews and festival appearances, and then a slow fade unless garlanded with awards. But today's sleeper hits emerge from an alchemical combination of influences: online enthusiasm, translation, design, political mood, bookseller advocacy and sheer serendipity. Perhaps the standout example from this year is the runaway success of Jacqueline Harpman's dystopian feminist novella I Who Have Never Known Men."

"Originally published in French in 1995, it follows a girl imprisoned underground with 39 other women, raised in captivity, then released into a barren, post-apocalyptic landscape she must try to make sense of. It was translated into English in 1997 and was a marked failure in both markets. The English version was left to languish under the (decidedly worse) title The Mistress of Silence, and global sales were at one or two per year."

Sleeper hits are books that suddenly reappear across social feeds, public spaces and conversations despite lacking initial commercial prominence. Historical book lifecycles depended on publication-week fanfare, reviews and festivals, then faded unless award-recognised. Contemporary revivals arise from a mix of online enthusiasm, translation, design, political mood, bookseller advocacy and serendipity. Jacqueline Harpman's I Who Have Never Known Men illustrates the trend: first published in French in 1995 and translated into English in 1997, the book initially failed but later achieved dramatic sales increases, major rediscovery and wide cultural buzz.

Read at www.theguardian.com