The short story collection “The Last Wish” by Andrzej Sapkowski, which tells the adventures of the Witcher Geralt, has reached the first place in the bestseller list of German weekly Der Spiegel and scored second place in the bestseller ranking of Focus magazine.
“The Last Wish” was reprinted alongside “The Sword of Destiny” and the novel “Season of Storms”, which also reached the top 10 bestsellers of Der Spiegel (respectively sixth and seventh place). A week earlier, the first book in “The Witcher” saga, “Blood of Elves” had topped the ranking.
Germans, alongside readers from many other countries around the world such as the United States and the United Kingdom, are re-discovering Sapkowski’s work after Netflix’s show adaptation of the books.
Stefanie Schill of dtv, the publishing house responsible for publishing “The Witcher” in Germany, emphasized that 385,000 copies of Sapkowski’s novels have been sold in Germany alone.
She added that dtv had been well-prepared for the impact Netflix’s show would have on book sales, as they had released a special collector’s edition of “The Witcher” saga in December in anticipation of the show’s premiere.
The books were first published in Germany between 2007 and 2008 and had already gathered a popular following.
Andrzej Sapkowski himself has complimented the work of his German translator and fellow fantasy author, Erik Simon.
“Of course, something dies in every translation. ‘Traduttore, traditor’, as the Italian saying goes – a translator is a traitor. But I must admit, that my German translator works very thoroughly. German readers are most definitely dealing with the real Sapkowski,” the Polish author explained.
In January 2020, American publisher Orbit Books had announced it will print an additional half a million copies of Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels to meet readers’ demands in the United States.
