You may also be interested in...
Your gift will bring the light of God’s Word to those who wait
Bible is Norway’s best-selling book
5 January 2012
The Bible has hit the top of Norway’s best-selling book lists, after the launch of a new translation in the autumn.
The first Norwegian translation of the Bible for 30 years, produced by Bible Society, topped the country’s best-seller charts almost every week between its publication in October and the end of the year.
It sold an amazing 80,000 copies, hugely exceeding expectations. ‘We only printed 25,000 to start with and thought it would last six to nine months,’ said Stine Smemo Strachan of the Norwegian Bible Society.
‘It has only been knocked off the number one spot once by [literary author] Karl Ove Knausgard.’
The Bible’s launch garnered a celebrity-style response from the Norwegian public. People queued overnight in freezing temperatures to get their hands on the new edition. Bookshops sold out on the first day and more had to be printed. So far, the Bible has sold 80,000 copies.
Thirty translators, priests and academics translated the original into modern-day Norwegian with a team of 12 authors, including Knausgard assisting on the project.