Dan Brown beats Clinton

Updated on: 23 September,2009 08:02 AM IST |
Agencies |

Dan Brown's new novel has passed the 2 million mark and bettered Bill Clinton's My Life in the record books.

Dan Brown's new novel has passed the 2 million mark and bettered Bill Clinton's My Life in the record books.

Publisher Doubleday announced yesterday that hardcover, audio and e-book sales for The Lost Symbol topped 2 million copies for its first week of release in the United States, Britain and Canada.

The total is "well over" 2 million for English-language editions worldwide, according to Doubleday spokeswoman Suzanne Herz.

She added that the previous record holder was former US president Bill Clinton's memoir, published in 2004.

The novel, Brown's first since The Da Vinci Code, has sold well over 550,000 copies in the UK alone since it went on sale at one minute past midnight on September 15, making it the fastest-selling adult book of all time in Britain.

Potter still top

The Lost Symbol didn't approach the more than 8 million copies that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold in the first 24 hours, but the weekly results were an all-time high in North America for Doubleday's parent company, Random House Inc.

The book is Brown's first since The Da Vinci Code, an international phenomenon published in 2003. The Da Vinci Code has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide.