TheCable

‘Becoming’, the highly anticipated memoir by Michelle Obama, former US first lady, is now the fastest selling book in 2018.

Forbes reports that on November 13, its debut date, the book sold over 725,000 copies across all formats in the US and Canada.

Retail bookseller, Barnes & Noble, said first-week sales of the book has outperformed first-week sales of Ben Woodward’s ‘Fear: Trump in the White House’.

It also surpassed sales of Harper Lee’s ‘Go Set a Watchman’ which sold 1.1 million copies in its first week in 2015.

An additional 800,000 hardcover copies of ‘Becoming’ have been printed by Penguin Random House, after the initial 1.8 million copies were sold-out.

An audio edition of the book is available in digital and physical formats, and will be published in 31 languages across the globe.

Commenting on the sales, Liz Harwell, senior director of merchandising at Barnes & Noble, said it comes as no surprise.

“We knew ‘Becoming’ was going to be one of the biggest books of the year, but it has now officially had the best first week of sales of any book in 2018, and is among the fastest sellers in Barnes & Noble history,” Harwell said in a press statement.

On December 3, Obama will discuss the memoir in detail with Chimamanda Adichie at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, UK.

Tickets for the event sold out minutes after they went on sale.