New Europe: reading up on Germany's bestselling books

Immigration, crime and the ups and downs of public life are the burning issues of German intellectual life, at least if the bestseller lists from book trade journal Börsenblatt are to be believed.

There's no space for the celebrity chefs who throng UK non-fiction charts – no Jamie, no Nigella, not even any Hairy Bikers. Instead, German readers are transfixed by a controversial polemic on immigration, which has been the hardback No 1 for weeks.

Published last August, Deutschland Schafft Sich Ab (Germany is Digging Its Own Grave) cost the SDP politician and banker Thilo Sarrazin his job, after the chancellor Angela Merkel called for him to be dismissed and the Deutsche Bundesbank obliged.

Sarrazin criticises the country's postwar immigration policy and what he sees as the failure of its Arab and Turkish communities to integrate. He claims that immigrants contribute nothing, and that he doesn't want his grandchildren to be brought up in a Muslim country. But while many consider it a straightforward race-hate book, others have argued that the author is airing issues about which Germany has been afraid to speak out, and Deutschland Schafft Sich Ab has become a huge talking point, becoming 2010's top-selling non-fiction hardback.

There's more self-examination elsewhere in the non-fiction chart, with an earnest tome one can't imagine ever being a UK bestseller sitting at No 2. Wofür Stehst Du? (What Do You Stand For?) by two old friends, Giovanni di Lorenzo and Axel Hacke, sees the pair exploring the core values by which they live, and which have been left unspoken during 20 years of friendship. Throughout the book they ask: What is really important for Germany and their communities? And why there is currently a retreat into personal life, away from the challenge of political participation? Don't hold your breath for the English translation.

Meanwhile, Germans are still reading the awful but compelling story of kidnapped Natascha Kampusch, as told in her biography 3,096 Days.

And a biography of the former German defence minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg is also riding high in the charts despite, or possibly because of the scandal that saw him step down earlier this month after being stripped of his doctorate for plagiarism.

The British may be going crazy for brooding Nordic crime, but the Germans, it seems, have fallen for that exotic English variety. At No 1 in Germany's fiction bestseller list this week is Sheffield-based crime writer Simon Beckett, with his latest chiller The Calling of the Grave, translated as Verwesung. Never mind the bleak vistas of Scandinavia; this novel features forensic scientist Dr David Hunter on an investigation on lowering Dartmoor, evidently just as popular with German fans.

Also being devoured in Germany this week are the latest thrillers from US novelist Cody McFadyen, who has just finished a German book tour for The Innocent Bone, translated as Der Menschenmacher, and Danish thriller writer Jussi Adler-Olsen, whose book Schändung, meaning Desecration, is one of a series featuring police commissioner Carl Mørck. And just when we thought that there's a Scandinavian crime writer series we haven't yet discovered, we discovered that Mørck's first UK title, Mercy, will be released here in May. Publishing is nothing if not predictable.

Taking up what is a sadly topical theme, which will no doubt continue to inspire writers for some time is Austrian novelist Arno Geiger's beautifully titled book about a father's descent into Alzheimer's. It is also listed on the fiction bestseller chart, although its subject is autobiographical. Der Alte König in seinem Exil, (The Old King in his Exile), is the very personal story of a son remaking his relationship with his father, who has become withdrawn under the impact of the illness.

The rest of the fiction top 10 is an eclectic mix: a historical novel set in New Zealand by German writer Sarah Lark, In the Shadow of the Caribbean; Philip Roth's Nemesis; and American fantasy novels – Hunted, which is part of the House of Night series by mother-and-daughter writing team PC and Kirstin Cast, features alongside Erin Hunter's Midnight.

With only Sarah Brown's bland account of life at No 10 appearing among the cookbooks on the UK charts, perhaps Germans can look forward to a livelier political discussion across the dinner table than the British – although maybe not over a very appetising supper.