Sales of a paperback edition of "La Peste" (The Plague), the masterpiece of French writer Albert Camus (1913-1960), have skyrocketed in Japan since late January, reaching a cumulative total of 1.04 million copies on Wednesday.
The novel, known as "Pesuto" in Japan, was published in 1947 and describes the struggle of residents in a city sealed off from the world amid a plague epidemic.
The Shincho Bunko paperback edition of the novel's Japanese translation was published by Shinchosha in 1969 and has recently seen a republishing of about 5,000 copies a year.
This year, the novel has been reprinted on seven different occasions since mid-February, reaching a total of more than 150,000 copies.
"At one point, it was our weekly bestseller in the paperback section of our store," said an official of Kinokuniya Book Store Tokyo's main branch in Shinjuku, where many people have flocked to buy the novel.
According to Shinchosha, the novel has also become a bestseller in the United States and Europe.
"There has never been a case like this before, that a book receives such an outpour of public support without having been made it into a movie," said a person representing the publishing house.
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