In its first foray into foreign-language publishing, HarperCollins is creating HarperCollins Germany; its first list of about 50 books, including The Heist by Daniel Silva, will appear next year.

The new operation is an expansion of the Harlequin publishing program in Hamburg, which will provide the resources to support the HarperCollins titles. HarperCollins English-language publishers and local German editorial, marketing and sales staff will select titles for publication from HarperCollins divisions around the world. HarperCollins plans to expand its foreign-language publishing with the opening of programs in Japan, Sweden, the Netherlands and Spain in the coming months. In August, HarperCollins completed the acquisition of Harlequin, which has more than a dozen international offices.

HarperCollins president and CEO Brian Murray commented: "HarperCollins has been a successful English-language publisher for nearly 200 years, and we are excited to take our company in a new direction by broadening our publishing operations through foreign language publishing. Harlequin has long had a prosperous German publishing program and we are thrilled to be able to build on its resources to expand the reach of our authors around the world and to grow our business."

Thomas Beckmann, Harlequin Germany managing director, said: "Harlequin Germany has been highly successful, with a strong local presence in all press channels and supermarkets, as well as in traditional bookstores for more than 12 years.

Amazon launched its Kindle Unlimited program in Germany yesterday, a day before the opening of this year's Frankfurt Book Fair and a month after introducing the service in the U.K. The Bookseller reported that for €9.99 ($12.60) per month, "users get unlimited access to more than 650,000 Kindle books, including over 40,000 titles in German.... Among the major publishers only how-to specialist Gräfe und Unzer and Bastei Lübbe (including its self-publishing imprint BookRix) have signed up directly with Kindle Unlimited."

The Bookseller also noted that Amazon "will face fierce local competition in the German-speaking markets," since Readfy "beat Amazon to the post and successfully opened its e-book service to the public a few days ago amidst a whirlwind of mostly positive headlines in the German media."

Oksanen

"Only a free language can fly," said Finnish writer Sofie Oksanen (author of Purge and three other novels) at the opening ceremony of the 66th Frankfurt Book Fair on Tuesday night. Part of the delegation from the Guest of Honor country, Oksanen spoke along with Pasi Sahlberg, an education expert and visiting professor at Harvard University, and Sauli Niinistö, president of Finland.

Oksanen discussed the relatively young history of Finnish literature, noting that its growth in the early 1900s went hand-in-hand with Finnish independence from Russia--one could not have been achieved without the other. Sahlberg, meanwhile, discussed his country's world-renowned education system. Key to the strength of Finnish schools, Sahlberg insisted, was the guiding belief in equality for all students.

Niinistö described Finnish literature as "something like a folk tale told in front of a campfire," and extolled literature in general as the "common home" of the human mind. The importance of the global message of literature, he insisted, cannot be understated. He said: "You cannot write too much, and you cannot read too much--never ever." --Alex Mutter

Barnes & Noble Booksellers at College Town in Rochester, N.Y., will hold its grand opening October 17, TWC News reported, adding that the $100-million College Town project, located near the University of Rochester, has been in the works since 2008 and will "be home to a 20,000 square foot Constantino's Market, a two-story Barnes & Noble, a Hilton Garden Inn Hotel, 150 high-end apartments and more than 10 restaurants and shops."

Falling Water Books & Collectables, Ann Arbor, Mich., will close December 31 after 26 years in business. On the shop's website, co-owners Jim Johnston and Kay Gould-Caskey wrote: "It has been a profound and rewarding journey, one rich with challenges and opportunities. We are deeply grateful for the support we have received from the people in this community over all these years....

"The decision to close has not been an easy one to make. Several weeks ago our landlord informed us our building is in the process of being sold. That news, along with the fact the brick and mortar retail scene has changed so drastically since we opened helped us realize and accept this was the appropriate time for us to close."

This week, indie booksellers across the U.K. are hoping to cash in on "Super Thursday," when "315 of the most eagerly awaited hardback titles of the year hit the shelves," the Guardian reported.

"The huge number of new, and highly-anticipated, titles creates an awful lot of news and gets people into bookshops, which are the best places to discover other books," said Booksellers Association president Tim Walker, owner of Walkers Bookshops in Stamford and Oakham. "We just had our annual conference and it was the most upbeat I can remember. Times are tough but there's a confidence that what booksellers do is valuable and important."

Noting that previous unofficial Super Thursdays had pushed sales "massively," Foyles CEO Sam Husain said, "It helps us fight back against the Internet, creates a real buzz and awareness about books, and it feeds into our busiest time--Christmas."

Artist Tracey Emin has designed a limited edition Books Are My Bag tote, and 25,000 of them will be given away with purchases at 1,800 bookshops tomorrow, the Guardian wrote. "I travel a lot and the thought of getting on a plane or a train without a book would just drive me insane," said Emin.

Siegfried Lenz, one of Germany's major postwar authors, died yesterday at age 88, Deutsche Welle reported.

The author of 14 novels, 120 short stories, many novellas, radio plays and dramas, Lenz was best known for Deutschstunde (The German Lesson) and Heimatmuseum (The Heritage).

The German Lesson "addressed the huge moral issue of duty versus conscience during Germany's Nazi era," Deutsche Welle said. "For Lenz, reconciliation with Poland and solidarity with Israel remained a priority throughout his life."

Lenz won the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade and the City of Frankfurt's Goethe Prize. His own Siegfried Lenz Foundation, founded in June, is giving the first Siegfried Lenz Prize to Amos Oz in November.

In anticipation of this week's New York Comic Con, Macmillan Audio hosted a pair of NYCC SciFi Audiobook Narrators Live events in the city. Pictured above during last Sunday's presentation at Barnes & Noble's Warren St. store are author Leanna Renee Hieber, who served as moderator, with narrators Matthew Brown, whose voice work includes Mary E. Pearson's Jenna Fox Chronicles, Rebecca Soler (Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles) and Fred Berman (Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga's Walking Dead series).

Last night, Macmillan Audio's NYCC SciFi Audiobook Narrators Live event at B&N's 86th St. store was moderated by author Jonathan Maberry and featured audiobook narrators Sean Runette (Andrew Fukuda's the Hunt trilogy); Katherine Kellgren (Frank Herbert's Dune books, Rick Riordan's Kane Chronicles) and Emma Galvin (Veronica Roth's Divergent series, Josephine Angelini's Worldwalker trilogy).

"When the computer says we have 5 copies, but we can't seem to find them." Buzzfeed featured "12 awkward bookseller moments," noting that "no booksellers, books, readers, or bears were harmed in the making of this list. Unless you count feeling awkward as being harmed. In which case, yeah, there's a good amount of that."

Flora and the Penguin by Molly Idle (Chronicle Books), the encore to Caldecott Honor book Flora and the Flamingo.

Today on Fresh Air: Caitlin Doughty, author of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory (Norton, $24.95, 9780393240238).

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Tomorrow on the Diane Rehm Show: Yochi Dreazen, author of The Invisible Front: Love and Loss in an Era of Endless War (Crown, $26, 9780385347839).

A new trailer is out for Before I Go to Sleep, based on the novel by S.J. Watson. Indiewire reported that the project, produced by Ridley Scott, directed by Rowan Joffe and starring Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth and Mark Strong, arrives in theaters October 31.

Margaret MacMillan won the $10,000 (US$8,950) Harbourfront Festival Prize, which recognizes an individual based their body of published work and "contributions to fostering the next generation of literary talent," Quillblog reported. MacMillan, author of 13 books, including The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914 and Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World, will be honored October 24.

David Hair is the author of the Moontide Quartet, an epic fantasy series about the clash of east and west, in the tradition of Robert Jordan and George R.R. Martin. Scarlet Tides (Jo Fletcher Books, October 7, 2014), book two in the series, continues the story begun in Mage's Blood. Hair lives in New Zealand, where he has also published many YA fantasy novels.

On your nightstand now:

I'm a third of the way through the last book of Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy. Demons versus angels, but not as we know it. Waiting behind that is Chosen by Benedict Jacka and an embarrassingly large amount of other books! My willingness to buy books outweighs the time I have to read them.

Favorite book when you were a child:

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner. Myth and magic in the English countryside, like a secret world opening up.

Your top five authors:

Tough question. I've loved a lot of books over the years, and I'd probably answer this differently on any given day, and five is way too few. Today it's J.R.R. Tolkien (got me into fantasy), Tim Powers (fantasy and cool history), Colleen McCullough (Masters of Rome series, which is amazingly rich and detailed), C.J. Cherryh (incredibly prolific, but mostly I love the Morgaine books and the Ealdwood books) and Terry Pratchett (wonderful humour and humanity).

Book you've faked reading:

No, I don't fake! If I haven't read it, I won't pretend.

Book you're an evangelist for:

Q by Luther Blissett (not the former Watford and A.C. Milan footballer). [Luther Blissett is the nom de plume of] a collective of Italian writers, telling a tale of faith and betrayal and intrigue set in the Hundred Years War. It's awesome.

Book you've bought for the cover:

I'm not really prone to doing that. I read the blurb on the back (or inside jacket) and decide then.

Book that changed your life:

I know it's a cliché, but it has to be the Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R Tolkien. I read it when 13, and it changed my reading taste permanently.

Favorite line from a book:

I've always loved a line from the poem that Gimli recites in Moria in The Fellowship of the Ring: "The shadow lies upon his tomb,/ In Moria, in Khazad-dûm." I've got the BBC radio play, and it's very stirring when read aloud. I was disappointed Peter Jackson didn't work it into the movie version.

Which character you most relate to:

I like clever characters who get by on their wits: my favourite all-time character is Silk from David Eddings's Belgariad series: sly, funny and always three steps ahead, but his heart is totally in the right place.

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

The Drawing of the Dark by Tim Powers, which combines history and fantasy wonderfully. I love all his books, and it's a toss-up with this one and his The Anubis Gates, which is also mind-blowing.

Oh, how complex are the motives of human beings! That observation lies at the heart of the triumphant conclusion to Robin LaFevers's original, suspenseful His Fair Assassins trilogy starring deadly 15th-century nuns from the Convent of Saint Mortain in Brittany.

Annith, who has been stuck in the convent while Ismae (narrator of Grave Mercy) and Sybella (who narrates Dark Triumph) were both sent out on assignment as handmaidens to Death, at last breaks free for this nail-biting finale. Here she learns why the abbess has kept her so close. When Annith discovers that the abbess intends for her to succeed the ailing Sister Vereda as the new seeress, forever tethered to the convent, she becomes determined to strike out of its confines: "As much as I love Death, I do not think that I love Him enough to entomb myself in the convent before I have even lived," Annith thinks.

Annith had always felt a debt to the present abbess for protecting her as a child from the Dragonette, her nickname for the previous convent's head, a woman who placed Annith in solitary confinement at age five simply for balking at butchering a hen meant for supper. But that trying time also prompted her first visit from Mortain. Now Annith finds herself questioning the abbess's decisions and what motivates them. She leaves the convent at the first opportunity and, on the road, soon finds herself in the midst of the Hellequins' Hunt. Readers will be fascinated to learn of these "tortured souls of the damned who have pledged themselves to serve Mortain in order to earn their redemption." The one who rescues Annith from the Hellequins turns out to be their leader. LaFevers creates a tension that sizzles between them. The author also lays the groundwork for Annith to question faith's constructs--as with the convent meant to serve Mortain but corrupted by power--in order to evaluate what it means to be guided by love and faith in all of one's choices.

LaFevers raises the stakes and the level of conversation here as she blends history, intrigue and the forces of influence--fighting against France to retain Brittany's integrity--while also putting a human face on the events. Her discussion of the imminent threat of a culture being lost and individuals with so much at risk are themes just as relevant today as they were more than 500 years ago. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness

Shelf Talker: In this triumphant conclusion to the His Fair Assassins trilogy, Annith joins Ismae and Sybella on a mission to aid Brittany--and learns her parentage and falls in love.

One of our references in yesterday's list of the top book club picks in September, compiled by Bookmovement.com, incorrectly referred to Indiereader.com. It should have been Bookmovement.com. We're sorry for any confusion!

The bestselling self-published books last week as compiled by IndieReader.com:

1. Deacon (Unfinished Heroes Book 4) by Kristen Ashley
2. Scarlett Red (Billionaire SEAL Part 2) by P.T. Michelle
3. Filthy Beautiful Love (Filthy Beautiful Lies Book 2) by Kendall Ryan
4. Highland Shifters: Paranormal Romance Boxed Set by Various
5. Hemy (Walk of Shame #2) by Victoria Ashley
6. Black Lies by Alessandra Torre
7. Agnes Barton in Tawas Box Set by Madison Johns
8. When Shadows Fall (Callaway Series) by Barbara Freethy
9. Hush Now Baby (Sloane Monroe Book 6) by Cheryl Bradshaw
10. Monster in His Eyes by J.M. Darhower

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]