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Misery Sells Books

12 August 2002

The demand for books about childhood deprivation and misery seems to know no end. Seni Glaister of the Book People, a British cut-price direct seller of books, commented recently on the success of Ten Thousand Sorrows and the current vogue for books about personal misery: 'It's a very tragic memoir of a Korean woman. Misery, tragedy - that's a big area at the moment. The Road to Nab End - that's the big hot book. That's Lancashire misery. Angela's Ashes and 'Tis we did hundreds of thousands. That's Irish misery. And Dave Pelzer, with three in a box set, you don't get any more miserable than that."