In 2020, the books of Grigore Vieru were the best-selling children’s books, shows the rankings compiled by “Cartier” publishing house. Grigore Vieru’s “Albinuța” (“The Bee”) with drawings by Lică Sainciuc ranks first.
According to Tatiana Slutu, commercial director of “Cartier” bookstores, over 1,600 copies of this book were sold in 2020, 411 of which through “Cartier” bookstores. A large number of books by Grigore Vieru were bought by the National Museum of Literature “Mihail Kogălniceanu” and the Independent Journalism Center. Grigore Vieru’s verses are also popular in Romania.
The second spot is occupied by the poetry book “Mama” (“Mother”) written by Grigore Vieru and illustrated by Igor Vieru, with about 140 copies of the book having been sold through “Cartier” bookstores.
The third position is taken by Grigore Vieru’s book “Alphabet with Tales”, with drawings by Lică Sainciuc.
The rankings also include books by Ion Druță, Ion Creangă and Aureliu Busuioc and also a book by Swedish author Maja Safstrom, translated from English into Romanian by Anastasia Gavrilovici (seventh spot) and three books by English prose writer Oscar Wilde.
Tatiana Slutu stated for IPN that compared with 2019, fewer books were sold in 2020 and this is a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. She could not say exactly how much the book sales declined.
