“The Great Gatsby” returns to the spotlight as USA TODAY’s Book of the Year. The 88-year-old novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which was initially published in 1925, has once again captivated audiences surely thanks to the recent release of the film adaptation from Baz Lurhmann.
The recent film release starred Leonardo DiCaprio as the enigmatic Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire whose obsessive love for the married Daisy Buchanan sets off a chain of tragic events.
“The Great Gatsby” has long been a staple of summer reading lists, with this year tripling its typical annual sales with over 1.5 million copies. It even landed at No. 2 on USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books list for four straight weeks in May (behind David Baldacci, James Patterson, Charlaine Harris and Dan Brown at No. 1 those weeks).
Susan Moldow, president of publisher Scribner, says the long-lasting appeal of the story of anti-hero Gatsby has to do with “eternal appeal of the American dream. There’s something in it for everybody.”
