Chinese are eager readers of foreign works, and especially of literature, social science texts and academic collections.

Translated books account for a huge slice of the market, and domestic writers often take inspiration from them.

Translated literature continued to top 2012's best-seller lists. Books that perform well worldwide usually do well in China, too.

China Daily's reading team presents 2012's top five translated books, based on sales, critical acclaim and Chinese media rankings. They're listed in alphabetic order.

Freedom

By Jonathan Franzen, Nanhai Publishing House

The story set in a small US town is the No 1 best-seller on 360buy.com, one of China's biggest online retailers. It examines the meanings of family, marriage and freedom. Readers consider the 2010 book a new classic.

Love in the Time of Cholera

By Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nanhai Publishing House

This book marked the end of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's writer's block, after the author won the 1982 Nobel Prize. Older Chinese readers have always taken inspiration from such works.

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