Still at the top of the charts in France, Michel Houellebecq’s divisive new novel Soumission has now conquered Germany, shooting to the top of the charts in its first week in shops, with more than a quarter of a million copies now in print in German.

Translated as Unterwerfung (Submission) in German, Soumission tells of a near-future France which votes in the “Muslim Fraternity” party, rather than the far-right Front National, headed by Marine Le Pen. Once the change is effected, women begin to wear veils in public.

The novel, which drew controversy over its topic even before publication, was released in France on 7 January, the day on which 12 people were killed by gunmen at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, including Houellebecq’s friend, Bernard Maris. It sold 120,000 copies in its first five days on sale in France. Now it has nudged Ian McEwan’s The Children’s Act off the top spot of Germany’s charts.

Publisher Dumont said on Monday: “We have now printed in four runs 270,000 copies of Unterwerfung and delivered ... 230,000 of those to the book stores.”

Katy Derbyshire, translator and writer onss German books, described the latest sales as “pretty huge … He’s always been big here (popular with intellectual machos) but there’s been extra hype this time”.

The German translation was published just days after the release of the French original. “That’s because they got two translators to work on it, presumably from an early manuscript rather than the fully edited French version. It’s becoming a common practice in Germany, because publishers pay large advances for big titles and want to avoid losing sales to the original versions,” said Derbyshire of the speedy German release.

“Translated fiction does very well in Germany,” she added. “At the moment six of the 10 fiction bestsellers are translated, which is fairly typical ... It’s just a different literary culture from the UK. More reading is done in total and books are an important part of the Germans’ positive self-image, from Luther to Gutenberg to Herta Müller. The tradition of prominent writers translating was boosted by Goethe and never really died out like it did in the UK.”

A UK edition of Soumission is scheduled for September.