When the novel, The Girl on the Train, came out in 2015, its Zimbabwean-born author, Paula Hawkins, could not have guessed the scale and speed of its success.

The novel debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times Fiction Best Sellers of 2015 list (combined print and e-book) in February 2015 and remained in the top position for 13 consecutive weeks, until April 2015.

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In January this year it became the No.1 bestseller again for two weeks.

By early March 2015, the novel had sold over 1 million copies, and 1.5 million by April.

By early August 2015, the book had sold more than 3 million copies in the US alone, and, by October this year, an estimated 15 million copies worldwide.

It has occupied the number one spot on the UK hardback book chart for 20 weeks, the longest any book has ever held the top spot. (Wikipedia).

Most authors can only ever dream of such success.

But that is not all. Hollywood’s Universal Pictures bought the rights to turn her book into a film which came out at the beginning of this year. The film, of the same title as the book, has grossed US$170million at the box office to date.

Crazy numbers.

Hawkins will be in Harare this weekend and she will share the stage with another successful author, Petina Gappah, in a discussion of their work at an event set for Reps Theatre.

Hawkins lives in South London. She was born and raised in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe). She moved to London in 1989 at the age of 17, and studied for her A-Levels at Collingham College, an independent college in Kensington, before going on to study philosophy, politics and economics at Keble College, University of Oxford.

She worked as a journalist for 15 years, starting at The Times, where she covered business. She then worked for a number of publications on a freelance basis, and wrote a financial advice book for women, The Money Goddess.

Hawkins later began to write romantic comedy fiction under the name Amy Silver. She completed four novels, including Confessions of a Reluctant Recessionista. She did not achieve any commercial breakthrough until she challenged herself to write a darker, more serious story.

This resulted in The Girl on the Train. It is a complex thriller, with themes of domestic violence, alcohol, and drug abuse. The novel took her six months, writing full-time, to complete, at a time when she was in a difficult financial situation and had to borrow from her father to be able to complete it.