WARSAW - The last book by Pope John Paul II published before his death, "Memory and Identity", has sold some 800,000 copies in five weeks in his native Poland, a spokeswoman for the publishing house said Monday.
"Around 800,000 copies have been sold already. The print run of the book will be 1,135,000 by the end of April," Bogna Rosinska of Znak publishers told AFP.
"Memory and Identity", John Paul IIs fifth book, went on sale in Poland on March 11.
The work was the result of conversations the pope had with two friends from his native Poland, philosophers Josef Tishner and Krystof Michalski, in his summer residence at Castelgandolfo in 1993.
In the book, the pope recalls the rise and fall of Nazism, fascism and European communism, the attacks of September 11, 2001 on New York and Washington, and of May 11, 2004 in Madrid, and the massacre at a school in Beslan, Russia, in September 2004.
The last chapter of the book recounts the attempt on his life on May 13, 1981.
Presenting the Italian-language version of the book to the press on February 22, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, director of the Vatican press office, said: "In his book, John Paul II does not reflect on cosmic evil, that is, on catastrophes and tragedies, but on the evil that derives from human behavior."
John Paul II died on April 2, aged 84.
04/18/2005 16:43 GMT