We have just sold French rights for Joachim B. Schmidt’s Kalmann to Gallimard’s noir series in an auction. This takes the language count up to seven.
 
Here is the list of foreign rights sold:
Arabic (Al-Arabi)
English (Bitter Lemon Press)
French (Gallimard)
Icelandic (Forlagið)
Slovak (Literárna Bašta)
Spanish (Gatopardo)
 
Since returning to the Spiegel bestseller list in February, Kalmann remained on it for four weeks.

Furthermore, Kalmann is one of 15 titles longlisted for the ›Crime Cologne Award‹, to be awarded in October 2021.

We are especially happy to hear the Icelandic author Hallgrímur Helgason (101 Reykjavík) praise Joachim B. Schmidt's Kalmann:
»A Swiss author has written a book that takes place in Raufarhöfn (!) and has created characters that are more Icelandic than anything Icelandic. What kind of magician is this?«

Sjón is also impressed:
»Joachim B. Schmidt’s novels show a sensitivity to how the accumulation of seemingly small events make up the drama of human life. In his recent books he has built literary bridges between his birth country Switzerland, and Iceland, the country he lives in. In them, as elsewhere, he proves that it is by telling our shared histories and sharing our individual stories that we overcome being strangers and instead meet eye to eye as citizens of a single world.«

We have sold around 35’000 Diogenes copies of Kalmann since publication. Furthermore, the book ranked #5, then #4, then #7 on the Best Mystery Book List (Krimibestenliste).

The press is raving, here is a short impression (please click on the book cover and then on »factsheet« to see them all):

»Joachim B. Schmidt’s novel is more than a crime novel; it’s a meticulously researched, unpretentiously narrated reportage of everyday life in a far, icy corner of the earth.«
Martin Halter / FAZ, Frankfurt

»To know Kalmann is to love him.«
Stefan Keim / WDR 4, Cologne

»Joachim B. Schmidt’s novel Kalmann sensitively depicts Iceland’s answer to Forrest Gump – a guy who may be slow on the uptake, but who is, in his own unique way, a connoisseur when it comes to the art of living.«
Augsburger Allgemeine, Augsburg

»That a Swiss author could write the best Iceland mystery novel of the year is something you deem improbable only until you read this book.«
Tobias Gohlis / Krimibestenliste, Hamburg

»Kalmann is a remarkable portrayal of a remote Icelandic community and the devastating impact of the decline of the herring and fishing industries. The tensions between this rural community and the latte-drinking townies of Reykjavík are sensitively depicted, as well as hostility and racism towards the Eastern European migrant workers.«
New Books in German 

»An incredibly vivid sense of place, and a gifted storyteller.«
Welt am Sonntag, Berlin

»Kalmann is a wonderful non-crime novel, which, because the negated can persist in the negation, is nonetheless a wonderful crime novel.«
Thomas Wörtche / Deutschlandfunk, Cologne

»A novel that reads like an Icelandic Fargo. Crude, droll, bloody, very funny and with a multitude of surprising twists.«
Peter Zimmermann / Radio Ö1, Vienna

»Kalmann, more Forrest Gump than Miss Marple, takes on the challenge. It's as lively as it is icy.«
Spiegel, Hamburg

If you are curious what the excitement is all about, an English sample is available. Please let us know if you would like to see it.