Elena Fischer's Paradise Garden on the longlist for the ›German Book Prize 2023‹

The Italian rights have been sold to Feltrinelli Gramma in a pre-empt only one week after publication - we are thrilled!

Elena Fischer's Paradise Garden is taking the German book market by storm: nominated for the ›German Book Prize‹ and, as previously mentioned, it is also nominated for the ›Harbour Front Debut Prize‹. 

Showered in praise by the press, it is steadily climbing the ranks of the top 10 in the Spiegel Bestseller List since publication - we are now on #8 in the 3rd edition with the next reprint already in the planning. 

Esther Schüttpelz nominated for the ›Harbour Front Debut Prize‹

Esther Schüttpelz' novel already won the 2023 ›lit.Cologne Debut Prize‹ earlier this year and was well received by the press. Now it is on the shortlist as one of 8 debuts for the ›Harbour Front Debut Prize‹, which will be awarded on 24 September 2023 - finger's crossed! 

»The protagonist of this wonderfully idiosyncratic debut faces endings and new beginnings, and Esther Schüttpelz knows how to capture the small and large doubts of the Now in a very zeitgeisty way.«
Sarah Kessler / Emotion, Hamburg

Deutschlandfunk Kultur ›Crime Best List‹: Samson and the Stolen Heart in the Top 10

The second title in the Kyiv Crime Series by Andrey Kurkov made it into the Top 10 of the ›Crime Best List‹ of Deutschlandfunk Kultur, one of the biggest and most influential radio stations in Germany.

As you will remember, the first title, Samson and Nadezhda, featured on the same list last year and was also shortlisted for the prestigious 2023 ›Premio Strega Europeo‹, in Claudia Zonghetti’s translation for Marsilio (L’orecchio di Kiev).

Andrey Kurkov was one of this year’s nominees for the ›International Booker Prize‹  

Rights currently sold:
Croatian (Božičević)
English/UK (MacLehose)
English/US (HarperVia)
French (Liana Levi)
Greek (Kastaniotis)
Italian (Marsilio)
Polish (Noir sur Blanc)
Portuguese/PT (Porto)
Romanian (Paralela 45)
Russian (Folio)
Spanish/world (Alfaguara)
Turkish (Siren)
Ukrainian (Folio)

Luca Ventura's Capri crime series - 200'000 copies sold

All books have been instant Spiegel Bestsellers, the ranking improving with each title. 

The first instalment has been published in Spanish by Catedral and in Catalan by Univers (imprints of Enciclopèdia Catalana), and film rights are optioned. Furthermore, we struck a two-book deal for Italian rights with Giunti and a three-book deal for French rights with Livre de Poche.

We are planning the publication of the fifth instalment of the series in our spring programme 2024.

Top rankings on the Spiegel Bestseller List:

In the Middle of August: #19 on publication
Bittersweet Lemons:       #16 on publication
In a Hidden Cove:           #11 on publication
Pale as the Moon:           #10 on publication

Japanese Rights of Tomi Ungerer's Mr Tall and Mr Small sold to Kogakusha

Rights currently sold:
French (École des Loisirs)
Italian (Guido Tommasi)
Japanese (Kogakusha)

Sasha Filipenko's The Ex-Son in paperback in French

The French paperback edition of Sasha Filipenko's The Ex-Son to be published by Points (Seuil) on 12 January 2024 with this beautiful cover. 

Rights currently sold:
Croatian (Božicevic)
Dutch (Meridiaan)
French (Noir sur Blanc)
Italian (Edizioni E/O)
Slovak (E.J. Publishing)

Friedrich Dürrenmatt's The Pledge in a new French translation

Editions Gallmeister have released their new translation by Alexandre Pateau in a beautiful look to much critical acclaim, introducing a Swiss great to a new generation of readers. 

Rights currently sold:
Arabic (Al-Karma)
Chinese/CN (People's Literature)
Dutch (Athenaeum) 
English/UK (Pushkin)
English/USA (University of Chicago)
French (Gallmeister)
Georgian (Palitra)
Italian (Adelphi)
Japanese (Dogakusha)
Mongolian (Monsudar)
Portuguese/BRA (Estação Liberdade)
Spanish/world (Navona)
Turkish (Yapi Kredi)

»A shocker done on the level of high art. Every word falls into place like a footstep of approaching doom.«
Newsweek

Martin Suter's Melody in the top 10 for half a year - over 250'000 copies sold

Martin Suter's new novel Meldoy is loved by readers in the German book market and has remained steadily in top positions on the Spiegel Bestseller List for months since publication. We sold a stunning 250'000 copies to date.

»This wonderfully romantic story is a captivating read, as well as an extended meditation on truth, memory, and the nature and purpose of storytelling.«
New Books in German, London

Bestseller
# 1 Spiegel Bestseller
# 1 Swiss Bestseller
# 4 Austrian Bestseller

Rights currently sold:
Arabic (Al-Arabi)
French (Phébus)
Greek (Kritiki) 
Italian (Sellerio)

Daniela Krien in conversation on The Fire and the art of translation  

Daniela Krien's pensive novel on a mature relationship in crisis has sold over 110'000 copies so far - time to take a closer look at her thoughts on translation: 

In conversation with her translator Jamie Bulloch for New Books in German. 

Rights currently sold:
Catalan (Bromera / Més Llibres)
Croatian (Fraktura)
English/UK (MacLehose)
French (Albin Michel)
Italian (Garzanti)
Norwegian (Press)
Polish (Sonia Draga)
Romanian (Humanitas Fiction)
Russian (Foliant)
Serbian (Booka)
Spanish/world (Vegueta)
Swedish (LB Förlag)

Kalmann nominated for the ›Petrona Award‹

Kalmann by Joachim B. Schmidt is on the shortlist of the ›Petrona Award‹ as one of seven Best Scandinavian Crime Novels in English translation. 

Congratulations to the author, to Bitter Lemon Press and to translator Jamie Lee Searle who is also going to translate the second book Kalmann and the Sleeping Mountain.

The winner will be announced on 5 October 2023. Fingers crossed!

Rights currently sold: 
Arabic (Al-Arabi) 
Czech (Prostor)
English/world (Bitter Lemon)
French (Gallimard)
Greek (Metaichmio)
Hebrew (Keter)
Icelandic (Forlagið)
Italian (SEM Libri)
Persian (Nam Books)
Slovak (Literárna bašta)
Spanish/world (Gatopardo)

»This is an incredibly funny, highly suspenseful, very beautiful and affectionate novel.«
Johannes Kößler / ORF, Vienna

Just published: Tamar Halpern's debut RAD (California Girl)

Sentences that melt like ice cream under the Californian sun: sparkling, unhinged, bold and wise - a wild ride. 

Timey is fourteen. Braces, emotional chaos, besties – the works. Between her hippie artist mother in LA and her professor father in Berkeley, life is hard enough already, and then she falls in love for the first time. Her first real encounter with lies. With romance. With world-weariness. As she tries to work out where she fits in and who she will become, she auditions different outfits, identities and drugs, tearing through the life of a teenager in 1980s California, where freedom and rebellion are everything.

»We are liars surrounded by lies and if I'm going to tell you what happened, I'm going to have to lie to you, too. Otherwise it wouldn't be true.«
Tamar Halpern

Dutch edition of Benedict Wells' The Truth About Lying published by Meulenhoff

Ten short stories, written over ten years - Benedict Wells at his best, continuing to be a bestseller in Dutch.

Rights currently sold:
Dutch (Meulenhoff Boekerij)
French (Slatkine)

# 9 Spiegel Bestseller

The cover of the Italian edition of Joachim B. Schmidt's Kalmann

The first title of the Icelandic crime series with the unlikely hero is soon to be published as Va Tutto Bene by SEM Società Editrice Milanese.

Bruna just published the Dutch edition of Beat Sterchi's Cow (Koe)

Rights currently sold:
Dutch (Atlas-Contact)
English/world (Head of Zeus)
French (Zoé)
Serbian (Karpos)

»Cow is firm-fleshed, straight-backed, warm, impressive, like the large Swiss cattle it describes [. . .] an original, powerful, important novel, with a great ancient theme that is so modern and immediate as well.« 
Sunday Telegraph