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International Rights Catalogue
Spring 2020
David Albahari
DANAS JE SREDA (TODAY IS WEDNESDAY)
Original publisher: Čarobna, 2017 Rights sold: German Schöffling
“Albahari puts the personal at the centre but if you listen carefully you learn
everything about the world“ Deutschlandfunk Kultur
“These 200 pages capture not only an
entire life story but also a profound debate on the big questions of life“ marx & co
“A Kafka for our times” NZZ
“Albahari is to be ‘stored’ on the shelf of Nobel Prize winners in spe.”
La Vie Littéraire …………………………………………….
A son takes care
of his sick
father. As they
talk for hours
during their
daily walks
along the river
Danube the son
gradually begins
to understand
that his father —
before being denounced and sent to the
notorious labour camp on the Adriatic
island Goli Otok where he was tortured
— was in fact a cruel and feared party
activist working for OZNA, the former
Yugoslavian secret service which did not
hesitate to bring terror against its own
population. Now, as the once brutal
tormentor has become a helpless,
miserable victim of Parkinson’s disease
the son is torn between feelings of pity
and remorse. First the illness created a
unique sense of closeness between father
and son, now it seems to be a kind of
punishment for his father’s wrongdoings.
As the illness progresses and eventually
leads to dementia — maybe another way
of escaping responsibility? — the son
himself suddenly starts to see and feel
unreal and imaginary things and one
begins to suspect that he too is probably
no longer in control of his mental
capacity.
As always in Albahari’s novels, the
question arises whether the narrator can
be trusted. Is it possible to believe
someone who is the only witness in his
story? TODAY IS WEDNESDAY is maybe
Albahari’s most “realistic” and also most
political novel dealing with the brutal
practices of the communist regime after
WWII. At the same time it is also a very
personal book as the author describes
(his) Parkinson’s disease in all its
humiliating and ruthless details.
……………………………………………
The Serbian writer DAVID ALBAHARI,
born in 1948,
has
published
nine
collections of
short stories
and a dozen of novels. His collection of
stories Description of Death won the Ivo
Andrić Award 1982. His novel Bait won
the NIN Award 1996, as well as the
Balcanica Award and Berlin Bridge
Prize. In 1994 he moved to Canada but
has now returned to his hometown
Zemun near Belgrade. His books are
translated into more than 16 languages.
Ferenc Barnás
ÉLETÜNK VÉGÉIG (TO THE ENDS OF OUR LIVES)
Original publisher: Kalligram, 2019
Winner of the Milán Füst Prize 2019
“Best book of the year” 2019 in Hungary
Shortlisted for the AEGON Literary Prize
Shortlisted for the Libri Literary Prize ……………………………………………
“The images call to mind Marquez’s One Hundred Years in Solitude. … Bar-nás’s works are worth comparing with
Knausgård’s autofiction” Kulter
“The sheer number of microcosms be-ing set into motion: virtuosic.”
Rvizoronline
“The text thrillingly brings to the surface the reference between the uncertain
predictability of human existence, and memory, or the comprehension-build-
ing function of language.” Litera
„Barnás can be counted as one of the most important writers in Hungary.”
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ……………………………………………
A historian of phi-losophy has just re-covered from a nervous breakdown and is introduced as a novelist with a work called “Onto-genea”, a novel written about his
childhood. He falls in love with an an-thropologist, who is considerably younger than him. Their love is ecstatic but is overshadowed by illness. Two months after the release of his novel, his elderly mother dies and his family fails to notify him. At the funeral, the thought strikes him that contrary to what is rec-orded in the death certificate, his mother
might have died of a different cause than cancer. He is trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. The more desperate he is in his search for the truth, the darker the family secrets are that he discovers. While we hold our breath in excitement following the dramatic story of this fam-ily of eleven, we are also introduced to the political and cultural landscape of Hungary today.
TO THE ENDS OF OUR LIVES depicts a rude awakening to the fact that every-thing we do and every decision we make has consequences. …………………………………………… FERENC BARNÁS is one of Hun-gary’s most distin-guished writers. He is the author of five novels. The Ninth was long-listed for the Best Translated Book Award (USA) and the In-ternational IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Der Neunte made the SWF Bestenliste. Another Death was choosen as the Best Book of the Year in Hungary. Barnás has received Hungary’s highest literary honours, the Sándor Márai Prize, the Tibor Déry Prize, the Aegon Prize and the Milán Füst Prize. His novels have been translated into English, German, French, Serbian, Czech, and Indonesian. He has been awarded writing residencies in the US at Yaddo, Edward F. Albee Foundation and the MacDowell Colony. He lives and works in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Zygmunt Bauman
DAS VERTRAUTE UNVERTRAUT MACHEN (MAKING THE FAMILIAR UNFAMLIAR)
A conversation with Peter Haffner
Original publisher: Hoffmann & Campe, 2017 Rights sold: World English Polity, Polish Wielka Litera, Italian Laterza, Spanish Tusquets, Brazilian Zahar
"Conciliatory in tone as always, this Socrates of practical reason finds clear
words on the untenable state of affairs.” Der Standard
"A last conversation and legacy"
Süddeutsche Zeitung
"This wonderful book is a legacy and a gift at the same time." Deutschlandfunk
" Zygmunt Bauman’s thoughts shine
brightly in times of totalitarian tendencies.” Die Welt
…………………………………………….
Zygmunt Bauman, who died in January
2017, was one of the most important
sociologists and thinkers of the 20th
century who, among other ideas, intro-
duced the concept of “liquid modernity”.
Read all around the world, the scholar,
often coined as the "head of the op-
ponents of globalization" and the
"prophet of postmodernism", was an
exceptional phenomenon in the world of
the humanities.
In his work — as in this volume of con-
versations — the political and the pers-
onal cannot be separated. Why do we
lose the ability to love? Why do we have
trouble with moral judgements? These
are questions whose social and in-
dividual aspects Zygmunt Bauman
explores thoroughly. Intellect and com-
mitment, power and identity, religion
and fundamentalism, happiness and
morality, utopia and history are some of
the themes that he engaged in
throughout his life.
……………………………………………
ZYGMUNT BAUMAN, born 1925 in
Poznan, one of the pioneering theorists
of postmodernism and a voice for the
poor in a globalized world. He has
written more than 50 books, most
famously the Dialectic of Order.
Modernity and the Holocaust in 1989.
PETER HAFFNER, born in Zurich in
1953, has worked as a reporter, essayist
and book author for many years in the
USA, Poland and Germany. He writes for
the Neue Zürcher Zeitung and other
publications on political, historical and
philosophical topics. His texts have been
awarded the Egon Erwin Kisch Prize and
several other commendations.
Anna Bikont
SENDLEROWA. W UKRYCIU
(SENDLEROWA. IN HIDING)
Original publisher: Czarne, 2017 Rights sold: Hebrew Carmel Publishing
Ryszard Kapuściński Award for Literary Reportage, 2018
…………………………………………….
“The book is much more than a biography. It is a partial but profound
description of the reality of war. Its writing required enormous stamina, wisdom, and modesty. The book is
dense, factual, quick, and emotionally exhausting.” Gazeta
…………………………………………….
Irena Sendler is
one of the most
important figures
in Polish history.
Romanticized as
a saint, she has
become a symbol
of Poland’s in-
nocence in the
persecution of
the Jews. In this
profound historical narrative Anna Bikont
shows the real Sendler, who does not fit
into current Polish identity politics.
Under the German Occupation of Poland,
Irena Sendler rescued hundreds of Jewish
children from the Warsaw Ghetto, hiding
them and thus saving them from certain
death. In 1965 Israel honored her as a
Righteous Among the Nations. Catholic
Poland rediscovered her in 1999 as a
national hero, in 2018 the “Sendlerowa-
Year” was celebrated. Sendler functions as
a withewash whenever Poland has to deal
with its own role in the persecution of the
Jews. Polish identity politics have moulded
her according to their ideal.
Anna Bikont reveals the true, historical
Irena Sendler. Even at a young age,
Sendler was sceptical of the church. She
became a leftist activist and after the war
a loyal member of the Communist Party.
Bikont also listens to the voices of the
forgotten protagonists of this episode in
history: the Jewish children. In numerous
testimonies she documented their fear and
the unlikeliness of their rescue. For Irina
Sendler had to protect the children not
only from the Nazis, but also from the
Poles, who betrayed them.
…………………………………………….
ANNA BIKONT,
born 1954, is a
leading
intellectual
voice in Poland.
After 1989, she
was a pioneer of
investigative
journalism in the newly-born free Polish
media and co-founder of Gazeta
Wyborzca, the first independent daily in
post-Communist Europe.
In 2004 her book, My z Jedwabnego,
about the killing of the Jedwabne’s Jews by
their Polish neighbours during World War
II was part of a huge discussion in Poland
about Polish-Jewish relations. It won the
European Book Prize, the National Jewish
Book Awards and was named among the
“100 Notable Books of the Year” by The
New York Times. Her books have been
translated into Czech, German, English,
French, Hebrew, Italian, Spanish,
Swedish. Anna Bikont lives in Warsaw.
Oek de Jong
ZWARTE SCHUUR (BLACK BARN)
Original publisher: Atlas Contact, 2019 Rights sold: Italian Neri Pozza
Bestseller with 60’000 copies sold
Translation support by the Dutch Foundation for Literature
English sample available …………………………………………….
“Here is a writer at work who no longer needs to prove himself, who is able to
draw you into his story with confidence and ease.” NRC Handelsblad
“Black Barn is a novel about the long
tentacles of guilt and the blistering power of a great love“. De Standaard
“With his explanatory psychology and his forceful — even almost cathartic —
narrative mode, Oek de Jong has written another instant classic.”
De Groene Amsterdammer …………………………………………….
“Once you let the monster out of its cage,
you'll never get it in again.”
At the age of
fifty-nine
celebrated
artist Maris
Coppoolse is
given a retro-
spective in
Amsterdam's
Stedelijk Mu-
seum. He is
at the
pinnacle of
his fame when a magazine cover story
exposes the source of his obsessive work:
a crime he committed at age fourteen.
No one in his circle knew about this; his
friends and acquaintances are deeply
shocked.
This is the story of a life marked forever
by a single catastrophic event. It is the
artist's life sentence. We see him living
as an artist in Amsterdam and New York,
and are given a probing view of his
troubled marriage to the vivacious and
adventurous Fran, who is also incrim-
inated. The magazine story drives him to
relive his childhood, especially that Sat-
urday afternoon on the island when he
went into that ill-fated tar-black barn he
had no business being in.
BLACK BARN is a novel about living
with trauma and overcoming it and
about the women who confront Maris
with himself over the years. It is also
about the power of true love.
…………………………………………….
OEK DE JONG,
born in 1952, is
internationally ac-
knowledged as
one of the most
important con-
temporary Dutch
authors.
His extensive
work has been awarded numerous prizes
and nominations for the Dutch Libris Lit-
erature and the Belgian Golden Book
Owl. In 2012 Pier and Ocean won him
the Golden Owl and sold 600.000 cop-
ies. His œuvre is characterized by great
stylistic power and psychological depth,
and has been translated into German,
French, Scandinavian and several other
languages.
Otto de Kat
FREETOWN
Original publisher: Van Oorschot, 2018 Rights sold: German Schöffling, World English MacLehose Press
“De Kat’s language is of rare beauty and he writes with endless melancholy.“
NDC papers, Haarlems Dagblad
“One of the Netherlands' most compelling literary voices”
Irish Examiner
“Otto de Kat breaks your heart with 200 words.” Scotland on Sunday
“With sentences like effectively and precisely directed light sources that
illuminate paintings from the twilight of a gallery, de Kat presents us with
unforgettable scenes and landscapes". Badische Zeitung
"It captivates with its refined language."
Brigitte Woman …………………………………………….
“He was a Fula. He was, because I
don’t see him anymore. I don’t know if
he’s still alive, or where he might be.
He just vanished.”
Maria is independent,
unconventional and
unafraid. She is trying
to find an explanation
for the disappearance
of Ishmael, a refugee
from Sierra Leone
who came to her door
as a newspaper boy
and stayed for seven years. He was like a
son to her. Vincent is a psychologist.
Once he and Maria had an all-encom-
passing relationship, but since their
break-up he has been living in a kind of
haze. When Maria asks him for help, he
says she can come round.
In the encounters that follow, Ishmael is
pushed into the background by the old
love between Vincent and Maria. Old
stories and memories replace the sadness
about the loss of this lost boy. But in spite
of all the confusing and loving
conversations, Ishmael proves
impossible to forget.
Otto de Kat's FREETOWN is a touching
novel about the fragility of relationships
and the courage to dare a new beginning.
…………………………………………….
Born in 1946,
OTTO DE KAT
studied Theology
and Dutch Literat-
ure After his stud-
ies he worked as a
literary critic and
as a radio produc-
er. He then took on the publishing world,
starting his own imprint in a large publ-
ishing house. In 1986 he founded Balans
Publishing House, based in Amsterdam,
publishing only non-fiction. His first novel
The Figure in the Distance came out in
1989 and since then four novels followed,
all set in the 1930s and 1940s, favourably
received and nominated for varous literary
prizes. He has received particular praise for
his observant, hushed style.
His work is translated into English, German,
Italian and Swedish and published by dist-
inguished houses such as Harvill, Mac-
Lehose Press, Suhrkamp, Schöffling, Le
Serpent à Plumes, L’Ancora del Mediter-
raneo, Lind &Co.
Amanda Lasker-Berlin
ELIJAS LIED (ELIJA’S SONG)
Original publisher: Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt, 2020
Nominated for the 2020 lit.COLOGNE Debut Prize
“A debut novelist who delights in experimentation.” Vogue
…………………………………………….
The story starts
with three
sisters meeting
to go on a walk
across a moor
and up to a
peak. The hike
has been
arranged by
Loth, the
youngest sister,
and is a route
they used to take with their father. As
they walk, we learn about the sisters’
lives and relationships in a highly
contemporary portrayal of young people
today. Elija lives in assisted housing, has
an intimate relationship with her friend
Mio and loves being on stage. We learn
through her sisters’ accounts that she
could be disruptive as a child, which was
burdensome for them. As if to prove this
point, she steals a stuffed owl from a café
they stop at along the way.
Noa, the middle sister, is a graduate who
works in a badly paid and souldestroying
job in a canteen in Hamburg. Loth is
living in a community of nationalist
activists: the extent of her involvement
with them and adoption of their Neo-
Nazi message emerges gradually, as
does her obsession with her looks and
body. As a child, Loth felt overlooked
and neglected by her parents, who
tended to focus on Elija, and she still
harbours this resentment.
As evening approaches, the sisters reach
the peak and sing the Elija song, a song
made up by their father with one verse
for each daughter. As they descend and
darkness falls, Loth loses her temper and
Elija runs off. The two of them end up on
the edge of a precipice overlooking a
lake. Elija is caught off balance and Loth
gently pushes her over. Elija drowns in
the lake’s freezing waters and Noa
recovers her body.
Amanda Lasker-Berlin’s writing is highly
lyrical and her narrative flows perfectly
all the way to its harrowing conclusion.
ELIJA’S SONG offers a moving and
disturbing view of sisterhood and the
challenges of sibling relationships, with
deft characterisation.
…………………………………………….
AMANDA LASKER-BERLIN was born in
Essen in 1994
and staged her
first play at the
age of eighteen.
She graduated
in fine art from
the Bauhaus
University in Weimar and is now studying
theatre direction at the Academy of
Performing Arts Baden-Württemberg in
Ludwigsburg. Her plays and prose won
several awards for emerging writers.
ELIJA’S SONG is her first novel.
Dror A. Mishani
SHALOSH
(THREE)
Original publisher: Achuzat Bayit, 2018
Rights sold: UK Quercus/riverrun, US Europa Editions, German Diogenes, French Gallimard, Italy e/o, Spanish Anagrama, Catalan Grup Editorial 62, Korean Bookrecipe, Croatian Fraktura
Shortlisted for the Sapir Prize
13 weeks the #1 bestseller in Israel and 26 conscutive weeks a top-twenty Spiegel-bestseller in Germany
Film and TV rights sold to the Emmy-nominated producers of “Homeland” ……………………………………………
One woman is looking for consolation
after her has husband left her and her son
and has formed a new family.
A second woman is looking for a home
and a sign from god that she's on the
right path.
A third woman is looking for something
completely different.
They all find the same man. They don't
know everything about him, because
he's not telling them the whole truth - but
he also doesn't know everything about
them. They have their secrets, too.
Dror Mishani has taken a short leave
from his beloved detective, Avraham
Avraham, to write a stand-alone novel
about three women you will not be able
to forget.
Once you have read THREE, you'll
understand why we can’t reveal anything
else about it. If you enjoy the great
masters of suspense, Patricia Highsmith
and Alfred Hitchcock, you will not be
disappointed.
THREE is the best and most chilling new
stand-alone novel by the internationally
celebratded Israeli master of crime, Dror
A. Mishani.
……………………………………………
DROR A. MISHANI is a best-selling
crime writer, screenwriter and literary
scholar, specializing
in the history of
crime fiction who
“has reached world
league of crime
fiction” (Die Zeit)
wuth his
international best-
selling Inspector
Avraham series,
translated into more than 20 languages.
They were shortlisted for the CWA int-
ernational dagger award and the Grand
Prix de Litterature Policliere and won the
prestigious Martin Beck award for best
crime novel translated to Swedish and
the Grand Prix du meilleur Polar de
lecteurs de Points.
An Israeli TV series based on the In-spector Avraham series was released in 2019.
Praise for THREE
"Around Mishani's new novel THREE there's a buzz as if it was the sixth season of Game of Thrones. Well, this buzz is well deserved. The twist around which this book is constructed affects not just the novel’s plot but the genre to which the novel belongs (...) If you want a
literary murderer, if you want to feel the grip of fingers around your neck, it's better to be in the hands of a hangman as acute and as gentle as Mishani". Yedioth Ahronoth Literary Supplement
"A beautiful heart-breaking work, that on top of being an extraordinary literary achievement, is very suspenseful in an unusual way: it has murders and investigation but it has nothing to do
with the artificial thrillers that are flooding the book market" Israel Hayom
“The architecture of Mishani’s new book is meticulously crafted, the tension builds up step by step as a result of the fatal choices the protagonists make. With huge talent and without any
pathos Mishani shows the normality of everyday life in Israel as a fertile ground for pure evil. I believe it’ll be remembered as a work that heralded a new-wave in Israeli fiction just as ‘MY
MICHAEL’ by Amos Oz did a few decades ago” Haaretz Book Review
“Mishani’s novels, although they respond to ‘crime fiction’ norms, are totally unprecdetnted in the genre or outside of it (…) Mishani develops as an artist from novel to novel and THREE is definitely the
peak of his writing, probably the first in many more to come” Maariv
“As if Daniel Glattauer, Juli Zeh and Ferdinand von Schirach were put together in a writer’s room - certainly not the worst condition for a smash hit” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
“Dror Mishani is a master of the art of developing crime from the perspective of its victims. In THREE he surpasses himself. (…)..An excellent detective novel. For it deals virtuosic with the
burning core of our morality - and that of crime literature: the incomprehensibility of violence.” Deutschlandradio Kultur
“Dror Mishani delivers artful crime literature (…) This novel is also a great seduction. This
author must be trusted. But you mustn’t.” Die Zeit
“THREE is not a typical crime novel but Patricia Highsmith’s superb psychological studies were not either. Mishani’s best novel so far brings him closer to his literary role model.” Buchkultur
“A psychological thriller that sneaks into the soul on quiet soles, leaving behind small, evil
barbs. For besides the art of nesting in the brains of his female protagonists, Mishani builds up a tension that resonates for a long time.” Brigitte Woman
“It is these changes of perspective, these precise close-ups that make the novel so rich and
reveal the undercurrent of bitterness and violence that has become second nature to an Israeli society in constant tension.(…) A masterpiece that - on quiet paws - evokes more insight than
most of the many editorials.” WDR radio, book of the week
“Mishani’s highly concentrated, extremely reduced narrative style, which is razor-sharp in the way it portrays his characters, succeeds in telling a story which is gripping not only beceause of the crime related connection beween the mysterious man Gil with the three women, but also
beceause of the very subtle, very sensitive treatment of the subject of "violence against women". Bayrischer Rundfunk
Péter Nádas
LENI WEINT
(LENI WEEPS )
Essays
c/o Graf & Graf Original publisher: Rowohlt, 2018 Rights sold: World English Archipelago Books
"Again and again - Péter Nádas’ writing is breathtaking. It is so astonishing, so
agitating, but the reader has the feeling that, once he has lived through these storms, he is breathing more calmly,
more empowered, because he is able to decipher the world more precisely."
Berliner Zeitung
„These essays are frighteningly prophetic and yet based on faith in
humanity." Frankfurter Allgemein Zeitung
…………………………………………….
From his extensive essayistic
body of work Nádas has compiled this
special volume with a focus on the years 1989 until 2014, a period that
began with a revolution and hope and ended in aggressive populism.
With great acumen and passion, Nádas explores how the citizens of Hungary and other Eastern European states came to be under authoritarian and nationalist gov-ernments again today, and to what extent the reasons for this decline must be sought in the catastrophes of the 20th century, as well as in global developments.
Nádas’ gift to absorb the slightest mic-roscopic tremors, to integrate, and render all nuances, enables him to paint a unique and truthful picture of Central Europe and the state of the human experience, proving that he really is THE great surveyor of the European soul in the 20th century — be it in fiction or non-fiction.
Péter Nádas’ art of mirroring an entire era in the “literary self” embraces reflection on anthropological and moral questions, on truth and lies, on art and crime, on trust and deceit. Whether a traumatic exper-ience of Leni Riefenstahl, “Hitler’s court artist” is concerned, the Eastern European black economy, or the consequences of 9/11 — intellectual commitment and liter-ary sensitivity belong together. …………………………………………….
PÉTER NÁDAS, born in Budapest in 1942, is a photog-rapher and award-winning writer. Un-til 1977, Hungarian censorship prevent-ed the publication of his first novel End of a Family Story. He is the author of A Book of Memories — “The greatest novel written in our time, and one of the great books of the century” (Susan Sontag) — and of Parallel Stories, a masterpiece internatio-nally celebrated as “War and Peace” of the 21st century.
Catalin Partenie
VIZUINA DE AUR
(THE GOLDEN BURROW)
Original publisher: Polirom, 2020
Complete English translation availbale ……………………………………………
"This novel speaks only apparently through words, its true language is mu-sic. The words are like a curtain. Once
you open them, they play on stage. With famous characters, such as free-
dom, friendship, love.” Peter Kerek, director of the theatrical
adapation of the novel
“Reading the Golden Vizuina makes you realize that behind the Iron Curtain
music had another taste and another power.” Charles King, author
……………………………………………
Bucharest, 1988. Nicolae Ceauşescu’s
darkest years. Paul, a first-year philoso-
phy student, wants to play the drums in
a rock band but is expelled and ends up
as the guard of a forgotten depot in
which a theatre keeps its scenery and
props. He spends all his time there with
his girlfriend Oksana (a waitress who just
finished high school) and his best-friend
Stefan (a first-year high school student
who plays the guitar). Using stage furni-
ture and props, Oksana builds inside the
depot the interior of a home. They call it
‘The Golden Burrow’ and there they
have the time of their lives. Oksana has
become pregnant but is afraid to tell
Paul; abortion is illegal, and illegal abor-
tion is expensive and dangerous.
In April 1989, without telling anything to
anyone, Paul swims across the Danube
and defects. He is caught by the Yugosla-
vian authorities and then he emigrates to
Canada. In December 1989, he returns
illegally to Romania and reaches Bucha-
rest on the 22nd, just after Ceauşescu
fled his headquarters. In the chaos that
follows he is shot dead in front of
Muzica, the city’s biggest record store.
Almost 30 years later, Paul’s son Victor
contacts Stefan and asks him to write
down all that he can remember about his
father. He would also like to find out if
his father knew that Oksana was preg-
nant when he left Romania. Stefan, how-
ever, is an unreliable narrator, and Victor
will have to imagine for himself what
kind of man his father was.
…………………………………………… CATALIN PARTENIE is a Romanian-Ca-
nadian philosopher, teaching at the Na-
tional School of Political Studies in Bu-
charest. He completed he Ph.D. in Phi-
losophy at the University of Glasgow,
and was also a graduate student at Ox-
ford. He has taught in Canada and Eu-
rope, and is the editor of Plato. Selected
Myths (Oxford’s World Classics) and
Plato’s Myths (Cambridge UP). His short
story “Gudrun” has earned an Honorable
Mention at the Frank McCourt Interna-
tional Contest and has been published in
The Southampton Review. THE
GOLDEN BURROW is his first novel.
Daniel de Roulet
A LA GARDE
Lettre à mon père pasteur (ON GUARD. Letter to my father pastor)
Original publisher: Labor et Fides, 2019 Rights sold: German Limmat Verlag
"These short confessions can to be seen in the literary tradition of Nathaniel
Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” and Andre Gide's “The Pastoral Symphony”.
Tendre et troublant." Le Monde
"Daniel de Roulet is probably the most interesting author in French-speaking
Switzerland at the moment” Le Matin Dimanche
…………………………………………….
At 97, the author's mother announced
that she would end her life. The date and
the time were set.
During the fifteen days preceding this
scheduled death, Daniel de Roulet tells
his father — a pastor of Calvinist tradition
who died six years earlier — about his
mother's impending death in sixteen
unobtrusive and very moving letters.
The book is the author’s “farewell
ceremony” for his mother. A very touch-
ing contribution to the discussion of self-
determined dying and a plea for the right
to die with dignity.
“For me, writing does not have a
consoling function. On the contrary, it
must open up the future. In my case, a
future as an old orphan.”
…………………………………………….
DANIEL DE ROULET, born in Geneva in
1944, was an architect and worked as an
IT specialist. Since 1997 he devotes all
his time to writing. He is the author of
numerous novels forming La simulation
humaine, a Swiss-Japanese « nuclear
family saga » between Hiroshima and
Fukushima. He also writes essays and
other non-fiction and was awarded
several literary prizes : the Prix culture et
société de la Ville de Genève, the Prix
Marcel Aymé and the Grand Prix de
littérature du Canton de Berne. He lives
in Geneva.
Peter Stamm
DIE SANFTE GLEICH-
GÜLTIGKEIT DER WELT
(THE SWEET INDIFFERENCE OF THE WORLD)
Original publisher: S. Fischer, 2018 Rights sold: World English Other Press, French Bourgois, Spanish Acantilado, Swedish Thoren & Lindskog, Czech Albatros, Italian Casagrande, Croatian Fraktura, Greek Kastaniotis, Chinese Shanghai 99, Turkish Paloma Yayinevi
Swiss Book Award 2018
Sélection étrangère du Prix Médicis
A best book of the season by VOGUE
Translation support from ProHelvetia ..............................................................
“Excellent…this amorphous tale folds in on itself, becoming a meditation on
how memory can distort reality…Fans of Julian Barnes will love this. PW
"Ordinary lives, elevated from the
ground. Powerful!" Le Monde
“A fascinating game with times and identities.” Neue Zürcher Zeitung
“One of Europe's most exciting writers” NYT
“Stamm’s prose is plain but not so simple.
A subtle but deadly style.” Zadie Smith
..............................................................
Christoph, an
older man who
is a writer, has a
story to share
with Lena, a
younger woman
who is an
actress. A long
time ago, he
was in a
relationship
with a woman
called Magdalena, who was also an
actress. Lena is currently in a relationship
with a man called Chris, who is also a
writer. As the two talk, it becomes clear
that the two relationships contain
echoes, similarities too remarkable to be
called coincidence. Are Chris and Lena
doomed to repeat Christoph and
Magdalena’s broken relationship, or are
Christoph and Magdalena a warning
from the future? Who really exists? Is
there such a thing as fate? Can we escape
our destiny or must we come to terms
with the sweet indifference of the world?
In the terse and precise language that is
his hallmark Peter Stamm, great pundit
on the human condition, tells us a differ-
ent story of the inexplicable intimacy that
separates you from the person you once
were.
..............................................................
PETER STAMM,
born in 1963,
shortlisted for
the Man Booker
International
Prize 2013, had
his inter-
national break-
through with
his debut novel Agnes in 1998. Since
then his books have been translated into
more than 30 languages. Stamm’s writ-
ing has been compared to Chekhov and
Camus as well as American storytellers
such as Raymond Carver, Richard Ford
and Ernest Hemingway. Peter Stamm
lives near Zurich with his wife and two
children.
Abraham B. Yehoshua
HAMINHARA
(THE TUNNEL)
Original publisher: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2018
Rights sold: US Houghton Mifflin, UK Halban, German Nagel & Kimche, Italian Einaudi, French Grasset, Spanish Duomo, Dutch Wereldbibliotheek
“A wonderful declaration of love to the hidden relationships of things and
people through space and time, which perhaps only those who can no longer
be sure of their own first name can feel.” rbbKultur
“Yehoshua is so graceful and eloquent
that his work is timeless.” The New York Times Book Review
.............................................................. From the
award-winning,
internationally
acclaimed
Israeli author, a
suspenseful and
poignant story
of a family
coping with the
sudden mental
decline of their
beloved husband and father - an
engineer who they discover is involved
in an ominous secret military project.
Until recently, Zvi Luria was a healthy
man in his seventies, an engineer living
in Tel Aviv with his wife, Dina, visiting
with their two children whenever
possible. Now he is showing signs of
early dementia, and his work on the
tunnels of the Trans-Israel Highway is no
longer possible. To keep his mind sharp,
Zvi decides to take a job as the unpaid
assistant to Asael Maimoni, a young
engineer involved in a secret military
project: a road to be built inside the
massive Ramon Crater in the northern
Negev Desert.
The challenge of the road, however, is
compounded by strange circumstances.
Living secretly on the proposed route,
amid ancient Nabatean ruins, is a
Palestinian family under the protection
of an enigmatic archaeological
preservationist. Zvi rises to the occasion,
proposing a tunnel that would not
dislodge the family. But when his wife
falls sick, circumstances begin to spiral.
The Tunnel - wry, wistful, and a tour de
force of vital social commentary - is
Yehoshua at his finest.
.……………………………………………
ABRAHAM B. YEHOSHUA
His debut The Lover, published in 1977,
established his international renown. He
wrote over a dozen of novels, all of them
translated into more than twenty
languages and received numerous
international awards, most recently the
prix Médicis étranger, le Prix du meilleur
livre étranger, Premio Internazionale
“Antonio Feltrinelli” and the Dan David
Prize. Yehoshua has been compared to
William Faulkner and named an author
of Nobel reach.
Praise for THE TUNNEL
“Deep and honest affection has rarely been written with so much wise tenderness.” Doppiozero
“Although his new novel is titled THE TUNNEL, Yehoshua does not present too dark a message. On the contrary. Nothing Kafkaesque, but a story full of tenderness, funny, overflowing with light melancholy, where Israel's anxieties and trials seem to fade in
view of the heartrendering endeavour of one man, despite his age, despite his multiple wounds.“ Le Temps
“Yehoshua is one of the great figures of Israeli literature. He demonstrates it once again
with this brilliant new novel full of virtuosity.“ L’Express
“The Tunnel, the 12th novel by A.B. Yehoshua, is a well-made, polished work of fiction, one of the author's finest achievements. It also exemplifies Yehoshua's
storytelling artistry in its latest and most mature phase. He maintains a steady balance between the complexity or "significance" of its themes and its intricate plot, on the one
hand, and his narrative prose, which is clear, lean, sharp, carefully sculpted, fully controlled by the sure hand of an expert artist.”
Dan Miron
“Yehoshua, as ever, excels in writing vivid, cinematic scenes, and readers will sense that his storytelling power has not diminished, but has improved, as he creates a cast of characters and constructs multi-voiced dialogue while maintaining the right dosage of narrative suspense. The protagonist, Zvi Luria, is not portrayed as "unfortunate" in any
respect. On the contrary, the narrator gives his demented hero the status of an uncanny sage, a sort of blind prophet who sees the world better than others do.”
Ha'aretz
“With great delicacy, sensitivity and care befitting an experienced author, devoted to his craft, Yehoshua transforms his hero's dementia into the main literary device that
serves as a systematic, intensive technique that encompasses the work. This book reconfirms that Yehoshua is a unique author, brimming with fresh ideas,
passionately immersed in the story he is telling.” Ha'aretz Literary Supplement
“The Tunnel is A.B. Yehoshua at his best. He creates a dense pattern of images,
symbols and clever allusions to current events and literature, which create a sort of antithesis to the realistic dementia in the form of a rich, multi-layered twilight zone.”
Yisrael Hayom
“In his best book in years, A.B. Yehoshua examines the founding myths of Zionism. His message will stay with you for a long time.”
Yediot Aharonot
“A. B. Yehoshua knows his work well. This is abundantly clear: the characters touch the heart, their relationships constitute an entire world, the writing is multi-layered, the message is piercing, the reading flows smoothly, and most of all — it's hard to put the book down.”
Isha
FURTHER TITLES
Ari Folman KITTY’S DIARY
Rights sold: English Pantheon (NA), Viking (UK), German S. Fischer, Dutch Prometheus, Italian Einaudi, Spanish PRHGE, Hebrew Kinneret, , Brazil Record, Portugal Porto Editora
KITTY’S DIARY is the graphic novel based on the forthcoming animated
motion picture “Where is Anne Frank?” by Oscar-nominated Ari Folman and
David Polonsky, to be released in theatres worldwide in winter 2020/21
The same creative team that brought to you in 2017 the international
bestselling and award-winning graphic adaptation of Anne Frank’s Diary, now
follows up with this subsidiary volume, bringing to life Kitty, Anne Frank’s
imaginary friend whom she invented and opens up to in her diary.
.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Mario Lima DEATH IN PORTO
Original Publisher: Heyne Verlag, 2019
“Maybe the best of all Portugal thrillers published to date."
Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung
“Suspense from beginning to end" Mainhattan Courier
“Crime literature at its best. With 'Death in Porto', Mario Lima has achieved a hit that is convincing all along the line, but above all with first-class
police work and protagonists with cult potential.” literaturmarkt.info
................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Péter Nádas ILLUMINATED DETAILS
Original Publisher: Jelenkor, 2017 Rights sold: German Rowohlt, World English: Farrar Straus & Giroux, Swedish Bonniers, French
Phébus, Danish Rosinante
The memoirs of a giant of European literature — a spectacular work unfolding the life and world of Péter Nádas. “A firework of remembrance in which each spark unfolds its own luminosity and
above all triggers further memories.” Frankfurter Allgemeine
“Péter Nádas is the great surveyor of European landscapes of souls in the 20th century. Just breathtakingly microscopic, a feast of details and nuances, in the next
moment epochal and essayistic, an unsurpassable work of art.” Die Zeit
FURTHER TITLES
Daniel de Roulet TEN LITTLE ANARCHISTS
Original Publisher: Limmat Verlag, 2017
Rights sold: French Buchet Chastel
Prix Bibliomedia 2019
"Daniel de Roulet tells without pathos but with lots of empathy and pace about the esperation for freedom and of strong women in a time when
migration from Switzerland was very usual and people were expelled from their own country." 20 Minuten
"A wonderful story about commitment, courage and exile." RTS La Première
"A very political adventure“ L'Humanité
................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Thomas Sparr GRUNEWALD IN THE ORIENT
Original Publisher: Berenberg Verlag, 20018
Rights sold: World English Haus Publishing, Spanish Acantilado
"A melancholic, often touching, sometimes painful book. Inevitably so, Thomas Sparr tells of a vanished world. Only in the books of its former
inhabitants, in their poems and letters, the "spiritual life form" of Rechavia continues to live on.” MDR Kultur
“Sparr is known as a great connoisseur of German-Jewish intellectual life.”
Die Welt
“Thomas Sparr is sensitive and careful in all his miniatures. He writes without pathos. The picture he paints of Rechavia and his portraits of
Scholem, Kraft and others deeply engrave themselves in the readers mind.” Badische Zeitung
................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Peter Stamm MARCIA FROM VERMONT – A Christmas Tale
Original Publisher: S. Fischer, 2019 Rights sold: World English Other Press, Spanish Acantilado, Catalan Quaderns Crema
“A master of the unspectacular, a virtuoso of the narrative form” NYTRB
“Peter Stamm is an extraordinary author who can make the ordinary absolutely electrifying.“ The Times
“The Swiss writer Peter Stamm tells his stories with exquisite simplicity and maximum clarity.” El País
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