Editura Allfa (Romania) has acquired rights of 'Das Lächeln der Frauen' (The Smile of Women),

We are happy to announce that Editura Allfa (Romania) has acquired rights of 'Das Lächeln der Frauen' (The Smile of Women), by Nicolas Barreau, originally published in German by Thiele Verlag (hard cover) and Piper Verlag (paperback). With this acquisition the novel reaches its 11th translation.

* More than 50.000 copies sold in Germany.
* A Best Seller in Italy and Spain.

Righst previously sold sold to: St. Martin’s Press (USA, World Eng. Rights), Espasa (Spanish), Feltrinelli (Italy), Verus Editora (Brazil), Quinta Essencia (Portugal), Columna (Catalan), The Enthusiast (Bulgaria), Azbooka-Atticus Group (Russia), Stylos (Serbia) and Kinnernet - Zmora Dvir (Israel).

For more info see previous posts or click (here)

Editorial Espasa has acquired Spanish rights of 'I Wish Something Nice Would Happen At Last', by Trixie von Bülow

This week we are more than glad to announce that another title by Thiele Verlag is starting to gain international attention as Editorial Espasa has acquired World Spanish rights of Ich wünsche mir, dass endlich mal was Schönes passiert (I Wish Something Nice Would Happen At Last), by Trixi von Bülow, for publication in the Fall 2012. The novel was originally published in Germany by Thiele Verlag in February 2012 (the paperback will be published by Drömer Knaur).

Leading-title for first semester 2012.

Published in February. 5.000 copies sold in two weeks

(New reprints on its way)

Bookstores Hugendubel and Thalia highlighted the title in Germany.

Rights Sold: Italian (Corbaccio), Spanish (Espasa)

German paperback rights sold at auction before publishing (Drömer Knaur).

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Trixi von Bülow’s comic and clever answer to Eat Pray Love. A novel about what makes life worth living set in the midst of life itself.

A woman at the beginning of her forties, single again after a long but unfullfilling marriage, with a small child, a badly paid job, a dramatically overdrawn bank account and, luckyly, the best of all friends in search of happiness.

She’s called Fritzi Berger and would like to be Grace Kelly. She has a child but no husband. She slaves away in Cologne and dreams of Nice. She’s an everyday heroine, and we all will heartily wish that something nice would finally happen to her.

Fritzi is a woman who has become strong for reasons of self-defence, has left her husband a year ago, with as many self-doubts as yearnings, and has a little daughter Lilli who creeps into her bed every night with her cuddy toy Robbie. She has a badly-paid job as an editor at a publishing house and fifteen years of marriage behind her. And just when her 40th birthday is approaching, Fritzi’s friend Johanna persuades her to go to the seaside for a couple of days.

A gripping, sometimes sad, deeply comic, very moving and true-to-life love story with a surprising twist in its tail. A novel about the wish (and possibilities) to find happiness once again in spite of everything. It is never too late for nice things to happen to us!

"When I was 12 I had seen a film with Audrey Hepburn, "A Nun's Story" and adored this fragile woman with her big brown eyes. But after a while it was pretty clear to me that I would never become a Audrey-Hepburn-kind of woman. I was a fearless, blond girl with a strong will that had nothing weak about her. So maybe this has been the reason that I had to carry all my bags and boxes with bottles on my own in my later life. "Don't worry – I will get along" is obviously written on my forehead and unfortunately I'm not the kind of woman who seems to be so helpless that men would be eager even to press down down the door-opener for them." (fragment of I Wish Something Nice Would Happen At Last)

Trixi von Bülow is herself a middle-aged woman and the author of successful self-help books in Germany: Der kleine Männererkenner (A little guide to men), 101 Dinge, die man tun kann, um eine Frau glücklich zu machen (101 things you can do to make a woman happy), Wie man einen Mann um den Verstand bringt (How to drive a man out of his mind) and Das Trixi-Prinzip (The Trixi Principle).

Rights: SalmaiaLit on behalf of Thiele Verlag (specific territories/languages)

Kinnernet-Zmora Dvir acquires Hebrew rights of ‘DAS LÄCHELN DER FRAUEN’

We are happy to announce that Kinnernet-Zmora Dvir (Israel) has acquired rights of 'Das Lächeln der Frauen' (The Smile of Women), by Nicolas Barreau, originally published in German by Thiele Verlag (hard cover) and Piper Verlag (paperback). With this acquisition the novel reaches its 10th translation.

* More than 50.000 copies sold in Germany.

* A Best Seller in Italy and Spain.

Righst previously sold sold to: St. Martin’s Press (USA, World Eng. Rights), Espasa (Spanish), Feltrinelli (Italy), Verus Editora (Brazil), Quinta Essencia (Portugal), Columna (Catalan), The Enthusiast (Bulgaria), Azbooka-Atticus Group (Russia) and Stylos (Serbia).

“The story that I would like to tell begins with a smile. It ends in a smallrestaurant in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, exactly there where the heart of Paris beats ...” (from: The Smile of Women)

A romantic story of confusion between art and cuisine. A light-hearted novel about the wonderful delirium of love. A story told with Parisian charm – too wonderful not to be true.

There are no coincidences! Aurélie Bredin, who has taken over her father’s restaurant Le Temps des Cerises after his death, is sure of this truth. On a fateful Friday in November when Aurélie is feeling more depressed than ever before, she discovers a novel in a bookshop entitled The Smile of the Women. Intrigued, she comes across a sentence that refers to her own small restaurant.

After reading the entire story, Aurélie no longer wants to die. Instead, she wishes more than anything to meet the author of the novel because she is convinced that, without even realizing it, he has saved her life. She would like to show her appreciation and invite him to her small, charming restaurant that apparently he is already familiar with. However, her wish proves to be a difficult, almost impossible, endeavour. All attempts to contact the shy English author through his French publishers are blocked by the company’s gruff editor-in-chief, André, who only with great reluctance forwards her enthusiastic letter.

Aurélie refuses to give up, however, and when one day a letter from the reclusive author actually lands in her post box, the encounter that eventually takes place is completely different from what she had ever imagined …

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- L’amour à la Barreau: Turbulent, amusing and inspiring. For all readers of novels by Anna Gavalda and Marc Levy

* Visit the Spanish website of the novel: www.lasonrisadelasmujeres.com

Nicolas Barreau (born 1980, Paris) studied romanistic languages and literature at the Sorbonne. He worked in a bookshop on the Rive Gauche in Paris but is far from an inexperienced bookworm. With his two previous and successful novels published by Thiele Publishers The Woman of my Life (2007) and You’ll Find Me at the End of the World, he has gained an enthusiastic audience.

(Rights handled by SalmaiaLit on behalf of Thiele Verlag)

La llamada de un extraño (A Stranger Calls) wins the 2012 LH Confidencial Award for Crime Novels

La llamada de un extraño (A Stranger Calls), by Rafael Alcalde, is the winner of the 2012 LH Confidencial Award. The Jury underscored the increasing rythm of the text and the fact that in this novel the author pays special attention to the lack of intimacy in a society in which new technologies play a double role as enhancers of communication but also as a tool to control our movements.

A thriller with common characters, just like most of us. And a polite, attentive and misanthropic villain. A crime novel which is formally daring: only dialogue, literally. Neither a description nor a narrator. The players trapped in the game that is about to unveil, all of them, will find themselves shelterless. If you decide to be in, beware.

The call of a stranger may surprise you. If he seems to know you better than you do, you can get restless. If that stranger calls you and your kin and friends, you can get bewildered. If you cannot avoid his calls, you’ll feel hopeless. But if the stranger is willing to reward you, you can also get hooked to the game. When he decides to punish you, it might be too late to rectify, if that was ever an option.

Again, beware. And just pray you do not get a call from a stranger...

Born in Barcelona in 1961, Rafael Alcalde is a teacher at a High School and the author of two previous and awarded novels.

'El imperio de las mentiras', de Steve Sem-Sandberg, pronto en librerías

Pronto llegará a las librerías 'El imperio de las mentiras' de Steve Sem-Sandberg (Literatura Mondadori en castellano y La Campana en català). Una novela que ha arrasado con los premios literarios más importantes de Suecia y que será publicada en más de 20 lenguas.

En unos días os contamos más. De momento aquí tenéis una foto de los ejemplares que nos acaban de llegar, y un par de frases que esperamos os vayan abriendo el apetito: 'Un nuevo tesoro de la literatura del Holocausto' (Daily Express); 'Una mirada fascinante y reveladora a un periodo ya conocido, pero del que raramente se ha hablado de manera tan realista' (The New York Times).

Éditions Métailié acquires French rights of 'Depois de morrer aconteceram-me muitas cosas', by Ricardo Adolfo

We are thirlled to announce that French publishing house Éditions Métailié has acquired translation rights of Ricardo Adolfo's ''Depois de morrer aconteceram-me muitas cosas'', which was published in Portugal by Alfaguara in 2009.

Lots Happened to Me After I Died, by Ricardo Adolfo (Alfaguara Portugal, 2009)

* Included in the list of the Best Books published in Portugal in 2009 (Ler Magazine)

“From Amsterdam, where he lives, young Portuguese writer Ricardo Adolfo observes his country with fierce and slashing irony. Only from afar can you see this close. A writer that Portugal needs to discover.” - José Eduardo Agualusa -Winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2007 (UK)

“The new Portuguese literature has to go through here.” - valter hugo mãe - Winner of the José Saramago Literary Award 2007

"If an Author is easily identified by an originality of style, a coherence of inspiration and a capacity to impress, then Ricardo Adolfo is clearly, along with João Tordo, the most notable writer of his generation". - Newspaper Sol (Portugal)

Lots Happened to Me After I Died, by Ricardo Adolfo, was selected as the first and leading title in Portuguese language to be published by Alfaguara Portugal, the Portuguese branch of Santillana Group (Spain), launched in September 2009.

A young couple and their son, recently arrived illegal immigrants in a big city, are left stranded halfway home when their tube train breaks down. It soon becomes clear they don’t know any alternative route home – and nor can they ask for help as they don’t speak a word of the local language.

Confused, they walk through streets carrying their son inside a newly bought suitcase that doubles as a pram. By turns they are chased by two frightened women in hijab, abandoned by a runaway bus driver, robbed by a gang of street kids, and finally end up stealing a spare sleeping bag from a homeless man. The family’s traditional Sunday outing around the shopping streets – streets littered with bankruptcies and boarded-up façades – becomes a 24-hour marathon of revelations and confrontations that could make the couple inseparable, or could tear them apart.

Narrated by the husband, a loner locked inside his own mind, who believes that to make a good decision he has to do just the opposite of what he thinks is right, the novel explores the internal fight of someone forced into seclusion because he is unable to communicate with the world around him. Combining a fast-paced narrative, quirky dialogues and a strong visual sense with an unflinching social conscience, Lots Happened to Me After I Died exposes the struggle of ‘internal’ immigration – much more overwhelming than any physical displacement.

Lots Happened to Me After I Died is Ricardo’s third book. It continues to explore some of the author’s favourite themes, such as the mixture between the banal and the uncanny, and the peaks of tension in the ordinary and mundane.

Adolfo has been praised for its “…maverick writing, sober and elevated, with an amazingly fine-tuned sense of oral syntax. The dialogue is perfect. Nothing in literature is harder than ‘natural dialogue…” Fernando Venâncio, writer and critic.

* “Lots happened to me after I died” is a big, enjoyable surprise. Ricardo Adolfo is able to easily pass on those problems that are common to all emigrants: from feeling invisible in the host country, to the uncertainty about the future, the exploitation suffered, the quest for symbols of personal success, etc."

“Diario Digital” (Portugal)

Éditions Métailié is well known in France for introducing important voices from the Portuguese language, such as José Saramago, Lidia Jorge, Mia Couto, Antonio Lobo Antunes or José Eduardo Agualusa. This recent acquisition confirms Ricardo Adolfo as one of the most interesting and promising new Portuguese voices.

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La sonrisa de las mujeres

Nicolas Barreau

ESTE LIBRO TE HARÁ FELIZ
París y su magia. Una cocinera encantadora y su pequeño restaurante. Un libro y su misterioso autor.

Seix Barral publicará ¡Calcio! en España en Febrero

Arnaldo Momigliano, erudito y profesor italiano que existió realmente e impartió clases en Universidades de Italia y Reino Unido tras la segunda Guerra Mundial, escandaliza al círculo académico de Oxford con el relato de un episodio histórico que sitúa los orígenes del fútbol moderno en Italia, concretamente durante el asedio de las tropas de Carlos V a la ciudad de Florencia. El eterno dilema de quién inventó el fútbol, si Inglaterra o Italia, provoca un duelo entre intelectuales que llevará a Momigliano a investigar en los archivos históricos de Florencia, para intentar demostrar que el primer partido de la historia tuvo lugar durante el enfrentamiento entre el Imperio español y la República florentina en el siglo XVI.

Juan Esteban Constaín aúna la atracción, casi infantil, por el fútbol, con la aventura de hurgar en los archivos en busca de lo que nunca ha aparecido en los libros de historia oficiales. El resultado es una novela divertida y original protagonizada por un personaje que conecta con el lector desde la primera línea, un texto apasionante sobre nuestra historia y la de un deporte que concita un entusiasmo unánime en todo el planeta.

¡Calcio! fue publicada en Colombia en 2010 y confirmó a Juan Esteban Constaín (Popayán, 1979) como una de las nuevas promesas de la joven literatura colombiana, llegando a ser considerada como uno de los mejores libros del año por la revista Arcadia. En 2012 la novela será también traducida al italiano por la editorial Marco Tropea.

A continuación os ofrecemos diversos fragmentos de reseñas sobre ¡Calcio!, de Juan Esteban Constaín.

* ¡Calcio!, de Juan Esteban Constaín, entre los mejores libros colombianos de 2010

(según la revista ‘Arcadia’)

* Premio Espartaco a la mejor novela histórica publicada en español en 2010

(Semana Negra de Gijón)

* En esta novela, Juan Esteban Constaín confirma su ingenio.

Extroversia

* “Constaín es un prosista de formas impecables, pero dudo que las virtudes formales alcancen para explicar lo que la historia tiene de conmovedora (...) Constaín no ha escrito (solamente) una novela sobre fútbol. La suya es una novela erudita sin ser solemne, brutalmente divertida pero nunca chabacana. Uno la lee con una sonrisa en la boca, y no sabe nunca si se la produce el humor elegante o la satisfacción de la prosa. ¿Qué más se puede pedir?”

Juan Gabriel Vásquez, El Espectador

* “La más reciente novela de Juan Esteban Constaín confirma que estamos ante un autor de enorme talento narrativo. Sus descripciones del primer partido de futbol de la historia tienen el gozoso sabor del mejor Pérez Reverte. Pero se asoma en su escritura un sentido literario más hondo que en el escritor madrileño (...) ¡Calcio! Logra entretener al lector con su innegable destreza literaria”.

Revista Arcadia

* “¡Calcio!, la nueva novela del joven escritor colombiano Juan Esteban Constaín, un homenaje al fútbol y a la historia, y una divertida reflexión sobre las guerras que se libran a pie de página”.

El Espectador

* “Un premio merecido, sin duda, forjado con el talento, la disciplina y la erudición de Juan Esteban Constaín. Un libro donde se articulan con precisión la academia, la historia, la política y el fútbol bajo una atmósfera de exquisito y refinado humor”.

Juan Carlos Pino, El Liberal

* “Si no histórica, su novela es literariamente verosímil, y creo que anuncia grandes cosas para el futuro. (...) ¡Calcio¡ es entretenida, inteligente y divertida. Y yo no le pido nada más ni nada menos a un libro.”

Luis H. Aristizábal, El Malpensante

* “El tema el fútbol y los aconteceres históricos se mezclan con una genialidad innegable. (...) El ingrediente humorístico, sumado a la estructura no convencional y la perfecta incorporación de datos reales y ficticios, convirtieron a Calcio en la favorita del jurado (...) ¡Calcio! es el tiquete a un viaje al pasado, una aventura quimérica elaborada de manera tan exquisita que termina por sumergir al lector en la realidad paralela creada por Constaín”.

Revista Ovnibus

* “Ambas historias lo agarran a uno y tienen buen ritmo. Recurren a temas tradicionales y lo hacen con éxito. Se nota que el autor se divirtió escribiendolas y eso contagia al lector”.

Blog ‘Crazyrobot’

* “Deliciosa, para calificar de una manera coloquial, la novela de Juan Esteban Constaín (...) inscribe su nombre entre los grandes escritores contemporáneos de nuestro país.”

Edgar Papamija, El Periódico de los Colombianos

* “Calcio no solo está destinada a los devotos del futbol. También es una novela exquisita, relacionada con el Renacimiento italiano y el arte en general”.

El Peruano

Generación Z de nuevos autores mexicanos

En un artículo publicado hoy en 'El País' Luis Prados, enviado a la FIL de Guadalajara, se hace eco de una nueva generación de autores mexicanos, la ''Generación Z'' e incluye a F.G. Haghenbeck.

Pueden ver el artículo completo más abajo, o seguir el link a la web de 'El País' (aquí).

Las novelas más recientes de F.G. Haghenbeck son 'El caso tequila' (RocaEditorial, 2011) y ''El diablo me obligó'' (Suma de Letras, 2011).

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La generación Zeta de la nueva novela negra mexicana

Una nueva generación de escritores irrumpe con fuerza con irónicas ficciones sociales influenciadas por el cine y el cómic

LUIS PRADOS | Guadalajara 30/11/2011

Seis matones asaltan un laboratorio, dejan 12 muertos y se llevan dos toneladas de seudoefedrina; un detective es contratado para proteger a Johnny Weissmuller en el festival de cine de Los Ángeles; un exconvicto, Elvis Infante, tiene el don de capturar demonios y hay quien le paga por sus servicios... Así arrancan algunas de las novelas de una nueva generación de jóvenes escritores mexicanos decididos a romper con los padres de la literatura de su país. Se sienten mucho más cerca del terror de Stephen King, el humor de los hermanos Cohen y la tenebrosidad de Frank Miller que de Juan Rulfo, Octavio Paz o Carlos Fuentes.

Es una generación aún sin nombre, tal vez generación Z, pese a la maldición que pesa sobre esta letra por el cartel narcotraficante, o generación Riteline por el medicamento que se les da a los niños hiperactivos, pero forman un grupo de escritores en torno a los 40 años con las ideas muy claras.

Bernardo Fernández Bef (Ciudad de México, 1972), flamante ganador del Premio Grijalbo de Novela con Hielo negro, define algunas de sus características comunes: "Compartimos un gusto por los subgéneros, la novela policiaca, la de terror, el thriller, la ciencia-ficción... Sentimos cercanía con los autores anglosajones, integramos referentes mediáticos en nuestras novelas como el cine, la televisión y el cómic y tenemos una vocación narrativa que busca la amenidad y la diversión".

Francisco G. Haghenbeck (Ciudad de México, 1965), autor de El diablo me obligó (Suma de Letras) o El caso tequila (RocaEditorial), subraya su reivindicación de la novela. "Miras las novedades y todo son ensayos políticos o libros de autoayuda. La ficción es un animal en peligro de extinción". Alberto Chimal, con Los esclavos (Almadía), e Iris García Cuevas, con 36 toneladas (Ediciones B), son otros miembros del grupo. "Queremos que la novela sea divertida, original y que enseñe algo", añade Haghenbeck. "Nosotros hacemos realismo mágico sucio".

Si bien han roto con las vacas sagradas de la literatura mexicana y se rebelan contra el poder de las élites intelectuales, cuentan con dos hermanos mayores -Élmer Mendoza y Paco Ignacio Taibo II- y reivindican la ironía del malogrado Jorge Ibargüengoitia.

Escriben novela negra con vocación social e inevitablemente no puede faltar el trasfondo de la violencia que azota México en los últimos años. Pero es una novela cargada de humor porque, como dice Haghenbeck, "es la forma de hacer frente a una realidad tan dura como la que tenemos, algo que pareció congelárseles a los novelistas suecos que están tan de moda".

Bef señala una doble aproximación hacia la violencia del crimen organizado. "Por una parte hay que evitar el oportunismo y por otra, en la medida que eres capaz de nombrar aquello que temes, puede servir para ayudar a entendernos dentro de unos años". El autor de Hielo negro, que al igual que Haghenbeck tiene por primera vocación el cómic y presenta estos días en la Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara la novela gráfica La calavera de cristal, considera que México está en un callejón sin salida. "La guerra frontal contra el narcotráfico ha sumergido al país en un mar de sangre. Creo en la despenalización de las drogas, pero es demasiado buen negocio para que se quiera arreglar".

Tampoco es muy optimista en el plano político ante las próximas elecciones presidenciales en las que parte como favorito el Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), que gobernó México durante 70 años. "Vamos a convertirnos en el único país que salimos pacíficamente de una dictadura para volver a ella 12 años después".

Entretanto, los niños hiperactivos de la nueva novela mexicana reivindican la ficción en esa ciudad infinita que es el DF, y que por una vez en la literatura escrita en español los molinos puedan ser verdaderos gigantes.

© EDICIONES EL PAÍS S.L.

Nicolas Barreau: Feltrinelli acquires second novel and Russian offer

The first novel by Nicolas Barreau published in Italy (Das Lacheln der Frauen/The Smile of Women) is still doing very well there, where it was published by Feltrinelli in September 2011. “Gli ingredienti segreti dell'amore” (Das Lacheln der Frauen) is at its third reprint in 2 months and is still in the bestseller lists - it has been in the foreign fiction top10 bestseller list no-stop since publication at the beginning of September. After these two months sales are now up to 30.000 copies in trade (and increasing week after week).

Given this success, we are glad to announce that Feltrinelli has acquired rights of a previous novel by the author, “You'll Find Me at the End of the World” (Du findest mich am Ende der Welt).

But this is not all, as this week we have received an offer from Russia for 'Das Lacheln der Frauen/The Smile of Women'. More info on this soon!

Apart from Italy/Feltrinelli, Das Lacheln der Frauen (originally published in Germany by Thiele Verlag in hardcover and Piper Verlag in paperback) will also be translated by: St. Martin’s Press (English World Rights), Espasa/Planeta Group (Spanish), Quinta Essencia/Leya Group (Portugal), Verus Editora/Record Group (Brazil), Columna (Catalan), The Enthusiast (Bulgarian) and soon Russia (to be announced).

For plot info about Das Lacheln der Frauen/The Smile of Women' click (here).

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You'll Find Me at the End of the World (Du findest mich am Ende der Welt), by Nicolas Barreau (Thiele V., 2008 / Piper V., 2010), 248 pp.

Jean-Luc is determined to track down the capricious author of the most seductive love letters in the world. He doesn’t know anything about her, except that she has captured his heart

Jean-Luc Champollion owns an Art Gallery in Paris, and is what the French call a ‘homme à femmes’. The charming gallery owner has always been a hit with the ladies and he wants nothing more than to live out his days in the company of beautiful women and his faithful dalmatian, Cézanne. One day he receives a mysterious and delightful love letter. The problem is it doesn’t say who it is from. And Jean-Luc’s life changes course.

Jean-Luc is baffled, but he decides to play along. The writer has given him an email address, so he sends a message, hoping to unmask the identity of the mysterious stranger who seems to know him so well. Searching through his past like a detective, he follows up the clues in the stranger’s letters not realizing that he is beginning to fall in love. The object of his passion exists only in words and in his imagination, but he comes to know this woman better than the pictures in his gallery, even though he has never seen her face. Or has he?

Rights sold to: Feltrinelli (Italy). And previously to: The Netherlands (Uitgeverij Arena) and Czech Republic (Albatros).

(Rights handled on behalf of Thiele Verlag)