dimarts, 30 de desembre del 2008

Behind the Spanish Barricades, by John Langdon-Davies to be published in Spanish

As 2008 goes by and 2009 comes closer, we are very happy of announcing the deal for Spanish rights of John Langdon-Davies 'Behind the Spanish Barricades'. A book originally written in 1936 by one of the most reputated UK journalists of his time. The book will be released by Península Ediciones in 2009, during the 70th anniversary of the end of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).

'Behind the Spanish Barricades' was originally published in the UK in 1936 and the new publishing house Reportage Press reissued it in 2007.

Langdon-Davies came to Spain to report on the May Day celebrations in Madrid for the British newspaper 'News Chronicle'. By the time he returned in August, the Civil War had broken out and many of those he had seen celebrating now lay dead. 

On this second trip in August 1936 he drove into Spain on his motorbike with his fifteen-year-old son. In five weeks, and from behind the Republican barricades, Langdon-Davies wrote this extraordinary eyewitness account, now republished for the first time after the original 1936 edition. It chronicles not only the atrocities of war in differents regions of Spain such as Madrid, Aragón or Catalonia and episodes such as the bloody siege of Toledo’s Alcázar, but also the human face of the conflict - and even its comic moments.

John Langdon-Davies (1897-1971) was a journalist, war correspondent and author of more than forty books. A man of boundless curiosity, he wrote prolifically and his many works include: Dancing Catalans (1929) a study of the Sardana, the emotionally and politically charged national dance of Catalonia; Air Raid (1938) and Finland: the First Total War (1940). In 1937 he co-founded the charity Plan International along with aid worker Eric Muggeridge.
Some of his Works have also been published in Catalana: : La setmana tràgica de 1937 i altres vivències de la guerra civil a Catalunya : els fets de maig (Edicions 62, 1987); and Mites i felicitat dels catalans (Pagès Editors 1988).

The first chapter, in English, of Behind the Spanish Barricades is available in the following link: http://www.reportagepress.com/pdf/pdf-book-17.pdf

‘The book, written like a true journalist in five weeks, is a very vivid portrayal of the front line and is an authentic piece of war reporting (…) by an extraordinary man’.
- Nigel Chapman, Director General of the BBC World Service.

‘John Langdon-Davies’ Behind the Spanish Barricades remains such a vauable work seventy years alter its first publication’.
- Paul Preston, London School of Economics

The Spanish rights deal has been made by SalmaiaLit on behalf of Il Caduceo Literary Agency

diumenge, 28 de desembre del 2008

An interview in Germany

Last October 2008, Bernat Fiol participated in the Frankfurt Book Fair's Fellowship programme. It was a truly amazing experience and there's no room anywhere to write down everything that was learnt, shared, experienced, etc.

A German online magazine devoted to the publishing industry, BuchMarkt, interviewed each of that year's 16 fellows. By clicking here you can check the interview with Bernat and with the other participants.

dissabte, 6 de desembre del 2008

Bienvenidos a Welcome, by Laura Fernández

Editorial Elipsis has published the new novel by Laura Fernández, a delirious fable about society: Welcome to Welcome.

"As in a fight between Aristophanes and Elmer, from The Muppets, the absurdity has finally triumphed. If Alfred Jarry was brought back to life, he would live in Welcome". La Razón

"Laura Fernández, our particular Brautigan, has taken a yet undiscovered pill. Have no qualms about testing it. It gives you (...) lots of laughs and no hangover" Philipp Engel, Fotogramas

Welcome. A future world. Full of shopping malls, residential estates and big Stars. A place where politics, journalism and any other event of public life runs like a TV Show. But reality (a striking one indeed) is about to burst onto this happy world. An unidentified flying object has just crashed into one of Welcome’s shopping centres. Thousands might be dead…

The city’s main newspaper (The Welcome Times), magazine (Nasty Tongues) and TV
 (Welcome TV), set off to cover the news and compete between themselves. Is it all about a new advertising campaign? Is it a new sit-com? Is the mayor facing a revolt? Is it that Rondy Rondy, the mythical disappeared author, has come back? Or is it really a true UFO driven by a fury alien? 

In any case, you are about to find out about everything and, in the process, you will meet the intrepid journalist Lu Ken, the dwarf mayor Claudio Arden, the only survivor of the accident, Sarah Du, the great diva Anita Velasco, the candidate to the Welcomitzer award Clark Roth and many others… and you arrive in the best moment because, after this accident, Welcome (the genuine and only centre of the future civilized world) will never be the same. You are warned.

Laura Fernández (Terrassa, 1981) is a freelance journalist. She’s now a contributor to El Mundo, Qué Leer, Mondo Sonoro and Go-Mag. Before this she worked in other media and in TV. She’s also the author of Dos y dos son cinco (Two plus Two are Five), published by Basarai.

Read a review about the novel here: http://www.elmundo.es/2008/10/03/catalunya/2512298.html