Dom Quixote (Portugal) will publish 'The Destitutes of Lodz', by Steve Sem-Sandberg

Published this year in Sweden by Albert Bonniers, this novel was one of the hist of last Frankfurt Book Fair and it recently won the August Prize, awarded by the Swedish Booksellers Association. 

The jury's motivation was as follows:

"With this collective novel, Steve Sem-Sandberg attends to a specific chapter in the annals of World War II: the Jewish ghetto in the Polish city of Lodz (west of Warsaw), its origin, organisation and heartbreaking conditions under Nazi supervision. It is a story that is told after all the tears have dried, depicted in an almost dry and unsentimental style, a balancing act between fact and fiction that with a basis in the (authentic) Ghetto Chronicles 1941-44, portrays a series of individual destinies with strong integrity, also when they waver or fail".

SalmaiaLit handles Spanish, Portuguese (Portugal & Brazil) and Catalan Languages rights. We are happy that (with this last deal in Portugal) we have managed to get deals with good publishers in all these territories.

All other rights are handled from Sweden by Joakim Hansson at Nordin Agency. Up to now, the following publishers have already acquired rights:

Brazil (Companhia das Letras), Canada (Anansi), Catalonia (La Campana), Czech Republic (Paseka), Denmark (Gyldendal), Finland (Like) France (Robert Laffont), Germany (Klett-Cotta), Greece (Patakis), Israel (Kinneret), Italy (Marsilio Editore), The Netherlands (Ambo Anthos), Norway (Aschehoug), Poland (Wydawnictwo Literackie), Portugal (Dom Quixote), Russia (Corpus), Spain (Literatura Mondadori/ RHM Group), UK (Faber & Faber), USA (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux).

El filo de la hierba (The Edge of Grass), by Harkaitz Cano is already published in Greece

Konidaris Publications has already published the Greek edition of Harkaitz Cano's 'The Edge of Grass', a short Modernist fable set in New York with Adolf Hitler and Charles Chaplin as main characters.

Despite his youth, Harkaitz Cano (b. 1975) is consolidated as one of the best contemporary Basque writers. His mixture of modernism, poetical insight and an accurate narrative rhythm comes at equal parts from the classics of literature, the comics, the cinema and the music. His works, with echoes of Raymond Carver and Paul Auster, have received important awards such as the 2005 Critics Award (for his collection of short stories Neguzko zirkua –Winter Circus). His last published novel, El filo de la hierba (The Edge of Grass) has received the Euskadi Award for Literature.

The hypothesis of the Nazis invading the USA is nothing new in literature and it has fascinated authors such as Philip Roth in The Plot Against America or, even before him, Philip K. Dick in his masterpiece The Man in the High Castle. Harkaitz Cano departs from this premise to build a short and poignant allegoric story about freedom. 

The novel begins with Hitler on board of a German battleship en route to New York. Far away from dying in his bunker in 1945, the Führer has won World War II. After the conquest of Europe, his next objective is New York, and afterwards America. The British actor and filmmaker Charles Chaplin, tortured and as a prisoner of the Führer, is also a passenger of that ship. He is a victim of Hitler’s rage in revenge for his film The Great Dictator. 

Many years before, in 1886, a Frenchman called Olivier Legrand travelled as a stowaway in the same ship that transported the Statue of Liberty from France to New York. The statue, of 225 tons of weight, was made out of 300 pieces that were packed in more than 200 cases. The only piece that wasn’t packed in a case was the crown of the Statue, inside of which Olivier hid during the four weeks of the journey through the Atlantic ocean.

El filo de la hierba interlocks between the lives of Chaplin and Legrand until they both meet each other in a New York occupied by the Nazis (Chaplin had managed to escape but is severily ill) and the old Frenchman, who is now almost 90 years old, decides to hide Chaplin in his small appartment, where the actor will slowly recover. From this moment on, with Wagner’s music sounding all over the city and with Hitler trying to take control over Hollywood, the reader will be kept on tenterhooks until the end of the novel.

As the title suggests, this short novel is just like the flexible and soft grass. However, its edge is sharp as a knife.

The new novel by Laura Fernández to be published by Seix Barral

We are closing the year with good news for one of our represented authors: Laura Fernández. World Spanish rights of her new novel, provisionally entitled 'Wendolin Kramer', have been acquired by Seix Barral, the Spanish publishing house of authors such as Ricardo Menéndez Salmón, Isaac Rosa, Gioconda Belli, Eduardo Mendoza, Ignacio Martínez de Pisón or Antonio Muñoz Molina. 

The forthcoming publication of ‘Wendolin Kramer’ by Seix Barral confirms the twist to first division of literature of Laura Fernández, an original and witty author with an unusually funny voice who declares herself an admirer of other writers such as Brautigan, Fante or Vonnegut.

WENDOLIN KRAMER.
A Novel of Superheroes, Villains and Depressed Dogs
By Laura Fernández

Wendolin Kramer is not a nobody. She is Super Girl. Or that’s what she believes. She keeps a suit with a cap in her closet (a yellow cap, by the way) and waits for Kirk Cameron to reply to her lettlers. When she doesn’t know what to do, she plays to sell mail-order furniture to his dog Earl, who is depressed because he has lost ‘The Golden Bone’.

Earl is a peculiar pink rusty, and he is the Kramers’ main source of income. He wins all dog-beauty contests. All but the last one... Why? Don Garcia, a dog psychologist addicted to impossible love affairs, believes it is Oliver’s fault. Oliver is the cat that, apparently, Earl is dating.

Wendolin is almost 30 and keeps believing she is Super Girl. She lives at her parents home, in a putird narrow street in the centre of a filthy but exciting Barcelona. She has set an office in her bedroom and looks forward to her first real case.

And the real case finally arrives: a weird man called Strawberry Milkshake asks her to find out what Francis Domino, a private investigator who was a gigolo and afterwards a writer of romance novels, will be doing next saturday night. Without realising Wendolin embarks herself in an adventure that will change her life forever and will unveil the most hidden secrets about Vendolin Woolfin, a cult and bestseller author...

*

Laura Fernández (Terrassa, Barcelona, 1981) is a journalist of the Spanish newspaper ‘El Mundo’. She also contributes with articles and interviews to different magazines such as Mondo Sonoro, Qué Leer, Go-Mag or Kaos Magazine. Up to date she had published two novels: ‘Dos y dos son cinco’ (Ediciones Barataria, 2006) and ‘Bienvenidos a Welcome’ (Elipsis Ediciones 2008). She also published a short story in the anthology ‘La lista negra: Los nuevos culpables de policial español’ (Salto de Página, 2009), an anthology devoted to new Spanish crime writers. In January 2010 the prestigious literary magazine Quimera will publish a short story by her.

Quotes from the Spanish media about Bienvenidos a Welcome, by Laura Fernández:

* En registro de farsa panorámica desmadrada, construye con humor el doble novelesco de una más bien histérica ciudad de nuestro tiempo sometida a las peores pesadillas mediáticas.

Sergio Vila-Sanjuán, ‘Culturas/La Vanguardia’

* Admiradora de John Fante, Richard Brautigan, Raymond Chandler o Stephen King, Fernández ha conseguido destilar lo mejor de todos estos autores en una farsa por la que se pasean actores, detectives, monstruos, actrices, políticos, incluso un ‘guest star’ de la talla de Dios.

Carlos Sala, ‘La Razón’

* Fernández debuta con una hilarante y satírica novela // La observación de la realidad a través del tamiz de la hipérbole delirante es su método. Y con el aliciente de un humor absurdo al estilo de Richard Brautigan o Kurt Vonnegut, el resultado no tiene desperdicio.

Matías Néspolo, El Mundo

* Es un mundo de cultura pop, de cómics y series de televisión, de plástico y vinilo, de celofán y cromos. Y la gracias es convertir todo ello en el mejor elemento para deconstruir y criticar una época, ésta que vivimos, en la que llegar a fin de mes es un milagro.

Víctor Fernández, La Razón

* En ese loco mundo nada es lo que parece a primera vista. Más de sesenta esperpénticos personajes pueblan un universo fantástico y sorprendente que, en realidad, no es más que la exageración de situacionesa las que asistimos cada día, ya sea presencialmente o a través de los medios de comunicación.

Diario de Terrassa

* Toda una travesura galáctica que se lee como una peli de aventuras de los 80. // Fresca, trepidante y tan pulp como satírica, Bienvenidos a Welcome es una estupenda anomalía dentro del soso panorama literario español.

Leticia Blanco, Go-Mag

* Novela negra y paródica, de ritmo enloquecido y gesto entrañable. // Una abigarrada obra coral de múltiples y polimórficas influencias, desde la novela pulp de detectives hasta la novela pulp de ciencia ficción, pasando por las melancolías y los sueños truncados de los grandes héroes de John Fante. 

Milo J. Krmpotic, Qué Leer

El anticuario: deals in Poland, Russia and Czech Republic

AST (Russia),  Świat Książki (Poland) and Jota Publishers (Czech Republic) are the new publishers to be added to the list of those who will publish 'El anticuario' (The Antiques Delaer), by Julián Sánchez.

El anticuario (RocaEditorial) is a novel about a secret, a murder, a search, a love and an adventure all over the streets of a mysterious Barcelona. A story of intrigue, suspense and search of the truth, set in nowadays and 15th C. Barcelona. (Plot summary here)

The publishers who had already acquired rights are:  LimesVerlag/Random House (Germany), Querido (The Netherlands), Livanis (Greece) and Einaudi/Stile Libero (Italy).

The August Prize goes to The Destitutes of Lodz!

Last November 23rd we were delighted know that Steve Sem-Sandberg’s much-praised novel De fattiga i Lodz (The Destitutes of Lodz), published in Sweden by Albert Bonniers, won the August Prize, awarded by the Swedish Booksellers Association. 

The jury's motivation was as follows:

"With this collective novel, Steve Sem-Sandberg attends to a specific chapter in the annals of World War II: the Jewish ghetto in the Polish city of Lodz (west of Warsaw), its origin, organisation and heartbreaking conditions under Nazi supervision. It is a story that is told after all the tears have dried, depicted in an almost dry and unsentimental style, a balancing act between fact and fiction that with a basis in the (authentic) Ghetto Chronicles 1941-44, portrays a series of individual destinies with strong integrity, also when they waver or fail".

Despite there being many well-written novels in the category, The Destitutes of Lodz was accorded 17 out of 21 first placements by this years electorates, a landslide victory pure and simple.

SalmaiaLit handles Spanish, Portuguese (Portugal & Brazil) and Catalan Languages rights. All other rights are handled from Sweden by Joakim Hansson at Nordin Agency. Up to now, the following publishers have already acquired rights:

Brazil (Companhia das Letras), Canada (Anansi), Catalonia (La Campana), Czech Republic (Paseka), Denmark (Gyldendal), Finland (Like) France (Robert Laffont), Germany (Klett-Cotta), Greece (Patakis), Israel (Kinneret), Italy (Marsilio Editore), The Netherlands (Ambo Anthos), Norway (Aschehoug), Poland (Wydawnictwo Literackie), Russia (Corpus), Spain (Literatura Mondadori), UK (Faber & Faber), USA (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux).

Here you have a few quotes from the press about this novel:

"This is the best book I’ve read so far […] it’s definitely worth five out of five and a little more".
Yukiko Duke, SvT God morgon Sverige

"This is real literature. A great work of fiction. Steve Sem-Sandberg steps forward as a worthy and completed successor to, shall we say, a PO Enquist – with whom he shares not only the ability to make poetry out of prose but also a fascination for treachery’s and betrayal’s lowest sediment". Per Svensson, Dagens Nyheter

"Perhaps the very first holocaust account that dares to step away from the black and white perspective. In the hands of Sweden’s foremost European storyteller, the truth is not always what it seems". Daniel Sjölin, Babel

"Steve Sem-Sandberg’s latest novel “The Destitutes of Łódź” – massive in size but polished to a light conciseness in every last detail – is also a majestic portrayal where documented facts create the foundation for fictions insight into historical fate". Mikael van Ries, Svenska Dagbladet. 

Dido, Queen of Carthage. By Isabel Barceló

EsEdiciones has just released Dido, reina de Cartago (Dido, Queen of Carthage), by Isabel Barceló. This is a historical novel of adventures based on the character of Dido, the Phoenician Queen who was the founder of Carthage. Dido has always been a very well known historical character and we can find her in works by Virgil, Marlowe or Henry Purcell.

You can read the first chapter in Spanish by clicking (here)

Dido, Reina de Cartago (Dido, Queen of Carthage)
by Isabel Barceló, EsEdiciones (2009)
283 pp.

Queen Dido and a group of loyal followers had to scape from their homeland (the Phoenician city of Tyre) to avoid a Civil War as Dido’s brother wouldn’t allow her to share power with him. This was the beginning of an epopee which would led them to wander accross the Meditterranean Sea in search of a new land to establish themselves, the future and legendary city of Carthage...

In this novel Isabel Barceló tells the story of Dido, who was, according to ancient Greek and Roman sources, the founder and first Queen of Carthage (in modern-day Tunisia). She is best known from the account given by the Roman poet Virgil in his Aeneid, and for her love affair with Trojan prince Aeneas.

Dido’s eventful journey offers us a story which unfolds adventures, love, passion and treason. Told from the Phoenician point of view, this is a chant to collective memory and a story about feelings and human conflicts, about the admiration and love that this outstanding woman aroused amongst her people. 

But this is not only a historical novel of adventures: Dido, Queen of Carthage, also offers a re-reading of classic sources, which have always depicted the Queen as a fragile woman madly in love with Aeneas. Here, Isabel Barceló, focuses on the political side of the Queen: a ruler who was able to protect her people and who wittingly took the best decisions to ensure their survival and their future.

Isabel Barceló was born in Alicante and lives in Valencia. She holds degrees in Philosophy and Literature and has published many articles and short stories. Since 2006 she is also the writer of the literary blog ‘Mujeres de Roma’ (Roman Women) which receives more than 100.000 visits every year and where she writes literary pieces that she discusses with her readers and followers.

Gorge Zarkadakis - New author at SalmaiaLit

We are happy to post information about 'The Island Survival Guide' a novel by George Zarkadakis, a new author (who writes both in Greek and English) that has just joined SalmaiaLit.

'The Island Survival Guide' is already published in Spanish (Ediciones B) and Greek (Kedros), and we hope more foreign languages will follow soon. With remarkable talent and energy, George Zarkadakis creates in this novel a bizarre world brimming with suspense, as well as a fascinating journey into the mysterious nature of identity and consciousness. 

In Spain the author has been compared to a Murakami, Auster or Vonnegut. The Spanish newspaper 'El País' has said: "Philosophical speculation plenty with mystery and abundant literary references are revealed in the narrative world created by Zarkadakis in “The Island Survival Guide” (Ediciones B), a thriller which allows the author to establish a complete drama which unfolds with agility and freshness". - El País 

Below please find more information about the novel's plot and the author.

***

A stunning novel of ideas -and a murder mystery - in the spirit of Haruki Murakami, Paul Auster, or the recent ‘The Remainder’ by Tom McCarthy.

Imagine that you couldn't see your reflection in a mirror or your image in a photograph. Such is the last day of life for Alexander Eleftheriou, a Greek journalist suffering from a rare neurological disease that renders him invisible to himself. Alex must decide whether to have surgery that would correct the problem but wipe out his identity, or waive the surgery to keep his sense of self…but surely die within days. 

Ironically, Alexander's brain disorder is not his biggest problem as he becomes the victim of an assassination attempt. As he sinks into a coma, Alex embarks on a surreal odyssey in his last moments of life, while his newspaper colleagues struggle to solve the mystery behind his imminent death. Alexander's fantastical journey reveals his greater role in the universe as he travels to an infinite bookstore, uncovers dark secrets about his parents' past during the German occupation of Athens in World War II, and reunites with his long lost love, Mina. 

With remarkable talent and energy, George Zarkadakis creates a bizarre world brimming with suspense, as well as a fascinating journey into the mysterious nature of identity and consciousness.

George Zarkadakis (Athens, 1964) is the publisher of Avgo Books, the science imprint of Oceanida Publications. He is the author of four other novels, which have been published in Greece, Italy and Spain. His second novel End of the East was runner up for the prestigious Greek State Literary Prize. George holds a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence and was formerly the Editor-in-Chief of Focus magazine, the largest popular science magazine in Greece. He has written for television, published short stories, poetry, science books, and several of his plays have been staged in Athens. This is his first novel in English. 

Sara Blaedel, the Danish Queen of Crime, will be translated into Spanish

Ediciones Mosaico (Grupo Norma) has acquired Spanish translation rights of Sara Blaedel's 'Aldrig mere fri' (Farewell to Freedom), which was a success in Denmark and will be published in Spanish in 2010. Sara Blaedel is one of the most succesful contemporary Danish authors and she is known as the ''Danish Queen of Crime Fiction".

The deal was made on behalf of Joakim Hansson at Nordin Agency (Sweden).

Aldrig mere fri (Farewell to Freedom)

People’s Press, Denmark, 2008. 

Late one night, a woman is found murdered off a street in Copenhagen’s Vesterbro. The cause of action turns out to be particularly bloody, seeing as someone has slit her throat in an unusually brutal way. Together with a group of colleagues at the Copenhagen Police Department, Louise Rick is quickly digging deep into the case, when her friend, Camilla Lind, phones her up. 

Camilla is a crime reporter on a morning paper and wants to find out if there are any new developments in the case, but at the same time she is deeply upset by an event that same morning, her ten year-old son found an abandoned baby on his way to school.  All the traces from the crime scene are pointing towards organised human trafficking from Eastern Europe, and it soon becomes clear to Louise that the perpetrators are a bunch of ruthless gangsters who despise women and won’t hesitate to kill anyone who gets in their way.

 

* This novel had the largest marketing budget in the history of Danish publishing. 

* Number 1 on the Danish Best Seller Lists for several months.

Translation rights Sold to: Germany (Lübbe), Iceland (Upheimar), Sweden (Prisma), Spain (Mosaico/Norma).

Sara Blædel has worked as a journalist for nine years and has been a chief director for several TV shows on Danish Television. She has also written non-fiction debate books and even founded her own publishing house, Sara B, specialising in crime mysteries.  All of her novels published to date focus on Chief Inspector Louise Rick. The successful series has been sold to several countries, icluding Germany, Sweden, Norway, The Netherlands, Hungary and Iceland. Now Spanish readers will be able to meet Louise Rick for the first time...

Sara Bleadel has been voted the Most Popular Author by the public in Denmark. www.sarablaedel.dk 

Good comments about Ricardo Adolfo's ''Depois de morrer aconteceram-me muitas cosas''

A few weeks ago Ricardo Adolfo's new novel, "Depois de morrer aconteceram-me muitas cosas" (Lots Happened to me After I Died), received very good comments in the Portuguese journal 'Diário Digital'. 

Below see a translation into English of the beginning of that review, which you can also see in Portuguese (here).

***

“Lots Happened to me After I Died”, published by Alfaguara Portugal, discusses a subject common to million of Portuguese but somehow rare in our literature: emigration. Perhaps this book will change that peculiar situation, mostly because of its story, which manages to pull smiles out of a drama… 

“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.

However, the most fascinating part of this story is the rhythm. Writing in a way that is extremely appealing and straight to the point, Ricardo Adolfo takes the reader trough the psychological drama of the narrator, which allows us to join the troubled life of an emigrant couple during a day and a half. The truth is, we can’t let go of these characters’ lives - that with each passing hour get closer to the abyss. And we tag along with them… 

Having worked in advertising for 15 years, currently based in London after living in Amsterdam, Ricardo Adolfo admits he started writing because, “as an emigrant, I felt the need to pull Portugal towards me”. And the truth is, he has. “Lots Happened to me After I Died” should be read without prejudice nor shame, especially as it focuses on a subject that seems to be taboo in our literature. 

(c) Pedro Justino Alves & Diário Digital. 

The Film Club, by David Gilmour, sold to Editora Pergaminho in Portugal

A charming and poignant story about a very special time 

in a father and son's relationship.

Editora Pergaminho, in Portugal, acquired translation rights of 'The Film Club', by David Gilmour. The deal was made on behalf of Sam Hiyate and Kelvin Kong, from The Rights Factory (Canada).

A delightful and absorbing book about the agonies and joys of home-schooling a beloved son, "The Film Club" is the true story about David Gilmour's decision to let his 15-year-old son drop out of high school on the condition that the boy agrees to watch three films a week with him. The book examines how those pivotal years changed both their lives.


From French New Wave, Kurosawa, and New German cinema, to De Palma, film noir, Cronenberg and Billy Wilder, among many others from world cinema, we read about key moments in each film, as the author teaches his son about life and the vagaries of growing up through the power of the movies. Replete with page-turning descriptions of scenes and actors and directors, the narrative is framed with the tender story of his son's first bittersweet first loves.

Foreign rights of 'The Film Club'have been sold to more than 20 languages. 

Behind the Spanish Barricades - already out in Spanish

Ediciones Península has already published its edition of John Langdon-Davies's 'Behind the Spanish Barricades'. 

See more info (here)

The Destitutes of Lodz, by Steve Sem-Sandberg, sold to Literatura Mondadori (Spanish rights)

Just at the final sprint for Frankfurt Book Fair, we are glad to annouce the sale of world Spanish rights of this novel by Swedish author Steve Sem-Sandberg to Literatura Mondadori (an imprint of Random House Mondadori). The deal has been made on behalf of Nordin Agency AB, Sweden.

Literatura Mondadori is the Spanish publisher of acclaimed authors such as:  Philip Roth, Cormac McCarthy, Gabriel García Márquez, JM Coetzee, Orham Pamuk, David Foster Wallace, Dave Eggers or Javier Cercas.

SalmaiaLit also handles Portuguese (Portugal & Brazil) and Catalan rights.

Below you have information about this novel, which we hope will become a success in every country where it will be published!

****

* The portrait of a controversial man that is being compared to J. Littell ‘Les Bienveillantes’

*Already sold to: Aschehoug (Norway), Gyldendal (Denmark), Ambo Anthos (Holland), Marsilio (Italy), Literatura Mondadori (Spanish), Kinnaret (Israel), Paseka (Chzeck Rep.), and offers not yet closed from other territories.

DE FATTIGA I LODZ (The Destitutes Of Lodz), by Steve Sem-Sandberg

Albert Bonniers Förlag, Sweden, 2009, 662 pp.

The Destitutes of Lodz is a novel about the Jewish ghetto that was established by the Nazis in the Polish city of Lodz. It is the story of Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, the Nazi-appointed Jewish leader of this camp, and his ambiguous and shady role in the annihilation of the Polish Jews. 

In the summer of 1944, Himmler gives orders to “liquidate” the ghetto. As transportation to the Nazi death camps increases, so does the ghettos inhabitants’ knowledge of them. Slowly but surely the Lodz ghetto, with its 250.000 people, is emptied of all citizens and Rumkowski is finally forced to leave his safe haven. In August 1944, shortly after leaving the ghetto, he is killed in Auschwitz, alongside his entire family.

Sem-Sandberg’s novel describes the life in the sealed off town district. It speaks of the imposing German cadaver discipline, the gruesome slave labour, the starvation, and the futile escape attempts. Paradoxically, in the emergence of the collective and craftily subversive Ghetto Chronicles - the author’s main source for this novel - the reader is also shown the art of survival, and man’s remarkable will to live. 

In The Destitutes of Lodz, Steve Sem-Sandberg takes his reader on a powerfully moving journey into the cold realities of the Holocaust.

Choice of REVIEWS:

* This is real literature. A great work of fiction. Steve Sem-Sandberg steps forward as a worthy and completed successor to, shall we say, a PO Enquist – with whom he shares not only the ability to make poetry out of prose but also a fascination for treachery’s and betrayal’s lowest sediment. Per Svensson, Dagens Nyheter.

* Perhaps the very first holocaust account that dares to step away from the black and white perspective. In the hands of Sweden’s foremost European storyteller, the truth is not always what it seems. Daniel Sjölin, Babel

* Steve Sem-Sandberg’s latest novel “The Destitutes of Lodz” – massive in size but polished to a light conciseness in every last detail – is also a majestic portrayal where documented facts create the foundation for fictions insight into historical fate. Mikael van Ries, Svenska Dagbladet

About the author:

Steve Sem-Sandberg (b. 1958) is one of Sweden’s greatest literary talents. He divides his time between Vienna and Stockholm. This cosmopolitan author has been nominated for the August Prize, the Swedish Radio Literary Award and the prestigious Nordic Council Literary Award. In 2007 he was the first person to receive the esteemed Sorescu Award and was recently honoured with De Nios Grand Award, with the following motivation: "for an advanced literary craftsmanship, characterized by an intellectual mindset, a historical feeling of presence and insightful character portraits." 

His trilogy on the three most infamous women of the 20 th Century (Milena Jesenská, Ulrike Meinhof and Lou Andreas Salomé) won great acclaim in Scandinavia. Härifrån till allmänningen (From Here to the Great Commons), published in 2005 and set during the interesting period between 1965 and 1975, is a more commercial title that received outstanding reviews. With his latest novel De fattiga i Lodz (The Destitutes of Lodz), 2009, Steve Sem-Sandberg has been highly praised in the Swedish media. The novel took him five years to write during which he lived through a life threatening kidney disease and came through it looking at life in a whole new light. 

Bibliography:

De fattiga i Lodz / The Destitutes of Lodz, 2009 

Härifrån till allmänningen / From Here to the Great Commons, 2005 

Ravensbrück / Ravensbrück, 2003 

Allt förgängligt är bara en bild / Only the Image Remains, 1999 

Theres / Theres, 1996

Patricia Rodriguez's Big South in Babelia

Babelia, the literary magazine of 'El País', has published today a beautiful article by Patricia Rodríguez (author of '19 pulgadas'). 

In the article she talks about a brief visit to Henry Miller's Big South and gives us a rather interesting view on tourism and on the experience of visiting places that mean something to us or to someone we admire(d).

Read it all (here). 

Einaudi/Stile Libero preempts 'El anticuario' in Italy

More good news about 'El anticuario' are reaching us these days. The prestigious Italian publishing house Einaudi has just acquired translation rights of Julián Sánchez's novel. They will publish it in their Stile Libero Big series, where acclaimed authors such as Anne Holt, Fred Vargas, Giancarlo de Cataldo, David Foster Wallace or Jason Goodwin also publish their novels.

We would like to post again the positive review about 'El Anticuario' from Library Journal (US). Below please see it.

Up to now, the foreign publishers of this novel will be: Limes Verlag/Random House (Germany), Querido (The Netherlands), Livanis (Greece) and now Einaudi/Stile Libero (Italy)

****************

El Anticuario (The Antique Dealer) - Starred review

Sánchez, Julián

Roca Editorial

Sánchez prefaces this compelling novel with the assertion that some of the events described are real, which, combined with Sánchez’s fine writing, lends this book a delicious plausibility.

Antiquarian Artur Aiguader’s confidential connections enable him to corner the market on superb acquisitions in Barcelona, but now is the time of reckoning. Artur is murdered, but shortly beforehand he had sent a letter to his adopted son, the acclaimed writer Enrique Alonso, directing him to a certain book in the event of his death. 

Determined to find both the murderer and the secret of the book for which Artur gave his life, Enrique soon finds himself caught up in a race to solve a perilous historical mystery before other forces do.

This latest addition to the Da Vinci Code readalikes is in many ways superior to it. While the ambit here is literary rather than artistic, the theology is far less controversial (kabbalistic rather than Gnostic), and the hint of magic is a delight. 

Sánchez respects the reader’s intelligence, reveals the necessary bits and plot twists at precisely the right intervals, and maintains perfect pace with multidimensional characters, which he wisely limits in number. Highly recommended for general interest bookstores and public libraries.—Carolyn Kost, Stevenson Sch. Lib., Pebble Beach, CA

****

Julián Sánchez was born in Barcelona in 1966 and lives in San Sebastián (Basque Country) since 1993. He’s been a basket ball referee in the Spanish professional league, a job that he combined with his passion towards books. 

El anticuario is his first published novel, and already a success!

A new country for 'El anticuario': Greece

It seems week after week more foreign publishers are becoming interested in publishing this novel by Julián Sánchez. A novel of mystery and intrigue set in nowadays Barcelona but that unveils a secret from 15th Century.

A few days ago we closed a deal for Greek rights with Livanis Publishing, a house that has published many other successful authors in Greece.

For more info about 'El anticuario' see some posts below, or click (here)

Rights have already been sold to: Blanvalet/Limes Verlag (Germany), Querido/Q (Netherlands) and now Livanis (Greece).

Ricardo Adolfo's new novel: soon out in Portugal

Depois de Morrer Aconteceram-me Muitas Coisas (Lots Happened to Me After I Died), by Ricardo Adolfo, has been selected as the first and leading title in Portuguese language to be published by Alfaguara Portugal/Editora Objectiva, the Portuguese trade division of Santillana Group (Spain) to be launched next September 16th 2009.

“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

“The new Portuguese literature has to go through here.” Valter Hugo Mãe - Winner of the José Saramago Literary Award 2007

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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.

Ricardo Adolfo  is an Angolan-born Portuguese writer. Currently he is based between London and Amsterdam. In 2006 Dom Quixote published his debut novel Mizé. Mizé was very well received in Portugal and has subsequently been translated into Spanish (Suma) under the title of La peluquera de Lisboa, German (Berlin Verlag/Bloomsbury Berlin) and Dutch (Querido).  In 2007 he co-created the short film There’s Only One Sun with award-winning director Wong Kar-Wai.

Adolfo is currently working on a new novel and on “Stella” (the film adaptation of “Mizé”) to be directed by Margaret Williams and produced by MJW Productions.

Lots Happened to Me After I Died is Ricardo’s third book and 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.

His work 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.

Praise for ‘Mizé’:

* The entire book is a fast-paced pleasure, silly, strange and with street-tough mean. Just take the scene where Palha drives around town desperately looking for a parking spot, the chaos and the traffic jams and the horns honking, the hectic pace and the sweat and the nerves fraying. The book is a party with popcorn and soda and blowing up paper bags on the balcony just to smash them with a big bang to scare the passers-by into hiding behind their briefcases. “Glanz und Elend”, Ingrid Mylo (Germany)

* Sublime reading pleasure; a Portuguese who writes books like Almodóvar makes movies! - “Neon” (Germany)

* A coherent, naturalistic novel about dreams and disillusionment has a slow start but picks up real speed and finally convinces. Anselm Brakhage (Germany)

* This is all very coherently told and enjoyable to read. The argot fits and the supporting characters are refreshingly real. The local coloring make the liveliness perfect – one can well imagine a Lisbon suburbs to be as portrayed. And the double standard of the porn movie consumers suddenly full of disgust at the participation of one of their wives in such a movie is very well crafted ... this is a great match! “Titel” (Germany)

* A debut full of sparkling dialogue and unexpected twists.” Standaart, (Belgium)

* With a sarcastic sense of humor, Mizé is a book you would like to read in one go.” Fok.nl, (The Netherlands)

Darling Jim to be published in Portugal

Darling Jim, by Christian Moerk, is a modern, gothic thriller with elements drawn from classic mythology. The novel will be published now in Portugal by Editorial Presença. Rights were negotiated by SalmaiaLit on behalf of Nordin Agency (Sweden).

You have more info about the novel in our previous post (here)

Up to now, rights have been sold in:

USA, Henry Holt (lead title, publication May 2009), Denmark, Politiken (lead title, already published in 2007), Germany, Piper (lead title, publication March 2009), Netherlands, De Geus, Sweden, Lind & Co (lead title, publication spring 2009), Italy, Marsilio, Russia, Mir Knigi, Spanish, Planeta, Croatia, Fraktura, Poland, Rzeczpospolita, Norway, Schibsted, Romania RAO, France, Éditions du Rocher and China, Sun Color.

Darling Jim is also on facebook! (here)

The Antique Dealer, now in Germany!

A few days after the news of the sale of El Anticuario in The Netherlands (to publishing house Q), we are happy to inform about a new sale of this fine crafted novel by Julián Sánchez: It will be published in Germany by Limes Verlag, an imprint of Random House.

El anticuario is a novel about a secret, a murder, a search, a love and an adventure all over the streets of a mysterious Barcelona. A story of intrigue, suspense and search of the truth.

When the antique dealer and ancient books seller Artur Aiguader is found dead in his shop in Barcelona, his step-son and writer Enrique Alonso flies to the city to take charge of Artur’s things. 

Only a few days before the crime, as if it were an omen, Artur wrote a letter to Enrique telling that if something happened to him, Enrique should look for a manuscript hidden among the volumes in his library, a text from the 15th C. written in Latin and yet to be translated. The manuscript seems to have been written by Casadevall, one of the architects of the Cathedral of Barcelona.

Now, Artur has been killed and Enrique, conscious that the police should be allowed to do its job, is the only one who knows about the connexion between this death and the old manuscript. He can’t help trying to find his father’s killer on his own, while at the same time uncover the secrets that the Casadevall manuscript seems to hide.

The investigation reveals that Artur wasn’t only a good, educated and caring father, but also someone who acted as an intermediary between rich collectors of antique art and art traffickers. Besides, the translation of the manuscript offers him a journey to a past time in which Christians, Jews and scholars of the Kabbalah were trying to find ‘The Stone of God’: a big emerald on which the true name of God would be engraved…

Magic? Superstition? Much more than that, it is all about a fight that is lasting more than 2.500 years: the quest for earthly and spiritual power. As the manuscript is being translated, everybody who has access to it feels taken by the evil of ambition: the ambition to discover, to possess. Is it possible that this stone is nowadays hidden somewhere in Barcelona? Enrique and the mysterious killer think so… who will be the first one to find out?

Playing with past an present, Julian Sánchez has written a fascinating novel of mystery and adventures in which the reader is literally swept away by the plot. The building of the Cathedral of Barcelona, a cold and ambitous killer, the kabbalistic tradition and the many secrets hidden in 15th C. Barcelona’s Jewish quarter will take the reader’s breath away to the very last page. 

Translation rights have already been sold to: The Netherlands (Q), Germany (Limes Verlag).