dimarts, 27 de gener del 2009

Trago amargo (Bitter Drink) to be published by Roca Editorial in Spain - June 2009

The novel Trago amargo, originally published by Joaquín Mortiz (México) is one of those stories that ‘one writes at ease, like being at home’ says Francisco Gerardo Haghenbeck, its author (Mexico City, 1965). 

With this work the author was unanimously awarded the National Una Vuelta de Tuerca Award to the best crime novel.

Trago amargo is a story of intrigue, an accurate historical depiction of Hollywood, a very unique ambience and a funny compendium of the best and most famous cocktails of the world. It also has tastes of road movie, adventure and detective stories.

At the beginning of the 70s, John Huston decides to shoot his film The Night of the Iguana (based on the play by Tennessee Williams) in a virgin lanscape very close to Puerto Vallarta. An impressive crew of Holywood starts is to be part of the cast, including Ava Gardner, Sue Lyon, Deborah Kerr and Richard Burton, who is dating Elizabeth Taylor. There are more journalists than iguanas on the village, all expecting to take the best pic of the couple.

Each of the stars receives a present from the Director: a golden gun with silver bullets. But the joke turns to something serious when one of those guns is used to shot and kill someone.

Sunny Pascal, a half american and half mexican beatnick detective, is in charge of solving the crime, which soon gets complicated by further murders, blackmailing, stolen jewels and a plot that involves the Mexican mafia.

The novel keeps advancing and unveiling its mysteries chapter by chapter, amongst cocktail recipes, explanations about their origins and suggestions about the music that best fits every drink.

Now, RocaEditorial has acquired World Spanish rights, except Mexico, and will release it in June 2009.

F.G. Haghenbeck is a multidisciplined Mexican author, -and the only Mexican who has written scripts for ‘Superman’ (DC Comics). His last published novel in Mexico is 'El código Nazi' (Planeta Mexico) 
He is also the co-author of Crimson (Wildstorm/Time Warner 1999-2001); author of Alternation (Image Comics, 2004) and of other comics.

He now lives in Puerto Vallarta where he devotes his time to writing novels and comics.

All translation rights are available. Contact us for more info: info@salmaialit.com

dilluns, 26 de gener del 2009

La lista negra: nuevos culpables del policial español - en librerías en febrero 2009

A principios de febrero saldrá a la venta ''La lista negra. Nuevos culpables del policial español'', una antología de Àlex Martín Escribà y Javier Sánchez Zapatero que reúne a los autores emergentes del género negro en España, publicada por Salto de Página.

Los autores incluidos en la antología son: Domingo Villar, Pedro de Paz, Antonio Jiménez Barca, Ricardo Bosque, Carlos M. Ortega Vilas, Luis Gutiérrez Maluenda, Nacho Faerna, Óscar Urra, Juan Aparicio Belmonte, José Luis Correa, Javier Puebla, Laura Malasaña, Luis García Jambrina, Empar Fernández, Pablo Bonell Goytisolo, Juan Ramón Biedma, Carles Quílez, José Ángel Mañas, Antonio Domínguez Leiva y Joaquín Guerrero-Casasola.

Podéis ver más información y leer un fragmento pinchando aquí

'The Black List. The New Authors of Spanish Crime Fiction'' will be available in Spanish bookshops as from next february. This anthology has been put toghether by Àlex Martín Escribà and Javier Sánchez Zapatero and has been published by Salto de Página
Authors included in the anthology are: Domingo Villar, Pedro de Paz, Antonio Jiménez Barca, Ricardo Bosque, Carlos M. Ortega Vilas, Luis Gutiérrez Maluenda, Nacho Faerna, Óscar Urra, Juan Aparicio Belmonte, José Luis Correa, Javier Puebla, Laura Malasaña, Luis García Jambrina, Empar Fernández, Pablo Bonell Goytisolo, Juan Ramón Biedma, Carles Quílez, José Ángel Mañas, Antonio Domínguez Leiva and Joaquín Guerrero-Casasola

See more info (in Spanish) clicking here

***

«'La lista negra. Nuevos culpables del policial español' nace con la intención de ofrecer un panorama de las nuevas tendencias del género. Es, pues, una recopilación de cuentos inéditos donde el lector encontrará no sólo nuevas miradas sobre el policial español sino también una lista de autores que irrumpen cada vez con más fuerza en la narrativa negrocriminal. Citados ya los clásicos españoles, se ha tener en cuenta que detrás de ellos emerge un nuevo grupo dentro del género. Sin duda la aportación de estos veinte escritores (...) lleva a confirmar sin lugar a dudas la existencia de un nuevo grupo de narradores negros y, por extensión, que España empieza a ser, literariamente hablando, un país con cierta tradición criminal.
» (...) Herederos de aquel grupo de la Transición española que abrió un difícil camino, este elenco de escritores forma ya un excelente panorama de la literatura negro-criminal que se escribe actualmente en España.»
Del prólogo de Àlex Martín Escribà y Javier Sánchez Zapatero

dimarts, 20 de gener del 2009

El castillo de las estrellas, by Enrique Joven

El castillo de las estrellas (Castle of the Stars), by Enrique Joven.
Publisher in Spain: RocaEditorial, 2007 (283 pp.)

DISCOVER THIS SCIENTIFIC THRILLER DURING THE
INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF ASTRONOMY (2009).

To be published in USA in May 2009 by William Morrow Publishers (NY)
Title: The Book of God and Physics. A Novel about the Voynich Mystery. 

Rights sold to: Harper Collins/William Morrow (USA), Il punto d’incontro (Italy), Livanis (Greece), AST (Russia) and Hainaim Publishing (Korea).

* Press releases:

Rene Alegria at William Morrow bought world English rights to Enrique Joven's Castle of the Stars. This suspense novel is narrated by a Spanish Jesuit physics teacher who attempts to unravel the mystery of the Voynich Manuscript, an artifact that first appeared in the court of Rudolph II (1583–1612) of Bohemia. 

From Publishers Weekly (04/23/2007)

***

An astrophysicist by training, Enrique Joven recently published in Spain El castillo de las estrellas (“The Castle in the Stars”; Roca Editorial, 2007), a captivating novel about Johannes Kepler, arguably one of the most influential astronomers of all times.

From Criticas Magazine, 06-01-2007
Why They Do It Better? - Spain and the Historical Novel
By Andrea Montejo

***

Written by astrophysicist Enrique Joven, Castle of the Stars (Roca) has at its center the mysterious Voynich Manuscript, an actual book written in an indecipherable language that could possibly hold the scientific and mathematical secrets of Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, Copernicus, and Galileo. 

Héctor, a Spanish Jesuit high school science teacher and the novel’s narrator, belongs to an online group of Voynich enthusiasts who try to uncover the truth behind the document. Their investigation is impacted by the publication of a popular science book, Heavenly Intrigue (Doubleday, 2004) by Joshua and Anne-Lee Guilder, which suggests Kepler murdered Brahe to take credit for hismaster’s mathematical discoveries. Héctor then finds out that the solution to the Voynich Manuscript mystery may lie closer to home than he ever imagined. 

When his Jesuit superior tells him that a foreign real estate speculator has been scheming to close the prep school, Héctor learns the speculator is interested because the Voynich Manuscript may have been hidden in the catacombs beneath the church next door to the school. As the plot thickens, more and more Voynich enthusiasts come to light, many of whom have connections to religious, quasi-religious, and political organizations based around the world, including in the U.S.

From Publishing Trends (March 2007 issue)

Plot summary:

Héctor is a Jesuit teacher who works in a small Spanish town, but his interests go further than his job. He belongs to an Internet group of investigators that try to unveil the secrets of a book known as the Voynich Manuscript (an actual book of unknown authorship that is currently housed in the Yale University Rare Books Collection). The story of this historical manuscript has been linked to the biggest astronomers of all times and its contents have never been deciphered since it appeared in the court of Rudolph II, nephew of Philip II and Emperor of the Sacred Roman Empire.

John (a British scientist) and Juana (a Mexican millionaire) are Héctor’s closest online friends. Together, they discuss the many hypothesis that try to find the meaning of the darkest parts of the text as a way to escape from daily routine. Besides, their investigations bring them closer to their admired masters Brahe, Kepler and many other brilliant scientists. Could the manuscript perhaps be the codified findings of either of these two scientists, written in a special language to conceal their scientific discoveries from the Catholic Church and its Inquisition? 

But the publication of a book about the manuscript in the US (Heavenly Intrigue, again, a real book by Joshua and Anne-Lee Guilder, Doubleday, 2004), and the mysterious interest of a big American corporation to acquire the plot where Héctor’s school is built will prove that there’s much more people tracking the enigmas of the Voynich Manuscript, and that not everyone does it for the sake of science. 

The investigations of the young Jesuit and his two colleagues, along with those of one of his students at school, lead to unsuspected discoveries and dangers throughout the novel, involving not only themselves. It turns out that for many years the mystery of the Voynich Manuscript has interested a number of religious and quasi-religious organizations, some of them with extremely powerful political connections. These organizations include the actual Society of Jesus, which in fact had been the unknown guardian of the manuscript during a long period. They also include an organization in the US known as the Discovery Institute, with ties to the Government and with the explicit agenda of promoting the theories of Creationism. What possible interest, however, could they have in deciphering the Voynich Manuscript?

Castle of the Stars is a novel of science and intrigue, but one based upon much less fiction than it would appear. Although it is filled with the speculative relationship between the death of Brahe and the composition of this uncanny Voynich Manuscript, the work is centred around a basic issue of our times: Is contemporary society correct in opposing the concepts of faith and reason, religion and science? 

Enrique Joven was born in Zaragoza (Spain) in 1964. He is a Doctor in Physics and a writer (this is his second novel) and since 1991 he works at the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands, in Tenerife. 

Rihgts of El castillo de las estellas have been sold to Harper Collins/William Morrow (USA), Il punto d’incontro (Italy), Livanis (Greece), AST (Russia) and Hainaim Publishing (Korea).

2009 has been declared by United Nations and UNESCO as the Internacional Year of Astronomy: http://www.astronomy2009.org/