'The Book of God and Physics' sold in Brazil

A new international publisher, Editora Record (Brazil), has to be added to the list of those who will translate Enrique Joven's "El castillo de las estrellas", originally published in Spain by RocaEditorial and to be released in May 2009 in the USA by William Morrow/Harper Collins under the title: 'The Book of God and Physics. A Novel of the Voynich Mystery'.

Now, the list goes as follows: Harper Collins/William Morrow (USA), Il punto d’incontro (Italy), Livanis (Greece), Editora Record (Brazil), AST (Russia) and Hainaim Publishing (Korea).

Here you can check our previous post about this novel, in which we informed about a good review in Publishers Weekly (USA): 

http://salmaialit.blogspot.com/2009/04/book-of-god-and-physics-starred-review.html

Illustrations travel to Korea!

SalmaiaLit is very happy that the illustrated editions of 'The Marvellous History of Peter Schlemihl', by Adelbert von Chamisso illustraded by Agustín Comotto; ‘Bartleby’, by Herman Melville, illustrated by Javier Zabala; ‘Babette’s Feast’, by Isak Dinesen, and ‘The Cloak’ (Shinel), by Nikolay Gógol, both illustrated by Noemí Villamuza, will soon travel to Korea, where Munhakdongne Publishing has acquired reproduction rights.

The sale has been made on behalf of Nórdica Libros (Spain), 

the original publisher of the books.

Below you can see  a few illustrations from ''The Marvellous History of Peter Schlemihl'' (Agustín Comotto) and some vids with the illustrations of ''Bartleby'' (Javier Zabala); ''Babette's Fest'' and 'The Cloak (Shinel)'' (Noemí Villamuza).

  

The Book of God and Physics - Starred review in PW!

Shortly before its publication in the US by William Morrow, Publishers Weekly gave a starred review to Enrique Joven's ''The Book of God and Physics'' (originally entitled 'El castillo de las estrellas').
Below you have the full review:

(c) Publishers Weekly, April 2009

★ The Book of God and Physics: A Novel of the Voynich Mystery
Enrique Joven, trans. from the Spanish by Dolores M. Koch.
William Morrow Publishers,
368p
ISBN - 978-0-06-145686-2

Joven’s remarkable debut, while bearing obvious similarities to 'The Da Vinci Code', is much more than another pale imitation. Father Hector, a science teacher in a Spanish Jesuit community, finds relief from indifferent students in an online group devoted to the real-life Voynich Manuscript. Written in an unknown language, the 500-year-old document has defied the best efforts of cryptographers and scholars to decipher it.

Hector’s research into an actual recent book, Joshua and Anne-Lee Gilder’s 'Heavenly Intrigue', which accuses Johannes Kepler of poisoning his mentor and fellow astronomer, Tycho Brahe, eventually ties in with the mystery surrounding the Voynich Manuscript. Local politicians’ efforts to evict the order from the monastery where Hector works complicate the plot.

Joven manages to cleverly blend fact and fiction as well as make the scientific debates of the 16th century relevant and compelling.
***

The novel, as we said above, was originally published in Spanish by RocaEditorial under the title of El castillo de las estrellas (Castle of the Stars)

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

A post about literary agents in The Guardian Books Blog (UK)

Patricia Rodriguez, author of '19 pulgadas' (19 Inches) has sent me a link to this post by Jean Hannah Edelstein. As I've found it very interesting I decided to link it to SalmaiaLit's blog (also see the comments it has generated). The post has been published in The Guardian Books Blog (UK)

This is how it begins:

"Don't reject literary agents: 

Too often presented as mean-spirited parasites, they actually provide a vital support to authors.

Literary agents: so often regarded as the villains of the publishing world, they were skewered by scores of disgruntled writers this week in response to the Twitter gigglefest which was #queryfail, in which agents posted some of the worst pitches they'd received. No, #queryfail did not give a view into the most gallant side of agenting. But the vitriolic response is not, contrary to popular belief, evidence that agents are failing writers across the board. Rather, it demonstrates how little most people know about what literary agents actually do."

And you can read it all here: 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/apr/08/literary-agents-use

(Thanks, Patricia -and Jean-!)

Trago amargo (Bitter Drink), new cover!

This is RocaEditorial's cover of 'Trago amargo' (to be published in June 2009). It plays with the original poster of the movie 'The Night of the Iguana', by John Huston, wich was based on the homonimous play by Tennessee Willams. The action of 'Trago amargo' takes us to the time where the film was being shot.

We love it!!

http://salmaialit.blogspot.com/2009/01/trago-amargo-bitter-drink-to-be.html

Ley Garrote, by Joaquín Guerrero Casasola, sold in Germany!

We are very happy to announce the deal for German rights of 'Ley garrote', by Joaquín Guerrero-Casasola, to DTV (Germany), on behalf of RocaEditorial. The novel was awarded the 2007 LH Confidential Award to the Best Crime Novel.

‘Ley garrote’ offers us an accurate, violent and bitter portrait of Mexico City, a fluid story and memorable characters that grip the reader from the very beginning. It also offers a vivid description of the way express kidnappings work, a current issue in Mexico with more than 300 cases per year and that some have no doubts in calling the new industry of crime.

You have more information about the plot below. First, however, allow us to write a few words about the meaning of the title, very difficult to translate into other languages. The word 'garrote' means ''a thick and strong stick that can be used both to walk and to hit''. The compound 'garrote law' refers to a common practise of revenge or punishment amongst outlaw bands and criminal organisations. It literally means to infrige pain on a victim, usually a man, using the garrote-stick and itroducing in into the victim's anus. Most times this painful torture ends up with the victim's death.

Casasola's novel is not just a story of violence and crime, but also a tale of survival and hopes. I hope the translation into German will encourage other international publishers to offer it to their readerships.

The novel's main character, Gil Baleares, was once an officer of Mexico City Police, but now he’s justa rather unsuccessful Private Investigator, haunted by the memories of his ex-wife and without money, whose main goal is to get enough cash to buy a new car, a wonderful Japanese Nissan Tsuru, and get rid of his own old-fashioned model.

Having this goal in mind he accepts to take care of the case of the kidnape of the girl Alicia del Moral, the daughter of the owner of a candy factory. The kidnappers are asking for an enormous amount of money to free the girl. A fact that (added to the violent images that they have sent to the girl’s parents) makes clear that this won’t be an easy case.

However, Gil keeps finding hints until all his investigation is endangered by the intervention of the Police. On the one hand there are corrupt officers involved in the kidnapping, and on the other , those who want to take advantage of Gil’s findings and solve the case in their benefit, lead by the young, unscrupulous and rude Marcial Oviedo.

In between this delicate and dangerous situation Gil will also have to cope with his father, Ángel ‘The Dog’ Baleares, also an ex-police and a living legend from the murky 70s. He is now ill of Alzheimer, a character that moves from nonsense to lucidity. What dangers await the old Dog when Gil is away?

Gil’s world is falling apart, but something inside pushes him forward to cross the line to a territory where there’s no boundaries between corruption and justice, even if this means putting his life into risk...

Rights sold to: DTV (Germany). 

Joaquín Guerrero-Casasola (1962) is a Mexican narrator and script-writer now living in Spain. With ‘Ley Garrote’ he was awarded the LH Confidencial 2007 Crime Novel Award and will be translated into German by DTV. His second novel ‘El pecado de Mama Bayou’ has been published by Lengua de Trapo and recently sold to Kein & Aber (Switzerland).