dissabte, 26 de setembre del 2009

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). 

divendres, 11 de setembre del 2009

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)

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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!

dissabte, 5 de setembre del 2009

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).

dijous, 3 de setembre del 2009

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

***

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 convincesAnselm 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)

dimarts, 1 de setembre del 2009

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)