Minoas (Greece) acquires right of 'La voz de los muertos', by Julián Sánchez

We are happy to announce another deal for the the new novel by Julián Sánchez: ‘La voz de los muertos’, which was published in Spain by Rocaeditorial in May 2011.

Uitgeverij Q and Einaudi Stile Libero already acquired rights for publication in The Netherlands and Italy; Now, Minoas Publications has acquired translation rights into Greek.

In ‘La voz de los muertos’ Barcelona’s Police inspector David Ossa faces a difficult case: amultiple murder and a suicide that have occured in Las Ramblas, right in the heart of Barcelona. Ossa soon realises that this is an especial case, with aspects that escape common sense and in which nothing is what it seems. His investigations lead him to a case from 1969, still unsolved and almost identical to the one he is trying to solve now. But when his supervisors see that the investigation is not closed quicky, they tell him to close the case and move to another thing, even if many questions would remain unanswered.

Ossa refuses to follow instructions and, in his hunt for clues and answers, will enter a dark, mysterious and captivating world of supernatural implications in which his mind will develop an unexpected and dangerous connexion with Death itself. Even at the cost of loosing his own sanity, and with all his colleagues against him, Ossa is determined to follow his investigation to the very last consequences...

About La voz de los muertos:

- A wonderful thriller-like crime novel that has little to envy to John Connolly’s. (Serendipia)
- An excellent tour all over nowadays Barcelona (El País/Babelia)
- A surprising ending. You’ll be eager to read more of this series (El placer de la lectura)

Julián Sánchez was born in Barcelona in 1966 and lives in San Sebastián. His debut novel, El anticuario, was very well received and up to now it will be translated in languages such as German (RH/Limes Verlag), Dutch (Uit. Q), Italian (Einaudi Stile Libero), Portuguese/Brazil (Record), Polish (Swiat K.), Greek (Livanis), Russian (AST) or Chinese (Shangai Transl.)

Two new translations for 'Hierba Santa': France and Hungary

It is our pleasure to announce that Éditions de l'Herne (France) and Libri Publishing (Hungary) have acquired translation rights of ‘Hierba Santa’ (Sacred Herbs), by F.G. Haghenbeck, for publication in 2012. The novel has already been sold to 8 languages.

Originally published in Spanish by Planeta Mexicana (Mexico only).
Rights also sold to: Atria Boooks/Simon & Schuster (US), Suhrkamp/Insel (Germany), Orlando Publishers/Bruna (The Netherlands), Planeta Brasil (Brazil), Shangai 99 (China).

The translator into english will be Cuban author Achy Obejas, who also translated -to much acclaim- Junot Díaz's 'The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao' (winner of the Pulitzer in 2008).

Hierba Santa, with echoes of Magic Realism, is a vivid and tender homage to Frida Khalo, a woman who changed the course of modern art and has become an icon for many people all over the world.

*****

A little handwritten notebook that Frida Khalo called ‘The Book of the Holy Herb’ was to be exhibited at the Palace of Fine Arts on occasion of the 100th anniversary of her birth. The notebook disappeared on the same day that the exhibition was opened...

After a severe accident in the crash of a bus and a trolley car, and after she died for the first time, Frida Khalo reaches an agreement with her Benefactress (the Death herself): Frida will be allowed to live, but, in exchange, every year she will have to prepare an offering to the Dead as a rememberance of this agreement.

Since then, Frida writes down every receipe that she prepares for the ‘Día de Muertos’ (The Day of the Dead). This is a holiday celebrated in Mexico, which focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. The celebration occurs on November 1st and 2nd. Traditions include building private altars honoring the deceased, using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these as gifts.

The receipes are gathered toghether by Frida in her beloved notebook. While year after year the ritual is repeated, Frida’s life goes on impetuously, full of rapture and pain. She meets Diego Rivera, the man whom she will marry and share her life with; but who is also the man who will mark the beginning of her second death. She lives the Mexican Revolution and the socialist upraise, a life behind the fame of her husband.

Frida loves and desires madly, but she lives on borrowed time; her aching and ruined body constantly reminds her that her Benefactress is taking away bits of her soul day after day, and that their final encounter is becoming closer.

Hierba Santa was published under the pen name of Alexandra Scheiman, but all international publishers will publish it using the author’s real name.

F.G. Haghenbeck (Mexico, 1965) is the author of acclaimed novels in Mexico, amongst which Trago amargo (winner of the National Award Una Vuelta de Tuerca), Aliento a muerte, El diablo me obligó or El caso Tequila. His novels have been translated into languages such as English, German, French, Dutch, Portuguese or Serbian.

(Behind all these covers of 'Hierba Santa' in different languages you can glimpse the author of the novel, F.G. Haghenbeck)

Editora Teodolito (Portugal) acquires rights of 'Csirkejáték', by Rubin Szilárd

Editora Teodolito has acquired Portuguese rights of this Hungarian novel, originally published in 1963. Translation rights of this novel have also been acquired by publishers such as Rowoholt (Germany), Backlist/Planeta Group (Spanish), Gaalade (France), Rizzoli (Italy) and Van Gennep (Netherlands);

The novel was rediscovered in 2004 by the Hungarian publishing house Magveto. In the Spring of 2009 the German translation was released by Rowohlt, and gained a lot of attention in Germany. Newspapers such as Frankfurter Allgemeine, Frankfurter Rundschau, and Spiegel among others issued rave reviews, calling the the book "one of last century's most exciting love stories", and placing it on a par with Scott Fitzgerald's THE GREAT GATSBY. The author was born in 1927 and died in Summer 2010 in Budapest.

This is the story of Attila and Orsolya, two young lovers in post-World War II Hungary. (The title refers to a game which first-person narrator Attila describes: players are asked to hold out sitting on rails as long as possible despite a train rushing near. His friend remarks that their lives are no different from the game.)

Attila is a poor, aspiring writer, and Orsolya is the descendant of a rich bourgeois German family. Attila felt drawn to Orsolya since they were children, but he dares speak to her for the first time only after she returns after the war from burned down Dresden to her former home town near Budapest, still marked by her recovery from Typhus. Because her family is German, their former riches are all gone. In contrast, Attila seems to emerge as a winner under the new socialist rule – so the two form an unlikely coalition turned upside down. But the obstacles Attila and Orsolya face are strikingly similar to the old days: Orsolya’s family objects to the relationship, and they quite openly point out to Attila that they don’t consider him a good match for Orsolya.

The novel will be published in Portugal next year.

Lean los primeros capítulos de 'El caso tequila', de F.G. Haghenbeck

En Sigueleyendo.es, nos proponen leer el principio de 'El caso tequila', de F.G. Haghenbeck (RocaEditorial)

Si disfrutan con los cócteles, el Hollywood de la época dorada y las historias de detectives, ¡no se la pierdan!

El detective beatnik Sunny Pascal está de vuelta. Y esta vez con un caso que le llevará al Hollywod de los años 60 en el que se topará con Johnny Weissmüller, alias Tarzán, que se ha metido con la mafia local y debe una buena cantidad por su afición al juego y bebida. Sigan el enlace (aquí) y vean cómo comienza...