Juan Esteban Constain e Ismael Martínez Biurrun, Galardonados en la Semana Negra de Gijón

Nos alegra anunciar que dos autores representados por SalmaiaLit han sido premiados en la edición de este año de la Semana Negra, en Gijón: Juan Esteban Constain, por ¡Calcio!, e Ismael Martínez Biurrun, por 'Mujer abrazada a un cuervo'.

Aquí tenéis la foto de los ganadores de los Premios de la Semana Negra de Gijón.

En 'La Voz de Astúrias' dicen:

El Celsius a la mejor novela de fantasía y ciencia-ficción recayó en Ismael Martínez Biurrun por la obra Mujer abrazada a un cuervo , centrada en la investigación de la maldición que asuela a una familia cuyos hijos llevan varios siglos naciendo muertos a causa de la peste.

El Espartaco, que reconoce la mejor novela histórica, fue para el colombiano Juan Esteban Constaín, uno de los grandes descubrimientos de la edición de este año, por ¡Calcio! , donde el autor encuentra los orígenes del fútbol nada menos que en la Italia renacentista.

VERUS EDITORA ACQUIRES PORTUGUESE/BRAZIL RIGHTS OF ‘DAS LÄCHELN DER FRAUEN’ (The Smile of Women), by Nicolas Barreau

VERUS EDITORA ACQUIRES PORTUGUESE/BRAZIL RIGHTS OF ‘DAS LÄCHELN DER FRAUEN’ (The Smile of Women), by Nicolas Barreau

Originally published in Germany by Thiele Verlag (hardcover)/ Piper Verlag (paperback) (336 pp.)

“The story that I would like to tell begins with a smile. It ends in a small

restaurant in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, exactly there where the heart of

Paris beats ...” (from: The Smile of Women)

More than 25.000 copies sold in Germany. Righst previously sold sold to: St. Martin’s Press (English World Rights), Espasa (Spanish), Feltrinelli (Italian), Arena (Dutch), Columna (Catalan) and The Enthusiast (Bulgarian).

A romantic story of confusion between art and cuisine. A light-hearted novel about the wonderful delirium of love. A story told with Parisian charm – too wonderful not to be true.

There are no coincidences! Aurélie Bredin, who has taken over her father’s restaurant Le Temps des Cerises after his death, is sure of this truth. On a fateful Friday in November when Aurélie is feeling more depressed than ever before, she discovers a novel in a bookshop entitled The Smile of the Women. Intrigued, she comes across a sentence that refers to her own small restaurant.

After reading the entire story, Aurélie no longer wants to die. Instead, she wishes more than anything to meet the author of the novel because she is convinced that, without even realizing it, he has saved her life. She would like to show her appreciation and invite him to her small, charming restaurant that apparently he is already familiar with. However, her wish proves to be a difficult, almost impossible, endeavour. All attempts to contact the shy English author through his French publishers are blocked by the company’s gruff editor-in-chief, André, who only with great reluctance forwards her enthusiastic letter.

Aurélie refuses to give up, however, and when one day a letter from the reclusive author actually lands in her post box, the encounter that eventually takes place is completely different from what she had ever imagined …

--

- L’amour à la Barreau: Turbulent, amusing and inspiring. For all readers of novels by Anna Gavalda and Marc Levy

Nicolas Barreau (born 1980, Paris) studied romanistic languages and literature at the Sorbonne. He worked in a bookshop on the Rive Gauche in Paris but is far from an inexperienced bookworm. With his two previous and successful novels published by Thiele Publishers The Woman in my Life (2007) and You’ll Find Me at the End of the World, he has gained an enthusiastic audience.

(Rights handled on behalf of Thiele Verlag)

First good reviews about the French edition of 'Modotti', by Ángel de la Calle

The first good reviews about the French edition of 'Modotti', by Ángel de la Calle (Vertige Graphic, 2011) are coming in. And we are happy to see how brillant they are:

Vous aimez les romans ? les biographies ? les bandes dessinées ? les livres d’histoire ? l’art moderne ? la révolution ? Vous adorerez Tina Modotti, le personnage-titre du livre publié par Vertige Graphic et Envie de Lire"
http://www.communistesunitaires.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1373:des-livres-des-revues-en-2011&catid=88888948&Itemid=88888959

A travers ce portrait de vingt ans, il peut rendre compte de la lutte des grandes idéologies, dans ses moments les plus forts : montée du fascisme en Allemagne, mort de Trotsky, épuration stalinienne, pacte germano-soviétique… C’est aussi l’occasion de dresser la liste des personnalités historiques qui compte à ses yeux, car Tina les a tous rencontrés : Dos Passos, Frida Kahlo, Eisenstein, Aragon… De la Calle fantasme même quelques rencontres de plus, pour pouvoir caser Walter Benjamin ou James Joyce.
http://www.parutions.com/index.php?pid=1&rid=16&srid=441&ida=13710

Cet ouvrage est un bijou de 250 pages en dessins et textes noir et blanc, comme un clin d’œil à ses seulement 250 photographies, où transparaissent des extraits de «Guernica» de Pablo Picasso comme de «Espagne, écarte de moi ce calice» de César Vallejo (...) «Tina Modotti», à lire, à faire lire.
http://www.paperblog.fr/4669424/julio-antonio-mella-l-appelait-tinissima/

"Quel magnifique album, que ce « Tina Modotti » d’Ángel de la Calle récemment paru chez Vertige Graphic ! Assurément l’une des très belles surprises de cette année 2011, qui mérite toute notre attention… Un ouvrage d’une rare intelligence, profond et exigeant, libre et passionné. À lire absolument."
http://www.bdzoom.com/spip.php?article5186

otra buena reseña sobre 'Breve historia de un amor eterno'

En el siguiente link (aquí) podéis leer la reseña completa que en la web Llegir en cas d'incendi han dedicado a 'Breve historia de un amor eterno', de Szilard Rubin (publicada por Editorial Backlist).

Aquí os dejamos unos cuantos fragmentos de ésta y otras reseñas sobre la novela: ‎

* “una de las cumbres de una de las literaturas más exquisitas (y peor conocidas) de la vieja Europa: la húngara. (...) Estamos ante una de las más poderosas e inquietantes novelas de amor que hoy pueblan nuestra abarrotada mesa de novedades. Nobleza obliga a decirlo y a celebrarlo. Emparentada con los psicodramas que Francis Scott Fitzgerald llevó a sus más altas cotas, y tan ácida y desolada como las novelas de madurez de Philip Roth, Breve historia de un amor eterno nace como una exquisita radiografía social, se convierte en una sucia lección de anatomía y acaba convirtiéndose, para pasmo del lector, en un descenso a los infiernos de la pasión más antigua y venerable: el amor sexual. (...)Muchos escritores magníficos se han estrellado al acercarse al amor como tema. Unos, por falta de tacto; otros, por exceso de él. Desconocemos si Rubin fue grande en otros libros, pero en este rozó el misterio de la belleza y el terror, ese que rara vez se concede al genio literario, y lo hizo con concisión y sin necesidad de experimentos.

- Ricardo Menéndez Salmón (autor)

* “Una narración cruda y descarnada de un amor de juventud tempestuoso y apasionado que es puesto a prueba por la dureza de la posguerra, las diferencias sociales, los traumas y las inseguridades. El autor hace un ejercicio de contención ante unas circunstancias extremas, provocando con este contraste que la narración gane una fuerza única.”

- Llegir en cas d’incendi

* "Excelente novela (...) Como en todas las novelas verdaderamente importantes, en ella cabe el mundo"

-http://encuentrosconlasletras.blogspot.com/2011/06/equipaje-de-vacaciones-narrativa.html

'El anticuario' (The Antiques Dealer), by Julián Sánchez, is out in Germany

'El anticuario' (The Antiques Dealer), by Julián Sánchez, is out in Germany, published in hardcover by Limes Verlag (RH Group).

About El anticuario:

-‘A compelling novel (...) in many ways superior to The Davinci Code’ Library Journal (USA)

-‘A lesson of good writing’ La Gazetta del Mezzogiorno (Italy)

-‘A thriller that stands by the Barcelona of Ruiz Zafón and Falcones’ L’Unione (Italy).

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

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.

Rights sold:

German (RH/Limes Verlag), Dutch (Uit. Q), Italian (Einaudi Stile Libero), Portuguese/Brazil (Record), Polish (Swiat K.), Greek (Livanis), Russian (AST), Czech (Jota), Romanian (Allfa), Chinese (Shangai 99).

The French edition of 'Modotti' is already out!

The French edition of the graphic novel 'Modotti. Una mujer del siglo XX', by Ángel de la Calle, has just been published in France, where it has been published by Vertige Graphic.

Tina Modotti was a woman of the 20th Century: photographer, actress, muse to writers and artists, politically engaged, free, poliphacetic, and witness to many important events and artistical landmarks.

Editorial SinSentido published in Spain this graphic biography of this extraordinary character created (text & illustrations) by Ángel de la Calle: 'Modotti: Una mujer del siglo XX'

De la Calle tells us about Tina Modotti's life, a continuing adventure. She arrived to US from Italy and became a beautiful Hoolywood star at an early age, and then she moved to the post-revolutionary Mexico with her friend and lover Edward Weston, where she became actively engaged with the communist party, took thousands of photographs and also became the lover of almost as many men... she also was friends with artists of her time such as Mayakovsky, Bernard Tavern, Antonio Machado, Neruda, Diego Rivera, John Dos Passos, Frida Khalo...

She lived her time, from the glamourous 'Belle Epoque' to the Europe of the Totalitarisms in the 1930s, lived in France, Russia, Spain during the Civil War and flew back to Mexico escaping from Franco. She died there years after, alone and in a taxi.

In 'Modotti' Ángel de la Calle becomes himself a character who incidentally finds a picture of Tina Modotti and starts investigating about her life. Thus, the book becomes not only a biography of the photographer but also a hooking voyage of discovery, admiration and devotion towards her personality and her work.

Tina Modotti's life, now revisited by Ángel de la Calle in this magnificent graphic novel, stands alone as an example, and a lesson, of personal freedom.

Translation rights have already been sold in Italy (001 Edizioni), Germany (Rotbuch), France (Vertige Graphic) and in Brazil (Conard, 2008).

Modotti has received countless awards in Spain, amongst them to the ‘Best Work and Best Script at the Barcelona Comic Salon in 2004’; ‘Best script in 2006’ and the prestigious Critics Award to the Best Spanish Work (2006).

Editorial Salto de Página adquiere los derechos de la nueva novela de Ismael Martínez Biurrun: ‘El escondite de Grisha’.

Editorial Salto de Página sigue apostando por la narrativa de Ismael Martínez Biurrun adquiriendo los derechos de publicación de su nueva novela, ‘El escondite de Grisha’, cuya publicación está programada para Otoño de 2011.

Ismael Martínez Biurrun (Pamplona, 1972) es licenciado en Periodismo y compagina la escritura de novelas con el desarrollo de guiones cinematográficos. Su primera novela, Infierno nevado (Equipo Sirius, 2006) es una fantasía histórica basada en el universo de H. P. Lovecraft y ambientada en los Pirineos en el siglo I a.C. En 2008 se publicó su segunda novela, Rojo alma, negro sombra (451 editores), que obtuvo el Premio Celsius a la mejor obra nacional de fantasía en la Semana Negra de Gijón de 2009, así como el Premio Nocte de la Asociación Española de Escritores de Terror.

En 2010, Editorial Salto de Página publicó su novela ‘Mujer abrazada a un cuervo’, que ha sido seleccionada como una de las novelas finalistas del Premio Celsius a la mejor obra nacional de fantasía publicada en 2010. El ganador de dicho premio se dará a conocer a finales del próximo mes de Julio en Gijón, durante la Semana Negra.

Entre otras cosas, de ‘Mujer abrazada a un cuervo’ se ha dicho:

“Biurrun es un autor con voz propia, de los que bucean en lo atávico y apelan al inconsciente colectivo. Sigan su sombra.” Ricard Ruiz, Qué Leer.

“Una novela gótica que tiende un puente entre un presente lleno de teléfonos móviles y nuevas enfermedades (bulimia y anorexia) y un pasado abrumado por la plaga maldita y el fanatismo (...) El autor domina el lenguaje fantástico y la descripción de un pasado atribulado, sectario y ciego.” Lluís Satorras, El País/Babelia

Ismael Martínez Biurrun también ha participado con sus relatos en las antologías Visiones (AEFCFT, 2006), Hombre Lobo (451 editores, 2008) y Aquelarre (Salto de Página, 2010).

¡Os iremos informando sobre ‘El escondite de Grisha’!

On the rocks! Martini Shoot by F.G. Haghenbeck starts being praised in France

The French magazine Les Inrockuptibles calls ‘Trago amargo’ “Un thriller mexicain hyper cool” and devotes a full page to it. The novel, by F.G. Haghenbeck has recently been published in France by Éditions Denoël under the title ''Martini Shoot''

More info (here)

¡Calcio!, by Juan Esteban Constaín has been shortlisted for the 'Espartaco Award to the Best Historical Novel published in 2010'.

¡Calcio!, by Juan Esteban Constaín, is one of the three novels shortlisted for the 'Espartaco Award to the Best Historical Novel published in 2010'. The award will be announced during the Semana Negra in Gijón, next July. The Candidates are:

* Miguel Bonasso, Argentina: La venganza de los patriotas. Published by Planeta Argentina.

* Juan Esteban Constaín, Colombia: ¡Calcio! Published by Seix Barral Colombia.

* Cristina Sánchez-Andrade, Spain: Los escarpines de Kristina de Noruega. Published by Roca.

***

¡Calcio!, by Juan Esteban Constaín
Seix Barral Colombia (2010)
208 pp.
To be published by Seix Barral Spain in 2012

Foreign rights sold: Italy, Marco Tropea Editore

When, and why, the first football match of History was played? Shortly after WWII Professor Arnaldo Momigliano (a true character who was a Jewsih-Italian scholar exhiled in Oxford escaping from Mussolini) dared to formulate his hypothesis: In 1530, at the Santa Croce square in Florence, the first match in which players could not touch the ball with their hands took place. Everybody in Oxford is shocked at such a statement: Football, like tea time, is an English invention!

Departing from an anusing and entertaining plot line and an enchanting main character, Juan Esteban Constaín writes a novel that questions the role of Histoy and Historians by providing a story in which facts and fiction mingle to create an atmosphere of credibility. As long as you can provide a coherent and seemingly documented historical account you can manipulate History to your advantage to make people believe that what you are saying is true. And, as Italians say, ‘Se non è vero, è ben trobato’...

This is a novel that wisely combines fact and fiction to recreate what could have been the first football/soccer match (Calcio in Italian), also about the ball games that have made people happy since Ancient times. Told from the investigations and controversies of a group of historians in post World War II, for whom the origins of this sport are a national matter that threatens to resume the conflicts between the old empires.

February of 1530. The army of Charles 5th sieges Florence as a gesture og goodwill towards Pope Clement 7th (a Pope from Florence, a descendant of the Medicis), as two years before the troops of the Spanish Emperor had plundered Rome and made the Pope a prisoner. Now Florence has proclaimed itself a Republic and the Pope’s family has been deprived of power. Emperor Charles’s attempt to restitute the Medicis is, then, a way to make peace with the Pope, and grant his favours.

The city has been under siege for four months and the Emperor and the Pope await for news in Bologna. They have banned almost everything in Florence: water, wine, the Carnivals... But on February 17th the Spanish troops will witness and amazing show: ignoring the prohibition, the whole city has gathered at the Santa Croce square to defy the power and arrogance of the Empire by playing a calcio match. Then, a Spanish soldier suggests their Captain that maybe the could find another way to fight the Florentines: Instead of going on with the useless siege, why don’t they play out a match that settles who will win this war?

Juan Esteban Constaín (Popayán, Colombia, 1979) is a Historian, specialist in Classical Languages and a lecturer at the University of Rosario. He is also a contributor to several Colombian media. El naufragio del imperio was his first work of fiction.

With its forthcoming publication in Spain by Seix Barral in 2012, Juan Esteban Constaín will join one of the most prestigious lists of established and young authors writting in Spanish, where readers can find authors such as Ricardo Menéndez Salmón, Isaac Rosa, Enrique Vila-Matas, Eduardo Mendoza, Elena Poniatowska, Antonio Muñoz Molina, Elvira Lindo, Laura Fernández or Rosa Montero.

A few quotes about ¡Calcio!

* “The most recent novel by Juan Esteban Constaín confirms that we are facing a gifted author, with enormous narrative talent. His descriptions of the first football match in History have the flavour of the best Pérez-Reverte. But in his writing we find a deeper literary sense (...) ¡Calcio! manages to entertain and amuse the reader with its unquestionable literary skills” Revista Arcadia

* “It’s a truly divertimento for gentlemen. To me, if not historical, your novel is literarily plausible, and I believe it announces big things fot the future. (...) A splendid fantasy. (...) Because ¡Calcio! is entertaining, witty and funny.” Elmalpensante.com

* “A homage to Football and History, and a funny reflection on the wars historians fight in footnotes” El Espectador

* “In this novel, Juan Esteban Constaín confirms his wit by recreating a delicious fictional universe based on History.” Extroversia

Uitgeverij Q (The Netherlands) acquires rights of 'La voz de los muertos', by Julián Sánhez

We are happy to announce the first international deal for the the new novel by Julián Sánchez, the author of ‘El anticuario’ (The Antiques Dealer): ‘La voz de los muertos’ was published in Spain by Rocaeditorial in May 2011. Uitgeverij Q (an imprint of Querido) will publish it in The Netherlands.

In ‘La voz de los muertos’ Barcelona’s Police inspector David Ossa faces a difficult case: a multiple 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...

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.)