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...

En septiembre: ''El escondite de Grisha'', de Ismael Martínez Biurrun

Editorial Salto de Página publicará en Septiembre (a partir del 19) la nueva novela de Ismael Martínez Biurrun, autor galardonado en dos ocasiones con el Premio Celsius a la mejor novela de fantasía y ciencia-ficción en la Semana Negra de Gijón: ''El escondite de Grisha''.

Dos veces huérfano con apenas diez años, Grisha ha aprendido a protegerse por sí solo y a esconder sus secretos. Todas las tardes se refugia en la biblioteca y escribe con los ojos cerrados lo que parece el diario de otro niño que vive a miles de kilómetros y a quien no conoce. ¿Quién es el otro Grisha? ¿Es posible robar la vida de otra persona…?

Olmo no es un bibliotecario como los demás. Incapaz de poner nombre a sus propios sentimientos, huye de un pasado siniestro y busca consuelo en los brazos de la mujer policía que siguió su rastro. Cree que por fin ha puesto orden en su vida, hasta que se tropieza con Grisha. Olmo no contaba con volver a verse reflejado en los ojos de un niño malherido. Con atravesar un infierno ajeno para regresar al suyo.

Éste es el relato del insólito encuentro de Grisha y Olmo, del asesinato que cometieron juntos y del viaje que emprendieron en busca de respuestas y de redención. Con el talento que la crítica le ha reconocido para la combinación de géneros —desde el thriller policial al fantástico—, Ismael Martínez Biurrun ha construido un relato sobrecogedor, a un tiempo hermoso y terrible.

“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.

“El autor domina el lenguaje fantástico” Lluís Satorras, El País/Babelia.

“Martínez Biurrun se ha convertido en uno de los máximos exponentes de algo que está sucediendo en la narrativa española: los géneros piden el respeto que en la literatura anglosajona llevan gozando casi dos siglos.”

José Miguel Vilar Bou

Ismael Martínez Biurrun (Pamplona, 1972) es licenciado en Periodismo y trabajó como guionista antes de dedicarse en exclusiva a la escritura. Ha publicado las novelas Infierno nevado (Equipo Sirius, 2006), Rojo alma, negro sombra (451 editores, Premio Celsius de la Semana Negra de Gijón a la mejor obra fantástica de 2009 y Premio Nocte de la Asociación Española de Escritores de Terror) y Mujer abrazada a un cuervo (Salto de Página, 2010), con la que obtuvo de nuevo el Premio Celsius en 2011. Ha participado con sus relatos en diversas antologías.

''Mizé'' - 2nd Edition out in Portugal!

'Mizé' is a wonderful novel by Portuguese author Ricardo Adolfo. The novel was originally published in Portugal in 2006 by Dom Quixote and last year Alfaguara Portugal released a new edition, revised by the author and with a stunning new cover.

Now, this new edition has reached its second reprint, and we have the proof!

Adolfo's latest novel, 'Depois de morrer aconteceram-me muitas cosas' ('Lots Happened to Me After I Died', Alfaguara Portugal 2009) was a success in Portugal and Alfaguara Portugal decided to back the author and promote him as one of their top Portuguese authors by releasing this new edition while Ricardo Adolfo is writing a new novel.

'Der Freitag' (Germany) devotes a full page to Ángel de la Calle's ''Modotti''

In a special edicion of its literary supplement devoted to the Internationalen Literatur Festival in Berlin, the German newspaper 'Der Freitag' devotes a full page to Ángel de la Calle's graphic novel ''Modotti'' (which has recently been published in German by Rotbuch Verlag).

Ángel de la Calle has been invited to the Festival. Here you can see more info about it: http://www.literaturfestival.com/teilnehmer/autoren/2011/angel-de-la-calle

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