International Rights Catalogue

Spring 2020

David Albahari

DANAS JE SREDA (TODAY IS WEDNESDAY)

Original publisher: Čarobna, 2017 Rights sold: German Schöffling

“Albahari puts the personal at the centre but if you listen carefully you learn

everything about the world“ Deutschlandfunk Kultur

“These 200 pages capture not only an

entire life story but also a profound debate on the big questions of life“ marx & co

“A Kafka for our times” NZZ

“Albahari is to be ‘stored’ on the shelf of Nobel Prize winners in spe.”

La Vie Littéraire …………………………………………….

A son takes care

of his sick

father. As they

talk for hours

during their

daily walks

along the river

Danube the son

gradually begins

to understand

that his father —

before being denounced and sent to the

notorious labour camp on the Adriatic

island Goli Otok where he was tortured

— was in fact a cruel and feared party

activist working for OZNA, the former

Yugoslavian secret service which did not

hesitate to bring terror against its own

population. Now, as the once brutal

tormentor has become a helpless,

miserable victim of Parkinson’s disease

the son is torn between feelings of pity

and remorse. First the illness created a

unique sense of closeness between father

and son, now it seems to be a kind of

punishment for his father’s wrongdoings.

As the illness progresses and eventually

leads to dementia — maybe another way

of escaping responsibility? — the son

himself suddenly starts to see and feel

unreal and imaginary things and one

begins to suspect that he too is probably

no longer in control of his mental

capacity.

As always in Albahari’s novels, the

question arises whether the narrator can

be trusted. Is it possible to believe

someone who is the only witness in his

story? TODAY IS WEDNESDAY is maybe

Albahari’s most “realistic” and also most

political novel dealing with the brutal

practices of the communist regime after

WWII. At the same time it is also a very

personal book as the author describes

(his) Parkinson’s disease in all its

humiliating and ruthless details.

……………………………………………

The Serbian writer DAVID ALBAHARI,

born in 1948,

has

published

nine

collections of

short stories

and a dozen of novels. His collection of

stories Description of Death won the Ivo

Andrić Award 1982. His novel Bait won

the NIN Award 1996, as well as the

Balcanica Award and Berlin Bridge

Prize. In 1994 he moved to Canada but

has now returned to his hometown

Zemun near Belgrade. His books are

translated into more than 16 languages.

Ferenc Barnás

ÉLETÜNK VÉGÉIG (TO THE ENDS OF OUR LIVES)

Original publisher: Kalligram, 2019

Winner of the Milán Füst Prize 2019

“Best book of the year” 2019 in Hungary

Shortlisted for the AEGON Literary Prize

Shortlisted for the Libri Literary Prize ……………………………………………

“The images call to mind Marquez’s One Hundred Years in Solitude. … Bar-nás’s works are worth comparing with

Knausgård’s autofiction” Kulter

“The sheer number of microcosms be-ing set into motion: virtuosic.”

Rvizoronline

“The text thrillingly brings to the surface the reference between the uncertain

predictability of human existence, and memory, or the comprehension-build-

ing function of language.” Litera

„Barnás can be counted as one of the most important writers in Hungary.”

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ……………………………………………

A historian of phi-losophy has just re-covered from a nervous breakdown and is introduced as a novelist with a work called “Onto-genea”, a novel written about his

childhood. He falls in love with an an-thropologist, who is considerably younger than him. Their love is ecstatic but is overshadowed by illness. Two months after the release of his novel, his elderly mother dies and his family fails to notify him. At the funeral, the thought strikes him that contrary to what is rec-orded in the death certificate, his mother

might have died of a different cause than cancer. He is trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. The more desperate he is in his search for the truth, the darker the family secrets are that he discovers. While we hold our breath in excitement following the dramatic story of this fam-ily of eleven, we are also introduced to the political and cultural landscape of Hungary today.

TO THE ENDS OF OUR LIVES depicts a rude awakening to the fact that every-thing we do and every decision we make has consequences. …………………………………………… FERENC BARNÁS is one of Hun-gary’s most distin-guished writers. He is the author of five novels. The Ninth was long-listed for the Best Translated Book Award (USA) and the In-ternational IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Der Neunte made the SWF Bestenliste. Another Death was choosen as the Best Book of the Year in Hungary. Barnás has received Hungary’s highest literary honours, the Sándor Márai Prize, the Tibor Déry Prize, the Aegon Prize and the Milán Füst Prize. His novels have been translated into English, German, French, Serbian, Czech, and Indonesian. He has been awarded writing residencies in the US at Yaddo, Edward F. Albee Foundation and the MacDowell Colony. He lives and works in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Zygmunt Bauman

DAS VERTRAUTE UNVERTRAUT MACHEN (MAKING THE FAMILIAR UNFAMLIAR)

A conversation with Peter Haffner

Original publisher: Hoffmann & Campe, 2017 Rights sold: World English Polity, Polish Wielka Litera, Italian Laterza, Spanish Tusquets, Brazilian Zahar

"Conciliatory in tone as always, this Socrates of practical reason finds clear

words on the untenable state of affairs.” Der Standard

"A last conversation and legacy"

Süddeutsche Zeitung

"This wonderful book is a legacy and a gift at the same time." Deutschlandfunk

" Zygmunt Bauman’s thoughts shine

brightly in times of totalitarian tendencies.” Die Welt

…………………………………………….

Zygmunt Bauman, who died in January

2017, was one of the most important

sociologists and thinkers of the 20th

century who, among other ideas, intro-

duced the concept of “liquid modernity”.

Read all around the world, the scholar,

often coined as the "head of the op-

ponents of globalization" and the

"prophet of postmodernism", was an

exceptional phenomenon in the world of

the humanities.

In his work — as in this volume of con-

versations — the political and the pers-

onal cannot be separated. Why do we

lose the ability to love? Why do we have

trouble with moral judgements? These

are questions whose social and in-

dividual aspects Zygmunt Bauman

explores thoroughly. Intellect and com-

mitment, power and identity, religion

and fundamentalism, happiness and

morality, utopia and history are some of

the themes that he engaged in

throughout his life.

……………………………………………

ZYGMUNT BAUMAN, born 1925 in

Poznan, one of the pioneering theorists

of postmodernism and a voice for the

poor in a globalized world. He has

written more than 50 books, most

famously the Dialectic of Order.

Modernity and the Holocaust in 1989.

PETER HAFFNER, born in Zurich in

1953, has worked as a reporter, essayist

and book author for many years in the

USA, Poland and Germany. He writes for

the Neue Zürcher Zeitung and other

publications on political, historical and

philosophical topics. His texts have been

awarded the Egon Erwin Kisch Prize and

several other commendations.

Anna Bikont

SENDLEROWA. W UKRYCIU

(SENDLEROWA. IN HIDING)

Original publisher: Czarne, 2017 Rights sold: Hebrew Carmel Publishing

Ryszard Kapuściński Award for Literary Reportage, 2018

…………………………………………….

“The book is much more than a biography. It is a partial but profound

description of the reality of war. Its writing required enormous stamina, wisdom, and modesty. The book is

dense, factual, quick, and emotionally exhausting.” Gazeta

…………………………………………….

Irena Sendler is

one of the most

important figures

in Polish history.

Romanticized as

a saint, she has

become a symbol

of Poland’s in-

nocence in the

persecution of

the Jews. In this

profound historical narrative Anna Bikont

shows the real Sendler, who does not fit

into current Polish identity politics.

Under the German Occupation of Poland,

Irena Sendler rescued hundreds of Jewish

children from the Warsaw Ghetto, hiding

them and thus saving them from certain

death. In 1965 Israel honored her as a

Righteous Among the Nations. Catholic

Poland rediscovered her in 1999 as a

national hero, in 2018 the “Sendlerowa-

Year” was celebrated. Sendler functions as

a withewash whenever Poland has to deal

with its own role in the persecution of the

Jews. Polish identity politics have moulded

her according to their ideal.

Anna Bikont reveals the true, historical

Irena Sendler. Even at a young age,

Sendler was sceptical of the church. She

became a leftist activist and after the war

a loyal member of the Communist Party.

Bikont also listens to the voices of the

forgotten protagonists of this episode in

history: the Jewish children. In numerous

testimonies she documented their fear and

the unlikeliness of their rescue. For Irina

Sendler had to protect the children not

only from the Nazis, but also from the

Poles, who betrayed them.

…………………………………………….

ANNA BIKONT,

born 1954, is a

leading

intellectual

voice in Poland.

After 1989, she

was a pioneer of

investigative

journalism in the newly-born free Polish

media and co-founder of Gazeta

Wyborzca, the first independent daily in

post-Communist Europe.

In 2004 her book, My z Jedwabnego,

about the killing of the Jedwabne’s Jews by

their Polish neighbours during World War

II was part of a huge discussion in Poland

about Polish-Jewish relations. It won the

European Book Prize, the National Jewish

Book Awards and was named among the

“100 Notable Books of the Year” by The

New York Times. Her books have been

translated into Czech, German, English,

French, Hebrew, Italian, Spanish,

Swedish. Anna Bikont lives in Warsaw.

Oek de Jong

ZWARTE SCHUUR (BLACK BARN)

Original publisher: Atlas Contact, 2019 Rights sold: Italian Neri Pozza

Bestseller with 60’000 copies sold

Translation support by the Dutch Foundation for Literature

English sample available …………………………………………….

“Here is a writer at work who no longer needs to prove himself, who is able to

draw you into his story with confidence and ease.” NRC Handelsblad

“Black Barn is a novel about the long

tentacles of guilt and the blistering power of a great love“. De Standaard

“With his explanatory psychology and his forceful — even almost cathartic —

narrative mode, Oek de Jong has written another instant classic.”

De Groene Amsterdammer …………………………………………….

“Once you let the monster out of its cage,

you'll never get it in again.”

At the age of

fifty-nine

celebrated

artist Maris

Coppoolse is

given a retro-

spective in

Amsterdam's

Stedelijk Mu-

seum. He is

at the

pinnacle of

his fame when a magazine cover story

exposes the source of his obsessive work:

a crime he committed at age fourteen.

No one in his circle knew about this; his

friends and acquaintances are deeply

shocked.

This is the story of a life marked forever

by a single catastrophic event. It is the

artist's life sentence. We see him living

as an artist in Amsterdam and New York,

and are given a probing view of his

troubled marriage to the vivacious and

adventurous Fran, who is also incrim-

inated. The magazine story drives him to

relive his childhood, especially that Sat-

urday afternoon on the island when he

went into that ill-fated tar-black barn he

had no business being in.

BLACK BARN is a novel about living

with trauma and overcoming it and

about the women who confront Maris

with himself over the years. It is also

about the power of true love.

…………………………………………….

OEK DE JONG,

born in 1952, is

internationally ac-

knowledged as

one of the most

important con-

temporary Dutch

authors.

His extensive

work has been awarded numerous prizes

and nominations for the Dutch Libris Lit-

erature and the Belgian Golden Book

Owl. In 2012 Pier and Ocean won him

the Golden Owl and sold 600.000 cop-

ies. His œuvre is characterized by great

stylistic power and psychological depth,

and has been translated into German,

French, Scandinavian and several other

languages.

Otto de Kat

FREETOWN

Original publisher: Van Oorschot, 2018 Rights sold: German Schöffling, World English MacLehose Press

“De Kat’s language is of rare beauty and he writes with endless melancholy.“

NDC papers, Haarlems Dagblad

“One of the Netherlands' most compelling literary voices”

Irish Examiner

“Otto de Kat breaks your heart with 200 words.” Scotland on Sunday

“With sentences like effectively and precisely directed light sources that

illuminate paintings from the twilight of a gallery, de Kat presents us with

unforgettable scenes and landscapes". Badische Zeitung

"It captivates with its refined language."

Brigitte Woman …………………………………………….

“He was a Fula. He was, because I

don’t see him anymore. I don’t know if

he’s still alive, or where he might be.

He just vanished.”

Maria is independent,

unconventional and

unafraid. She is trying

to find an explanation

for the disappearance

of Ishmael, a refugee

from Sierra Leone

who came to her door

as a newspaper boy

and stayed for seven years. He was like a

son to her. Vincent is a psychologist.

Once he and Maria had an all-encom-

passing relationship, but since their

break-up he has been living in a kind of

haze. When Maria asks him for help, he

says she can come round.

In the encounters that follow, Ishmael is

pushed into the background by the old

love between Vincent and Maria. Old

stories and memories replace the sadness

about the loss of this lost boy. But in spite

of all the confusing and loving

conversations, Ishmael proves

impossible to forget.

Otto de Kat's FREETOWN is a touching

novel about the fragility of relationships

and the courage to dare a new beginning.

…………………………………………….

Born in 1946,

OTTO DE KAT

studied Theology

and Dutch Literat-

ure After his stud-

ies he worked as a

literary critic and

as a radio produc-

er. He then took on the publishing world,

starting his own imprint in a large publ-

ishing house. In 1986 he founded Balans

Publishing House, based in Amsterdam,

publishing only non-fiction. His first novel

The Figure in the Distance came out in

1989 and since then four novels followed,

all set in the 1930s and 1940s, favourably

received and nominated for varous literary

prizes. He has received particular praise for

his observant, hushed style.

His work is translated into English, German,

Italian and Swedish and published by dist-

inguished houses such as Harvill, Mac-

Lehose Press, Suhrkamp, Schöffling, Le

Serpent à Plumes, L’Ancora del Mediter-

raneo, Lind &Co.

Amanda Lasker-Berlin

ELIJAS LIED (ELIJA’S SONG)

Original publisher: Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt, 2020

Nominated for the 2020 lit.COLOGNE Debut Prize

“A debut novelist who delights in experimentation.” Vogue

…………………………………………….

The story starts

with three

sisters meeting

to go on a walk

across a moor

and up to a

peak. The hike

has been

arranged by

Loth, the

youngest sister,

and is a route

they used to take with their father. As

they walk, we learn about the sisters’

lives and relationships in a highly

contemporary portrayal of young people

today. Elija lives in assisted housing, has

an intimate relationship with her friend

Mio and loves being on stage. We learn

through her sisters’ accounts that she

could be disruptive as a child, which was

burdensome for them. As if to prove this

point, she steals a stuffed owl from a café

they stop at along the way.

Noa, the middle sister, is a graduate who

works in a badly paid and souldestroying

job in a canteen in Hamburg. Loth is

living in a community of nationalist

activists: the extent of her involvement

with them and adoption of their Neo-

Nazi message emerges gradually, as

does her obsession with her looks and

body. As a child, Loth felt overlooked

and neglected by her parents, who

tended to focus on Elija, and she still

harbours this resentment.

As evening approaches, the sisters reach

the peak and sing the Elija song, a song

made up by their father with one verse

for each daughter. As they descend and

darkness falls, Loth loses her temper and

Elija runs off. The two of them end up on

the edge of a precipice overlooking a

lake. Elija is caught off balance and Loth

gently pushes her over. Elija drowns in

the lake’s freezing waters and Noa

recovers her body.

Amanda Lasker-Berlin’s writing is highly

lyrical and her narrative flows perfectly

all the way to its harrowing conclusion.

ELIJA’S SONG offers a moving and

disturbing view of sisterhood and the

challenges of sibling relationships, with

deft characterisation.

…………………………………………….

AMANDA LASKER-BERLIN was born in

Essen in 1994

and staged her

first play at the

age of eighteen.

She graduated

in fine art from

the Bauhaus

University in Weimar and is now studying

theatre direction at the Academy of

Performing Arts Baden-Württemberg in

Ludwigsburg. Her plays and prose won

several awards for emerging writers.

ELIJA’S SONG is her first novel.

Dror A. Mishani

SHALOSH

(THREE)

Original publisher: Achuzat Bayit, 2018

Rights sold: UK Quercus/riverrun, US Europa Editions, German Diogenes, French Gallimard, Italy e/o, Spanish Anagrama, Catalan Grup Editorial 62, Korean Bookrecipe, Croatian Fraktura

Shortlisted for the Sapir Prize

13 weeks the #1 bestseller in Israel and 26 conscutive weeks a top-twenty Spiegel-bestseller in Germany

Film and TV rights sold to the Emmy-nominated producers of “Homeland” ……………………………………………

One woman is looking for consolation

after her has husband left her and her son

and has formed a new family.

A second woman is looking for a home

and a sign from god that she's on the

right path.

A third woman is looking for something

completely different.

They all find the same man. They don't

know everything about him, because

he's not telling them the whole truth - but

he also doesn't know everything about

them. They have their secrets, too.

Dror Mishani has taken a short leave

from his beloved detective, Avraham

Avraham, to write a stand-alone novel

about three women you will not be able

to forget.

Once you have read THREE, you'll

understand why we can’t reveal anything

else about it. If you enjoy the great

masters of suspense, Patricia Highsmith

and Alfred Hitchcock, you will not be

disappointed.

THREE is the best and most chilling new

stand-alone novel by the internationally

celebratded Israeli master of crime, Dror

A. Mishani.

……………………………………………

DROR A. MISHANI is a best-selling

crime writer, screenwriter and literary

scholar, specializing

in the history of

crime fiction who

“has reached world

league of crime

fiction” (Die Zeit)

wuth his

international best-

selling Inspector

Avraham series,

translated into more than 20 languages.

They were shortlisted for the CWA int-

ernational dagger award and the Grand

Prix de Litterature Policliere and won the

prestigious Martin Beck award for best

crime novel translated to Swedish and

the Grand Prix du meilleur Polar de

lecteurs de Points.

An Israeli TV series based on the In-spector Avraham series was released in 2019.

Praise for THREE

"Around Mishani's new novel THREE there's a buzz as if it was the sixth season of Game of Thrones. Well, this buzz is well deserved. The twist around which this book is constructed affects not just the novel’s plot but the genre to which the novel belongs (...) If you want a

literary murderer, if you want to feel the grip of fingers around your neck, it's better to be in the hands of a hangman as acute and as gentle as Mishani". Yedioth Ahronoth Literary Supplement

"A beautiful heart-breaking work, that on top of being an extraordinary literary achievement, is very suspenseful in an unusual way: it has murders and investigation but it has nothing to do

with the artificial thrillers that are flooding the book market" Israel Hayom

“The architecture of Mishani’s new book is meticulously crafted, the tension builds up step by step as a result of the fatal choices the protagonists make. With huge talent and without any

pathos Mishani shows the normality of everyday life in Israel as a fertile ground for pure evil. I believe it’ll be remembered as a work that heralded a new-wave in Israeli fiction just as ‘MY

MICHAEL’ by Amos Oz did a few decades ago” Haaretz Book Review

“Mishani’s novels, although they respond to ‘crime fiction’ norms, are totally unprecdetnted in the genre or outside of it (…) Mishani develops as an artist from novel to novel and THREE is definitely the

peak of his writing, probably the first in many more to come” Maariv

“As if Daniel Glattauer, Juli Zeh and Ferdinand von Schirach were put together in a writer’s room - certainly not the worst condition for a smash hit” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

“Dror Mishani is a master of the art of developing crime from the perspective of its victims. In THREE he surpasses himself. (…)..An excellent detective novel. For it deals virtuosic with the

burning core of our morality - and that of crime literature: the incomprehensibility of violence.” Deutschlandradio Kultur

“Dror Mishani delivers artful crime literature (…) This novel is also a great seduction. This

author must be trusted. But you mustn’t.” Die Zeit

“THREE is not a typical crime novel but Patricia Highsmith’s superb psychological studies were not either. Mishani’s best novel so far brings him closer to his literary role model.” Buchkultur

“A psychological thriller that sneaks into the soul on quiet soles, leaving behind small, evil

barbs. For besides the art of nesting in the brains of his female protagonists, Mishani builds up a tension that resonates for a long time.” Brigitte Woman

“It is these changes of perspective, these precise close-ups that make the novel so rich and

reveal the undercurrent of bitterness and violence that has become second nature to an Israeli society in constant tension.(…) A masterpiece that - on quiet paws - evokes more insight than

most of the many editorials.” WDR radio, book of the week

“Mishani’s highly concentrated, extremely reduced narrative style, which is razor-sharp in the way it portrays his characters, succeeds in telling a story which is gripping not only beceause of the crime related connection beween the mysterious man Gil with the three women, but also

beceause of the very subtle, very sensitive treatment of the subject of "violence against women". Bayrischer Rundfunk

Péter Nádas

LENI WEINT

(LENI WEEPS )

Essays

c/o Graf & Graf Original publisher: Rowohlt, 2018 Rights sold: World English Archipelago Books

"Again and again - Péter Nádas’ writing is breathtaking. It is so astonishing, so

agitating, but the reader has the feeling that, once he has lived through these storms, he is breathing more calmly,

more empowered, because he is able to decipher the world more precisely."

Berliner Zeitung

„These essays are frighteningly prophetic and yet based on faith in

humanity." Frankfurter Allgemein Zeitung

…………………………………………….

From his extensive essayistic

body of work Nádas has compiled this

special volume with a focus on the years 1989 until 2014, a period that

began with a revolution and hope and ended in aggressive populism.

With great acumen and passion, Nádas explores how the citizens of Hungary and other Eastern European states came to be under authoritarian and nationalist gov-ernments again today, and to what extent the reasons for this decline must be sought in the catastrophes of the 20th century, as well as in global developments.

Nádas’ gift to absorb the slightest mic-roscopic tremors, to integrate, and render all nuances, enables him to paint a unique and truthful picture of Central Europe and the state of the human experience, proving that he really is THE great surveyor of the European soul in the 20th century — be it in fiction or non-fiction.

Péter Nádas’ art of mirroring an entire era in the “literary self” embraces reflection on anthropological and moral questions, on truth and lies, on art and crime, on trust and deceit. Whether a traumatic exper-ience of Leni Riefenstahl, “Hitler’s court artist” is concerned, the Eastern European black economy, or the consequences of 9/11 — intellectual commitment and liter-ary sensitivity belong together. …………………………………………….

PÉTER NÁDAS, born in Budapest in 1942, is a photog-rapher and award-winning writer. Un-til 1977, Hungarian censorship prevent-ed the publication of his first novel End of a Family Story. He is the author of A Book of Memories — “The greatest novel written in our time, and one of the great books of the century” (Susan Sontag) — and of Parallel Stories, a masterpiece internatio-nally celebrated as “War and Peace” of the 21st century.

Catalin Partenie

VIZUINA DE AUR

(THE GOLDEN BURROW)

Original publisher: Polirom, 2020

Complete English translation availbale ……………………………………………

"This novel speaks only apparently through words, its true language is mu-sic. The words are like a curtain. Once

you open them, they play on stage. With famous characters, such as free-

dom, friendship, love.” Peter Kerek, director of the theatrical

adapation of the novel

“Reading the Golden Vizuina makes you realize that behind the Iron Curtain

music had another taste and another power.” Charles King, author

……………………………………………

Bucharest, 1988. Nicolae Ceauşescu’s

darkest years. Paul, a first-year philoso-

phy student, wants to play the drums in

a rock band but is expelled and ends up

as the guard of a forgotten depot in

which a theatre keeps its scenery and

props. He spends all his time there with

his girlfriend Oksana (a waitress who just

finished high school) and his best-friend

Stefan (a first-year high school student

who plays the guitar). Using stage furni-

ture and props, Oksana builds inside the

depot the interior of a home. They call it

‘The Golden Burrow’ and there they

have the time of their lives. Oksana has

become pregnant but is afraid to tell

Paul; abortion is illegal, and illegal abor-

tion is expensive and dangerous.

In April 1989, without telling anything to

anyone, Paul swims across the Danube

and defects. He is caught by the Yugosla-

vian authorities and then he emigrates to

Canada. In December 1989, he returns

illegally to Romania and reaches Bucha-

rest on the 22nd, just after Ceauşescu

fled his headquarters. In the chaos that

follows he is shot dead in front of

Muzica, the city’s biggest record store.

Almost 30 years later, Paul’s son Victor

contacts Stefan and asks him to write

down all that he can remember about his

father. He would also like to find out if

his father knew that Oksana was preg-

nant when he left Romania. Stefan, how-

ever, is an unreliable narrator, and Victor

will have to imagine for himself what

kind of man his father was.

…………………………………………… CATALIN PARTENIE is a Romanian-Ca-

nadian philosopher, teaching at the Na-

tional School of Political Studies in Bu-

charest. He completed he Ph.D. in Phi-

losophy at the University of Glasgow,

and was also a graduate student at Ox-

ford. He has taught in Canada and Eu-

rope, and is the editor of Plato. Selected

Myths (Oxford’s World Classics) and

Plato’s Myths (Cambridge UP). His short

story “Gudrun” has earned an Honorable

Mention at the Frank McCourt Interna-

tional Contest and has been published in

The Southampton Review. THE

GOLDEN BURROW is his first novel.

Daniel de Roulet

A LA GARDE

Lettre à mon père pasteur (ON GUARD. Letter to my father pastor)

Original publisher: Labor et Fides, 2019 Rights sold: German Limmat Verlag

"These short confessions can to be seen in the literary tradition of Nathaniel

Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” and Andre Gide's “The Pastoral Symphony”.

Tendre et troublant." Le Monde

"Daniel de Roulet is probably the most interesting author in French-speaking

Switzerland at the moment” Le Matin Dimanche

…………………………………………….

At 97, the author's mother announced

that she would end her life. The date and

the time were set.

During the fifteen days preceding this

scheduled death, Daniel de Roulet tells

his father — a pastor of Calvinist tradition

who died six years earlier — about his

mother's impending death in sixteen

unobtrusive and very moving letters.

The book is the author’s “farewell

ceremony” for his mother. A very touch-

ing contribution to the discussion of self-

determined dying and a plea for the right

to die with dignity.

“For me, writing does not have a

consoling function. On the contrary, it

must open up the future. In my case, a

future as an old orphan.”

…………………………………………….

DANIEL DE ROULET, born in Geneva in

1944, was an architect and worked as an

IT specialist. Since 1997 he devotes all

his time to writing. He is the author of

numerous novels forming La simulation

humaine, a Swiss-Japanese « nuclear

family saga » between Hiroshima and

Fukushima. He also writes essays and

other non-fiction and was awarded

several literary prizes : the Prix culture et

société de la Ville de Genève, the Prix

Marcel Aymé and the Grand Prix de

littérature du Canton de Berne. He lives

in Geneva.

Peter Stamm

DIE SANFTE GLEICH-

GÜLTIGKEIT DER WELT

(THE SWEET INDIFFERENCE OF THE WORLD)

Original publisher: S. Fischer, 2018 Rights sold: World English Other Press, French Bourgois, Spanish Acantilado, Swedish Thoren & Lindskog, Czech Albatros, Italian Casagrande, Croatian Fraktura, Greek Kastaniotis, Chinese Shanghai 99, Turkish Paloma Yayinevi

Swiss Book Award 2018

Sélection étrangère du Prix Médicis

A best book of the season by VOGUE

Translation support from ProHelvetia ..............................................................

“Excellent…this amorphous tale folds in on itself, becoming a meditation on

how memory can distort reality…Fans of Julian Barnes will love this. PW

"Ordinary lives, elevated from the

ground. Powerful!" Le Monde

“A fascinating game with times and identities.” Neue Zürcher Zeitung

“One of Europe's most exciting writers” NYT

“Stamm’s prose is plain but not so simple.

A subtle but deadly style.” Zadie Smith

..............................................................

Christoph, an

older man who

is a writer, has a

story to share

with Lena, a

younger woman

who is an

actress. A long

time ago, he

was in a

relationship

with a woman

called Magdalena, who was also an

actress. Lena is currently in a relationship

with a man called Chris, who is also a

writer. As the two talk, it becomes clear

that the two relationships contain

echoes, similarities too remarkable to be

called coincidence. Are Chris and Lena

doomed to repeat Christoph and

Magdalena’s broken relationship, or are

Christoph and Magdalena a warning

from the future? Who really exists? Is

there such a thing as fate? Can we escape

our destiny or must we come to terms

with the sweet indifference of the world?

In the terse and precise language that is

his hallmark Peter Stamm, great pundit

on the human condition, tells us a differ-

ent story of the inexplicable intimacy that

separates you from the person you once

were.

..............................................................

PETER STAMM,

born in 1963,

shortlisted for

the Man Booker

International

Prize 2013, had

his inter-

national break-

through with

his debut novel Agnes in 1998. Since

then his books have been translated into

more than 30 languages. Stamm’s writ-

ing has been compared to Chekhov and

Camus as well as American storytellers

such as Raymond Carver, Richard Ford

and Ernest Hemingway. Peter Stamm

lives near Zurich with his wife and two

children.

Abraham B. Yehoshua

HAMINHARA

(THE TUNNEL)

Original publisher: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2018

Rights sold: US Houghton Mifflin, UK Halban, German Nagel & Kimche, Italian Einaudi, French Grasset, Spanish Duomo, Dutch Wereldbibliotheek

“A wonderful declaration of love to the hidden relationships of things and

people through space and time, which perhaps only those who can no longer

be sure of their own first name can feel.” rbbKultur

“Yehoshua is so graceful and eloquent

that his work is timeless.” The New York Times Book Review

.............................................................. From the

award-winning,

internationally

acclaimed

Israeli author, a

suspenseful and

poignant story

of a family

coping with the

sudden mental

decline of their

beloved husband and father - an

engineer who they discover is involved

in an ominous secret military project.

Until recently, Zvi Luria was a healthy

man in his seventies, an engineer living

in Tel Aviv with his wife, Dina, visiting

with their two children whenever

possible. Now he is showing signs of

early dementia, and his work on the

tunnels of the Trans-Israel Highway is no

longer possible. To keep his mind sharp,

Zvi decides to take a job as the unpaid

assistant to Asael Maimoni, a young

engineer involved in a secret military

project: a road to be built inside the

massive Ramon Crater in the northern

Negev Desert.

The challenge of the road, however, is

compounded by strange circumstances.

Living secretly on the proposed route,

amid ancient Nabatean ruins, is a

Palestinian family under the protection

of an enigmatic archaeological

preservationist. Zvi rises to the occasion,

proposing a tunnel that would not

dislodge the family. But when his wife

falls sick, circumstances begin to spiral.

The Tunnel - wry, wistful, and a tour de

force of vital social commentary - is

Yehoshua at his finest.

.……………………………………………

ABRAHAM B. YEHOSHUA

His debut The Lover, published in 1977,

established his international renown. He

wrote over a dozen of novels, all of them

translated into more than twenty

languages and received numerous

international awards, most recently the

prix Médicis étranger, le Prix du meilleur

livre étranger, Premio Internazionale

“Antonio Feltrinelli” and the Dan David

Prize. Yehoshua has been compared to

William Faulkner and named an author

of Nobel reach.

Praise for THE TUNNEL

“Deep and honest affection has rarely been written with so much wise tenderness.” Doppiozero

“Although his new novel is titled THE TUNNEL, Yehoshua does not present too dark a message. On the contrary. Nothing Kafkaesque, but a story full of tenderness, funny, overflowing with light melancholy, where Israel's anxieties and trials seem to fade in

view of the heartrendering endeavour of one man, despite his age, despite his multiple wounds.“ Le Temps

“Yehoshua is one of the great figures of Israeli literature. He demonstrates it once again

with this brilliant new novel full of virtuosity.“ L’Express

“The Tunnel, the 12th novel by A.B. Yehoshua, is a well-made, polished work of fiction, one of the author's finest achievements. It also exemplifies Yehoshua's

storytelling artistry in its latest and most mature phase. He maintains a steady balance between the complexity or "significance" of its themes and its intricate plot, on the one

hand, and his narrative prose, which is clear, lean, sharp, carefully sculpted, fully controlled by the sure hand of an expert artist.”

Dan Miron

“Yehoshua, as ever, excels in writing vivid, cinematic scenes, and readers will sense that his storytelling power has not diminished, but has improved, as he creates a cast of characters and constructs multi-voiced dialogue while maintaining the right dosage of narrative suspense. The protagonist, Zvi Luria, is not portrayed as "unfortunate" in any

respect. On the contrary, the narrator gives his demented hero the status of an uncanny sage, a sort of blind prophet who sees the world better than others do.”

Ha'aretz

“With great delicacy, sensitivity and care befitting an experienced author, devoted to his craft, Yehoshua transforms his hero's dementia into the main literary device that

serves as a systematic, intensive technique that encompasses the work. This book reconfirms that Yehoshua is a unique author, brimming with fresh ideas,

passionately immersed in the story he is telling.” Ha'aretz Literary Supplement

“The Tunnel is A.B. Yehoshua at his best. He creates a dense pattern of images,

symbols and clever allusions to current events and literature, which create a sort of antithesis to the realistic dementia in the form of a rich, multi-layered twilight zone.”

Yisrael Hayom

“In his best book in years, A.B. Yehoshua examines the founding myths of Zionism. His message will stay with you for a long time.”

Yediot Aharonot

“A. B. Yehoshua knows his work well. This is abundantly clear: the characters touch the heart, their relationships constitute an entire world, the writing is multi-layered, the message is piercing, the reading flows smoothly, and most of all — it's hard to put the book down.”

Isha

FURTHER TITLES

Ari Folman KITTY’S DIARY

Rights sold: English Pantheon (NA), Viking (UK), German S. Fischer, Dutch Prometheus, Italian Einaudi, Spanish PRHGE, Hebrew Kinneret, , Brazil Record, Portugal Porto Editora

KITTY’S DIARY is the graphic novel based on the forthcoming animated

motion picture “Where is Anne Frank?” by Oscar-nominated Ari Folman and

David Polonsky, to be released in theatres worldwide in winter 2020/21

The same creative team that brought to you in 2017 the international

bestselling and award-winning graphic adaptation of Anne Frank’s Diary, now

follows up with this subsidiary volume, bringing to life Kitty, Anne Frank’s

imaginary friend whom she invented and opens up to in her diary.

.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Mario Lima DEATH IN PORTO

Original Publisher: Heyne Verlag, 2019

“Maybe the best of all Portugal thrillers published to date."

Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung

“Suspense from beginning to end" Mainhattan Courier

“Crime literature at its best. With 'Death in Porto', Mario Lima has achieved a hit that is convincing all along the line, but above all with first-class

police work and protagonists with cult potential.” literaturmarkt.info

................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Péter Nádas ILLUMINATED DETAILS

Original Publisher: Jelenkor, 2017 Rights sold: German Rowohlt, World English: Farrar Straus & Giroux, Swedish Bonniers, French

Phébus, Danish Rosinante

The memoirs of a giant of European literature — a spectacular work unfolding the life and world of Péter Nádas. “A firework of remembrance in which each spark unfolds its own luminosity and

above all triggers further memories.” Frankfurter Allgemeine

“Péter Nádas is the great surveyor of European landscapes of souls in the 20th century. Just breathtakingly microscopic, a feast of details and nuances, in the next

moment epochal and essayistic, an unsurpassable work of art.” Die Zeit

FURTHER TITLES

Daniel de Roulet TEN LITTLE ANARCHISTS

Original Publisher: Limmat Verlag, 2017

Rights sold: French Buchet Chastel

Prix Bibliomedia 2019

"Daniel de Roulet tells without pathos but with lots of empathy and pace about the esperation for freedom and of strong women in a time when

migration from Switzerland was very usual and people were expelled from their own country." 20 Minuten

"A wonderful story about commitment, courage and exile." RTS La Première

"A very political adventure“ L'Humanité

................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Thomas Sparr GRUNEWALD IN THE ORIENT

Original Publisher: Berenberg Verlag, 20018

Rights sold: World English Haus Publishing, Spanish Acantilado

"A melancholic, often touching, sometimes painful book. Inevitably so, Thomas Sparr tells of a vanished world. Only in the books of its former

inhabitants, in their poems and letters, the "spiritual life form" of Rechavia continues to live on.” MDR Kultur

“Sparr is known as a great connoisseur of German-Jewish intellectual life.”

Die Welt

“Thomas Sparr is sensitive and careful in all his miniatures. He writes without pathos. The picture he paints of Rechavia and his portraits of

Scholem, Kraft and others deeply engrave themselves in the readers mind.” Badische Zeitung

................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Peter Stamm MARCIA FROM VERMONT – A Christmas Tale

Original Publisher: S. Fischer, 2019 Rights sold: World English Other Press, Spanish Acantilado, Catalan Quaderns Crema

“A master of the unspectacular, a virtuoso of the narrative form” NYTRB

“Peter Stamm is an extraordinary author who can make the ordinary absolutely electrifying.“ The Times

“The Swiss writer Peter Stamm tells his stories with exquisite simplicity and maximum clarity.” El País

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