Spanish Novel Sells in World English Deal
Los Niños by Colombian author Carolina Sanín has sold to MacLehose Press, a division of U.K. publisher Quercus, in a world English rights preempt. The book was published by Spanish house Siruela in May, and by Colombian publisher Laguna Libros last year. Barcelona's VicLit Agency controls all rights. The novel follows a woman named Laura who is plagued by alternative realities in her head and an encounter with a lost child. The author, who has a PhD in medieval literature from Yale, is also the author of the novel Everything Elsewhere, published by Spanish house Seix Barral in 2005.
Greek Short Story Collection Gains Notice
Christos Ikonomou's All Good Things Will Come from the Sea, a short story collection about the Greek economic crisis, has recently sold in a number of international deals, being acquired in France (by Quidam) and Italy (by Editori Riuniti). The book was published in Greece by Polis in 2014, and rights are controlled by Evangelia Avloniti of the Athens-based Ersilia Literary Agency. The stories in the book follow a group of Athenians who, impacted by Greece's financial collapse, move to an island in the Aegean sea in search of better prospects.
Italian Thriller Continues to Heat Up
Sandrone Dazieri's novel Kill The Father, which we originally reported on in January after rights to the thriller sold in seven countries and it was optioned for film, has recently sold in a world English rights deal. It was acquired by Scribner in partnership with Simon & Schuster UK and Simon & Schuster Canada. Denise Bukowski at the Bukowski Agency brokered the sale. A bestseller in Italy, Germany, and Spain, the book will now be published in trade paper in Italy; this is a rare occurrence, saved for the country's major bestsellers. In the novel, a female former cop hampered by agoraphobia begins solving crimes with the help of a kidnapping survivor who now focuses on capturing child molesters.
Work By Ché Guevera Descendant Goes Global
33 Revolutions, a novella by Ché Guevera's grandson Canek Sánchez Guevara, was recently acquired by French publisher Éditions Métailié, and an offer on the book is also in from a Dutch house. Sánchez Guevara--an author, political dissident and musician who died in Mexico in January--modeled the book on an album featuring 33 songs, according to Victor HurtaChé Guevarado of the VicLit Agency, who is handling all rights for the title. The book, Hurtado said, follows a bureaucrat on a Caribbean island whose country is essentially like a "broken record" in so far as "nothing works and everything remains the same." Previous sales of the book were handled by the author's estate, and were made to Italian house Edizioni e/o and New York City-based Europa Editions (which acquired world English rights). The book is still unpublished in Spanish, and Hurtado is handling the book through an arrangement with the Sánchez Guevara's estate.
German Hit Gains More Traction
Dörte Hansen's Old Country, which we reported on in our last edition, continues to dominate the bestseller lists in Germany. The book remains #1 on the Der Spiegel bestseller list, and local house Knaus (which published the book in February) has reported that over 120,000 copies of the hardcover edition have now sold in Germany. After the flurry of deals we cited in our last issue--to publishers in, among other countries, Holland and the Czech Republic--the novel has now sold in a preempt to Italian publisher Salani. Additionally, an offer from a Norwegian publisher is also on the table. Rights to the novel, about an elderly woman named Vera whose quiet country life is upended when her niece shows up at her door, are controlled by Random House Germany.
