Celebrated Basque Novelist Draws Pre-Pub Buyers
Kirmen Uribe, a Basque novelist whose debut novel Bilbao-New York-Bilbao won the 2009 National Prize for Literature in Spain, is looking forward to having his latest novel simultaneously published in four languages. The Pontas Literary and Film Agency sold Uribe's The Hour of Waking Together to houses that will release it in Spanish (Seix Barral), Catalan (Edicions 62) and Galician (Xerais). Scheduled for a November release, the book was originally written in Basque and will be published in that language by Susa. The novel explores the lives of two people who appeared in the 1927 painting by Antonio Gezala called "Artists’ Night in Ibaigane."

Norwegian Blogger's Debut Picks Up Steam
The Movements, a debut Norwegian crime novel by Geir Tangen, is gaining buzz. The novel was self-published in January and follows a journalist and a police investigator on the trail of a serial killer staging murders based on scenes from crime novels. Tangen, who is a prominent crime fiction blogger, is now represented by Astri von Arbin Ahlander of Sweden's Ahlander Agency. (He sought her out, hoping she could help him find a publisher who could help him market and distribute the title.) Ahlander has now closed 10 foreign sales for the novel in, among other countries, the Netherlands (House of Books), Germany (Goldmann) and Norway (Gyldendal).

Backlist Japanese Title Gaining Traction
Red Girls, a novel first published in Japan in 2006, is seeing new life in the international market. Gray Tan is handling all rights for the book, which is the first Japanese novel he has represented. He first came across the novel during a trip to Japan in 2013 and is hoping the book, which didn't sell well in Taiwan and has fallen out of print there, could have a more positive second life. "I fell in love with it immediately," he said, adding that he thinks it will "definitely appeal to western readers." Sales of the novel have closed with publishers in Taiwan (Apex) and China (Shanghai 99), and VIZ Media acquired U.S. and U.K. rights. Late last month, there was an auction for the novel in France, where Piranha Editions emerged as the winning bidder. The book is in the vein of One Hundred Years of Solitude and follows three generations of women in a Japanese family.