Norwegian YA Author Turns to Crime Fiction
I Will Miss You Tomorrow by Heine Bakkeid is gaining international attention. The novel marks the YA author's first foray into crime fiction; it's the first title in a new series about a former internal affairs investigator named Thorkild Aske. After he is released from prison, where he was serving time for vehicular manslaughter, he is recruited by a mother to investigate the disappearance of her missing son. Sweden’s Salomonsson Agency controls all rights, and Julia Angelin is the primary agent. Rights to the book have been preempted by Rowohlt in Germany and sold to Premedia in Slovakia.
French Series Gains Foreign Sales
The final volume of The Savages by Sabri Louatah, a four-part fictional series about the rivalry between two brothers, was published over the winter by Flammarion in France, and was recently sold to publishers in Italy (Mondadori) and Germany (Core). Susanna Lea Associates controls all rights, and deals were previously made with houses in Spain, Turkey, and the Netherlands. The novels are being adapted into a TV series by the French production companies Canal Plus and Chic Films. Describing the brothers, the agency said that one is the "mastermind" behind an assassination attempt on the president, while the other is "the family’s ‘golden child,' a rising TV star and model of success well-loved by the French people."
Bolivian Novel to Make a Splash in the U.S.
Rodrigo Hasbún's Affections, which was originally published by Penguin Random House in Spain in summer 2015, has just sold in the U.S. Ira Silverberg at Simon & Schuster acquired from Grainne Fox, who brokered the deal on behalf of Pushkin Press, the U.K. press that controls world English rights to the title. The novel is set in Bolivia and follows the Ertl family through three decades--from the 1950s through the 1970s. It is is told from different perspectives and chronicles the family’s breakdown. Silverberg said the novel "humanizes the bleakness in poor, warring nations.” British firm Rogers, Coleridge & White was the originating agency and controls translation rights; aside from the just-closed U.S. acquisition, the book has been sold to 10 foreign publishers including Suhrkamp (Germany), Buchet Chastel (France), and Intrinseca (Brazil). Hasbún, who was born in Bolivia in 1981 and is of Palestinian descent, was named one of Granta’s 20 best Spanish-language writers under 35 in 2010.
New Swedish Series Draws Bidders
Badlands by Swedish author Arne Dahl, which was originally published by Bonniers in Sweden on March 18, has now sold in deals to houses in seven other countries. Buyers include De Geus in the Netherlands, and Piper in Germany. The book is the first in a new series featuring detectives Sam Berger and Molly Blom. When a 15-year-old goes missing, Berger believes it might be the work of serial killer, but his colleagues refuse to listen because they believe that, without a body, there is no crime. The primary agent is Tor Jonasson of Salomonsson Agency.
Correction: An earlier version of this story referred to Arne Dahl's new series as Norwegian; it is Swedish. The first name of Salomonsson agent Julia Angelin was also misspelled.
