Danish author Jonas T. Bengtsson has drawn critical acclaim, and hit myriad foreign bestseller lists. Now, House of Anansi Press and Other Press are primed to introduce the Danish author to North American readers. Bengtsson's A Fairy Tale, which Canadian press House of Anansi acquired world rights to, will mark the author's first novel to be translated into English. Other Press, which bought U.S. rights to the book, plans to publish the title in the States in February.
The novel, which is the third from Bengtsson, has been sold by the Salomonsson Agency in multiple countries, including Germany, Norway, France, Poland and Hungary. House of Anansi said A Fairy Tale hit the German bestseller list one week after its publication there. And in Canada, where House of Anansi plans to publish the novel in January 2014, strong advance praise from booksellers has already started to trickle in.
Although House of Anansi has not yet set a first printing or marketing budget for A Fairy Tale, Gillian Fizet, the press's rights manager, said that the marketing and sales deartments have settled on a national campaign for the book "with a possible tour." Fizet added that House of Anansi is hoping to partner with Other Press to extend the promotional efforts "into the U.S."
To date, Bengtsson has won a handful of European literary awards, including the BG Bank First Book Award, for Amina's Lietters, and the PO Enquist Literary Prize, for his sophomore novel, Submarino. A Fairy Tale, which has been translated from Danish, is set in Sweden and Denmark, in 1986, and follows a boy and his father living on the outskirts of society. House of Anansi said the story follows "an unpredictable" turn their lives suddenly take.
