Backlist Dutch Hit Sees New Life
On behalf of Dutch Literary Agency Shared Stories, Michael Carlisle of Inkwell Management has closed a deal with Emily Krump at William Morrow, in the U.S., to publish Marion Pauw's thriller, Daylight. The book, a bestseller in the Netherlands, was originally published by local house Ambo Anthos in 2008. William Morrow plans to release the book in winter 2016. The novel follows a lawyer and single mother who is trying to raise a difficult son, when her neighbors are suddenly murdered. According to Inkwell, which has also brokered a deal for the book with HarperCollins UK, Daylight sold over 175,000 copies in the Netherlands, where it also won the Golden Noose Award. The book was adapted into a Dutch fiilm that was released in April 2013. Rights have also been sold to Heyne Verlag in Germany and Szo Kiado in Hungary.
Mexican Debut Goes Global
Umami, a debut novel by 31-year-old Madrid-based Laia Jufresa, follows a group of people who live in a residential complex that was designed with the human tongue in mind. The book has recently sold in England and France. Originally published in late February by Random House Mexico, deals have just closed with Oneworld Publications (which took world English rights), and France's Buchet Chastel, which preempted the book. Random House Spain will publish the novel in Autumn of 2015, and Víctor Hurtado, of Barcelona's VicLit Literary Agency, controls all rights. The tongue theme unfolds around the fact that the unusual residential facility in the novel has five houses, each named after a category of taste: sweet, salty, bitter, acid and umami.
Prize-Winning Memoir Sells For Arabic Rights
Yemma, a memoir by the Moroccan-Dutch columnist Mohammed Benzakour, has sold to Editions la Croisée des Chemins in Morocco for world Arabic rights. Marleen Seegers of 2 Seas Agency sold rights on behalf of De Geus Publishers in the Netherlands, which initially published the book in 2013. Winner of the 2014 Du Perron Prize, the book examines the life of the author's mother, who suffered a stroke and became, largely, dependent on others. The 2 Seas Agency controls world translation rights.
Alternate History Finds Audience Abroad
The Pneumatic Republic, a debut novel by university lecturer and short story writer J. Valor Montero, has picked up a number of foreign sales recently. Barcelona-based agency SalmaiaLit controls all rights, and has sold the novel to Cruïlla, for Catalan language rights, as well as to Fantascy, part of the Penguin Random House Group, for Spanish language rights. The agency compared Montero to Philip Pullman and said the book is an alternate history based on the premise that the Romans developed a steam-powered device credited to Greek mathematician and engineer, Heron of Alexandria.
Picture Book About Janusz Korczak Collects Foreign Sales
The Last Travel, written by French author Irène Cohen-Janca and illustrated by Italian artist Maurizio Quarello, has been picking up global sales after its original publication, in Italy, in January. The book was released in Italy by Orecchio Acerbo, an indie house that specializes in picture books, and recently sold to the publisher Mamania Relacja in Poland. Anna Spadolini, at the Milan-based Anna Spadolini Agency, controls foreign rights, and confirmed that sales have also closed with Annick Press (which acquired world English rights) and Les Éditions des Éléphants in France; Chung A Ram in South Korea; and Jacoby & Stuart in Germany. The book is based on the life of the celebrated Polish educator, writer, and doctor Janusz Korczak. His work ultimately led to the U.N., in 1959, adopting something called the Universal Declaration of the Rights of the Child, which outlines a series of rights that should be granted to children throughout the world.
