Bernhard Schlink's Olga to be published in 18 languages

Bernhard Schlink’s novel Olga has just cracked the mark of 110.000 sold copies of the German edition. The book has remained within the top ten of the Spiegel bestseller list since its release in January.

This has had an impact on foreign rights sales, as well: With English (UK), Norwegian, Polish and Croatian rights recently sold, the figure of languages the book is or will be published in has risen to 18.

Rights sold to:
Chinese/CN (Thinkingdom)
Croatian (Vorto Palabra, an imprint of Znanje)
French (Gallimard)
Greek (Kritiki)
Hungarian (21.Század)
Icelandic (Forlagid)
Italian (Neri Pozza)
Korean (Sigongsa)
Macedonian (Ili-Ili)
Norwegian (Gyldendal Norsk)
Polish (REBIS)
Romanian (Polirom)
Serbian (Plato)
Spanish (Anagrama)
Turkish (Dogan Egmont)
Ukrainian (Hemiro)
UK (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

Now published in translation: Martin Suter in English

Three English editions of Martin Suter’s novels have just been or are about to be published:

Elefant (4th Estate, UK)

»I loved Elefant! It was a complete tonic.«
Seni Glaister (author of The Museum of Things Left Behind)

»I never thought I’d fall in love with a miniature pink elephant that glowed in the dark, but I did. I shall often think of her.«
Homer Hickam (author of Carrying Albert Home)

Allmen and the Dragonflies (New Vessel Press, USA)

»Martin Suter has found a new tone in the detective novel: a blend of reserve and attention to detail with clock-work precision […] Suter is as charming as his hero when he uses the genre's conventions.«
Le Monde, Paris

»Allmen is a protagonist of impeccable taste and dubious morality—a thief with a refined eye who steals accordingly. He is also excellent company, and the dark charms of Suter's novel are irresistible from the first pages.«
Joshua Max Feldman (author of The Book of Jonah and Start Without Me)

»In the honorable vein of elegant, gentleman thieves, comes Allmen, the colorful protagonist of Suter’s beautifully observed, deliciously fun novel, which draws the reader along through a brightly glazed world, disguising a loving character study in the packaging of an art heist.«
Noah Charney (author of The Art Thief and The Art of Forgery)

»Suter combines sleight-of-hand suspense with stunning art and slightly worn Old World elegance to create a smartly entertaining read ... A classy puzzler.«
Library Journal, New York

The Last Weynfeldt (No Exit Press, UK)

»Fans of sensitive, slightly aloof Euro-thrillers – think Stefan Zweig or filmmaker Claude Chabrol – will recognize the metier of Swiss writer Suter, who here leavens the sensationalism of crime fiction with psychological insight and melancholy … comfort food for readers who crave memorable characters, romance, and touching, drawn-from-life scenes.«
Publishers Weekly, New York

»Martin Suter will always surprise you. Each new novel is a challenge and an adventure.«
Les Echos, Paris

»There is charm, irony, and undeniable elegance in Martin Suter’s novels, he is probably one of the best contemporary authors.«
Le Nouvel Observateur, Paris

Praise by the press for Anthony McCarten's American Letters

»The life of the hero of the Beat Generation in a new yet familiar light, an exhilarating portrait of a delicate character.«
Thomas Merten / Geo Saison, Hamburg

»As swift and well-constructed as one expects from a clever narrator like McCarten.«
Martin Oehlen / Frankfurter Rundschau

»The result is a strong character study of Kerouac and a very well-written exploration of the question: What makes us believe and trust another person?«
Wolfgang Schütz / Augsburger Allgemeine

Praise by the press for Lukas Hartmann's A Picture of Lydia

» … creates a fascinating dynamic which will appeal to readers of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels. This beautifully-written novel will also find an eager English-language readership among the international Downton Abbey fan-base.«
New Books in German, London

»A strong book about a strong woman who lost control only once […] and had to pay a bitter price.«
Jens-Uwe Sommerschuh / Freie Presse Chemnitz

»Often an oppressive reading – with undertones of hope. A touchingly told story.«
Stephan Moser / Freiburger Nachrichten

»Hartmann approaches Lydia on the basis of thorough biographical and historical research, using the fine brush of a painter, delicate strokes, a sense of light and shade.«
Bettina Kugler / St. Galler Tagblatt

»Once you’ve started reading Lukas Hartmann’s novel, you’ll be reluctant to put the book down.«
Renata Schmid / Kulturtipp, Zurich

»Hartmann […] presents two fascinating women, Lydia and Luise – one touches us through her suffering, the other through her pure heart.«
Psychologie Bringt Dich Weiter, Hamburg

Just published: Fritz Mertens I wanted to love and learned to hate

Fritz Mertens brutally murdered two people. As part of the process of determining his penalty, he was told to write down his life story. The resulting account is a document of collective failure: of a childhood characterised by illness and abuse, by the search for understanding and consistently ensuing disappointment. This is a book about the sensitive terrain of a child’s mind, which we must navigate with the greatest of caution.

Benedict Wells' The End of Loneliness to be published in 30 languages

After sealing the deal for US rights with Penguin and another for Portuguese rights with ASA, Benedict Wells’ novel The End of Loneliness will soon be published in a total of 30 languages.

Furthermore, The End of Loneliness won the ›Euregio Literary Prize for Students‹ (›Euregio-Schüler-Literaturpreis‹). The Euregio is a region across the Dutch-Belgian-German border and therefore trilingual – Dutch, French and German. The award ceremony will be held on 15 May in Liège, Belgium. So far The End of Loneliness has received a total of six awards, including the prestigious ›European Union Prize for Literature‹ in 2016.

Rights sold to:
Albanian (Dudaj)
Bulgarian (Colibri)
Catalan (Les Hores)
Chinese/CN (China South Booky)
Croatian (HENA)
Czech (Plus)
Danish (Lindhardt & Ringhof)
Dutch (Meulenhoff Boekerij)
English/UK (Hodder)
English/US (Penguin)
French (Slatkine)
Hebrew (Hakibbutz Hameuhad)
Hungarian (Geopen)
Italian (Salani)
Latvian (Janis Roze)
Lithuanian (Gelmes Publishing)
Macedonian (Tri Publishing Centre)
Norwegian (Forlaget Press)
Persian (Qoqnoos)
Polish (Muza)
Portuguese (ASA)
Romanian (Polirom)
Russian (Azbooka-Atticus)
Serbian (Laguna)
Slovak (Albatros Slovakia)
Slovenian (Mladinska knjiga)
Spanish (Malpaso)
Swedish (Thorén & Lindskog)
Ukrainian (Hemiro)

Now published in translation: Petros Markaris in Italian

Just after its publication by La Nave di Teseo, the Italian edition of Petros Markaris’ latest novel Three Graces shot to #1 of the Italian online retailer ibs.it.

»Haritos is an old-style police commissioner, endowed with a good gut-feeling, but with limited means. For internet searches, he has to rely on assistants, he has no clue about Facebook and never is there any surveillance camera active that might provide him with a bit of proof. And yet, what a witty personality, what a fine brain.«
Riccardo de Palo / Il Messaggero, Rome

»[…], events will accelerate incontrollably, which will make him focus anew and force him not to forget that his policeman’s instincts must be awake 24 hours a day to oversee everything surrounding him.«
Luca Crovi / Il Giornale, Milan

»The plot of Università del crimine is original, even brilliant.«
Fabrizio d’Esposito / Il Fatto Quotidiano, Rome

»In his new mystery novel, a killer rages in a university. But he [Markaris] has jibes for everyone: The political left, Europe, Renzi, the newspapers, smartphones.«
Matteo Nucci / La Repubblica, Rome

Praise by the press for Anne Reinecke's Leinsee

»The barbed digs at the art scene are also a fabulous success, lending the novel a charming atmosphere along with the characters’ psychological depth.«
Jochen Kürten / Deutsche Welle, Bonn

»A novel that gives us humorous descriptions of love and grief. In the third chapter the first tear already falls.«
Gersin Livia Paya / ORF, Vienna

»A book that sketches people and a place in an imaginative and graphic way, making them so real that you feel a part of it all from the very first line.«
Lisa Tuttlies / Radio Mephisto 97.6, Leipzig

»The wonderful, angry, sad, romantic debut of a writer to remember.«
Verena Lugert / Annabelle, Zurich

»Once again, Diogenes has reeled in a genuine young writing talent.«
Ulrike Plap-Schirmer / Heilbronner Stimme

Gems from our backlist: Hans Werner Kettenbach Black Ice

An anti-hero reconstructs the perfect murder. Spouses are making each other’s lives a living hell. The small-town hypocrisy of the 1980s that sounds more like the 1950s – and a cat in an important supporting role. Though this plot may sound like Patricia Highsmith and a mix between The Blunderer and Deep Water, this is Hans Werner Kettenbach’s Black Ice.

Where Highsmith’s novels are often set in vacation destinations, Kettenbach describes the anti-idyll of the German province: The characters eat typical German dishes (out of fashion today) and drink too much beer and too much schnapps. The protagonist has no manners, is a misogynist, has made a mess of his life – and knows all of this. A psychological abyss lurks in these well-observed details which not only make the characters credible but also convince the reader that there must be thousands of such failed marriages.

Black Ice was made into a film in 1998 and has been published in four languages, among them an English edition with Bitter Lemon Press. In Munich a mystery novel shop is named Glatteis after the book.

Author Hans-Werner Kettenbach was a journalist and worked as a US correspondent and editor-in-chief of Cologne’s newspaper Kölner Stadtanzeiger. For his literary work he won the ›German Mystery Prize‹ in 1988 and in 2009 the ›Glauser Prize of Honour‹. On 20 April 2018 he would have turned 90. He passed away in January of this year.