19’000 copies of Luca Ventura’s In the Middle of August sold

As of today we have sold 19’000 copies of Luca Ventura’s In the Middle of August  – which is quite a feat considering the release date on 25 March. 

Besides that we are currently in talks with film producers about adapting the series for the small screen.

The press is very happy with the book, too. Here are the first enthusiastic quotes by a variety of media:

»Luca Ventura’s Capri crime novel is the start of an atmospheric series which promises everything that Italy has to offer.«
Barbara Hoppe / Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Frankfurt

»Ventura fills this opening title with so much material and so many characters that continuing the series will be a breeze.«
Münchner Merkur, Munich

»Respite for the troubled mind.«
ORF, Vienna

»The author Luca Ventura skilfully combines tension with Italian flair. Pure pleasure.«
Gala, Hamburg

If you would like to have a look at the book, we’ll be happy to provide you with our English sample translation.

13’000 copies of Sasha Filipenko’s Red Crosses sold

Since its publication on 1 March, we have sold 13’000 copies of Red Crosses.

The press continues to heap praise on the book. Here are further quotes:

»One of the best books to be released this spring. A wonderful, gripping story with a touch of humour.«
Helmut Zechner / ORF 2, Vienna

»With Red Crosses, Sasha Filipenko has written the novel of the Russian 20th century.«
Alemannò Partenopeo / literaturzeitschrift.de, Berlin

»In a captivating yet matter-of-fact way, Sasha Filipenko tells the story of the Soviet Union from beginning to end – and beyond.«
radio fm4 (ORF), Vienna

Sasha Filipenko has such a presence when he talks – and a lot to say about publishing politically sensitive content: during WWII, as depicted by him in his novel in Red Crosses, but also his own experiences as an author in Belarus today. You can catch a brief glimpse of this in our one-minute interview (Russian with German subtitles).

Three rights sales of Patricia Highsmith’s works in the last month

Patricia Highsmith is definitely keeping us busy. La Nave di Teseo has snapped up Italian rights of Ladies, the book of early short stories by her. Diogenes is going to publish Ladies in November 2020. 

Azbooka-Atticus has bought Russian rights of the full Ripley series plus Deep Water. We have sold Dutch rights of The Talented Mr Ripley and Deep Water – the name of the publisher is to be divulged as soon as the ink is dry. Deep Water is therefore to be published in 16 languages, here’s the most recent list:

Catalan (Navona)
Croatian (Mozaik)
Danish (Lindhardt & Ringhof)
Dutch (to be disclosed)
English/UK (Little, Brown)
English/USA (W.W. Norton)
Estonian (Kirjastus Pegasus)
French (Calmann-Lévy)
Italian (La nave di Teseo)
Korean (Openhouse for Publishers)
Portuguese (Brazil, Intrínseca)
Romanian (Litera)
Russian (Azbooka-Atticus)
Spanish/world (Anagrama)
Turkish (Can)

Recent review on Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s The Tunnel

A train rushes through a dark tunnel – the tunnel never ends, the train never stops. This is the most basic summary of Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s short story of 1952 The Tunnel. A few weeks ago, Heribert Prantl, senior editor at the Munich-based newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, mentioned The Tunnel in his newsletter with these words: »This is a surreal short story, one which today, many decades later, hardly seems surreal at all.« Don’t we all feel like we are hurtling through the darkness, hoping for a small ray of light? 

Rights currently sold:
Chinese (People's Literature)
English/world (University of Chicago Press)
French (Albin Michel)
Italian (Feltrinelli)
Greek (Antipodes)
Japanese (Kobunsha)
Russian (Azbooka-Atticus)
Turkish (Dedalus)

Hansjörg Schneider’s Hunkeler in the Wilderness #1 on the Swiss Bestseller List

Hansjörg Schneider’s latest book Hunkeler in the Wilderness has ranked #1 on the Swiss Bestseller List for the second week in a row (and counting). It is the tenth book in the series about the grumpy but lovable police commissioner Hunkeler based in the Swiss town of Basel. But it isn’t just the Swiss media that have been raving about the book, there are also big papers in Hamburg or Frankfurt: 

»As always, Schneider’s language, with its clarity and sense of calm, is a joy.«
Jochen Overbeck / Spiegel Online, Hamburg

»With this book Hansjörg Schneider, at 82 years of age, is at the peak of his creative powers.«
NZZ am Sonntag, Zurich

»Swiss author Hansjörg Schneider narrates with a melancholic ease which is indifferent to all the noise in the world.«
Volker Albers / Hamburger Abendblatt, Hamburg

»Horror encroaches into an idyll. And it is this contrast that makes Schneider’s writing so interesting.«
Michael Luisier / SRF1, Zurich

»It’s true that Hunkeler can be irascible at times. But as a reader, one can find peace with him, without ever encountering shallow or superficial prose.«
Frankfurter Rundschau, Frankfurt

»Once again, this is more than a crime novel; a dense proliferation of feelings, impressions, fragments, all of which are concealing something.«
Markus Wüest / Basler Zeitung, Basel

»Schneider has created a melancholy, literary crime novel, and a portrait of Hunkeler’s psychology.«
Hansruedi Kugler / Aargauer Zeitung, Aarau

Daniela Krien’s Muldental is the talk of the press

Here is further lavish praise of the book:

»Poignant stories of diverse individuals in post-reunification Germany.«
Martina Sulner / Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung, Hannover

»Daniela Krien is an author who truly knows language: its nuances, subtleties and undertones.«
Roland Mischke / Freie Presse, Chemnitz

»Genuine. Authentic. Moving. A book that makes you think, and one which is very difficult to put down.«
Julia Loibl / Elle, Munich

»Daniela Krien’s stories, filled with life and desperation, stay in your mind long after you finish reading.«
Martina Läubli / NZZ am Sonntag, Zurich

»Incredibly well written, and shocking.«
Anke Jahns / NDR 1 Radio MV, Hamburg

»Daniela Krien depicts her characters so vividly that, after just a few pages, you feel you know them intimately.«
Cornelia Geißler / Berliner Zeitung, Berlin

Praise for Hartmut Lange’s novellas in The Courtyard

»From the seeming innocence of the narrative style, this calm, almost scrupulously unspectacular tone, something unfathomable suddenly emerges.«
Ulrich Rüdenauer / WDR 3, Cologne

»Lange’s calm, precise language is easily recognised.«
Jochen Overbeck / Tagesspiegel, Berlin

»Hartmut Lange continues to write his timeless novellas.«
Frankfurter Rundschau, Frankfurt