Patricia Highsmith’s Diaries and Notebooks to be available in eight territories

»It promises to be one of the literary highlights of 2021 – publication of the diaries of Patricia Highsmith, one of the most conflicted, fascinating novelists of the 20th century.« Edward Helmore, The Guardian

Diogenes and seven more Highsmith publishers are aiming for a simultaneous world-wide publication in the second half of 2021. Here is the list of international publishers of her Diaries and Notebooks.

Chinese/Simplified Characters (Shanghai Translation)
English/North America (Liveright / Norton; editor: Bob Weil)
English/UK (Weidenfeld & Nicolson; editor: Lettice Franklin)
French (Calmann-Lévy)
Italian (La Nave di Teseo)
Portuguese/Brazil (Intrínseca)
Spanish/world (Anagrama)

For Bob Weil, Editor-in-Chief and Publishing Director of Liveright/Norton, who acquired the North American rights, the discovery of these diaries and their forthcoming publication promise to be an extraordinary event in world literature.

When the news about the publication of this intimate work came out in 2019, many important newspapers, such as The New York Times or The Guardian, announced the event.

Ripley novels to be turned into TV series

The TV series based on the five Ripley novels by executive producer Steven Zaillian is to be shot soon. The series features Andrew Scott (Moriarty in Sherlock, the priest in Fleabag) as its main character and Johnny Flynn (The Dig) as Dickie Greenleaf. It will mostly be filmed in Italy. The first season will be based on The Talented Mr. Ripley and comprised of eight episodes (more info here and here).

New Diogenes paperback edition of six favourites

On this special occasion, we have issued six of Patricia Highsmith's novels with irresistible, collectible covers: Deep Water, Edith's Diary, The Cry of the Owl, This Sweet Sickness, The Price of Salt, Found in the Street. Each of the six has either a strong female character or could be dubbed domestic noir avant la lettre.

Recently published: Selected Stories in English

UK edition by Virago (London)

Susanne says: »I can hardly look away from this hypnotic cover – perfectly suited to the essence of each of her stories where the reader also falls into her writing like into a trap.«

Recently published in translation: The Ripley series as a box in Spanish

Spanish edition by Anagrama (Barcelona)

Susanne says: »While Patricia Highsmith has been published by Anagrama since the 1980s, this marvelous new boxed set was only published at the end of 2020.«

Recently published in translation: Ripley omnibus in Chinese

Chinese edition (simplified characters) by Shanghai Translation 

Claudia says: »The long wait is over and Ripley is finally available again in mainland China – looking more substantial than ever.«

Recently published in translation: The Talented Mr. Ripley in Dutch

Dutch edition by De Arbeiderspers (Amsterdam)

Claudia says: »De Arbeiderspers was Patricia Highsmith's publisher in the late 1980s and 1990s – now, they are republishing Patricia Highsmith with these lovely vintage covers.«

Recently published in translation: Small g in Turkish

Turkish edition by Can (Istanbul)

Andrej says: »Can Publishers endow their comprehensive list of Patricia Highsmith’s works with appealing reissues, Small G being one of the most recent ones – after more than twenty years of steady interest in this title by Turkish readers.«

Recently published in translation: The Price of Salt in Thai

Thai edition by Earnest (Bangkok)

Andrej says: »Patricia Highsmith is rather new to the Thai market, Earnest have initiated their series with Carol – and its success so far promises an equally successful launch of the next titles.«

Film adaptation of Deep Water to be released in August 2021

The film version of Patricia Highsmith's Deep Water will be released by August 2021 in the USA (more info here). The film is directed by Adrian Lyne, and stars Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas. 

Moreover, we are happy to see Deep Water published (again) in no less than 20 languages by these publishers:

Catalan (Navona)
Croatian (Mozaik)
Danish (Lindhardt & Ringhof)
Dutch (De Arbeiderspers)
English/UK (Little, Brown)
English/USA (W.W. Norton)
Estonian (Kirjastus Pegasus)
Finnish (WSOY)
French (Calmann-Lévy)
Hungarian (Helikon)
Italian (La nave di Teseo)
Korean (Openhouse for Publishers)
Portuguese (Brazil, Intrínseca)
Portuguese (Portugal, Relógio d'Agua)
Romanian (Litera)
Russian (Azbooka-Atticus)
Spanish/world (Anagrama)
Thai (Earnest)
Turkish (Can)

Oh, Carol!

Maybe the biggest posthumous film success of Patricia Highsmith's books until today was the film Carol (based on the novel The Price of Salt), which premiered 2015 at the Cannes Film Festival, starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. The latter won the ›Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress‹, and the film received the ›Queer Palm‹. 

Furthermore, the film was nominated for six ›Academy Awards‹ (›Oscars‹), five ›Golden Globes‹ and nine ›BAFTAs‹. Several international editions used a film still taken from it for their covers of The Price of Salt, which is currently available in 30 territories: Quite a feat considering the original was published in 1952 under a pseudonym.

New York Times critic A.O. Scott considers it one of the ten best movies of the last decade (here).

Praised by the press on the occasion of her centenary

Here are some quotes from articles that acclaimed her in the past few weeks:

»We are often drawn into Highsmith’s claustrophobic world like flies tentatively exploring the gossamer strands of a spider’s web.«
Andrew Wilson / The Sunday Times, London

»When you read one of Highsmith’s stories, you’ve given her permission to follow you, catch you, take you apart. Get ready to run.«
Carmen Maria Machado / The Guardian, London

»Reading her is like having a devil on your shoulder arguing that decency and good citizenship are boring and cowardly, and so compellingly that you’ve acquiesced before you know it.«
Jake Kerridge / The Telegraph, London

»Her works keep their powerful attraction intact, the sensation that we are drawn closer to the abyss from which we are trying to run away from.«
Guillermo Altares / El País, Madrid

»Nobody describes the horror of murder more vividly.«    
Nando Salvà / El Periódico, Barcelona

»With a concise and minimalistic style, inspired by Maupassant, Highsmith draws a character who is the pinnacle of the inversion of values postulated by Nietzsche and who tramples traditional values.«
Rafael Narbona / El Cultural, Madrid

»She revolutionized the detective novel by inventing the psychological thriller – just after the Second World War.«
Élise Lépine / Alibi, Paris

»Highsmith wanted to show the murderers, almost murderers and murder fantasists from the inside because it rarely shows from the outside.«
Jürgen Kaube / Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Frankfurt

»Truly, Highsmith, who was an avid reader of Dostoevsky and Kierkegaard, illuminates the shimmering shades of good and evil.«
Maike Albath / Süddeutsche Zeitung, Munich

»Highsmith's unfathomable nature is every bit as deep as Fyodor Dostoevsky or Joseph Conrad’s hellscapes.«
Jan Wilm / Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich

»The constant inner apprehension, which one is subject to while reading, does not end after the last sentence.«
Linda Stift / Die Presse am Sonntag, Vienna

»She was also the first to make short work of the hitherto almost sacred dualism of good and bad, and cancelled out the traditional ending.«
Charles den Tex and Anneloes Timmerije / De Volkskrant, Amsterdam

 

Recently published in translation: Ladies in Italian

Italian edition by La Nave di Teseo (Milan)

Susanne says: »This cover sums it all up: crime and seduction, be prepared for a suspenseful read.«

To be published soon: Ripley Under Ground in English

English original by Vintage (London)

Susanne says: »We can't wait to see these eye-catching new covers on several Highsmith titles in the Vintage edition.«

Recently published in translation: Strangers on a Train in Russian

Russian edition by Azbooka-Atticus (Moscow)

Claudia says: »The striking cover makes you connect Strangers on a Train with other famous suspense books set on trains.«

Recently published in translation: Deep Water in Portuguese

Brazilian Portuguese edition by Intrínseca (Rio de Janeiro)

Claudia says: »Deep Water, published in late 2020, marks the start of a reedition of a large portion of Patricia Highsmith's oeuvre in Brazil – along with her Diaries and Notebooks.«

Recently published in translation: This Sweet Sickness in Korean

Korean edition by Openhouse (Seoul)

Andrej says: »You can get used to Openhouse’s standard of outstanding cover art and still be amazed by each new one: they didn’t make an exception for This Sweet Sickness.«