Rankings of 2018: Diogenes is again the publisher of the year, Olga # 18,  several Swiss bestsellers

We are very proud that German booksellers have yet again chosen Diogenes, together with Hanser (Munich), as their publisher of the year 2018. The survey is conducted on a yearly basis by the monthly Buchmarkt magazine and was published in their February 5 issue. Diogenes is a regular at the top of the list and made it to # 1 for the 18th time. With this newest ranking, Diogenes again leads the »list of lists«.

According to the all-year Spiegel fiction hardcover ranking of 2018, Bernhard Schlink’s novel Olga made it to # 18. Its highest rank was # 1 in January 2018 and it spent a total of 35 weeks on the list.

On the Swiss bestseller list of 2018, published by the Schweizer Buchhandel newsletter in January, 5 of the top 20 titles were published by Diogenes. The best-selling Swiss authors by Diogenes are Lukas Hartmann (# 6), Martin Suter (# 8) and Thomas Meyer (# 10).

The End of Loneliness nominated for the ›Prix européen du roman d’amour‹

Benedict Wells’ novel The End of Loneliness has been nominated for the ›Prix européen du roman d’amour‹, organised – among others – by the association Book 1, the City of Strasbourg, the Goethe-Institut Strasbourg, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, the Alliance Française, and the Consulates General of Austria, Spain, Switzerland and Russia.
The shortlist, published today 7 February, consists of seven novels from seven countries, all published within the last few years. Fellow nominees include Arno Geiger, María Dueñas and Alessandro Baricco.
The winner will be selected by readers in the city of Strasbourg and announced at the beginning of June.

Now published in translation: Bernhard Schlink Olga

The French edition by Gallimard of Bernhard Schlink’s latest book Olga was applauded by the French press:

»One of Bernhard Schlink’s secrets stems from his art of telling stories by interweaving the standpoints of different generations in the very same life story. Olga is another very well-done example of that.«
Le Monde des Livres, Paris

»In this moving book Bernhard Schlink resurrects the last traces of an unfulfilled love, with the nostalgia that we know from him and always sophisticated.«
Didier Jacob / Le Nouvel Observateur, Paris

»Bernhard Schlink, whose The Reader we haven’t forgotten, impresses again with Olga. [...]. [They tell] of this strange adventure that is existence, with its share of waiting, questions, surprises and deceptions.«
Lire, Paris

Booksellers are raving about Daniela Krien’s Love in Case of Emergency 

»Over recent years, I’ve asked myself again and again what a book, which portrays the delirious insanity of relationships – between lovers, between friends, within a family – would be like. Who would write this book? Where is it set? What would the right language for it sound like? You've hit the mark with absolutely all of it.«
Volker Scheufens

»She is masterful at making the reader intimate with the inner worlds of these very different women, each struck by fate in their own unique way. An utter joy to read, with considerable depth.«
Barbara Hofmann / Hugendubel, Ingolstadt

»The natural ease of Daniela Krien’s storytelling reminded me of Doris Lessing.«
Stefanie Wilke / stories Thalia, Hamburg

»This novel made me very happy. As I was reading, I was fascinated to realise that I recognised myself, in one way or another, in every one of these five wonderful women. Outstanding!«
Jacqueline Masuck / Dussmann, Berlin

»The structure is a real feat; these diverging and interlacing life stories. The book is a surefire success!«
Christian Schünemann (German author)

»My top pick for the spring so far!«
C. Dankelmann / Thalia, Dresden

»In short: bid adieu to male-female clichés, as well as the antiquated ones about West and East Germans. Krien's narrative style truly enriches the German literary scene.«
Giesbert Karnebogen, Wiesbaden

»Gripping, eventful, sad and comical, just as life and love tend to be.«
Ruben Schömers, Bookseller in Kirchheim unter Teck

»Daniela Krien’s books make people happy. Why is that? Wherein lies the magic in her style of writing? Perhaps it is the unsparing frankness, and tenderness, with which she portrays her characters. She lets them go, and lets them fail, but without abandoning them. She gives them a soul, with dark human abysses, but also a great deal of courage.«
Doris Müller-Höreth, Nürnberg

»And the greatest narrative masterpiece may be how Love in Case of Emergency, for all its emotional intensity, is far from a gloomy or sombre read, but instead a refreshingly honest one.«
Tobias Wrany, Bonn

»I read the latest Krien last week – or rather: I inhaled it within three hours, and loved it.«
Mareike Fallwickl, author and blogger (buecherwurmloch.at)

»It leaves you with the impression that you've discovered something about real life, and with the question: I wonder how Daniela Krien would depict the psychogram of my life?«
Silvia Habereder, Obernburg

Booksellers’ praise for advance copies of Charles Lewinsky’s The Stutterer

»A highly intelligent, gripping, and above all, stylistically outstanding masterpiece. For me it is already THE book of 2019, because nothing will be able to top it.«
Johannes Hofinger, St. Johann in Tirol

»Charles Lewinsky's novel about the cheat and swindler, the man who eternally comes up short, who hungers for revenge, power and success, is sublime. Well constructed, superbly written, an outstanding chamber drama set in prison!«
Inge Baeuchle, Hinterzarten

»Lewinsky manages to make the reader warm up to the narrator, even though they would never actually want to meet him. His direct and sometimes twisted worldly wisdom made me chuckle, and also made me think. A mercilessly authentic novel with a real firecracker of an ending!«
Katharina Corchia, Rapperswil

»I really liked this book: it’s very original, and really literary!«
Paul Wentzlaff, Hamburg

»I didn't just read The Stutterer; I devoured it. I was enthralled by the narrative style and how multifaceted it was.«
Maria Tsimatsidou, Solingen

»The Stutterer: now there's a great, cunning, tragic character with a real talent for writing.«
Karola Brockmann, Brühl

»And, naturally, a writer who is so adept at playing with language, has to put words into the mouth of his protagonist – or rather, into his pen – that he himself could never say. Outstanding!«
Heike Suter, Kölliken

Thomas Meyer’s world rights now with Diogenes

As of 2019 Diogenes handles Thomas Meyer’s world rights. The 45 year-old author’s book Wolkenbruch’s Weird and Wonderful Journey into the Arms of a Shiksa was originally published in 2012 and up to now it has sold more than 140’000 copies. The novel about the orthodox Jew Motti Wolkenbruch and his troubles to find a suitable wife shot to # 1 of the Swiss bestseller ranking again in October 2018, when the film adaptation premiered in cinemas. It was directed by Michael Steiner, and stars Joel Basman and Noémie Schmidt. The film became the most successful Swiss film of 2018 and has now been nominated for the Swiss film prize.
We are thrilled to represent Thomas Meyer, whose other books with Diogenes include the novel Rechnung über meine Dukaten (The King Was in his Counting House) and the essay Break up! on unhappy couples.

Now published in translation: Benedict Wells The End of Loneliness

Prior to its US publication by Penguin, the New York Times not only published an interview with Benedict Wells, but also included him on the New York Times Preview of 2019 books from around the world.

Here are a few US press quotes:
»This early experience informs Wells' über-personal new novel, an international phenomenon that won the ›European Union Prize for literature‹.«
Vogue, Most Anticipated Books of 2019, New York

»Timeless and touching«
Publishers Weekly, New York

»A love story and a life story, this rich and well-translated domestic drama acknowledges that some bonds are truly immutable in the face of, or perhaps because of, tragedy and that our memories and the stories we make of them, though they may change, are as real as anything.«
Booklist, starred review, Chicago

»A bittersweet, intricately plotted family saga ... A tender, affecting novel, one that packs a lot into a slender frame.«
Kirkus Reviews, New York

»Reconciling loss and finding a way to hope again is at the heart of Benedict Wells' The End of Loneliness, a moving story [...]«
Caroline Rogers / The Best New Books Coming Out Winter 2019, Southern Living, Birmingham

Just published: Thomas David Face to Face 

Interviews are an art form in and of themselves: German journalist Thomas David talks in depth with the great figures of English-language literature of the past twenty years. 

Featuring a foreword by Graham Swift. 

Thomas David has been in a continuing conversation with contemporary writers since the mid-1990s. He has interviewed big names on individual novels, their writing practices and the social and political subjects of their times. The result is a book on what is essential, not just in writing, but also in life. 

Thomas David in conversation with Martin Amis, Paul Auster, John Banville, Julian Barnes, Sebastian Barry, John Berger, Rachel Cusk, Don DeLillo, Joan Didion, James Ellroy, Paula Fox, Jonathan Franzen, Patricia Highsmith, John Irving, Kazuo Ishiguro, P. D. James, A. L. Kennedy, John Le Carre, Jonathan Lethem, Hilary Mantel, Ian McEwan, Toni Morrison, V. S. Naipaul, Michael Ondaatje, Richard Powers, Philip Roth, Salman Rushdie, James Salter, Zadie Smith, Muriel Spark, Graham Swift, John Updike, Barbara Vine and many more.

»Thomas David is a good and gifted companion of writers and an astute listener to them.«
Graham Swift (author of Last Orders)

»Reading can hardly be more stimulating: The interviewer holds back, his questions are rarely longer than the witty answers.«
Philipp Harbach / Die Welt, Berlin

Parts of the book are available in their English original. Please let us know if you would like to see them.

 

Martin Suter’s Allmen series is a continuing success

Martin Suter’s Allmen and the Erotic Figurines about gentleman crook Johann Friedrich von Allmen has spent 18 weeks on the Spiegel bestseller list – and counting. This fifth part of the Allmen detective series has been on the bestseller list for longer than any of the other books in the series. The highest Spiegel bestseller rank for Allmen and the Erotic Figurines reached # 6. The title also ranked # 8 on the Swiss bestseller list for the whole year of 2018.

The press continues to praise the series, and not just in Germany. The New York Times featured Allmen and the Pink Diamond in its Preview of 2019 Books from around the World (here). More press quotes:

»Skilful and to be devoured. Wonderfully nostalgic, legendarily stylish.«
Welt am Sonntag, Berlin

»[...] his filmlike storytelling, in short scenes, always maintains suspense. This alone will be the reason why so many absolutely love reading Suter.«
Susann Klossek / Literarischer Monat, Zurich

»A specialist for visually gripping prose who writes with a light hand without drifting into the superficial.«
Ulf Heise / Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, Leipzig

»... told with a wink and as delicious as a Swiss dessert.«
Playboy, Munich

All in all, the series has sold more than one million copies in German alone. Foreign rights are sold to New Vessel Press (English, US), Christian Bourgois (French) and Sellerio (Italian).

The series has been adapted for the small screen by UFA fiction, starring Heino Ferch and Samuel Finzi as Allmen and Carlos. The first two episodes, Allmen and the Dragonflies and Allmen and the Pink Diamond, were broadcast in 2017, the third episode Allmen and the Dahlias has been shot in 2018 and will be broadcast by the German public TV broadcasting company ARD soon. (Film stills of the first episode can be found here.)