International Rights Spring 2021 - Literary Agency
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International Rights Spring 2021
Denmark Romania
Madame Nielsen Cătălin Partenie
LAMENTO 3 GOLDEN BURROW 15
Germany Switzerland
Amanda Lasker-Berlin Peter Stamm
ELIJA’S SONG 5 THE ARCHIVE OF FEELINGS 16
Mario Lima Frédéric Zwicker
THE WALLS OF PORTO 6 RADOST 18
Special Highlight Recent Backlist 19
Andreas Kilcher (Ed.)
FRANZ KAFKA: Representations 24
THE DRAWINGS 7
Netherlands
Oek de Jong
BLACK BARN 9
Israel
Ron Leshem
WHEN WE WERE BEAUTIFUL 10
Dror A. Mishani
CONVICTION 11
Abraham B. Yehoshua
THE ONLY DAUGHTER 13
Ohad Hemo
UNDER THE SURFACE 14
Liepman AG
Literary Agency
Asylstrasse 92
CH-8032 Zürich
+41 43 268 23 80
info@liepmanagency.com
Marc Koralnik
www.liepmanagency.com marc.koralnik@liepmanagency.com
MADAME NIELSEN
“There is no comparable “No one has such a distinctive
literary substance and elegant linguistic signature as
so addictive in contemporary Madame Nielsen. Her writing style
literature.” is as ruthlessly self-exposing as it is
—ZDF, Das Literarische Quartett
radical.“
—Weekendavisen
Madame Nielsen
LAMENTO
Original title Original publisher Madame Nielsen is a novelist,
Lamento Grif, 2020 German artist, performer, world histo-
174 pages Kiepenheuer & Witsch ry enactor, composer, chan-
Norwegian Pelikanen teuse – and multi-gendered.
English sample and Born as Claus Beck-Nielsen
complete German in 1963 in Aalborg, Denmark,
translation available she is the author of numerous
literary works. A pioneer of
„performative biographism”
and “Scandinavian autofiction”
the artist declared the death
of Claus Beck-Nielsen in 2001,
published Claus Beck-Nielsen
(1963–2001) – A Biography,
followed by The Suicide Mis-
”It is a most unusually sion and continues to work as
worldly and wise novel, a call Madame Nielsen. My Encoun-
ters with The Great Authors of
to embrace the everyday with our Nation was nominated for
Denmark
love.” The Nordic Council Literature
Prize and The Endless Summer
—Dagbladenes Bureau became a great success in
Germany and was published
in English by Open Letter in
2018. Her work has been
translated into nine languages
so far.
You only kill who you love. Everyone else is indifferent.
Otherwise why should they be killed?
A sentence from a burned but saved manuscript. The only thing
the protagonist saved from a raging fire he caused in a friend’s
apartment in Paris. Everything else was not worth saving.
In the novel’s opening scene, a couple watches a fire burn ”Falling in love is a
down an apartment. We learn how they fell in love and were insep- Chernobyl-like
arable. Always reading the same book, drinking out of the same catastrophe. Madame
glass and even breathing the same air out of each other’s mouths. Nielsen closes her
But mastering everyday life turns out to be a challenge they novel-trilogy about
cannot overcome. The husband withdraws and dedicates himself to love with a beautiful
his writing. The couple lives in totally different rhythms. Doors are elegy about the grand
closed, backs turned. His urge to live under ever more rigid rules, falling-in-love, which
in search of a higher order, takes on self-destructive features and couldn’t survive the
ends in their separation. everyday. Like the
A lament on love in three parts, from the first fire of falling two previous novels
in love, to the attempt to live with it, and finally to death by and of Lamento is most won-
love; a tale of wild infatuation, this magical state of mind, and how derfully written.”
hard, even impossible it is to transform this state into a calm, lasting —Politiken
love of everyday life.
Liepman Agency ― International Rights Spring 2021 4
Amanda Lasker-Berlin
ELIJA’S SONG
Original title Original publisher
Elijas Lied Frankfurter Nominated for the 2020
Verlagsanstalt, 2020 lit.Cologne Debut Prize
253 pages
A 2020 New Books in Amanda Lasker-Berlin was
German selection born in Essen in 1994 and
staged her first play at the age
of eighteen. She graduated in
fine art from the Bauhaus Uni-
versity in Weimar and is now
studying at the Academy of
Performing Arts Baden-Würt-
temberg in Ludwigsburg. Her
“A debut novelist who plays and prose won several
delights with experimenta- awards for emerging writers.
ELIJA’S SONG is her first novel.
tion.”
—Vogue
“Remarkable. The con-
Germany
vincing debut from an
author and playwright,
Three estranged sisters reunite for a walk across a moor and up whom we would like
to a peak. The hike has been arranged by Loth, the youngest sister, to hear, see or read
and is a route they used to take with their father. As they walk and more.”
talk, we learn about the sisters’ very different lives. —hr2 Kultur
Elija lives in assisted housing, has an intimate relationship
with her friend Mio and loves being on stage. We learn through her “A courageous debut
sisters’ accounts that she could be disruptive as a child, which was novel, which convinces
burdensome for them. As if to prove this point, Elija steals a stuffed with its multi-layered
owl from a café they stop by along the way. characters and sensi-
Noa, the middle sister, is a graduate who works in a badly paid tive language.”
and soul-destroying job in a canteen of an office building. She has —Deutschlandfunk Kultur
an affair with guy from the executive suite. He doesn’t know that
she also provides sexual assistance to the disabled. “Her art is political and
Loth is living in a community of nationalist activists: the ex- she has something
tent of her involvement with them and adoption of their Neo-Nazi to say. Amanda Lask-
message emerges gradually, as does her obsession with her looks er-Berlin is a literary
and body. As a child, Loth felt overlooked and neglected by her force to be reckoned
parents, who tended to focus on Elija, and she still harbours this with.“
resentment. —MDR
As evening approaches, the sisters reach the peak and sing
“Elija’s song”, a song made up by their father with one verse for “The portray of injured,
each daughter. As they descend and darkness falls, Loth loses her politically lost and dis-
temper and Elija runs off. The two of them end up on the edge of a illusioned characters
precipice overlooking a lake. Elija loses her balance and Loth gently in all their physicality.
pushes her over. And Noa runs, Noa swims to her rescue, terrified What starts as a hike
she may be too late... soon becomes a tragic
Amanda Lasker-Berlin’s writing is highly lyrical and her narra- walk on a tightrope.”
tive flows perfectly all the way to its harrowing conclusion. —Buchkultur
Liepman Agency ― International Rights Spring 2021 5
Mario Lima
THE WALLS
OF PORTO
Original title Original publisher
Die Mauern von Porto Heyne Verlag, 2021
368 pages Mario Lima is the pseudonym
of a German author who chose
to make Portugal his home
many years ago. He lives in
the green north of the country
with his wife and three cats.
Besides inventing new cases
for Inspector Fonseca and his
A new case for team, he attends to his vines
Inspector Fonseca with great enthusiasm and
even presses his own Vinho
Verde.
Germany
Praise for Death in
Porto:
Guilt has no statute of limitations. “Maybe the best of all
A new case leads Inspector Fonseca and his team to the Portugal thrillers pub-
oldest part of Porto, the narrow and winding Bairro da Sé. After a lished to date.”
fire, the fire brigade finds two skeletons walled up in an old, empty —Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung
house. They are two female murder victims, and the homicide squad
starts investigating. The residents of the Bairro are not idle either, “Suspense from begin-
for the case stirs up old conflicts again, everyone seems to know ning to end”
something. And everyone wants justice. When another murder oc- —Mainhattan Courier
curs, Fonseca has to act quickly …
With THE WALLS OF PORTO, Mario Lima has once again suc- “Mario Lima has land-
ceeded in writing a gripping Portugal crime novel with a lot of local ed a hit: crime fiction
colour. As in Death in Porto, he takes his readers deep into the alleys at its best – totally
and customs of the port city. an absolute must for crime fiction and convincing with first-
Portugal lovers. class police work and
protagonists with cult
status potential.”
—literaturmarkt.info
Liepman Agency ― International Rights Spring 2021 6
Andreas Kilcher/
Pavel Schmidt
Special Highlight
(Ed.)
KAFKA‘S
DRAW-
INGS
Nothing short of a sensation:
An international co-edition
showing for the first time the
complete graphic work in high
quality facsimiles, including
over 100 newly discovered
drawings.
FRANZ KAFKA: Franz Kafka (1883–1924) is
one of the greatest writers of
the 20th century. A significant
THE DRAWINGS
part of his literary oeuvre was
saved by his friend Max Brod,
who opposed Kafka’s wish
that his estate, including his
Edited by Andreas Kilcher drawings, be burned after his
death. Brod’s recently opened
with the collaboration of Pavel estate is also the source of
Kafka’s newly discovered
Schmidt. drawings.
With essays by Judith Butler
Andreas Kilcher is Professor
of Literature and Cultural Stud-
ies at ETH Zurich. He has held
and Andreas Kilcher visiting professorships at He-
brew University, Jerusalem,
Tel Aviv University, Princeton
University and Stanford Uni-
versity. He has published wide-
ly on Kafka and German-Jew-
ish literature.
Original publisher
C.H.Beck Verlag, World English Yale UP
Fall 2021 France Cahiers dessinés
Italy Adelphi
ca. 336 pages, Spain Galaxia Gutenberg
Special Highlight
240 colour illustrations, Netherlands Athenaeum
30,000 words Poland Wydawnictwo Literackie
It was not until 2019 that over 100 drawings by Franz Kafka emerged,
which had been kept under lock and key in a Zurich bank safe for
decades: a sensation. For until then, only a few drawings by the
world-famous writer were known. Kafka’s artistic ambitions and his
extraordinary talent can only be appreciated with the new discov-
ery. They are pictures of almost irresistible appeal. Here they are
published for the first time, together with the already known sheets.
Especially in his early years, between 1902 and 1907, Kafka
drew intensively. A complete booklet of drawings has now come to
light alongside dozens of individual sheets. These are fragile, levitat-
ing and at the same time enigmatically fascinating figures that one
encounters on these pages: human figures, but also human-animal
hybrids, some of which are rendered only with a few skilful strokes.
Kafka’s drawings veer from the realistic to the fantastic, to the
grotesque, sometimes even uncanny, some seem carnivalesque
or caricaturistically exaggerated. In any case, they make a second
Kafka visible alongside the writer. In this volume, with its brilliant
reproductions and illuminating explanations, he can be discovered
in full for the first time.
Liepman Agency ― International Rights Spring 2021 8
Oek de Jong
BLACK BARN
Original title
Zwarte Schuur Italian Neri Pozza Bestseller with 100’000
copies sold Oek de Jong, born in 1952, is
Original publisher English and German internationally acknowledged
Winner of the Boekenbon
Atlas Contact, 2019 sample translations as one of the most important
Literature Prize 2020
496 pages available contemporary Dutch authors.
Shortlisted for the Libris His œuvre is characterized by
Literature Prize great stylistic power and psy-
Translation support by chological depth. His books
the Dutch Foundation for have sold more than six hun-
Literature dred thousand copies. His
bestselling novels were nom-
inated multiple times for the
Libris Literature Prize in Hol-
“A novel about the long tentacles of land, he received the Golden
guilt and the blistering power of a Owl in Belgium and other lit-
great love.“ erary prices and is translated
into German, French, Scandi-
—De Standaard
navian and several other lan-
guages
Netherlands
“Oek de Jong has written another
instant classic.”
—De Groene Amsterdammer
At the age of fifty-nine celebrated artist Maris Coppoolse is given a “Here is a writer at
retrospective in Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum. He is at the pinna- work who no longer
cle of his fame when a magazine cover story exposes the source needs to prove himself
of his obsessive work: a crime he committed as a young teenager. and able to draw you
No one in his circle knew about this; his friends and acquaintances into his story with
are deeply shocked. confidence and ease.”
This is the story of a life marked forever by a single cata- —NRC Handelsblad
strophic event. It is the artist’s life sentence. We see him living as
an artist in Amsterdam and New York, and are given a probing view “Oek de Jong at his
of his troubled marriage with the vivacious and adventurous Fran, best: as a powerful
who is also incriminated. The magazine story drives him to relive his narrator, passionate
childhood, especially that Saturday afternoon on the island when he dramatist, keen ob-
went into that ill-fated tar black barn he had no business being in. server, expert on the
BLACK BARN is a novel about living with trauma and over- heart and soul. Rarely
coming it and about the power of true love. has an obsession been
rendered so clear and
tangible. … a compel-
ling and penetrating
novel.”
—Trouw
Liepman Agency ― International Rights Spring 2021 9
Ron Leshem
WHEN WE WERE
BEAUTIFUL
Original title Original publisher Ron Leshem, born in 1976, is
Yafim Kemo Shehayanu Kinneret-Zmora Bitan, Complete English an Israeli-American television
Dvir, 2020 translation by Jessica and film writer and producer,
Cohen available best known for the television
(111’000 words) series Euphoria, and for the
international bestseller and
cult debut and anti-war novel
Beaufort and the Academy
“An exquisite novel. Leshem has the Award nominated feature film
rare ability to write with breathtaking based on his adaptation. He
has won some of the top Is-
authenticity and the result is a sig- raeli literary awards, among
nificant work of literature. Rich with them the prestigious annual
empathy, written by a confident au- Sapir Prize.
thor, dramatic and astonishing. You International publishers of
will sink in the ocean of Leshem’s Beaufort: English (UK) Harvill
creation and never want to come up Secker, English (US) Delacorte,
German Rowohlt, French Edi-
Israel
for air.”
tions du Seuil, Italian Rizzoli,
–Makor Rishon Dutch Meulenhoff, Korean
Dulnyouk Publishing, China
ThinKingdom, Romania SC
Leda, Brazil Record, Portugal
Bico de Pena,Poland WAB,
We will never be as beautiful as we once were, because everything
Russian Kinneret Zmora Bitan
that happened – the loss and the estrangement, the betrayal and
the pain, but also the golden shores and the scent of salt on the
water, the friendship and the love, especially the love – has been
washed away by the river of time. “A a more mature work
What are we willing to do, what would we sacrifice to relive than Beaufort, more
our past? Who and what point in time would we return to? These complete, with more
questions come to Daniel in the most unexpected of places, on a to say about Israel and
riverbank in the heart of the jungle. And when Nora, who presents the world – which is no
him with this miraculous and terrifying possibility, slips through his small feat.
fingers, he finds himself traversing a divided country, accompanied –Walla
by a dead body, a butterfly farmer and a wandering butcher.
This surreal journey, sensual and macabre, unfolds alongside A fascinating novel
Daniel’s life story: his relationship with his mother, who worries that that reverberates and
he worries too much; with Noam, the brother he never had, who bravely enters our
teaches him how to stop fearing life; and with his brothers-in-arms most sensitive terrain,
in the military, who teach him how to stop fearing death. the one authors avoid
From the eternal childhood in the lost paradise of the Gaza out of fear. Both the
strip to the celebrations of the Day of the Dead in Cambodia; from ideas in the novel and
the sniper’s point of view to the eye of the storm in the Amazon; Leshem’s young, vibrant
Ron Leshem’s latest novel, When We Were Beautiful, affords us the prose restore a glimmer
rare opportunity of losing ourselves and rediscovering our past – in to the eyes of those
another person. It is a deep dive through our hero’s eyes to awe-in- who have been waiting
spiring, beautiful moments of longing and compassion, estrange- a very long time for
ment and revolution, casting the reader across the stormy waves literary courage.
of an ocean of memories. (Noa Manheim, Publisher). –Kan Tarbut Radio
Liepman Agency ― International Rights Spring 2021 10DROR MISHANI
“Dror Mishani is
the indisputable
spiritual heir of
Georges Simenon.”
–Le Monde
“Dror Mishani
has reached the
world league
of crime fiction.”
—Die Zeit
“Mishani has a superior
©Jacquard &Loison/Opale
“Mishani writes with gift for psychological “One of the greatest
profound originality.” suspense.” writers in the genre.”
—Henning Mankell —Publishers Weekly —PolitikenDror A. Mishani
CONVICTION
Original title Option Publishers
Emuna English (UK) Riverrun English (US) Europa Editions
German Diogenes English (CA) Anansi
Original publisher French Gallimard Italian e/o Dror A. Mishani is an interna-
Achuzat Bayit, 2021 Spanish Anagrama tional bestselling crime writer,
272 pages Catalan Grup Editorial 62 screenwriter and literary
Korean Bookrecipe scholar, specializing in the
Croatian Fraktura history of crime fiction. His
Greek Keimena Books bestselling Inspector Avraham
Dutch Arbeiderspers series (The Missing File, A
Chinese (TWN) Ecus Possibility of Violence, The
Man Who Wanted to Know)
was translated into more than
20 languages. They were
shortlisted for the CWA inter-
national dagger award and the
“CONVICTION is a successful Grand Prix de Littérature Poli-
synthesis of the emotionality of clière and won the prestigious
the previous Avraham cases and Martin Beck award for best
crime novel translated to
the fast-paced, highly suspense- Swedish and the Grand Prix
ful standalone novel, Three. Once du meilleur Polar de lecteurs
again, Mishani delivers an almost de Points. A successful French
Israel
unbearably tense story, both thrilling cine movie (Fleuve Noire) and
an Israeli TV series based on
and emotionally involving. It is yet the Inspector Avraham series
another triumph.” were released in 2018/2019.
—Markus Lemke (Mishani’s German His stand alone thriller Three
translator) was again an international
bestseller, received the Prix
Mystère de la Critique and is
longlisted for the CWA Crime
Fiction in Translation Dagger.
Both investigations began on the same day. One seemed domestic,
almost banal: a newborn is found in a bag outside a hospital and the
woman who left it there is captured after a few hours. The second
investigation appeared stranger and more intriguing: a Swiss tourist
disappeared from a beach-hotel near Tel-Aviv, and a quick inquiry “Dror Mishani has
showed he had been using a fake passport and at least two names. reached the world
Can he be a Mossad agent like his daughter claims? And is he in league of crime fiction”
danger? —Die Zeit
Inspector Avraham Avraham, wishing to outgrow his usual cas-
es of domestic violence, is indifferent to the one, and seduced by the “Dror Mishani is
other. Soon he understands he did a wrong choice, as both investiga- the indisputable
tions spiral into a maze of violence and deception, leading to Israel’s spiritual heir of
darkest secrets – and threatening to put Avraham in conflict with the Georges Simenon.”
most powerful men in the country, who technically don’t even exist. –Le Monde
CONVICTION is a brilliant political thriller, and a witty literary
confrontation with Israel’s most secret and sacred myths.
Liepman Agency ― International Rights Spring 2021 12Abraham B. Yehoshua
THE ONLY
DAUGHTER
Novella
Original title Original publisher Abraham B. Yehoshua’s The
Habat Hayechida Hakibbutz Hameuchad, English (US) Lover, published in 1977, es-
2021 Houghton Mifflin tablished his international
English translation 165 pages English (UK) Halban renown. He wrote over a doz-
avaiable Italian Einaudi en of novels, all of them trans-
French Grasset lated into more than twenty
languages and received nu-
merous international awards,
most recently the prix Médicis
“A.B. Yehoshua, Israel’s premier étranger, le Prix du meilleur
livre étranger, Premio Interna-
storyteller, has given us a mature zionale “Antonio Feltrinelli”
masterpiece of modest proportions and the Dan David Prize. Ye-
– fresh, surprising, polished in its hoshua has been compared
every detail. The story is written as a to William Faulkner and named
an author of Nobel reach.
‘slightly expanded novella’, the term
used by Thomas Mann to describe
Israel
his own masterpiece, Death in Ven-
ice.”
—Dan Miron, Ha’aretz “A unique book, for
many reasons. Beyond
the sheer excitement
of a rare reading
The story takes place in northern Italy, at the end of the 20th centu- experience, the char-
ry, in the two months between the Christmas season and Carnival acter of Rachele, the
time in Venice. protagonist of the
12-year-old Rachele is the only child of an affluent family, novel, is a perfect po-
receiving love and praise from her Jewish grandfather Sergio, who etic representation of
runs the family’s law firm together with his son. But she is also the a girl who personifies
only grandchild of her mother’s parents, her Catholic grandparents. freedom, openness and
Rachele is frustrated: she has been chosen to play the Ma- power.”
donna, Mother of God, in her school’s Christmas play. But her ill —Shulamit Almog, Professor
and hospitalized father, who doesn’t observe Jewish rituals, forbids of Law, University of Haifa
her nonetheless from participating in a play filled with Christian
religious content. “Gently hinting, without
The love and affection that surround Rachele from all sides, passing judgment, A.B.
her teachers included, cannot remedy her loneliness. Moreover, Yehoshua expresses
her beloved father’s serious illness raises the possibility that he his wonder of the world:
won’t live long enough to attend her Bat Mitzvah, scheduled for the religion, parent-child
coming spring. relationships, and es-
Rachele’s crisis arouses a fantasy that blends Judaism and pecially the search for
Christianity in the image of a Holy Spirit that doesn’t give birth to identity and shedding of
another God, but rather a brother, perhaps in the same distant land masks.”
where thousands of years ago the divine baby was born. — Rachel Paran, Narrative
Once again, A.B. Yehoshua is challenging masterly and with Therapist, Jerusalem
humour the cages of identity and belonging and with ingenuity
rejoices in celebrating the turmoils he creates for his beloved char-
acters.
Liepman Agency ― International Rights Spring 2021 13Ohad Hemo
UNDER THE
SURFACE
An Insider Reportage from
the Palestinian Territories Ohad Hemo is an Israeli jour-
nalist and reporter on Pales-
tinian affairs at Israel Channel
Original title Original publisher
12, the most viewed channel
Pney Hashetach Keter, 2020 Synopsis and English in Israel. He holds an M.A. in
296 pages sample translation Middle Eastern Studies from
available the Hebrew University and has
been covering the Palestinian
“Ohad Hemo is one of the bravest beat in the Gaza Strip and the
and profound reporters. For years, West Bank for nearly twenty
years. One of the few Israeli
he did not shy away from dangerous journalists traveling to the
places in order that the voice of Palestinian territories, he has
the Palestinians could be heard. covered the major events of
He gains their trust in his humane this period from up close –
from the second Intifada and
and courageous way. A fascinat-
the suicide attacks, through
ing book for anyone who wants to the death of Arafat and the
Israel
think honestly about a possible and Gaza disengagement, and up
realistic solution to one of the most to Israel’s three major military
difficult and painful conflicts in the operations in the Gaza Strip.
During his career he has host-
history of the 20th century.” ed television shows for Jewish
—A.B. Yehoshua and Arab children on Islam
and the Middle East, and has
directed several television
movies. He received the 2017
Cutting Edge Award for his
Fugitives from the Balata refugee camp gathering in an abandoned work.
cemetery under an endless barrage of fire; Hamas activists who
believe in the prophecy that Israel will be erased in the year 2022;
young Gazans using social networks to share their trauma with
Israelis their age on the other side of the fence; a man who in his “Ohad Hemo’s view
youth set out for an Israeli checkpoint wearing an explosive belt from the inside carves a
and was stopped at the last moment, today holding his own baby; window to see through
these are only some of the characters filling the pages of this book. the iron wall that sepa-
For the past two decades, Israeli journalist Ohad Hemo has rates us from the Pales-
been going back and forth between Israel and the Palestinian Au- tinian neighbourhoods,
thority, between Tel Aviv and the cities and villages of the West allowing us to see
Bank. He feels at home in places that most Israelis have never set beyond preconceptions
foot on. Through extraordinary conversations and encounters, he and demonic images of
sketches a picture of the Palestinian society today that projects the other.”
onto the conflict with Israel; onto the internal tensions; onto the —Reuven Rivlin
despair and the hope; onto the past and more importantly – onto
the future; and primarily onto the greatest threat and folly of all: the “A diligent reporter and
imminent death of the idea of two states. intelligent observer who
A powerful, colourful and intimate portrait offering a unique lays out the worldviews
perspective beyond the ubiquitous clichés. At the same time it is of a new generation of
an urgent wake up call to rescue the two-state solution before it Palestinians.”
is too late. — HA’ARETZ
Liepman Agency ― International Rights Spring 2021 14Cătălin Partenie
GOLDEN
BURROW
Original title Original publisher
Vizuina De Aur Polirom, 2020 Original English
176 pages language manuscript
available Cătălin Partenie is a Romani-
an-Canadian philosopher,
teaching at the National
School of Political Studies in
Bucharest. He completed he
Ph.D. in Philosophy at the Uni-
versity of Glasgow, and was
also a graduate student at
Oxford. He has taught in Can-
ada and Europe, and is the
editor of Plato. Selected Myths
(Oxford’s World Classics) and
–Charles King, Jewish Book Award winning
Plato’s Myths (Cambridge UP).
author of Midnight at the Pera Palace and His short story Gudrun has
Odessa earned an Honorable Mention
at the Frank McCourt Interna-
tional Contest and has been
published in The Southampton
Review. THE GOLDEN BUR-
Romania
ROW is his first novel.
Bucharest, 1988. Nicolae Ceauşescu’s darkest years. Paul, a first-
year philosophy student, wants to play the drums in a rock band but
is expelled and ends up as the guard of a forgotten depot in which
a theatre keeps its scenery and props. He spends all his time there
with his girlfriend Oksana (a waitress who just finished high school) “A bitter-sweet, pro-
and his best-friend Stefan (a first-year high school student who plays foundly affecting story
the guitar). Using stage furniture and props, Oksana builds inside of the redeeming pow-
the depot the interior of a home. They call it ‘The Golden Burrow’ er art and music can
and there they have the time of their lives. Oksana is pregnant but have in our survival as
is afraid to tell Paul; abortion is illegal, and illegal abortion is ex- human beings in times
pensive and dangerous. of hardship.”
In April 1989, without telling anything to anyone, Paul swims —Vladimir Mirodan, Emeritus
across the Danube and defects. He is caught by the Yugoslavian Professor of Theatre, Univer-
authorities but can emigrate to Canada. However, in December sity of the Arts, London
1989, he returns to Bucharest secretly, just after Ceauşescu has
fled his headquarters. In the chaos that follows he is shot dead in “This is a novel whose
front of Muzica, the city’s biggest record store. words are like a cur-
Almost 30 years later, Paul’s son Victor contacts Stefan and tain; open them, and
asks him to write down all that he can remember about his father. great characters will
He would also like to find out if his father knew that Oksana was start singing on the
pregnant when he left Romania. Stefan, however, is an unreliable stage: freedom, friend-
narrator, and Victor will have to imagine for himself what kind of ship, love.”
man his father was. —Peter Kerek, director of the
A philosophical, charming and cinematic tragicomedy – like theatrical adaptation of the
a New Romanian Wave take on Plato’s cave. novel
Liepman Agency ― International Rights Spring 2021 15Peter Stamm
THE ARCHIVE
OF FEELINGS
Original title Original publisher Peter Stamm, born in 1963,
Das Archiv der Gefühle S. Fischer, 2021 French Grasset had his international break-
256 pages through with his debut novel
Agnes in 1998. Since then his
books have been translated
into more than 30 languages.
In 2013 he was on the shortlist
“One of Europe’s most exciting for the International Booker
writers” Prize. Stamm’s writing has
―The New York Times been compared to Chekhov
and Camus as well as Amer-
ican storytellers such as Ray-
“A master writer … His prose … is as mond Carver, Richard Ford and
sharply illuminating as a surgical Ernest Hemingway. Peter
light.” Stamm has been awarded
several prizes, such as
—The Economist
the Friedrich-Hölderlin-Prize
(2014) and the Swiss Book
Switzerland
Award (2018).
Do we recognise the opportunities in our life? “Peter Stamm’s prose
The singer Fabienne’s real name is Franziska, and it was forty is plain … A subtle but
years ago that they were close friends and he confessed his love to deadly style.”
her. Almost a lifetime. Since then he has done everything to keep —Zadie Smith
disquiet and discontent away from him. He has withdrawn more
and more and lived only in his imagination. He missed out on his “Peter Stamm is an ex-
life But now Franziska reappears. traordinary author who
Does this endanger his protected existence, or or will he take can make the ordinary
this second chance? absolutely electrify-
A “recherche du temps perdu à la Stamm”, beautiful and at- ing…Hard to recom-
mospheric – it immediately puts you in that special mood that only mend too highly.”
a Peter Stamm novel can evoke. Masterful. —Tim Parks
Liepman Agency ― International Rights Spring 2021 16WHEN IT GETS DARK MARCIA FROM THE SWEET
VERMONT INDIFFERENCE OF
Original title
A Christmas Tale THE WORLD
Wenn es dunkel wird
Original Publisher Original title Original title
S. Fischer, 2020 Marcia aus Vermont – Eine Die sanfte Gleichgültigkeit
192 pages Weihnachtsgeschichte der Welt
Original Publisher Original publisher
S. Fischer, 2019 S. Fischer, 2018
160 pages
Switzerland
80 pages
World English Other Press
World English Other Press World English Other Press
“Resolute laconicism from Spanish Acantilado French Bourgois
an experienced narrator Catalan Quaderns Crema Spanish Acantilado
French Grasset Catalan Quaderns Crema
and effortless artistry that Swedish Thoren & Lindskog
impresses.” Czech Albatros
—Frankfurter Rundschau Italian Casagrande
Croatian Fraktura
“A master of the un- Greek Kastaniotis
“Stamm drills worm holes in spectacular, a virtuoso Chinese Shanghai 99
Turkish Paloma Yayinevi
everyday life. These stories of the narrative form”
begin quite harmlessly and —The New York Times
stage feelings at turning Review of Books
points in life.” “Excellent. This amor-
—Deutschlandfunk Kultur “Peter Stamm is an ex- phous tale folds in
traordinary author who on itself, becoming
“A Peter Stamm short story can make the ordinary a meditation on how
is still among the most absolutely electrifying.“ memory can distort
remarkable things you can —The Times reality. Fans of Julian
read.” Barnes will love this.”
—SRF 2 —Publishers Weekly
“Ordinary lives, elevat-
ed from the ground.
Powerful!”
—Le Monde
Liepman Agency ― International Rights Spring 2021 17Frédéric Zwicker
RADOST
Original title
Radost A 2020 New Books in English sample
German selection translation available
Original publisher Born in 1983 in Lausanne,
Zytglogge, 2020 Literature work grant Frédéric Zwicker grew up in
286 pages from the city of St. Gallen Rapperswil on the Lake Zurich,
where he lives again today. He
studied German literature,
history and philosophy. With
his band “Knuts Koffer“ he has
repeatedly toured the Balkans.
He works as a journalist, cop-
ywriter and screenwriter,
writes columns for several
local newspapers, comedy
“A remarkable new voice in shows and of course song
Swiss literature.” texts. His debut novel Hier
können Sie im Kreis gehen
—SRF 3 (Nagel & Kimche, 2016) was
a remarkable critical and com-
mercial success.
Switzerland
It starts with a joke. But where does it end?
Fabian is a young, somewhat phlegmatic local journalist. In the “Zwicker has a knack
evening, on his sofa, he dreams himself into a more interesting for the involuntary com-
everyday life. By chance, he wins a plane ticket to Zanzibar and edy of dialogues, which
makes the trip, still rather unwillingly. On the island he meets Max, pass each other by a
an as irritating as fascinating Swiss eccentric in a Massai costume, hair’s breadth.”
whose life Fabian must save on their first encounter. —Tagesanzeiger
Three years later they meet again by chance, back home in
Switzerland. Fabian learns about Max’ mental illness, which brought “Zwicker depicts bizarre
him from Switzerland to Zagreb and Zanzibar, into marriage, father- things, without taking
hood and prison. But Max’s memories are incomplete and in an away the dignity of his
effort to regain some understanding of who he really is, he com- characters, and handles
missions Fabian to write his biography. the balance between
So just, like Max 14 years before, it is now Fabian who takes tragedy and comedy
his bicycle and cycles to Zagreb and eventually flies to Zanzibar for with great sensitivity.”
a second time. On this new journey – his own and the one into Max’s —Neue Luzerner Zeitung
life – Fabian encounters people, hears stories and sees things he
could never have imagined on his sofa.
RADOST is a fast-paced road trip into the madness of life and
a warm-hearted story about mental fragility.
Liepman Agency ― International Rights Spring 2021 18Madame Nielsen Abraham B. Yehoshua Dror Mishani
THE MONSTER THE TUNNEL THREE
Original title Original title Original title
The Monster Haminhara Shalosh
Original publisher Original publisher Original publisher
Gyldendal, 2018 Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2018 Achuzat Bayit, 2018
220 pages 324 pages 245 pages
Recent Backlist
German Kiepenheuer & Witsch English (US) English (UK)
French Notabilia (rights reverted) Houghton Mifflin Quercus/riverrun
Spanish Minúscula English (UK) Halban English (US) Europa Editions
Norwegian Pelikanen German Nagel & Kimche Italian English (CA) Anansi
Einaudi German Diogenes
French Grasset French Gallimard
Spanish Duomo Italian e/o
Dutch Wereldbibliotheek Spanish Anagrama
There is no comparable lit- Catalan Grup Editorial 62
Korean Bookrecipe
erary substance so addictive
Croatian Fraktura
in contemporary literature.” Greek Keimena Books
—ZDF, Das Literarische Quartett A New York Times Editor’s Choice Dutch Arbeiterspers
Chinese (TWN) Ecus
“An irresistible experiment.” Film and TV rights sold
to the Emmy nominated
—WDR 5
producers of “Homeland”
“Yehoshua is one of the
“Madame Nielsen, or who- great writers of the 20th cen-
ever she is, can write so that tury … [The Tunnel is] a novel
I sometimes levitate from so intimate and vivid that
Prix Mystère de la Critique
the couch. It takes many past and present and future
exceptional authors to make merge in ways that generate Longlisted for the CWA Crime
Fiction in Translation Dagger
one Madame, so dear reader, surprise and delight.”
just let yourself get invaded.” Shortlisted for Grand Prix de Lit-
—The Arts Fuse
térature Policlière
—Weekendavisen
“A quirky, deeply affecting Shortlisted for the
Sapir Prize
work by a master storyteller.”
—Kirkus, Starred Review 13 weeks the #1 bestseller in Israel
26 consecutive weeks a top-twenty
Spiegel-bestseller in Germany,
80’00 copies sold
Liepman Agency ― International Rights Spring 2021 19Ari Folman Otto de Kat Mario Lima
WHERE IS ANNE FREETOWN DEATH IN PORTO
FRANK? Original title Original title
Freetown Tod in Porto
A graphic novel based on the Original publisher Original publisher
forthcoming animated motion Van Oorschot, 2018 Heyne Verlag, 2019
picture Where is Anne Frank? 165 pages 384 pages
by Oscar-nominated Ari Fol-
Recent Backlist
man, to be released in thea-
tres worldwide in 2021.
German Schöffling & Co. “Maybe the best of all Por-
World English tugal thrillers published to
MacLehose Press date.”
English (US) Pantheon —Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung
English (UK) Viking
French Calmann-Lévy “Suspense from beginning
German S. Fischer “De Kat’s language is of rare to end”
Dutch Prometheus
Italian Einaudi
beauty and he writes with —Mainhattan Courier
Spanish Penguin Random House endless melancholy.“
Hebrew Kinneret —NDC papers, Haarlems Dagblad “Mario Lima has landed
Brazil Record a hit. DEATH IN PORTO is
Portugal Porto Editora
“One of the Netherlands’ crime Fiction at its best –
most compelling literary totally convincing with first-
voices” class police work and
—Irish Examiner protagonists with cult status
potential.”
“Otto de Kat breaks your —literaturmarkt.info
heart with 200 words.”
—Scotland on Sunday
“With sentences like pre-
cisely directed light sources
that illuminate paintings in
an art gallery, de Kat creates
unforgettable scenes and
landscapes.”
—Badische Zeitung
Liepman Agency ― International Rights Spring 2021 20David Albahari Daniel de Roulet Thomas Sparr
TODAY IS TEN LITTLE GRUNEWALD IN THE
WEDNESDAY ANARCHISTS ORIENT
The German-Jewish
Original title
Original title Jerusalem
Danas je sreda Dix petites anarchistes
Original title
Original Publisher
Original publisher Grunewald im Orient – Das
Čarobna, 2017 Limmat Verlag, 2017
155 pages deutsch-jüdische Jerusalem
Recent Backlist
144 pages
Original publisher
Berenberg Verlag, 2018
184 pages
German Schöffling & Co, French Buchet Chastel
Italian Clichy Edizioni
Greek The Colleagues`
Publications World English Haus Publishing
“Glowing with depth and Spanish Acantilado
tragedy, sparkling with Hebrew Schocken
intelligence and irony. David
Albahari has wrested a pow- Prix Bibliomedia 2019
erful work of consolation
from his illness”. “A melancholic, often
—Neue Zürcher Zeitung touching, sometimes painful
“Daniel de Roulet tells book. Inevitably so, Thomas
“Albahari puts the personal without pathos but with lots Sparr tells of a vanished
at the centre but if you of empathy and pace about world. Only in the books of
listen carefully you learn the hope for freedom and its former inhabitants, in
everything about the world“ of strong women in a time their poems and letters, the
—Deutschlandfunk Kultur when migration from Swit- spirit of Rechavia continues
zerland was very common to live on.”
“A Kafka of our Times” and people were expelled —MDR Kultur
—Neue Zürcher Zeitung from their own country.”
—20 Minuten “Sparr is known as a great
“Albahari is to be stored’ connoisseur of Ger-
“A wonderful story about
on the shelf of Nobel Prize man-Jewish intellectual life.”
commitment, courage and
winners in spe.” —Die Welt
exile.”
—La Vie Littéraire
—RTS La Première
“A very political adventure.“
—L’Humanité
Liepman Agency ― International Rights Spring 2021 21Ferenc Barnás Péter Nádas Péter Nádas
TO THE END ILLUMINATED DETAILS LENI WEEPS
OF OUR LIVES Essays
Original title
Világló részletek Original title
Original title
Életünk Végéig Leni weint. Essays
Original publisher
Jelenkor, 2017 Original publisher
Original publisher
1212 pages Rowohlt, 2018
Kalligram, 2019
528 pages
Recent Backlist
455 pages
German Rowohlt World English Archipelago Books
World English Farrar Straus &
German Schöffling & Co.
Giroux
Swedish Bonniers
French Phébus „These essays are fright-
Danish Rosinante
eningly prophetic and yet
Winner of the Milán Füst Prize 2019 based on a deep faith in
“Best book of the year” 2019 in The memoirs of a giant of Eu- humanity.”
Hungary ropean literature. A spectacu- —Frankfurter Allgemein Zeitung
Shortlisted for the lar work unfolding the life and
AEGON Prize world of Péter Nádas. “Again and again – Péter
Shortlisted for the Libri Prize Nádas’ writing is breath-tak-
ing. It is so astonishing, so
agitating, but the reader has
“A firework of remembrance the feeling that, once he has
„Barnás can be counted as in which each spark unfolds lived through these storms,
one of the most important its own luminosity and he is breathing more calmly,
writers in Hungary.” above all triggers further more empowered, because
—Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung memories.” he is able to decipher the
—Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung world more precisely.”
“The sheer number of —Berliner Zeitung
microcosms being set into “Péter Nádas is the great
motion: virtuosic.” surveyor of European land- „No writer in Europe today
—Rvizoronline scapes of souls in the 20th has dealt more eloquently
century. Breathtakingly mi- with the obligations and
“Ferenc Barnás is a legend croscopic, a feast of details moral conundrums of mem-
among those who know and nuances, epochal, an ory, private and collective,
him.” unsurpassable work of art.” than the Hungarian novelist
—László Krasznahorkai —Die Zeit and essayist Péter Nádas.”
—The New York Times
Liepman Agency ― International Rights Spring 2021 22Zygmunt Bauman Anna Bikont Hanna Krall
MAKING THE FAMILIAR SENDLEROWA. THE SYNAPSES
UNFAMILIAR IN HIDING OF MARIA H.
A Conversation with Peter
Original title
Haffner Original title
Synapsy Marii H.
Sendlerowa. W ukryciu
Original title Original publisher Original publisher
Das Vertraute Czarne, 2017 Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2020
unvertraut machen.
Recent Backlist
477 pages 128 pages
Ein Gespräch mit Peter
Haffner
Original publisher
Hoffmann & Campe, 2017 Swedish Ersatz Förlag
188 pages Hebrew Carmel French Noir sur Blanc
World English Polity “Hanna Krall is a master of
Ryszard Kapuściński Award for
Polish Wielka Litera Literary Reportage, 2018
the reportage, perhaps the
Italian Laterza, best in Poland. She does not
Spanish Tusquets describe her protagonists,
Brazilian Zahar
Korean Marco Polo Press
she makes sure that they are
“Much more than a biog- there. The reader sees them,
raphy. It is a partial but hears them, accompanies
“Zygmunt Bauman’s profound description of the them.”
thoughts shine brightly in reality of war. Writing this —Die Zeit
times of totalitarian tenden- book required enormous
cies.” stamina, wisdom, and “Krall’s reportages consti-
—Die Welt
modesty. It is dense, factual, tute a poetical genre of their
quick, and emotionally ex- own.”
“A last conversation with hausting.” —Neue Zürcher Zeitung
—Gazeta Wyborzca
Bauman and his legacy”
—Süddeutsche Zeitung
“The laconism of Hanna
“Anna Bikont defies the ef- Krall’s books opens up
forts of right-wing populists endless perspectives where
“Conciliatory in tone as to reinterpret Poland’s histo- the outcome is suggested
always, this Socrates of ry by confronting them with without being said, where
practical reason finds clear her meticulous reconstruc- silence watches every sen-
words on the untenable tion of the crime.“ tence, often fading out with
state of affairs.” —Frankfurter Rundschau suspension points...”
—Der Standard —Le Monde
Liepman Agency ― International Rights Spring 2021 23David Albahari Ryszard Kapuściński, Estate
Otto de Kat
Nir Baram György Konrád, Estate
Ferenc Barnás Hanna Krall
Rolf Bauerdick, Estate
Ulrich Becher, Estate Dirk Laucke
Emanuel Bergmann Stefan Lehnberg
Michel Bergmann Charles Lewinsky
Anna Bikont Heinz Liepman, Estate
Alfred Bodenheimer
André Brink, Estate David Markish
Thomas Buergenthal R.W.B. McCormack
Icchokas Meras, Estate
Elias Canetti, Estate Dror Mishani
Veza Canetti, Estate Anna Mitgutsch
Mahmud Doulatabadi Péter Nádas, c/o Graf & Graf
Robert Neumann, Estate
Norbert Elias, Estate
Péter Esterházy, Estate Jona Oberski
Representations
Lilian Faschinger Gert Raeithel
Ida Fink, Estate John C.G. Röhl
Catalin Dorian Florescu Göran Rosenberg
Anne Frank, Estate Gerhard Roth
Eric Franklin Daniel de Roulet
Ursula Fricker
Susanne Fritz Joachim B. Schmidt
Erich Fromm, Estate Alexis Schwarzenbach
Henry Slesar, Estate
Petr Ginz, Estate Maruan Soto Antaki
Lea Gottheil Thomas Sparr
Johan Goudsblom György Spiró
Roman Graf Peter Stamm
Arno Gruen, Estate Barbara Stengl
Andreas Straub
Christian Haller
Jürg Halter Aleksandar Tisma, Estate
Peter Haffner
Heinrich Hannover Ulrike Ulrich
Frank Heer
Veit Heinichen Abraham B. Yehoshua
Jeanne Hersch, Estate
Gabriele Hoffmann Idith Zertal
Monika Zgustova
Oek de Jong Bruno Ziauddin
Frédéric Zwicker
Liepman Agency ― International Rights Spring 2021 24You can also read
