A wave of
irrational exuberance crashes over Denmark this month
as the nation just can’t stop reading a novel in which
the citizens of a small Danish town become pathologically
obsessed with doing good deeds for their neighbors.
Hitting the top of the Danish list, The Good People
of Ĺrhus is the first part of a “double-novel” from
the rambunctiously readable Svend Ĺge Madsen,
and takes a mischievous look at the “mysterious new
disease” ravaging Ĺrhus, which is the author’s home
town. Described as a “philosophical and playful examination
of the phenomenon of goodness,” the book tracks the
town’s desperate efforts to cure itself of the make-nice
madness (those afflicted are locked up in a sort of
do-gooders’ asylum). Billed as something like Camus’
The Plague as reenacted by Crocodile Dundee,
the book also revels in world literature: one main character
is an antiquarian bookseller with a knack for knowing
exactly which book would benefit his customers at any
given time. The second part of the novel, called Lustful
Reading, ponders the “wonderful mysteries of reading”
with loads of “labyrinthine wit and humor.” (The two
stories are partly interconnected, but can be read independently.)
The 63-year-old Madsen has been deemed Denmark’s “literary
Indiana Jones,” and is considered one of the few potential
Danish Nobel Prize–winners. Though he has long
been published in Denmark by Gyldendal, he was
approached by upstart house Bindslev — which
has successfully published Noam Chomsky’s 9-11
and Scott Ritter’s War on Iraq — and couldn’t
say no. “He liked the idea of a small idealistic publishing
house,” our source reports, “and he wanted to help kick-start
the company.” Madsen’s 1992 novel Virtue and Vice
in the Middle Time was published in English by Garland,
while the new one sold out a first print run of 2,000
copies in four days. See Bindslev’s Kasper Nielsen
for rights.
Also taking
a wry look at the bright side of life, Nicole de
Buron hits the list in France this month with Doctor,
Could I See You. . .Within Six Months? The book
gallantly plunges into “the absurd world of the emergency
ward,” as its protagonist repeatedly winds up at the
hospital — and clutching a dreamy cocktail of painkiller
prescriptions — after having what Le Parisien
described as an “irresistible series of accidents.”
The moral of this story? Laughter is the best medicine.
(The book has actually been plugged as a “perfect present
to give to anybody who is in hospital, along with the
flowers.”) The author’s previous mega-hit My Dear,
You Hear Me? sold 380,000 copies in France, and
she’s also well known for a number of cinematic comedies
and television series. As for the new one, 90,000 copies
have been sold to date, and all foreign rights are ripe
for the plucking. Meanwhile in France — for a hard dose
of reality — nonfiction bestseller The Bushes’ War
by Le Figaro reporter Eric Laurent
investigates two generations of American presidents
and digs revealingly into the back-stories of the Bush
clan’s struggles against Saddam and Bin Laden. So far
90,000 copies have gone out the door, with rights sold
in 15 countries, including Germany (Fischer),
the Netherlands (Van Gennep), Italy (Fandango),
and Spain (Salvat), and submissions under way
in the US and UK. Contact Heidi Warneke at Plon
for both French titles.
Reality
gets a grimly hilarious spin in Israel this month, where
the latest undertaking of Kobi Oz (he’s no relation
to Amos, and moonlights as the founder of a Tel Aviv
band) is Petty Hoodlum, the tale of a half-Moroccan,
half-Yemenite youth who’s got a big beef with the civilized
world. Protagonist Nir Damti rebels against all who
try to tame him, including Ruthie Zigzag, the daughter
of the local rabbi, who is — you guessed it — head-over-heels
for the hoodlum in question. Throw in a witless police
officer with an Ashkenazi kibbutz-dwelling wife (who,
moreover, pretends to be from Iraq and gives birth to
a child after sleeping with an Arab terrorist from Gaza),
and Oz’s colorful cast calls up a feral, often comic
fantasy mirroring real-world fractures in Israeli society.
(As a bonus sub-plot, the Messiah arrives on the scene,
riding a white donkey.) Film rights were just sold for
the author’s previous book, Moshe Chuwato and the
Raven, which is an Eastern-Tunisian tale wherein
each character recites his own monologue, rock-opera
style. Rights have been sold to that title in Germany
(Droemer).
Also in
Israel, five siblings wrestle with their religious upbringing
in Mira Magen’s family chronicle, Her Angels
Have All Fallen Asleep. At the center of the action
is 42-year-old Moriah, a real estate agent wooed by
a Russian-born street musician who sets up camp on Ben
Yehuda Street, in a Jaffa suburb. Despite fears that
an affair will wreck her marriage to a bookstore owner,
Moriah finds herself pregnant and, realizing that she’s
got too much to lose, dumps her lover after having an
abortion. Told with great empathy, the novel also involves
Moriah’s youngest sister, a drop-dead gorgeous Tel Aviv
bohemian; her gynecologist brother, Muli; her perennially
single sister, Naomi; and one sister who remains faithful
to the religious world, taking upon herself the burden
of raising a large family. The author is a former nurse
whose earlier novel Love, After All is forthcoming
in Germany and China; contact Ayala Carmeli at
the Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature
for rights to titles from both Oz and Magen.
Finally,
a mainstay on the Argentine list makes his mark an ocean
away this month as Jorge Bucay’s Stories for
Demián storms its way up the Spanish bestseller
list. Described as “a self-help book in novel form,”
the story follows Demián on a journey of self-discovery
that lands him in the lap of eccentric psychoanalyst
Jorge. The latter helps Demián battle his demons by
spinning a narrative yarn every day, reinterpreting
a variety of familiar tales to help the young lad find
spiritual awakening. The author has been dubbed a “new
Paulo Coelho of Latin American self-help literature,”
and though Argentine editions of his works have been
available in Spain for quite some time, Miguel Lambre,
Bucay’s editor at Argentine house Del Nuevo Extremo,
suggested that RBA bring out his titles in Spain
because of his stunning success in other Spanish-speaking
countries, including Costa Rica, Venezuela, and Puerto
Rico. RBA has preliminary plans to publish the rest
of Bucay’s titles in Spain, encouraged by the sales
of Stories to Make you Think, which hit stores
last October. For rights, email Miguel Lambre at miguellambre@delnuevoextremo.com.
