Criminal
Streaks
Road Rage Hits Spain, the Devil Deals
in Sweden, and a Burglary Stumps Denmark
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (MAY 2004)
A
minor fender bender on a Monday morning leads a frazzled
female executive named Sonsoles to hop out of her convertible
and let loose with a string of insults and profanities
that would make even the most grizzled truck driver
blush in Lorenzo Silva’s 14th novel, The Weakness
of the Bolshevik, which has taken up residence on
the paperback bestseller list in Spain. Though the narrator
is mostly to blame, Sonsoles was most certainly not
an innocent bystander and, angered by her outrageous
reaction, the narrator reads through the insurance papers
to obtain her phone number. He makes casual phone calls
and begins to spy on her, cozying up to her 15-year-old
sister Rosana in the process. Though he’s no Humbert
Humbert, one of his most prized possessions is a portrait
of Czar Nicholas II’s daughters. He is particularly
smitten with Olga and wonders how the Bolshevik who
ordered her death must have felt. Part “comedy, thriller,
and melodrama,” Silva’s latest depicts the nymph-like
Rosana in a way that makes “the most cynical reader
weaken and lose his balance.” Recipient of the Nadal
Prize for The Impatient Alchemist (the story
of a middle-aged family man who dies in a motel room
from a heart attack brought on by a cocktail of cocaine,
bromazepam, alcohol, and sexual ecstasy) and, most recently,
the Espasa Calpe Spring Prize, Silva has become
one of Spain’s most translated writers. Rights to his
books have been sold in Germany (Goldmann), France
(J.C. Lattes and France Loisirs), Italy
(Passigli), and Russia (Symposium). Contact
Sophie Legrand at ACER (Spain).
Also in Spain, a remote villa in an unnamed capital
city is home to brothers Ismaíl and Víktor Radjik and
their father — an ex-Communist boss — in The Albanian
Lover by Susana Fortes. Their silent existence
is broken one day by the sound of a gunshot. Tension
builds as Helen, a young and impressionable woman, arrives
at the house, bringing with her a suitcase full of specters
of the family’s past. A “blind storm of obsession” ensues,
thanks to the stunning confessions of a Hungarian maid.
She warns that secrets will ultimately be revealed,
including those of a strangely seductive woman who provokes
an illicit love affair in which passion becomes a weapon
of choice in avenging the wrongs of the past. With a
plot driven by intense emotions, Fortes sets out to
prove that “no one is capable of renouncing love completely
without destroying a small part of themselves.” Fortes
has recently been living in the US, giving Spanish classes
at the University of Louisiana and lecturing at San
Francisco Interstate University. Rights to her latest
have been sold to Muza (Poland), Neri Pozza
(Italy), and Gyldendal (Norway). All other rights
are available from Cristina Mora at Planeta
(Spain).
Norwegian musician, songwriter, economist, and author
Jo Nesbø is hitting all the right notes in Sweden
with his spine-tingling crime novel, Without a Care.
In the course of robbing an Oslo bank, a robber puts
a gun to the head of a female clerk and gives the manager
25 seconds to open the cash dispenser. He takes 31,
at which point the gunman holds six fingers up to the
surveillance camera and pulls the trigger. Police Inspector
Harry Hole, a regular in Nesbø’s novels, is assigned
to the case. While dining with an old flame, Hole passes
out and, when he comes to, learns that the killer has
struck again. Convinced that he has no choice but to
make a deal with the devil, Hole turns to Raskol, also
a bank robber, who is currently serving a prison sentence.
His newest book, The Devil’s Star — in which
Hole is paired up with a colleague he suspects of murder
and gang ties to investigate, ironically, the murder
of a woman in Oslo — is sure to catapult him to international
stardom. Harvill/Secker has bought two of his
novels, including The Devil’s Star, and his books
have been sold to Ullstein (Germany), Signature
(Netherlands), Forum (Sweden), Modtryk
(Denmark), and Gaïa (France). There is also interest
brewing worldwide, from Brazil to Italy, Russia to Iceland.
Contact Gina Winje at Aschehoug (Norway).
Sweden’s A-Team of crime inspectors, led by Paul Hjelm,
is on the case again in Many Waters, Arne
Dahl’s fifth novel in the series, which sprinted
to the top of the Danish list last month. (Incidentally,
his real name is Jan Arnald and he plans to publish
his next five books under that name). Five Africans
in Stockholm have just received deportation orders and
are sitting in a kitchen in a suburban apartment built
during the construction boom of the ’60s. Seconds later
they vanish and, simultaneously, a burglar breaks into
an apartment on the south side of town. The team is
forced to confront a sour smell from the past in this
“thriller of international proportions” that “cuts into
universal problems with the sharpness of a knife.” Rights
to Dahl’s oeuvre (also including The European Blues,
in which a girl gets shot on her way home from a birthday
party, and eight eastern European women disappear without
a trace while a 90-year-old professor rides around the
subway system, accompanied by Death) have been sold
to Piper (Germany), Marsilio (Italy),
Otava (Finland), Damm (Norway), Modtryk
(Denmark), and De Geus (Holland). Contact Bengt
Nordin.
Ten years ago, a few thousand copies of Three Feet
Above Heaven, Federico Moccia’s novel of
adolescent star-crossed lovers, were published by a
small Italian house. The book emerged as a modern day
Romeo and Juliet or Love Story through word of
mouth, and photocopies of the book set off a flurry
of curiosity in Italian schools and teenage hangouts.
In this tale of teenage angst, 15-year-old Babi is a
model student from an upstanding family in a posh Roman
neighborhood who falls for the 18-year-old Step, a smart-alecky
tough guy from the wrong side of the tracks. Babi’s
parents are horrified by her transformation and by the
secrets harbored by Step. Moccia enhances a classic
story with “subtle shades” of Rome’s atmosphere. Feltrinelli
has republished it to coincide with the recent release
of a film adaptation, which is furthering the novel’s
cult status among teens and “offering their shocked
parents a series of snapshots of what their children
do when the final [school] bell rings.” Interest is
stirring throughout Europe, and rights are available
from Francesca Dal Negro at Feltrinelli
(Italy).
Italian rights for French book Afterwards...
by Guillaume Musso have been sold to Sonzogno,
not Rizzoli, as reported in April’s PT.
©2004
Publishing Trends
