The
Real Thing
Russian Expose on Female Bombers, Germany's
99-Euro Bestseller, and A Real Gouda Story from Holland
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (NOVEMBER 2004)
There
certainly was no shortage of politically charged books
at the Frankfurt Book Fair this year, and one
of the most startling of all was penned by a 23-year-old
Russian journalist Yulia Yuzik, who surveys the
growing number of female suicide bombers in Chechnya
in Allah’s Brides: The Suicide Bombers from Chechnya.
Stunned that the number of female suicide bombers in
Chechnya had soared to 30 (more than in Palestine, the
author reports), Yuzik, now a reporter for the Russian
edition of Newsweek, journeyed to the country
to carry out her research, speaking with relatives of
female suicide bombers who had already carried out their
deed, as well as those who had yet to do so. “I am writing
about kamikaze women who want to blow up my country.
I want everyone to know each of them personally so that
we know how and why they blow themselves up,” reports
Yuzik, who procured leaked photographs of the bombers
before their attacks and afterward in the mortuary.
After concluding that many of the bombers are recruited
by Chechens working for humanitarian organizations and
that, in the majority of cases, the women’s belts are
detonated by remote control, the young reporter managed
to get her material out of Chechnya just before she
was forced out of the country by the secret services.
Controversial, to say the least, the book has been banned
in Russia, but rights have been sold to Manifestolibri
(Italy) and NP-Verlag (Austria). Contact Bettina
Nibbe of the Nibbe & Wiedling Literary Agency
(Germany).
A newcomer in the world of literary nonfiction is taking
Holland by storm. Annejet van der Zijl, the 2003
recipient of the prominent Golden Owl Prize,
imparts the true story of Waldemar Nods and Rika van
der Lans, who in the fall of 1928 begin a tumultuous
relationship that spans some of the most fascinating
and most tragic episodes of Western history in Sonny
Boy. Waldemar is just shy of 20 years old, while Rika
is nearly 40. He’s a student from Surinam and she is
a Dutch married mother of four. He is black and she
is white. They live in different worlds in many respects,
so when Rika finds out that she is carrying his baby,
the scandal is so enormous that she is forced to leave
her children, while Waldemar can never return to his
beloved Surinam. The two manage to build a prosperous
life together with their son Waldy, whom they call “Sonny
Boy,” but all that changes when the couple is betrayed
in 1944 for harboring Jews at the start of WWII. For
14-year-old Waldy, this is only the beginning of a lifelong
struggle with the loss of his parents.
Also in Holland, readers are finding that there’s nothing
quite like a delicately aged Cheese, Willem Elsschot’s
1933 classic comedy about Frans Laarmans, a humble shipping
clerk who is suddenly promoted to the position of agent
of a Dutch cheese company. Thrilled at his elevation
in status, he sets up an office at home and takes on
the delivery of 10,000 full-cream Edams, only to find
that he can’t stand the stuff. Though not for the lactose
intolerant, this “delicious satire about business, greed,
ambition and cheese” has seen a recent resurgence in
popularity, particularly in Germany where it sold more
than 20,000 copies in one month after it was mentioned
by the inimitable Elke Heidenreich. Rights have
been sold to Losada (Spain), Husets (Denmark),
Le Castor Astral (France), Wedge (Japan),
and elsewhere. English film rights are under option.
Though Cheese has already been published by Granta,
English rights are still available for two of Elsschot’s
other books, Soft Soap/The Leg, in which a young Laarmans
rips people off by selling them a very expensive fake
magazine, and Will o’ the Wisp, wherein Laarmans returns
as a guide for three Afghan sailors in Antwerp as he
tries to help them catch a girl. Floortje Jansen
at Querido holds the rights to Sonny Boy and
to Elsschot’s delectable treats.
“Those
who believe in the innate wickedness of humanity are
in for a hell of a time with The Jewish Messiah,” the
latest offering by Dutch author Arnon Grunberg,
who also writes as Marek van der Jagt. Xavier
Radek, the grandson of a Nazi living in Basel, befriends
a rabbi’s son, Awromele, who advises him to study Yiddish
and have himself circumcised. Following a botched procedure,
Xavier, convinced of his messianic legerdemain, picks
up a paintbrush in the hopes of comforting Jews through
his art. While his parents dismiss his behavior as adolescent
inanity, he moves with Awremole to the “Venice of the
North” where he presents himself at the prestigious
Rietveld Academy, while Awremole takes a job stocking
shelves at the Albert Heijn supermarket. Now a New York
resident, Grunberg was awarded the AKO Prize,
the Dutch equivalent of the Booker, for his earlier
book Phantom Pain, the tale of a reputable literary
novelist diminished by obscurity and debilitating debt.
He’s been published in about 20 countries, including
Italy (Blue Edizioni), Hungary (Ulpius-Ház),
Germany (Diogenes), France (Actes Sud)
and Spain (Tusquets), and he was most recently
published in the US by Other Press. Contact Anna
Stein at Donadio & Olson.
From falling stars to black holes, and from the secrets
of the Arctic to the mysteries surrounding the origins
of the universe, Alexander von Humboldt boldly
went where no man had gone before in his study of the
complexities of the natural world in The Cosmos. These
phenomena might, in fact, pale in comparison with the
fact that a hefty new edition of his classic, which
gathers all five volumes into one with an eye-popping
99-euro price tag, has stormed to the 15th spot on the
bestseller list in Der Spiegel (unofficially
the first time a title at this price level climbed this
high on the bestseller list). Emerging from the popular
lectures he gave in Berlin, The Cosmos was first published
in five volumes from 1845 to 1862, to the tune of 80,000
copies. The new edition, published by Eichborn,
is delivered in a slipcase along with the Berghaus-Atlas,
and includes corrections and additions made by von Humboldt,
as well as a rich collection of maps. Negotiations are
underway with a distinguished Spanish house and several
other publishers are currently considering the book.
Contact Jutta Willand at Eichborn.
Finally, winter may be just around the corner, but 10
lucky editors will soon be slathering on the sunscreen
as they tour the literary scene in glorious Buenos Aires.
Organized by Fundación TyPA with the help of
Museo de Arte Latino-americano de Buenos Aires
(Malba), the British Council, the Goethe
Institut, Fundación Antorchas and the embassies
of Canada, France, Israel, and the US, the grants cover
room and board, and travel to the week-long tour (May
22-28, 2005). Candidates should work in translated fiction
and be able to read and understand Spanish. The deadline
for applications is Nov. 19. Contact Gabriela Adamo
at gadamo@typa.org.ar
or visit www.typa.org.ar.
©2004
Publishing Trends
