Goodness, Gracious
Do-Gooders in Denmark, Laughing Last in France, and Oz Goes Feral in Israel
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 Århus is the first part of a “double-novel” from the rambunctiously readable Svend Åge Madsen, and takes a mischievous look at the “mysterious new disease” ravaging Århus, 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.
