Russian Expose on Female Bombers, Germany’s 99-Euro Bestseller, and A Real Gouda Story from Holland
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.
