Zaza Burchuladze – SABA Award 2022

new award

2022 SABA Award Best Georgian Novel of the Year

Several of Zaza Burchuladze’s novels had been shortlisted for this most important literary award in Georgia. But only now his new novel ZOORAMA finally received this most prestigious award.

Congratulation!

Viktor Martinovich – Revolution – for Norway

new sale

Norwegian language rights sold to Existenz publishing

In Belarus holding a print copy of Viktor Martinovich’s novel REVOLUTION in hand has become a symbol of protest. During the protests on the streets of Minsk copies of the Belarusian edition of REVOLUTION have been confiscated by the police, the publisher had been arrested for some while. Although: REVOLUTION is not about the protests in Minsk, but about subservience to the corruption of power. Which is an equally threatening topic for Lukashenko and his regime.

Aleksei Nikitin – The Orderly from Institutska – in Italian

new publication

excerpts of the novel published by Mondadori

Aleksei Nikitin’s short novel THE ORDERLY FROM INSTITUTSKA STREET is the story of two friends from Kyiv, the poet Yurka Nezgoda and the artist Nikolai Umanets. In the 1990’s Nezgoda and Umanets were promi- nent members of the bohemian Kyiv art scene. In the end the heroes meet again on Kyiv’s Maidan Square. Umanets is with the protesters, while Nezgoda tries to stay neutral. But it is Nezgoda who gets pulled into the swirl of events in the novel. He dies as an orderly, trying to move the wounded to safety under fire. Umanets watches his friend die on live television.

In 2019, five years after Maidan, the novel was the only Russian-language novel to be included in the list of “Best texts about Maidan.”

“Maidan, as a lived experience, when the feeling of history being created, is perceived deeply and directly. This made The Orderly a deeper and wiser text than a mere projection of a series of lost generation.“
LITCENTR

Viktor Martinovich – Mova – in Latvian

new publication

Latvian translation published by Prometejs

Viktor Martinovich’s novel MOVA seems to be a spy thriller but of course it is about politics: Minsk in the year 2044, a provincial town in the north-west of the United States of China and Russia. Family and love are considered to be out-dated concepts, spiritual needs are fulfilled by consuming and advertising. Despite draconian punishments a particular drug somehow and repeatedly manages to get into the country: mova.

«MOVA is funny. MOVA is sad. MOVA is full of surprises. It is bizarre, it is a thriller, a nightmare – and intoxicating. A powerfully un-cut drug in the form of a book, a fix of which can only be heartily recommended.» DEUTSCHLANDRADIO KULTUR

Grigori Kanovich – Devilspel in Albania

new publication

Albanian translation published by Shkupi

The novel is set during the tragic few weeks in June-July 1941, when the German army in a sudden attack defeated the Red Army and within a few days occupied Lithuania. Grigori Kanovich’s writing is informed by his deep native knowledge of the Lithuanian countryside where he grew up in the 1930s, but he is no less intimately familiar with the Russian and Jewish cultures. Yet his real interest as a writer is in exploring the fundamental and universal ethical conflict between good and evil, which transcends the limits of concrete space and time.

«DEVILSPEL is a moving and elegant novel of fine character portraits, told in restrained but beautiful prose, set in a small town in Lithuania at a watershed moment of history, when ethnic cleansing and the Holocaust enter the lives of the local Jews and non-Jews alike, dividing neighbours and families into persecuted and persecutors.»
ROSIE GOLDSMITH, Chair of the Judges EBRD Literature Prize

Sergii Rudenko – Anatomy of Hate. Putin and Ukraine

new representation

announcement of a new book being written

We are happy to announce a new book being written by Sergii Rudenko, the author of „Zelenskyi without make-up“. Manuscript of ANATOMY OF HATE. PUTIN AND UKRAINE will be finished by January 2024.

Russia‘s war against Ukraine is the most important event in the life of President Vladimir Putin. He staked everything on this war: the future of Russia, his political career, his well- being and even his life. He has already dedicated his entire presidency to trying to conquer Ukraine. For him, the “Ukrainian question” became, without exaggeration, a matter of life and death. Why?

Putin‘s hatred of Ukraine rests on a good foundation – the Ukrainophobia that has prevailed in Russia for centuries. Telling us even more about the history of this decision-making, which is also rooted in Putin‘s personal relationship with Ukraine, this book is an almost exclusive look behind the scenes of this relationship.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky in Frankfurt

How to Slay a Dragon

October 21, 16:30-17:30, Saal Harmonie

The probably most famous Russian dissident in exile, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, will talk with Sonja Zekri, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, about a possible future of Russia after Putin.

October 21, 16:30-17:30, Saal Harmonie (Congress Center, Ebene 2)
In German. Free entry. Organized by Sueddeutsche Zeitung,

Frankfurt book Fair 2023 – new rights lists

new titles

to scroll and download

Please see our homepage with direct links to our rights lists sorted by various categories:

HIGHLIGHTS – the new titles for Frankfurt | and a selection of highlights

UKRAINIAN – books by Ukrainian authors in several genres

RUSSIAN DIASPORA – books by Russian authors who are no longer living in Russia

ANTI WAR POEMS – a special poetry selection edited by Julia Nemirovskaya

KREML CRITICAL – critical Russian authors at home are now authors at risk

COMPLETE – the agency’s complete rights list sorted by genre

and more thematic rights lists also in pdf format for easy scrolling and download.

Looking forward to seeing you in Frankfurt!

Mikhail Khodorkovsky – How to Slay a Dragon – in English

new publication

English translation published by Polity books

Far from any know-it-all attitude, the new book HOW TO SLAY A DRAGON by the most famous Russian dissident in exile, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, poses questions, uncomfortable questions that have been avoided in the West up to now, such as non-violence, and derives the resulting options for action. It does not want to provide recipes, but to initiate a dis- cussion long overdue.

How can a totalitarian regime be put to an end? By whom? From the inside or from the outside? With a totalitarian ruler acting aggressively both internally and externally, would there even be a chance of a reasonably peaceful change of power? After that, who would come to power in Russia? And what would that power look like? How should a new Russian state be organized in order to break through the compulsion to repeat imperialism?

Oleksii Mustafin – In Bed with a Bear

new representation

Neighbouring Russia as a historical challenge

The popular non-fiction book IN BED WITH A BEAR by Ukraine journalist and media manager Oleksii Mustafin tells the story of the uneasy experience of coexistence with a state that is constantly seeking to expand its borders, while at the same time complaining about prejudiced attitude from those who live next door to it. Even after the aggression of Russia against Ukraine not all people in Europe have understood that they shouldn’t reassure themselves that such problems only affect Ukrainians, Belarusians or Moldovans. History shows that if the aggressor is not dealt with in time, any country in Europe and even in the world can eventually become Russia‘s neighbour.

“Oleksii Mustafin‘s book „In Bed with a Bear“ is not just interesting, but also extremely necessary. In simple language, fascinating facts and captivating characters, it traces the chronology of Russian imperialism from the destruction of Novgorod to the present day.“ OLENA KONDRATIUK, Vice-Chair of the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) of Ukraine