Leonid Yuzefovich – Philhellenes in Armenian

new publication

Armenian translation published

The twenties of the 19th century. Greece is fighting for independence from the Ottoman Empire. The revolutionaries have many sympathizers throughout Europe who are willing to voluntarily defend the old culture and fight to preserve the old greatness. That is how they are called: Philhellenes – lovers of the Greeks.

After WINTER ROAD, his documentary novel about the last battle of the Russian Revolution (7 languages sold), Leonid Yuzefovich dedicated his talent for narrative non-fiction to another historical war where (not only) Russians were fighting on foreign territory: PHILHELLENES.

“Yuzefovich writes with subtle irony, detailed historical knowledge and a great feeling for language – a literary phenomenon!“
KNIZHNOE OBOZRENIE

Viktor Martinovich – Good Always Wins for Germany

new sale

German language rights sold to Voland&Quist

Voland&Quist has already published 3 novels by Viktor Martinovich. His latest novel GOOD ALWAYS WINS was impossible to publish in original in Belarus or Russia. So the German publication might be the first.

Summer 2020. Mass protests against Lukashenko‘s regime out on the streets of Minsk. Inside the State Theater the rehearsals for a contemporary play about the Inquisition process against Joan of Arc. Matvei has only a small supporting role. The big role in his life awaits him elsewhere. Matvei has to save the cat of his beloved former teacher from her apartment, because she was sentenced to prison for a critical social media post. When he finds himself in a trial he meets a punk poet, Lady Di, a forgotten princess, who is also on trial and manages to convince the judge to acquit her by speaking boldly. She wants to make the world a better place, her weapon is words.

Anna Starobinets – Silver Axolotl for Spain

new sale

Spanish translation rights sold to Impedimenta

A series of short stories about the underside of reality and about the real world, which is much worse than the other world.

The „silver Axolotl“ is a dog-headed demon in Aztec mythology, the patron of freaks and monsters, a guide to the world of the dead. According to one of the ancient legends, at the beginning of time, Axolotl copulated with the Ice Salamander, who knew how to be in fire without being burned, as well as with the Fire Fish, who knew how to set fire to the sea, and the three of them gave birth to a child who became immortal, for when he dies, he does not die, but transforms into something else. One day, the child of Axolotl will get hungry and turn into one who will devour the whole world – and after a series of epidemics and wars, the end of times will come.

Viktor Martinovich – Mova in Latvian


new award

Latvian Literature of the Year 2024 Award (LALIGABA)

The Latvian translation of Viktor Martinovich’s novel MOVA by translator Māra Poliakova has won the National Latvian Literary Prize in the category „Best prose translation in Latvian“.

«The award was given for the skillful and persistent work of the translator, bringing to life the visionary anti-utopia of the Belarusian author in Latvian, convincingly showing the coding (and narcotic) effect of a small language.» JURY

“No political novel could be more up-to-date or oppressive.“ FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE

Dmitri Danilov – Sasha, hello – in Azerbaijan

new publication

Azerbaijan language edition published by Azərbaycan Dövlət Tərcümə Mərkəzi

Dmitri Danilov’s double award winning novel SASHA, HELLO! is welcoming us to the new Russia. Prisons are now called Combinat, you live like in a luxury hotel. Executions are no longer carried out by executioners. Instead, a warden takes you out for a walk every day through the same hallway, where one fine day you will be torn to pieces by a salvo of an algorithm controlled machine gun. This can happen in three days or in thirty years. As luck would have it. All humane, because you actually don‘t notice anything and can go on living your life as before.

Grigori Kanovich – Kids for Two Pennies in Polish

new publication

Polish language edition re-published by Fundacja Pogranicze

Grigori Kanovich‘s novel A KID FOR TWO PENNIES has lost none of its relevance even after 30 years. It was written in 1989 and describes Jews living together with Lithuanians, Russians and Germans in the multi-ethnic border area with the German Empire at Nemunas (Memel) before Second World War. Or rather their co-existence or even better the friction and resentment on all sides. With everyday poverty, the problems with the Russian state power and the deep Jewish longing for the „homeland of the grandfathers“.

Aleksei Nikitin – Sholom Aleichem Prize 2024

new award

Sholom Aleichem Prize 2024 for his novel «In the Face of Fire. Bat Ami»

Aleksei Nikitin’s novel BAT-AMI is not a documentary novel, but its story – inspired in part by the author‘s family history – is based on files relating to 1941-1942 secret service operations from the archives of the Ukrainian Secret Service. These sources enabled the author to tell the true story of the famous boxer Goldinov. Because the widespread theories about what happened to him – the rumours that were still circulating in Kyiv after the war – have largely proven to be false, as has old Yad Vashem version of events. The descriptions of Ukraine’s complex conflicts involving an overpowering Russian brother state, the Soviet secret service, German occupation, partisans and patriotic nationalist freedom fighters cast their shadows even onto the Ukraine of today.

Lev Danilkin – Gagarin biography – in Hungarian

new publication

Hungarian translation published by Helikon

Polls show that Yuri Gagarin is the No. 1 hero in Russian history of the 20th century. It is all the more surprising that for many years there has not been an appropriate open, objective, biography of the first cosmonaut based on current sources in Russia. The Gagarin biography with the title PASSENGER WITH KIDS by Lev Danilkin is an attempt to close all the gaps in the biography of the „Red Icarus“.

«Gagarin is a myth. The first cosmonaut, icon, toy in the hands of the Soviet govern- ment and journalists, but not a man. Lev Danilkin took up this difficult task – to restore Gagarin‘s human status.» THEORY AND PRACTICE

Wiedling Literary Agency – in Bologna

new book fair

a premiere visit presenting children’s books

Enjoying the wonderful spring warmth and atmosphere of this very special book fair in Bologna. Nice change between scheduled appointments, targeted research and spontaneous encounters in the corridors and at publishing stands. Although otherwise only working digitally, here, to celebrate the occasion, with specially printed copies of the catalogue in hand to present the small but fine LIST OF CHILDREN’S BOOK AUTHORS.

Mikhail Vizel – Pushkin in Quarantine – in Croatian

new publication

Croatian language edition published by Sandorf

Cholera is raging in Russia and parts of the country are in lockdown. The Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, already famous at the time, is stuck in Boldino for three months. The planned wedding with his fiancée Natalia Goncharova has to be postponed. He tries twice in vain to get to her in Moscow. Pushkin is worried. And with jealousy that the bride might jump off him. He is furious because, despite bribing the police, he is unable to bypass the roadblocks to Moscow.

Mikhail Vizel in his book PUSHKIN.BOLDINO.QUARANTINE reconstructs the exciting chronology of the Boldino autumn in a witty, amusing and analytically accurate way. Commenting letters from Pushkin to his bride, we are introduced to his love affair, which has to pass an extraordinary stress test during lockdown. We can not only chronologically follow Pushkin‘s passionate ups and downs during quarantine, but finally experience them with compassion based on our own Covid experience.