Grigori Kanovich – A Kid for two Pennies – for Poland

new sale

translation rights for Polish refreshed with 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 the coexistence of Jews in the multi-ethnic border area between the German Empire at Nemunas (Memel), Lithuania and the Russian state. Or rather the coexistence or even better the friction and resentment on all sides.

As Kanovich says at the end: „The world cannot simply be divided into good and evil, into truth and untruth: everything in the world is intertwined… in every Jew there is also a Russian, in every Russian a Jew, in every Lithuanian a Polish, in every Polish a German.“

Galina Shatalova – Healing Nutrition – in Romanian

new publication

Romanian language edition published by Editura Parallel 45

With this second translation both Galina Shatalova’s most famous books CHOOSE YOUR WAY and HEALING NUTRITION are available now in Romanian language.

The intention of Shatalova, as a doctor and as a person, is to return the human being to himself, to help him become as nature conceived and shaped him. For this reason she has created a natural healing method, concrete and theoretically founded. Inspired by the Hippocratic statement that our food should be our remedies and our remedies our food, Shatalova has developed a concept of natural reco- very. Her diet strictly opposes the calorie theory of balanced nutrition, which is contrary to human nature. According to her, the human organism is restricted exclusively to plant foods and does not need more than 250 to 400 calories of daily food intake to maintain its basic metabolism.

Dmitri Danilov – Sasha, hello – for Latin America

new sale

Spanish language rights for Latin American territory sold to Ediciones del Lirio

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.

Dmitri Danilov – Sasha, hello – for Azerbaijan

new sale

Azerbaijan language rights sold to State Government Centre for Translation

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.

Aleksei Ivanov – Le Dernier Afghan

new award

translation award for Nenaste in French

A good news from last year 2023 is the TRANSLATION AWARD Inalco/Vo-Vf 2023 for Raphaëlle Pache. She has translated Aleksei Ivanov’s thrilling social drama NENASTE – LE DERNIER AFGHAN into French language, published in 2021 already by éditions Rivages/Noir.

The novel uses a thriller plot to describe the developement of Russian society from the 90ies into the early 2010s. Ex-Afghanistan combats form a first mafia group that still obeys rules of comradeship and „honesty“ and brings kind of stability to a provincial town. But slowly they are pushed aside by other mendacious and „dishonest“ guys who are seeking their private financial profit only. A late revenge of one of the old „honest“ guys brings the situation to escalation.

Happy New Year 2024

Opening up the door

Summary of the past year 2023

Last year we saw both a tightening of restrictions against civil society and liberal creativity in Russia and a significant intensification of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine.

To support Ukraine, the agency tried to present even more Ukrainian authors. On the one hand, this means that more genuinely Ukrainian voices are heard abroad, and on the other hand, the royalties in Western currency help the authors to better cope with the difficult life under war conditions. Please see the UKRAINIAN list.

In order to support liberal authors writing in Russian who feel increasingly isolated, either because they fear repression in their own country or because they have already fled into exile, the agency opened up its door last year for more such authors. Please see the RUSSIAN DIASPORA list as well as a list of titles CRITICAL OF THE REGIME.

And with Aromshtam, Starobinets and others to come soon for Bologna, a separate CHILDREN’S BOOKS segment is forming in the agency.

On behalf of the authors, I would like to thank you for your continued interest in difficult times. And at the same time I’m looking forward to an exciting next year of books in hopefully more peaceful times very soon.

Yours, Thomas Wiedling