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

Aleksandr Grigorenko – Ilget – in English

new publication

English translation published by Glagoslav

We follow a small, puny man who begins to take his life into his own hands. Separated from his tribe as a child, despised and tormented for his weakness, Ilget later leads his own tribe and takes them on a path of revenge. Revenge for his lost childhood, the loss of his twin brother and the loss of the love of his life.

In ILGET, as in its companion novel MEBET, the author Aleksandr Grigorenko does not treat the Siberian Taiga in the high north of Russia merely as an exotic background, his interest lies in exploring the rituals of the northern people and their mystical beliefs, asking the old questions about existence, happiness and the loneliness of man. But not as a classical saga, instead with a modern novel of magical realism. Like on a movie screen we witness gods and demons, pledges and profanity, love and blood bonds, supplications and rituals. And at the end we realize that there is only a small step separating us from those savages – for, after all, we are all human beings.

„Braving the commercially suicidal subject of „northern ethnicity“ for a second time and even though he uses the same material, Grigorenko successfully manages to produce a completely new novel that in no way resembles MEBET. And which has a moral message.“ GALINA YUZEFOVICH

Viktor Martinovich – The Good Always Wins

new representation

novel about the protests in Belarus

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. The actor Matvei has only a small supporting role. The big role in his life awaits him elsewhere. He has to save Heidegger, the cat of his beloved former teacher who was sentenced to prison for a critical social media post. And he has to find and warn Lady Di, a punk poet who’s weapon are words.

Viktor Martinovich’s new novel THE GOOD ALWAYS WINS is a courageous and encouraging book about the invincible power of words.

D. Rus – Play to Live – in German

new publication

German translation of the full series published by Zweihänder

The LitRPG series PLAY TO LIVE by D. Rus is constantly super successful in English. Finally also the LitRPG series PLAY TO LIVE will find its way to German readers and fans. Zwiehänder is planning to publish one volume after the other every 2 months. The audibook will follow.