The agencies made their choices on the books they wanted to promote at the fair. But which titles really attracted interest and which found good homes? Below is a summary of the stand-out deals.
In addition to the major bestsellers such as Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s latest, El laberinto del tiempo (The Labyrinth of Time), which will be published in 40 languages, the latest novel by Arturo Pérez Reverte, Falcó, which have been bought by the majority of the author’s existing publishers and, of course, the latest winner of the Premio Planeta, Todo esto te daré (All This I will Give You) by Dolores Redondo, for which a large number of deals have been done, some less obvious books have been pleasant surprises for their agents.
Before the fair, we mentioned some titles that were attracting international interest and they’ve continued to do so afterwards. These include El nervio óptico (The Optic Nerve) by María Gainza, which was sold by Casanovas & Lynch in France and had a Dutch pre-empt at the fair, while an offer is on the table from the UK with further offers expected from Germany, the USA and Greece next week. Other successful titles were Patria (Fatherland) by Fernando Aramburu (Tusquets Editores) and the next book on Pep Guardiola, published in Spain by Roca.
Los usurpadores (The Usurpers) by Jorge Zepeda Patterson was one of the most successful titles for the Planeta Latam Agency with offers expected from two countries. Elvis nunca se equivoca (Elvis is Never Wrong) by Rodrigo Morlesin, with illustrations by the acclaimed Japanese illustrator Satoshi Kitamura, a cross-over title with a very universal story, short and easy to translate, was another of the agency’s big surprises, attracting a lot of interest from international publishers.
In Mexico, a first offer is already on the table from France for Redescubriendo a Pablo Escobar (Rediscovering Pablo Escobar), the second part of the bestseller by the Colombian author, on the back of the success of the series Narcos, the first of likely deals with the 12 publishers of the part one.
Puente-portadaSome of Antonia Kerrigan’s most successful titles were Mujeres que compran flores (Women Who Buy Flowers) by Vanessa Montfort, together with La víspera de casi todo (The Eve of Almost Everything) by Víctor del Árbol and Puerto escondido (Hidden Port) by María Oruña. Also notable is the sale of Puente adentro (Inner Bridge) by the Guatemalan author Arnoldo Gálvez, one of the names making their début in the catalogue, which was bought by Büchergilde in Germany: the story of a father and his son separated by a crime and twenty years of silence, and, besides, the story of a woman whose body will be the bridge that will again bring them together.
Casanovas Lynch has also received a Polish offer for El mentalista de Hitler (Hitler’s Mindreader, Suma), by Gervasio Posadas, part historical novel, part psychological thriller, part romance: the story of Erik Jan Hanussen, which has never been portrayed in a novel. Deals are expected soon in Holland and Italy.
The German agency Mertin Witt has just recently done deals in Italy, France and Portugal for El fin de la historia (The End of the Story), the new novel by the Chilean writer Luis Sepúlveda, an explosive, carefully researched thriller that cleverly uncovers the international intrigues of perpetrators of crimes against humanity.
They’ll also be pleased by the sale of World Spanish rights to Seix Barral Argentina of the literary début Philosphical Toys by the Anglo-Spanish author Susana Medina, in which she combines enjoyable philosophical deliberations with an appealing story.
sprintersA Frankfurt highlight for the Carmen Balcells Agency was the novel Sprinters by the Chilean author Claudia Larraguíbel, published in Chile in November by Hueders, which tells the story of Colonia Dignidad, founded in the 60s by a group of German immigrants. For decades they presented themselves as an idyllic agricultural commune, until accounts by those who escaped the colony revealed the horrors experienced within its walls.
The Claudia Bernaldo de Quirós literary agency is very pleased at the increased international interest in its Argentinian authors Inés Garland and María Teresa Andruetto, following the sale in Italy of their books Una vida más verdadera (A Truer Life) and Lengua madre (Mother Tongue), a finalist in the International Rómulo Gallegos Prize for the Novel in 2011, a story about three generations of women, in which the protagonist, an academic specializing in Women’s Literature, returns from her home Munich to a small town in Patagonia, Argentina, to settle to her mother’s affairs after her death.
Grupo Planeta had a lot of success with the novel El Encanto (The Spell) by Susana López Rubio, to be published next year for which they closed several deals at the fair; the moving love story between a young Spanish immigrant and the wife of a Cuban mafia boss, beginning in the famous luxury El Encanto department store in 1940s. Rights have also been sold in Italy for Amapolas en octubre (Poppies in Autumn, Espasa) by Laura Riñón.
Dos Passos has received plenty of interest in the titles Mi recuerdo es más fuerte que tu olvido (My Memory is Stronger Than Your Oblivion) by Paloma Sánchez Garnica, with 4 editions in Spain and more than 25,000 copies sold since June; La casa entre los cactus (The House Among the Cacti) by Paul Pen, which will be published by Amazon in English, German, Italian and French; and El amor del revés (Love Upside Down) by Luisgé Martín (whose rights have recently been sold in Portugal).
Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial closed several book deals by Leopoldo Mendivil, Ruperto E. Long and Andrés López. Apart from these ones, some of their outstanding titles were Lo último que verán tus ojos, Isabel San Sebastian, El absoluto by Daniel Guebel and the non fiction book Ágilmente, by Estanislao Bachrach.
