Fall 2015 - Brandt New Agency

Transcription

Fall 2015
Finding, encouraging and cultivating literary talent
Brandt New Agency is based in Barcelona,
but has close ties to the Scandinavian market.
By finding, encouraging and cultivating literary
talent, we aim to offer a literary smörgåsbord
of the best and most innovative new fiction,
non-fiction, edgy titles and literature for young
people, with a focus on the exciting emerging
generation of authors, especially from
Scandinavia, Spain and Catalonia.
Authors
Iolanda Batallé
Boel Bermann
Mattias Boström
Álvaro de la Rica
Ingrid Elfberg
Åsa Ericsdotter
Erik Granström
Emma Hamberg
Katerina Janouch
Jonas Jonasson
Sara Kadefors
Christin Ljungqvist
Lluís Llort
Juan Jacinto Muñoz Rengel
Sara Paborn
Tony Samuelsson
Danny Wattin
The Precise Limit of Our Bodies
Iolanda Batallé
Barcelona, Spain, 1971
Original language: Catalan
Ara Llibres, Spain, 2011, 144 pages
Original Catalan title: El límit exacte dels nostres cossos
Genre: fiction
©Eddy Kelele
Equipped with a fresh, agile, yet sharp voice, Iolanda
Batallé faithfully transmits human passions and the
doubts and reflections they provoke.
Anything and Everything
Columna, Spain, 2014, 195 pages
Original Catalan title: Faré tot el que tu vulguis
Genre: fiction
Foreign rights sold:
Gadir (Spain, in Spanish)
“There is nothing more deceptive than infatuation.
Even more when it’s someone who falls in love for the
first time at forty.” Nora, a married woman in her forties with a secret,
Planeta (Spain, in Spanish)
27 weeks
on the top ten!
The brief but intense short stories hidden in this book
compose a portrait of our lives – what we have and
what we imagine we want – using the building blocks
of infidelity, affection, sex, love ... but above all, desire.
The Precise Limit of Our Bodies is an intriguing fresco
of 21st century life. The intensity of the stories, and their
ability to surprise and move us in a few short pages,
are suggestive of Raymond Carver. Using sparse but
incisive brush-strokes, Iolanda Batallé portrays our
lives and times, the small triumphs and the constant
questions, topped up with love, frustration and
bewilderment.
The Memory of Ants
meets Nacho, a young biologist, on an airplane,
and is unfaithful to her husband for the first time.
This meeting gives rise to a game of dependency and
passion that Nora draws on to create the pictures
for her forthcoming exhibition.
Anything and Everything is the journey of the awakening of a woman emotionally trapped by a conventional
marriage to love, sensuality and sexuality. It’s a novel
where the protagonist learns to do what she wants and
not what others want: the transformation from “I will do
whatever you want” to “I will do everything that I want.”
Ara Llibres, Spain, 2009, 257 pages
Original Catalan title: La memòria de les formigues
Genre: fiction
Gadir (Spain, in Spanish)
Sample available
Joana has stopped chasing success: instead she
spends her time cleaning up the beach with a tractor.
As the machine traces drawings on the sand, she
magically relives her past. This voyage gradually
reveals her introduction to love, her relationship with
her grandmother and mentor, her conversations with
her husband and the traces left by those no longer
here. Small remnants of a life full of little fables and
discoveries, like the ants that carry home to their nests
all the things they encounter in their path. A novel
composed of moving stories whose heartfelt words and
wisdom reveal the true plot: the tapestry of existence.
Boel Bermann
Mattias Boström
Praised dystopian debutant author who combines her
interest for fantasy, science-fiction and horror with
working in the Swedish video game industry.
An expert on Sherlock Holmes, recognized by the
prestigious Baker Street Irregulars and Swedish Crime
Academy.
Kolsva, Sweden, 1971
Sample available
©Anna-Lena Ahlström
©Johan Wistbacka
Stockholm, Sweden, 1979
The New Children
From Holmes to Sherlock
Kalla Kulor Förlag, Sweden, 2013, 205 pages
Original Swedish title: Den nya människan
Genre: dystopian fiction
Piratförlaget, Sweden, 2013, 514 pages
Original Swedish title: Från Holmes till Sherlock
Genre: narrative non-fiction
What happens when all the new children being born
aren’t normal?
A captivating essay on the most famous detective
in the world, a fast-paced and exciting living portrait
of a phenomenon, an icon of popular culture.
This book is about the man and the people who
created the Holmes legend. For the first time, the
fascinating behind-the-scenes story of the creation
and growth of the Holmes myth is revealed. About
the people who, sometimes against their will, made
Sherlock Holmes into today’s iconic figure. The tragic
story of a man who tried to escape from his own
invention, and the inheritance that ruined a family
dynasty.
It is also the story of unexpected fortune and success,
of actors, writers and readers who, over the decades,
No children are being born and the world is in shock.
After a few years, women begin to get pregnant again,
but the new children are not like children used to be.
They don’t play games or show emotions, they only
watch silently. Against her will, Rakel becomes involved
when she kills one of the new children. She is among
the first to realize that the new generation is a threat to
humanity’s very existence.
More children are born and they develop faster than
normal humans. After a brutal incident at work, Rakel
escapes: From anxiety and betrayed love, seeking
solace in drink and the company of strangers. Until
she discovers something …
Modtryk (Denmark), btb/
Random House (Germany), Quintano Forlag
(Norway)
Full English translation
and long synopsis
available
have recreated and renewed the idea of this
most-famous of all detectives, reinterpreting the texts
for modern audiences and bringing Holmes up-to-date:
from the Gentleman-amateur of the 1890s to the quirky
genius that is Sherlock today.
Álvaro de la Rica
Ingrid Elfberg
Álvaro de la Rica is a Professor of World Literature at
the University of Navarre and a respected literary critic
whose work has appeared in many newspapers including ABC, El Mundo, La Razón and La Vanguardia.
Ingrid Elfberg is a successful crime writer and proud
IT nerd. Before becoming an author, her creativity was
expressed in her work with interactive media and as an
art director. Her literary career took off when she won
the Swedish Ballograf Prize for her short story
The Storm in 2004.
Östersund, Sweden, 1958
©Bengt Alm
©Danilo di Marco
Madrid, Spain, 1965
Don’t Leave Me Behind
The One You Should Fear
Ediciones Alfabia, Spain, 2014, 216 pages
Original Spanish title: No te vayas sin mí
Genre: fiction
Bokfabriken, Sweden, 2015, 400 pages
Original Swedish title: Den du borde frukta
Genre: psychological suspense
Jacob and Claire work together for almost six years.
They become friends and then they fall in love.
However, both are already married and, each in their
own way, fight what seems to be an impossible love.
First, they try to give up on love but, as time passes,
the pain of life, respect for commitments, and even
guilt, ensure that they are, at last, bound together even
more strongly.
Staten Island, Paris, the parks of Boston, and Geneva’s
Old Town, among other places, are witnesses to a
great love story that, perhaps, could have been yours
and mine.
When the body of a successful businessman is found
floating in the river, the national crime squad discover
remarkable similarities with other men who, just like
their victim, have been plundered before vanishing
without trace. The men had all been dating online.
Soon, the police suspect an impostor carefully is
choosing their victims.
Zora, the sister of one of the policemen working on the
case, suddenly gets fired from her successful job and
her boyfriend breaks up with her. Heartbroken, she
starts dating online but soon realizes that a woman
about to turn fifty doesn’t have the same market value
as before. However, just when she’s about to give up
she meets Carl, who seems to be the exception that
Other titles:
Sept méditations sur Kafka, Gallimard, France, 2014
Kafka y el holocausto, Trotta Editorial, Spain, 2009
Julien Green, en el más profundo del bosque, Ediciones
Encuentro, Spain, 1999
proves the rule.
When Carl suddenly vanishes, and with no one taking
his disappearance seriously, Zora decides to search
for the truth by herself. Her quest leads her to dark
family secrets and a hoaxer who seeks more than just
money and precious objects…
Till Death Do Us Part
Åsa Ericsdotter
Uppsala, Sweden, 1981
Aufbau (Germany),
Silke Forlag (Norway)
Police officer Erika stands outside her friend’s door
with broken ribs and a bruised body. But she doesn’t
explain why she has fled headlong from Stockholm,
leaving her husband Göran, also a police officer. While
trying to create a new life, she becomes involved in a
mysterious case. Barbro, a city-hall architect, has been
reported missing by her husband. Erika discovers the
case has similarities with her own situation.
This is a story about what happens when love is
replaced by a desire for control and about a strong
woman who, against all odds, becomes weak, and her
struggle to get back on her feet.
Say Your Prayers, Little One
Author: Ingrid Elfberg
Kabusa, Sweden, 2009, 292 pages
Original Swedish title: Gud som haver
Aufbau (Germany),
Silke Forlag (Norway)
Eva suddenly finds herself caught in a mother’s worst
nightmare when a stranger abducts her son. The child
is found by a schoolteacher, who later gets convicted
of the abduction. But Eva can’t get rid of a feeling that
danger is still lurking out there. She soon realizes that
her suspicions were right, and that the real threat is
coming from someone close to the family.
This is a thrilling story that investigates the darkest
alleys of the human mind. A novel about the power
of Eva’s love for her children, but also about society’s
inability to deal with the unpleasant and frightening
aspects of life.
©Sara Mac Key
Author: Ingrid Elfberg
Kabusa, Sweden, 2013, 343 pages
Original Swedish title: Tills döden skiljer oss åt
Åsa Ericsdotter attracted considerable attention and
rave reviews with her poetry debut, Oskyld, published
at the age of 17. Since then, she has published six volumes of prose poetry. The Epidemic is her first novel.
The Epidemic
Bonniers, Sweden, Summer 2016
Original Swedish title: Epidemin
Genre: fiction
The rising political star, Johan Svärd, has assumed
power in Sweden after a historic victory. The electoral
pledge of the new Health Party: to eradicate the obesity epidemic.
Postdoc war-history student Landon is seeking refuge
from political propaganda in the remote countryside.
He meets Helena, an overweight nurse who has lost
her job due to the government’s new rules on employment. She’s been hiding from the authorities since her
daughter was placed in a special class for the obese
and the school nurse suggested her child should have
lap-band surgery.
When Helena suddenly disappears, Landon sets off to
search for her and becomes aware of the deadly threat
that surrounds him, as the methods of the Health Party
become more and more spine-chilling.
The Epidemic is a dark depiction of a future not far over
the horizon where hysteria about diets and political
propaganda have turned discrimination into the norm.
This is a violent political allegory of rising right-wing
extremism in Europe, and about prejudice and scapegoats, food addiction, and political personality cults.
Erik Granström
will form to seek revenge according to the prophecies.
At the same time, Trachoria’s neighbor and archenemy,
Ransard, is gathering forces to attack the realm, where
political tensions weaken the country from within.
Uppsala, Sweden, 1956
©Cato Lein
Sweden’s most acclaimed high fantasy writer, whose
rich stories about the world of Trachoria have mesmerized a whole generation of readers. Narratives that
combine philosophical and historical depth, humor
and enormous amounts of imagination.
The Fifth Conflux series is an epic tale full of philosophical and political twists and turns. Granström’s dark
and enchanting universe evokes names such as Nick
Perumov, George RR Martin, and Ursula K Leguin.
The Fifth Conflux Series
Sample and long
synopsis available
Titles in the series:
Published by Coltso (Ersatz), Sweden
Genre: high fantasy
Brimstone Sleep, 2011, 576 pages
Swedish critics have praised the Fifth Conflux series
and the books continue to find new readers. The fourth
and last Trachoria book is planned for publication in
2016. The tale begins when Colonel Praanz da Kaelve
is sent to investigate a ship that has supposedly
smuggled weapons to the sulfur island of Marjura. The
Colonel’s crew is an odd group that includes a dragon
hunter with a burnt face. During the trip, the Colonel
soon begins to feels that more is at stake than a small
uprising on the island. The holy mountain of Ranz
whispers that the mysterious Conflux, an astronomical
event crucial to the future, is approaching, while
immortal forces are awakening under the ice of
Marjura. These events will lead to an army of the
undead taking over the island, a dragon being forced
All Little Butchers, 2011, 656 pages
to become a slave, and the immortal magician Shagul
rising from his crypt. When the magician at last returns
to Trachoria after one hundred years, he strives to keep
the secret about the coming Fifth Conflux to himself at
any cost. However, an unexpected company of heroes
Original Swedish title: Svavelvinter
Original Swedish title: Slaktare små
Deeds of Wrath, 2014, 584 pages
Original Swedish title: Vredesverk
Work in progress: Wanderland, 2016
Original Swedish title: Vanderland
Role-play board game
based on Brimstone
Sleep published in
Swedish (Fria Ligan)
and Spanish (Summum
Creator)
In Case of Fire
Emma Hamberg
Vänersborg, Sweden, 1971
Original Swedish title: Larma, släcka, rädda i Rosengädda
Genre: feel-good fiction
©Anna-Lena Ahlström
Praised TV presenter, illustrator, journalist, creative chef
and one of Sweden’s best-selling authors of women’s
fiction. The author of the charming and smart feel-good
novels about the restaurant at Rospike station.
Next Stop Rosepike!
Original Swedish title: Rosengädda nästa!
Aronsen (Denmark)
Tessan is a young woman trapped by a bad relationship and the skewed expectations of others. She
devours cookbooks like other people read novels, but
spends her days serving instant mashed potato at the
hot-dog stand instead of cooking fantastic dishes for
Aronsen (Denmark),
Piper (Germany),
Juritzen (Norway)
gourmets. She wants something more from life, but
how can she get it?
Thirteen-year old Bror listens to his parents’ muted
arguments about getting a divorce through the
bedroom wall. He pretends he’s going to an imaginary
sailing summer camp so that his parents can have time
to themselves and reconcile. Now, all Bror has to do is
find somewhere to go for the next month!
Jane is an eccentric sixty-year old who cares for small
animals and flings her doors wide open to those in
need. Thanks to Jane’s magical touch, Bror and Tessan
meet at her house. Together, they take off to Jane’s
long-forgotten family home of Rosepike in the Swedish countryside, a journey that will change their lives
forever. A warm and humorous story about unconventional friendship unfettered by age, history or class and
delicious food and the joy of cooking.
Tessan is determined to transform the dilapidated old
station building in the idyllic little village of Rosepike
into a cozy village inn. Jonny, the couch potato, spends
his time alone lounging on his sofa. His life fell apart
when he failed his physical. Now he’s reduced to doing
the paperwork in the little village’s on-call fire station.
Rafael, dressed in fluttering black Armani, moves into
the village’s large estate. Tremendously elegant and
trailing an alluring scent redolent of secrets, decadence and adventure.
The three meet in this tale about passion, fear and
having the courage to break free from old patterns.
Spring Pursuits
Original Swedish title: Vårjakt i Rosengädda
Aronsen (Denmark)
Tessan’s got it all: her own restaurant, a baby – with
several potential father-figures −, and amorous glances
from a rich landowner. But running the restaurant
by herself isn’t really compatible with being a good
mother.
Suddenly two people turn up in the village offering
exactly the help Tessan needs. It’s great, even if she
can’t really understand why they’re doing this for her.
When she finally finds out, her life and the lives of
Rosepike’s inhabitants are turned upside down.
The third book in the series is about romance, finding
true love, and resolving problems with parents.
Cecilia Lund Series
Katerina Janouch
©Thron Ullberg
Prague, Czech Republic, 1964
Author: Katerina Janouch
Piratförlaget, Sweden
Genre: women’s fiction, suspense
Widely-known sexologist, journalist and bestselling
author with 700,000 copies sold of the Cecilia Lund
series.
Babyrace
Bokfabriken, Sweden, 2015, 284 pages
Original Swedish title: Babyrace
Genre: feel-good women’s fiction
Babyrace is a warm, humorous feel-good novel about
friendship, love and lust. Light-hearted fiction for
today’s woman.
Sandra, a busy food stylist in the advertising industry,
barely has time to see her friends. And her chances of
finding a man are even smaller. However, her biological
clock is ticking inexorably.
Over dinner, Sandra and her best friend Emily admit
to each other that they’re actually quite eager to try
the baby-thing. A few hours and many glasses of wine
later, Emily blurts out: Do you know what? We’re going
to have a baby race. The one who gets knocked up
first wins!
Mlada Fronta (Czech
Republic and Slovakia)
Sample available
The Cecilia Lund series has proved to be a winning
concept, combining everyday life, relationships, and
family drama with nerve-tingling suspense.
In the eighth book of the series, published this summer,
the compelling heroine is now on her own after her
divorce, recovering her single life, and sharing custody
of her five children with her ex-husband John.
When the series starts, Cecilia Lund is a 36-year-old
mother of four married to John, whom she met in her
early twenties. In addition to being a wife and mother,
Cecilia is passionate about her job as a midwife and
can’t imagine what she would do without her work.
As the story unfolds, we witness Cecilia’s struggle to
keep her marriage together. When a new love enters
her life, Cecilia can no longer deny the obvious.
When crimes occur in the hospital, Cecilia soon
becomes a celebrity midwife. Like a real detective,
she determined to get to the bottom of the riddle. Liked
by many but hated by some, Cecilia’s bravery puts her
family in real danger. She sometimes seems to have
nine lives, and she is impelled to carry on by her belief
in doing what’s right.
Titles in the series:
Barefoot, Piratförlaget, Sweden, 2015
Blood Sisters, Piratförlaget, Sweden, 2014
Dragonfly, Piratförlaget, Sweden, 2013
The Motherhood, Piratförlaget, Sweden, 2012
The Tigress, Piratförlaget, Sweden, 2011
The Foundling, Piratförlaget, Sweden, 2010
The Sisterhood, Piratförlaget, Sweden, 2009
The Betrayal, Piratförlaget, Sweden, 2008
Hitman Anders and the Meaning of It All
Jonas Jonasson
©Sara Arnald
Växjö, Sweden, 1961
The hugely-successful author of The 100-Year-Old Man
Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared and
The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden is back with an
intriguing new novel!
Jonasson’s two first novels have been translated into
more than 40 languages and have both topped the
bestseller lists in many countries, while the first has
been turned into a block-busting movie. In all, the two
novels have sold over 10 million copies.
Author: Jonas Jonasson
Piratförlaget, Sweden, September 2015, 310 pages
Original Swedish title: Mördar-Anders och hans vänner (samt
en och annan ovän)
Genre: fiction
Harper Collins (Canada),
Panteon (Czech Republic), Modtryk (Denmark),
WSOY (Finland), Presses
de la Cité (France), Carl’s
Books, Random House
(Germany), Athenaeum
(Hungary), Forlagid
(Iceland), Keter Books
(Israel), Bompiani (Italy),
Nishimura (Japan), Open
Books (Korea), Meridiaan, Dutch Media (The
Netherlands), Vigmostad
& Bjørke (Norway), IKAR
(Slovakia), Salamandra
(Spain), La Campana
(Spain, in Catalan),
Pegasus (Turkey), 4th
Estate, Harper Collins
(UK), Ecco, Harper
Collins (US)
Hitman Anders, recently out of prison, is doing small
jobs for the big gangsters, and would be doing them
quite well if it weren’t for his drinking, which is affecting
his professionalism.
However, his life takes a new turn when he meets a
female Protestant vicar (who is an atheist), and a
homeless receptionist at a former brothel now turned
into a 1-star hotel. The three join forces and concoct
a business proposition based on Hitman Anders’ skills
and his fearsome reputation. The vicar and receptionist
will organise the gangsters’ commissions and work on
PR and business strategies. By using the tabloids’ love
for headlines they’ll attract customers.
If it weren’t for Hitman Anders’ curiosity about the
meaning of it all. In conversations with the vicar, he
turns to Jesus and, against all odds, Jesus answers
him! When Hitman Anders turns to religion, the
lucrative business is in danger, and the vicar and the
receptionist have to find a new plan, quick.
Fast-paced and sparky, the novel combines various
motifs: the misinterpreted messages from the Bible
turned into egoistic incongruities and the consequences of fanaticism and idealization in any religion,
the sensationalist press, the entrepreneurial spirit
and dumb human stupidity – and underlying it all is
the tenuous hope that it’s never too late start again.
Sara Kadefors
Lex Novel
Roundly praised author whose sharp and edgy bestsellers appeal to readers of all ages.
Author: Sara Kadefors
Original Swedish title: Lex bok
Genre: young adult fiction
©Ulrica Zwenger
Göteborg, Sweden, 1965
What if you hate success but your alter ego becomes
incredibly popular?
His Name was Nathan
Original Swedish title: Hon som älskade honom
Genre: fiction
Malena is a slave to her turbulent emotions. During
a challenging period of her life she leaves the city to
find tranquility in the Swedish countryside. However,
her encounter with her new environment becomes
everything but harmonious.
The neighboring family, who she rents her little cottage
from, becomes her only security. In particular, she
spends a lot of time with Nathan, the man of the house.
On the surface, Nathan seems to be a steady person
and works with vulnerable children. But Malena soon
notices that, behind his confident façade, there is a
hidden darkness, to which she is compellingly drawn.
Too late, she realizes what the consequences of their
innocent companionship are for both her and her
closest friends.
This is a novel about the power of love and its ability
to heal and comfort, but also to divide and destroy.
A book that depicts our present society astutely.
Rosinante&Co/Høst
&Son (Denmark),
Planeta (Spain),
Grup62/Fanbooks
(Spain, in Catalan)
Film rights sold:
B-Reel (Sweden)
Lex thinks that everyone except Jonatan is an idiot,
the kind of person who will do whatever it takes to be
noticed and who have their entire future planned before
leaving school. She’d rather daydream and listen to
heavy metal than work on her ‘entrepreneurial skills’.
As a provocation, she secretly creates Maya. Maya is
not afraid of standing out or creating headlines. Maya
has a blog where she shows off and rebels against
anything that smells of success. But what happens to
Lex when the blog becomes incredibly popular?
Other titles:
Never Looking Back, Piratförlaget, Sweden, 2012
Home Sweet Home, Piratförlaget, Sweden, 2009
Paradise Lane, Piratförlaget, Sweden, 2006
Christin Ljungqvist
Kungsbacka, Sweden, 1983
©Ola Kjelbye
Ljungqvist’s dark, psychological novels have been
appreciated by young and older readers alike. Her
novels about Hanna, on the subject of clairvoyance,
are light and ethereal but, at the same time, distinctive
and unique.
Rabbit Heart
Gilla Förlag, Sweden, 2013, 288 pages
Original Swedish title: Kaninhjärta
Rosinante (Denmark)
Mary and Anne are twins, and so close it’s hard
to know where one starts and the other one ends.
Through Mary’s voice and Anne’s visions they can
function as mediums. And, in what seems to be a
coincidence, they come into contact with a group
of mediums searching for a lost girl, a quest that will
divide and change them – forever. Mary becomes
obsessed with finding the girl, while Anne does
everything she can to make them both turn back.
But the road they’ve chosen will unavoidably lead them
to a life-changing truth. The only person who might be
able to help is Hannah, the famed medium, but she is
determined to stop communicating with the dead and
leave the group behind.
Bird Child
Original Swedish title: Fågelbarn
Once Hanna had two brothers, Samuel and Jens.
There was only a year between them, but Samuel was
sensitive and careful, while Jens was just the opposite.
Now they are both gone, and it’s all Jens fault. Maybe
Hanna knew what was about to happen, maybe she
could have stopped it. Is that why Jens is back, to get
his revenge?
In Christin Ljungqvist’s second novel for young adults,
Hanna plays the central role in a suggestive, thrilling
drama. Despite the tragedy of her childhood, and the
unexplained things that keep happening to her, Hanna
will tear herself away from the suffocating family ties
and break free.
Song of Foxes
Original Swedish title: Rävsång
When Finn’s father dies, he has a breakdown and flees
to a life on the other side of the world without telling a
soul. A year and a half later he returns home. Finn’s
head is hurting, the TV turns itself on, and sometimes,
when Finn’s mother talks, it’s in his father’s voice. A
young girl with a magpie tattooed on her arm and an
attractiveness that leaves Finn speechless has moved
into the apartment below. It is Hanna, who sees things
no one else does, and more than she would like to.
Song of Foxes is a freestanding sequel to Rabbit Heart
and Bird Child.
Lluís Llort
Collateral Legacies
Barcelona, Spain, 1966
La Magrana, Spain, 2014, 204 pages
Original Catalan title: Herències col·laterals
Genre: noir
©Ana Portnoy
Noir at its best. Intelligent, satirical and humorous
portraits that dissect human weaknesses.
Lluís Llort, is a literary critic and editor of the weekly
Cultura supplement of the Catalan newspaper,
El Punt Avui.
Under the Asphalt
La Magrana, Spain, October 2015, approx. 200 pages
Original Catalan title: Sota l’asfalt
Genre: noir
RBA (Spain, in Spanish)
Every day in Barcelona, around half a million passengers use the hundred and twenty-three kilometres of
the Subway network. Twenty-seven-year old Marcel
is one of the half-million. One Thursday, he goes out,
determined to find his father, who he hasn’t seen for
twenty years. The night will be long, the friendships
dangerous, the search intense and the result uncertain.
What is the thick layer of asphalt that isolates us from
the hidden subterranean dark? What if it moves while
we’re sleeping? In the labyrinth of tracks, tunnels and
stations, what is true and what is legend?
Llort uses a hypnotic, first-person narrative, sometimes
expressed as interior monologues, to narrate a nightmare that spirals down into darkness, interspersed with
criticism, eroticism, humour and violence. In addition
to his customary sharp dialogue and pinpoint descriptions, Llort adds plot twists and an insider’s vision of
everything to do with the Barcelona metro. Readers
will be amazed by what they do not know about this
underground world.
In the early 20th century, Francesca Puigmajor trusts
her beloved father and marries the Grau family’s heir
so that her father can become a shareholder in the
family’s cannery.
Soon she discovers that marital life is worse than
expected and there is only one way out of her domestic
hell: killing her husband.
Collateral Legacies tells multiplying, interconnected,
branching stories over one century. Llort provides a
personal vision of human relationships, with large
doses of psychology in his characters, narrative
tension, subtle humor and social criticism.
A suitably noir novel, as we are used to from this
author, an intuitive renewal of the genre.
If the Dead Return
La Magrana, Spain, 2012, 217 pages
Original Catalan title: Si quan et donen per mort un dia tornes
Genre: noir
How does a mother feel when she opens the door and
sees the son who disappeared 14 years ago? How to
react when he doesn’t wants to say where he’s been?
Why has he returned? And, above all, what is making
him keep quiet?
Agustin Garcia is about to turn 18. After a family
argument, he takes off with some friends to spend a
few days at the San Fermin festival in Pamplona. And
disappears, because he can’t choose the best of the
forks in the road that life and circumstances throw up.
Juan Jacinto Muñoz Rengel
Málaga, Spain, 1974
©Ada Martínez Guerrero
A young and promising Spanish literary voice with an
original, imaginative and personal humor.
The Hypochondriac Hitman
Plaza y Janés, Spain, 2012, 224 pages
Original Spanish title: El asesino hipocondríaco
Genre: fiction
Lit Edizioni (Italy),
Éditions Les Escales
(France)
Sample available
Mister Y. just has to finish one last job as a hitman but
to do this he must overcome a huge obstacle: it’s the
last day of his life. This professional assassin has been
dying from the moment he was born. He has survive so
many diseases that you’d think he was a medical miracle. Currently working for an unknown client, his orders
are to kill the slick Eduardo Blaisten before he dies from
a stroke, gangrene or the worsening of Professional
Spasm Syndrome.
However, his bad luck frustrates all his attempts to kill
his victim. The book establishes a magical connection
between Mr. Y’s own struggles and the great physical,
psychological and imaginary suffering which tortured
Poe, Proust, Voltaire, Tolstoy, Molière, and all the other
famous hypochondriacs in the history of literature.
The Other’s Dream
Plaza y Janés, Spain, 2013, 304 pages
Original Spanish title: El sueño del otro
Genre: fiction
Xavier Arteaga is a public high school teacher who
dreams every night that he is André Bodoc, an Editor
of the nightly news. André Bodoc is the Editor of
the nightly news who dreams every night that he is
Xavier Arteaga, a public high school teacher. But
who is dreaming about who? Who is real and who
is dreaming?
Xavier is an ordinary man, divorced, with one child,
who has seen the little he had in life wrenched from
him. He wants to recover what he once had or,
perhaps, even build a better future. But the nervous
breakdown caused by dreaming about someone else’s
life ends up by pushing him into a series of searches.
He chases answers, chases people and, in the end, he
chases André Bodoc. André is a successful, articulate
man, a media expert highly skilled in manipulating
and interpreting facts. When he also starts losing his
self-control, he becomes obsessed by what is real and
what is illusory.
Sara Paborn
The Rooster and the Sea
A writer with a wry, dark style and unique humor.
A beautiful literary diamond awaiting discovery.
Author: Sara Paborn
Brombergs Förlag, Sweden, 2011, 302 pages
Original Swedish title: Tuppen och havet
Genre: fiction
©Anders Kylberg
Sölvesborg, Sweden, 1972
One Way or Another
Original Swedish title: En eller annan väg
Genre: fiction
Sample available
Two very-different sisters on a road trip to Paris with
an Italian boyfriend, a turtle and a black Madonna in
the backseat of a midnight blue Jaguar. A feel good,
coming-of-age story about resolving the past to create
a future.
In a small Swedish village on a hot summer’s afternoon
in 1987, seventeen-old Frida’s elder sister, Marissa,
who everybody says is a painter of genius, returns after
seven years away. Using the urgent need for money
as a pretext, they set off on a road trip through Europe
in search of Marissa’s old art teacher, who might help
them sell the antique sculpture. The mystery behind
the black Madonna fascinates them and gradually,
the journey becomes a trip into the past, revealing their
unequal relationship, and the conflicts, pain and joy
of a shared childhood. The relationship between the
extrovert, bohemian Marissa, who has stopped
painting, and the pensive little sister Frida, who is afraid
of growing up, develops into a drama about trying to
find oneself, about art, music, trust and the will to live
life to the full.
A poetic, suggestive, comic story about the search
for freedom and who you really are.
On a harsh, barren island on the southwest coast of
Sweden, the everyday calm is rudely interrupted by a
Mexican rooster who wakes all the islanders at dawn.
To end the infernal noise, the characters decide to
catch a mysterious wild white mink said to live on the
island, since it’s well-known that mink eat birds.
Everybody has ended up on the island in search of
peace, and now they all get involved in one way or
another. The question is whether the characters are
able to shut out the world or if they need each other
to find themselves?
Family Fever
Author: Sara Paborn
Original Swedish title: Släktfeber
Genre: fiction
After racking up 107 years, the family aunt dies and the
close family meet up for the funeral and the reading of
the will. However, now that the strongest personality
in the family has died, the status quo between the
remaining family members has changed and, for a few
hot summer weeks, life in the countryside is turned
upside-down. Perhaps reconciliation is possible after all.
Family Fever is an enjoyable, hilarious and absurd story
about a family and the old saying that blood is thicker
than water.
Tony Samuelsson
Karlskrona, Sweden, 1961
©Kalle Assbring
Considered one of Sweden’s key contemporary
authors. Praised for his literary qualities, strong
characterization and the important questions he
asks about fascism and the role of intellectuals.
The Kafka Pavilion
Wahlström & Widstrand, Sweden, 2014, 447 pages
Original Swedish title: Kafkapaviljongen
Genre: fiction
Shortlisted for the
Swedish Radio novel
prize 2015!
Argo (Czech Republic)
Sample available
The Kafka Pavilion is a counterfactual story and a free
fantasy which, like the well-received I Was an Aryan,
depicts a Sweden after the German victory in World
War II.
The story revolves around author and opponent of
the Nazis, Sigge Eriksson, who we follow from the
1940s after the end of the war and the Nazi takeover in
Sweden, to the 1970s, when Sigge, now a well-known
intellectual, has been forced into becoming part of the
Nazi cultural elite.
Tony Samuelsson asks uncomfortable questions about
the misanthropic cynicism of Nazism, and about
literature as both a source of illumination and a
blinding escapism.
The novel is about evil and oppression, underground
resistance movements and terrorist attacks – and about
denial and man’s underlying defense and survival
mechanisms. But, above all, it’s a story about the faith
both rulers and insurgents have in the power of culture
and, especially, literature, as one of the strongest influences there is.
I Was an Aryan
Author: Tony Samuelsson
Wahlström & Widstrand, Sweden, 2009, 377 pages
Original Swedish title: Jag var en arier
Genre: fiction
It’s the 1970s and Sweden is a natural part of the Nazi
empire that has conquered all Europe. Hitler’s protégé,
Albert Speer, has taken power after the Führer’s death
and has cleverly made the Reich function: politics and
culture are fused together. Hitler’s vision of the Aryan
ideal has been realized. Anti-Semitism is the rule and
the Jews have been deported east of the Ural Mountains.
Thomas is an ambitious sports journalist, brought up
in a powerful Swedish Nazi family. One night he meets
Karin and falls in love.
During an interview with an ex-convict who is now a
famous poet, Thomas is confronted with events from
the past that are now taboo and begins to doubt who
he is and what he has become.
Karin, a young literature student, has joined an antiNazi resistance group. Gradually she understands
she is part of a plan to kill the new Führer.
Danny Wattin
Stockholm, Sweden, 1973
©John W. McCormick
Roundly-praised author whose sharp and edgy bestsellers appeal to readers of all ages.
Herr Isakowitz’s Treasure
Original Swedish title: Herr Isakowitz skatt
Genre: narrative non-fiction
La Campana (Catalonia),
Fortuna Libri (Czech Republic), Politikens Forlag
(Denmark), Presses de la
Cité (France), Eichborn
(Germany), Uitgeverij Q/
Querido (Holland), Forlagid (Iceland), Bompiani
(Italy), Foksal (Poland)
Corpus Books (Russia),
Evro Giunti (Serbia),
Fortuna Libri (Slovakia),
Penguin Random House/
Lumen (Spain)
Grandfather, son and grandson set off on a road trip
to Poland. Their mission: to unravel the secrets of their
eccentric Jewish family and find the treasure that
Great-grandfather buried before being deported.
‘My grandfather didn’t tell us much about his
upbringing as a Jew in Germany in the 1920s and 30s.
But one story I was told over and over again was about
the treasure his father buried in the backyard before
he disappeared. When the legend was passed on to
my own son, his reaction was: if you have a family
treasure you have to go and look for it. That’s how my
son, my father and I ended up on a treasure hunt in
Poland.’
The book is a somber but comic tale about one of the
darkest chapters in modern history: a story of survival
and the human impulses that impel these strong,
eccentric characters forged in the shadow
of Nazism.
Excuse Me, But Your Soul Just Died
Original Swedish title: Ursäkta, men din själ dog nyss
Genre: fiction
This is a story about the need for compassion in an
age of extreme individualism. Using the development
and commercialization of reproductive technology as
a starting point, Danny Wattin paints a world in which
we have sacrificed what we need in order to get what
we want. It is a society not so unlike our own; one where brokers sell Ivy league eggs to the highest bidder,
Nobel-prize winning sperm is found online, and pregnancies are outsourced to poor people in foreign lands.
So welcome to a brave and beautiful new world. A
place where ugliness is evil, children a human right
and love only can be found by those willing to risk
everything else.
See You in the Desert
Piratförlaget, Sweden, 2007, pages 250
Original Swedish title: Vi ses i öknen
Genre: fiction
Adam Anderzon’s life is the definition of troublesome.
His boss constantly wants him to work overtime, his
girlfriend feels neglected and must be placated with
expensive designer clothes, his parents demand
grand-children, and his prospective parents-in-law
feel he’s simply just not good enough. He has however
one lifeline left, his late uncle Anton’s peculiar last will,
which will turn the young man’s life upside down.
This is a tale about shameful family secrets,
holier-than-thou politicians, repulsive mothers-in-law,
sexually frustrated life-style addicts and cats suffering
from Tourette’s syndrome. But it is also a love story.
Treehouse Boy
Author: Danny Wattin
Langenskiöld, Sweden, 2013, 213 pages
Original Swedish title: Pojken i trädkojan
Genre: children’s fiction 9-12
Albatros (Czech
Republic)
Johan is ten years old and lives alone in a treehouse
in the middle of the forest. Most of the time he enjoys
his life in the wild, together with the squirrel, Mimi, and
the rest of his animal friends. Johan keeps his distance
from the grown-ups, because he’s afraid they’ll put
him back in the orphanage. The only thing that is really
missing in his life is learning how to read all those
books he’d found and brought home. One day, he
meets a strange, tall man called Molvidsson who knows
absolutely nothing about children but everything about
books, and loves to read. So he decides to help Johan
fulfill his biggest dream − to be able to attend school −
by pretending to be his father. Unexpectedly, Johan’s
life takes a new, and not wholly uncomplicated, turn.
Treehouse Boy is a beautiful story about belonging
and having a home. With his unadorned, easy-flowing
language, Danny Wattin has created a modern but timeless Mowgli-like saga, full of humour and unexpected
events that turn your thoughts to the worlds of Roald
Dahl and Astrid Lindgren. The story expresses simple,
tender wisdom that is brought to life by wonderfullywhimsical characters, absurd schoolyard revolts,
explosive love letters and arm-wrestling principals.
Carina Brandt
CEO & Literary Agent
[email protected]
Staff
© Brandt New World Agency
Calàndries, 5, Local 1
ES-08034 Barcelona
+34 93 205 08 98
www.brandtnewagency.com
Ylva Ericson Dufva
Literary Agent
[email protected]
Elin Hellström
Literary Agent
[email protected]
Cristina Hernández Johansson
Literary Agent
[email protected]
©Esther Delgado
·
·
© Brandt New Agency c/ Calàndries, 5, Local 1 ES-08034 Barcelona
+34 93205 08 98 www.brandtnewagency.com
·

Fall 2015 - Brandt New Agency

Transcription

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