Not the Valentine’s Day type, perhaps, 5-year-old Emma dislikes her relative’s fond kisses until Titanic the dog comes to live with her, in Anita Lehman and Kasia Fryza’s ‘Slobber Slobber Kiss Kiss.’ Image: KaBooks Agency
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Romance and Otherwise
O Valentine’s Day, we start our Rights Roundup this time with a book presented by the Barcelona-based literary agent Karolina Jaszecka.
Her KaBooks agency has specialized in Polish literature for young readers, and today she hands us a look at romantic norms well-known to many parents of kids who aren’t so fond of standard gestures of affection until they get a few more years on them.
In the case of Emma, in Anita Lehman and illustrator Kasia Fryza ‘s Slobber Slobber Kiss Kiss, it takes the arrival of Titanic the dog for Emma to come around.
Jaszecka tells us that she’ll be at both London Book Fair (March 11 to 13) and Bologna Children’s Book Fair (March 31 to April 3), in both cases at the Polish Book Institute’s collective stands. At London, that’s at Stand 2C10, and at Bologna, that’s in Hall30, Stand C24-D35.
Karolina Jaszecka
Also for those planning their trips to Bologna, Jaszecka includes among her clients the Polish artist and illustrator Joanna Karpowicz, who’s to be an illustration “ambassador”
Also in this roundup, you’ll find an interesting approach to historical biography—a heavily researched graphic novel, Moi, Julius Caesar, from France’s Alfred de Montesquiou, reportedly some three years in the making.
If you want to see a title that’s really moving the needle on rights sales, see The Grand Hotel of Feelings by Lidia Brankovic; and more history is here in Hitler’s Interviews from Kiepenheuer & Witsch author Lutz Hachmeister, a book offered to us by Aleksandra Erakovic at the publisher.
And for the closest approaches to the kind of romance we think of on Valentine’s Day, The Private Girl by Evelyn Scala Schreiber from agent Lena Stjernström and Nicoletta Verna’s I giorni di Vetro, presented by Emanuele Malpezzi at Piergiorgio Nicolazzini’s agency in Milan.
Wishing you your preference on Valentine’s Day—either romance or affectionate dogs—we thank our agents and rights directors, as always, for their submissions, and we’ll be back with another Rights Roundup ahead of London Book Fair.
As in each roundup, we use some of the sales copy supplied to us by agents and rights directors, editing that copy to give you an idea about a book’s nature and tone, but limiting the promotional elements. If you’d like to submit a deal to Publishing Perspectives, see the instructions at the end of this article.
Slobber Slobber Kiss Kiss
By Anita Lehman
Illustrated by Kasia Fryza
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- Publisher: Helvetiq (German and French), Basel and Lausanne
- Rights contact: Karolina Jaszecka, KaBooks Rights Agency
- Book info: Read more here
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Reported rights sales:
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- Newest — Korean: Kidari
- Polish: Kropka
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Anita Lehman, left, and Kasia Fryza
“Emma, 5 years old, doesn’t feel comfortable when her relatives who come to visit cover her with kisses.
“She loves cuddling with her parents, but it feels different with others she sees occasionally. Until one day … when Dad brings home a gigantic and super friendly dog – Titanic. And Titanic loves to kiss and slobber everybody.”
The book, originally written in English, was nominated for the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis 2020.
Moi, Julius Caesar
By Alfred de Montesquiou
Illustrations by Névil
- Publisher: Allary Éditions, Paris
- Rights contact: Marleen Seegers, 2 Seas Agency
- Book info: Read more here
Reported rights sales:
- World Spanish: Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial / Reservoir Books
Involving the work of “32 historians in 16 countries over three years of research, this graphic novel brings Julius Caesar to life like never before. Many French cities and towns that were important steps in his conquest of the Gauls figure” into this account.
Alfred de Montesquiou
“Told in first person, it reveals his triumphs, humiliations, and contradictions, from an orphaned boy to the ruler of Rome.
“Based on historical facts, this work of more than 250 pages includes more than 300 footnotes as well as sources for every page: A groundbreaking blend of scholarship and storytelling, I, Julius Caesar unveils the man behind the legend.”
In a book said to read like an autobiography, “Julius Caesar shares his humiliations and his victories, his boldest moves, and his moments of madness. How could he have defeated all his enemies and been assassinated by his friends? Although he was intransigent both on the battlefield and in the political arena, we find out that he was capable of unexpected leniency and could be a bashful lover. The flesh-and-blood human being, as told by the Julius behind the caesar, the man behind the myth.”
I giorni di Vetro
(The Glass Days)
By Nicoletta Verna
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- Publisher: Einaudi Stile Libero, Torino
- Rights contact: Emanuele Malpezzi at Piergiorgio Nicolazzini Literary Agency
- Book info: Read more here
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Reported rights sales:
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- Newest – Lithuania: Rašytojų sąjungos leidykla
- France: Gallimard Ediciones
- Ukraine: Zhorzh
- Russia: Eksmo
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Verna Nicoletta
“An unlucky girl who has fallen victim of a Fascist hierarch. A rebellious woman deeply in love with life. Two very different lives that connect on the background of one of the most daunting seasons of Italian history.
“Redenta is born on June 10, 1924, as Fascists are abducting Giacomo Matteotti in Rome. She grows up in Castrocaro, a village in Romagna a few kilometers away from Predappio, Mussolini’s birthplace.
“She is disabled, badly treated, mocked, and illiterate. She has brief moments of happiness with her friend Bruno, who promises to marry her but then disappears for no apparent reason.
“One day, Vetro, the valiant, handsome high officer of the Fascist Party, who lost an eye in the Ethiopian war, decides to marry her.”
The Grand Hotel of Feelings
By Lidia Brankovic
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- Publisher: Cicada, London
- Rights contact: Florence Pariente, Ttipi Agency, for Europe excluding Spain, Portugal, Italy; and Greece. For all other territories: Ziggy Hanaor, Cicada
- Book info: Read more here
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Reported rights sales:
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- Newest – France, Switzerland, Belgium (French): Obriart
- Kazakhstan: Atamura
- The Netherlands: Horizon Overamstel
- Russian: Alpina
- World Spanish: Maeva
- Catalan: Maeva
- Portuguese (Brazil): Ararinha
- Poland: Kropka
- Germany: Hatje Cantz
- Croatia: Planetopija
- South Korea: Bear Books
- Vietnam: Coral Books and Media JSC
- Chinese, complex: Diancan Art and Collection
- Chinese, simplified: Chinese Science & Technology Press
- Turkiye: Okuyan Us
- Greece: Dioptra Publishing
- Hebrew and Arabic (Israel only): Zeltner Publishing
- Czech Republic: Cesta Domu
- Iran: Beyani
- Ukraine: Vynytso
- Thailand: Jamsai
- Italy: Il Castello
- Mongolia: Degei Uul
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“Every guest has unique needs.
“Anger, for example, is very loud and needs plenty of space to scream and shout. Sadness speaks in a small voice and occasionally floods the bathroom. Gratitude likes wandering about in nature; you never know when she might come and sit by your side.
“Some feelings are big and some are small, some are fun and some are tricky, but no feeling is ever turned away. At The Grand Hotel of Feelings, there is room for everyone.”
Hitler’s Interviews: The Dictator and the Journalists
By Lutz Hachmeister
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- Publisher: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Köln
- Rights contact: Aleksandra Erakovic, Kiepenheuer & Witsch
- Book info: Read more here
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Reported rights sales:
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- Newest – Sweden: Daidalos
- France: Grasset
- Hungary: Figura
- Slovakia: Ikar
- Spain: Libros de KO
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Lutz Hachmeister
“How do you interview a dictator? Lutz Hachmeister’s first overall account of Hitler’s encounters with journalists is an informative foil for dealing with the populists, autocrats, and dictators of the present day.
“Adolf Hitler gave an astonishing number of interviews in the course of his political career, several dozen, from the early 1920s to the 1940s. Anglo-American journalists in particular found the Austrian-born “Bavarian Mussolini” a fascinating interviewee.
“In his book, Hachmeister describes for the first time the overall history of Hitler’s encounters with journalists, evaluates significant interviews with regard to their journalistic propagandistic strategy, and also analyzes the rivalries of Hitler’s ‘media advisers.’
“The book is based on original sources and archive material, and provides a new and modern view on what was planned from the outset as a ‘propaganda dictatorship’—and its changing perceptions abroad.”
The Private Girl
By Evelyn Scala Schreiber
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- Publisher: Bokförlaget Forum, Stockholm
- Rights contact: Lena Stjernström, Grand Agency
- Book info: Read more here
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Reported rights sales:
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- Newest – Germany: Blanvalet
- Norway: Gyldendal
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Evelyn Scala Schreiber
“She’s a wealthy bourgeois girl with her future laid out before her. He’s an Austrian circus artist passing through. Two young people from different worlds. Three days will change everything.
“A story about marginalization, freedom and sisterhood, about a woman who decided to sacrifice everything for love – and the circus.
“The Private Girl is the first part of the ‘Circus Trilogy,’ a series based on the author’s own family history.”
Submitting Rights Deals to Publishing Perspectives
Do you have rights deals to report? Agents and publishing-house rights directors can use our rights deal submission form to send us the information we need. If you have questions, please send them to Porter@PublishingPerspectives.com
We look forward to hearing from you.
More of Publishing Perspectives‘ rights roundups are here, and more from us on international rights trading is here.
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