October 2025

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Frankfurt is coming and on this occasion, we are happy to share this wrap-up with you: We are delighted with an exceptionally successful 2025 for our authors.

First things first: We have just sold English rights for Takis Würger's For Polina to Bloomsbury, which means the book will be available in 15 languages (as of today). Second, we had two number one spots with Takis Würger’s For Polina and Martin Suter’s Love and Fury on the Spiegel bestseller list in 2025. Third, Julia Engelmann’s debut Where the Sky Never Ends reached #6. While all mentioned titles remained on the top ten for weeks, For Polina spent half a year there. (Indeed, we mean the Spiegel bestseller list in all cases!)

While the facts and figures alone are impressive, there is more about our books to discover below.

Your Diogenes Rights Team,

✉️ Susanne Bauknecht (Rights Director)

✉️ Jana Lissek

✉️ Claudia Reinert

✉️ Andrej Ruesch

We are happy to announce that we have sold English rights for Takis Würger's For Polina to Bloomsbury. Finnish rights were snapped up by Tammi and Serbian rights by Laguna. In the words of Emma Herdman, Bloomsbury’s Publishing Director: »There’s warmth and emotion but there’s something real here to get your teeth into; something that we know will resonate with readers the world over (and indeed, already has in some territories!).«

Since publication half a year ago, we have sold no less than 200'000 copies of the book. 

Furthermore, For Polina is nominated for two awards: The audience award of the ›Bavarian Book Prize‹, by the German public radio Bayern2, will hold its award ceremony at 28 October. The ›Independent Booksellers’ Favourite‹ will announce the winner at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Foreign rights sold:
Albanian (Botart)
Catalan (Les Hores)
Dutch (Meulenhoff)
English (Bloomsbury)
Estonian (Tänapäev)
Finnish (Tammi)
French (Calmann-Lévy)
Italian (Neri Pozza)
Russian (Azbooka)
Serbian (Laguna)
Slovak (Ikar)
Slovenian (Mladinska)
Spanish (Alba)

Please find our English sample by Katy Derbyshire here. 

In a spectacular sprint since publication on 23 July, we have sold 50'000 copies of Julia Engelmann's Where the Sky Never Ends.

Furthermore, we have sold Russian rights to Azbooka.

»Engelmann manages to make the emotional world of a teenager more tangible than almost anyone else.«

Anna-Sophie Pauler / Augsburger Allgemeine

»The author casually tells of a path to finding oneself.«

Ruhr Nachrichten / Dortmund

Please find our English sample by Katy Derbyshire here.

Micha Lewinsky’s literary debut Flight or Fight has just been nominated for the prestigious ›Prix Médicis étranger‹.

The French translation is titled Ben ou l’art de la fuite, was translated by Aloïse Denis and has just been published by Éditions Phébus. The shortlist will be announced on 16 October, the award ceremony will be held on 4 November. Among the former laureates are Andrey Kurkov, Han Kang, Orhan Pamuk, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, T.C. Boyle and many more.

We have sold Persian rights to Qoqnoos.

»Written with a keen eye for gender – and humour.«

Emma / Cologne

Please find our English sample by Katy Derbyshire here.

Chris Kraus' Sun and Moon has been selected by ›New Books in German‹: 
»Sun and Moon is a gorgeously written novel, full of extraordinary imagery, and makes for highly rewarding reading.« 

Here are just a few of the most important press quotes:

»Because the characters are so alive, and because you fall in love with them all.«

Peter Zander / Berliner Morgenpost

»A narrative firework evolves from this explosive

mixture.«

Paula Konersmann / Schwäbische Zeitung, Ravensburg

»Sun and Moon is an impressive, often merciless confrontation with loss, loyalty and the question of how to live on in spite of definite separations and deep pain.«

Jana Brechlins / Leipziger Volkszeitung

Chris Kraus was a guest on the TV show ›Volle Kanne‹ by German national broadcaster ZDF (here, from minute 20:24 onwards) and on the radio stations rbb radio3, SWR3, deutschlandfunk kultur and MDR Saxony.

Please find our English sample by Ruth Martin here.

Green Gold is the sixth instant Spiegel bestseller for this crime series located on the island of Capri. To date, the first five books have sold a total of a whopping 250’000 copies.

»Luca Ventura skilfully combines tension with Italian flair. Pure pleasure.«

Gala, Hamburg

Rights to any title of the series sold:

Catalan (Univers)

Estonian (Tänapäev)

French (Livre de Poche)

Italian (Giunti)

Spanish (Catedral)

Film rights are optioned.

This is indeed a rare triple: Elena Fischer's Paradise Garden was longlisted for the German Book Prize in 2023, will be published in 15 languages and has sold 120'000 copies to this day: a big success in terms of awards, domestic and foreign sales.    

Rights currently sold:
Czech (Prostor)
Dutch (Meulenhoff)
English/world (Indigo Press)
Estonian (Tänapäev)
French (Gallmeister)
Hungarian (Helikon)
Italian (Feltrinelli)
Portuguese/PT (Porto)
Russian (Azbooka)
Serbian (Publik Praktikum)
Slovak (E.J. Publishing)
Spanish/world (AdN)
Turkish (Domingo)

Film rights are optioned.

»A refreshing bit of magic . . . almost like a fairy tale.«

Cory Oldweiler, Los Angeles Review of Books

»With great empathy, Melissa Müller paints a moving portrait of two connected lives in the shadow of the Holocaust – a tale of loss, love and resilience, that will touch the hearts of many.«

Ronald Leopold, Director of the Anne Frank House, Amsterdam

Artistic directors Pınar Karabulut and Rafael Sanchez are starting their tenure at the Schauspielhaus Zürich by bringing modern classic Blösch (Cow) by Beat Sterchi to the stage. Rafael Sanchez directs the performance, the stage adaptation was written by Mike Müller. Blösch premiered on 19 September.

Now published in translation: Her Diaries and Notebooks: The New York Years by Patricia Highsmith in Greek

Agra, Athens