December 2025

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

As 2025 draws to a close, we look back on a year of stories finding their readers across the world. In January, we began with a first foreign rights deal for Takis Würger's For Polina – so far, the novel will appear in 24 languages. Luca Ventura’s Capri mystery series surpassed 300'000 copies sold this year and continues its journey abroad, soon to be published in seven languages.

Elena Fischer's Paradise Garden, an exceptional debut, is now available in 15 languages. In September, Daniela Krien received the prestigious ›Walter Hasenclever Prize for Literature‹ by the City of Aachen: her works can now be read in 31 languages. In October, Andrey Kurkov's Samson and the Galician Bath, the third volume in his Kyiv Mysteries, joined an oeuvre reaching 45 languages. 

Our backlist, too, continues to shine: Boy With A Black Rooster (Stefanie vor Schulte) is shortlisted for the ›John Calder Translation Prize‹ as well as the ›Schlegel-Tieck Prize‹. For the latter, The Granddaughter (Bernhard Schlink) is also nominated. 

Looking ahead, 2026 begins with promising new projects – rights deals for Esther Schüttpelz' Green Wave and Rolf Dobelli's Your Turn mark the first of many chapters to come.  

With gratitude for your trust and collaboration,
we wish you joyful holidays and a peaceful, prosperous New Year.

✉️ Susanne Bauknecht (Rights Director)

✉️ Patrizia Hasler

✉️ Jana Lissek

✉️ Claudia Reinert

✉️ Andrej Ruesch

Great news for our literary highlight in our spring 2026 programme: Polish publisher Pauza bagged Esther Schüttpelz' second novel Green Wave three months before publication in March 2026. Pauza is the Polish home to Miranda July, Ottessa Moshfegh and Édouard Louis, among many others. Esther Schüttpelz won the ›lit.Cologne Debut Prize‹ 2023 with her debut Without Me.

Please find our brand new English sample by Katy Derbyshire here.

Your Turn has just been published this week, and we have already struck one deal: 

Chinese (complex characters): Business Weekly

Aside from the sale of Italian rights to Sellerio, we would like to draw your attention to the upcoming publication of the French translation with the title L'Amour et la Fureur (translated by Olivier Mannoni, Éditions Phébus). The book will be published in January, and Livres Hebdo already pointed out that:

»With this book, Suter may have written [...] his great love story. Or, more accurately, a story of romantic obsession. Noah's obsession with Camilla is all-consuming, immoral, pure as crime.«

Love and Fury was an instant #1 Spiegel bestseller, #1 Austrian bestseller and #1 Swiss bestseller. The book held up on the Spiegel bestseller list for 14 weeks (6 of which on #1).

Foreign rights sold:

French (Phébus)
Italian (Sellerio)

Russian (Azbooka)

Please find our English sample by Jamie Bulloch here.

We have just closed the 24th rights deal for Takis Würger's For Polina: Mondial bought Swedish rights. Furthermore, we have received several offers for Czech rights. 

Foreign rights sold:

Albanian (Botart)
Catalan (Les Hores)
Danish (Gad)
Dutch (Meulenhoff)
English/world (Bloomsbury)
Estonian (Tänapäev)
Finnish (Tammi)
French (Calmann-Lévy)
Greek (Psichogios)
Hungarian (Európa)
Italian (Neri Pozza)
Norwegian (Cappelen Damm)
Polish (Literackie)
Portuguese/BRA (Zain)
Portuguese/PT (Bertrand)
Romanian (Bookzone)
Russian (Azbooka)
Serbian (Laguna)
Slovak (Ikar)
Slovenian (Mladinska)
Spanish/world (Alba)
Swedish (Mondial)

Please find our English sample by Katy Derbyshire here.

»The book blew me away and I think it’s fantastic.«

Elke Heidenreich / WDR4, Cologne

»I’m standing here with a wide grin in my face, because what happens in this book is just magnificent.«

Christine Westermann / WDR2, Cologne

»Using these ingredients, the author takes us on a wild, absurd and comical ride to storm through the book’s pages.«

Katia Schwingshandl / Superfly.fm, Vienna

»Katja Früh describes her characters so vividly, you’d love to spend time with them.«

Britta Spichiger / SRF Kultur, Zurich

»Anyone who likes Martin Suter’s books will love this mad story.«

Christiane Graeben / Emotion, Hamburg

Please find our English sample by Jamie Lee Searle here.

Alexandra Roesch's translation of Boy With a Black Rooster by Stefanie vor Schulte (Indigo Press) is nominated for the ›John Calder Translation Prize‹: an annual award for translations from any language into English of ambitious, groundbreaking works of literary merit and general interest, by the ›Society of Authors‹.

Furthermore, two of our books are nominated for the ›Schlegel-Tieck Prize‹: Boy With a Black Rooster (same as above) and The Granddaughter by Bernhard Schlink, translated by Charlotte Collins (Weidenfeld & Nicolson). The ›Schlegel-Tieck Prize‹, awarded by the ›Society of Authors‹, is an annual award for translations into English of German works of literary merit and general interest. 

Úa Matthíasdóttir, publisher of Forlagið says: »In Ósmann, Joachim B. Schmidt’s draws on a rich tradition of storytelling and local lore. The novel is set in a remote corner of Iceland at the end of the 19th century and recreates the life of an extraordinary character with great insight and flair. Jón Ósmann is widely remembered in the region as one of those people that are larger than life, but Schmidt shows you under the surface where you find great depth, complexity, and tragedy. Skillfully constructed and beautifully written, it is a pure delight to read.«

Hallgrímur Helgason, Icelandic novelist: »A remarkable book about an incredible man [...] an absolute miracle.« 

Foreign rights sold:

Czech (Prostor)
English (Bitter Lemon Press)
Icelandic (Forlagið)

Please find our English sample by Jamie Lee Searle here.

Soon to be published in translation: The Shadow of an Open Door by Sasha Filipenko in French

Les Éditions Noir sur Blanc, Lausanne.