June 2025

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

While we aren't burning pianos, we are certainly burning the midnight oil to do everything for our best-selling titles, two of which are currently among the top five of the Spiegel bestseller list.

    
Your Diogenes Rights Team

✉️ Susanne Bauknecht (Rights Director)
✉️ Suzanne Hégelé
✉️ Jana Lissek
✉️ Claudia Reinert
✉️ Andrej Ruesch

For Polina by Takis Würger has been within the top five titles of the Spiegel bestseller list for 15 weeks – and counting.

 
Since last month, we have sold Spanish rights to Alba, Slovak rights to Ikar and Slovenian rights to Mladinska. This means that the book is going to be available in 11 languages.

Rights sold:

Albanian (Botart)
Catalan (Les Hores)
Dutch (Meulenhoff)
Estonian (Tänapäev)
French (Calmann-Lévy)
Italian (Neri Pozza)
Russian (Azbooka)
Slovak (Ikar)

Slovenian (Mladinska)
Spanish/world (Alba) 

Martin Suter’s Love and Fury remains at #1 on the Spiegel bestseller list

This is rare even for Martin Suter: Love and Fury has been on the Spiegel bestseller list for five weeks, and has climbed up to #1 again.

Rights sold:
French (Phébus)

»Martin Suter’s best in a while.«
Peer Teuwsen / NZZ, Zurich

»Literature for all senses. No hollow promises in the publisher’s catalogue: Suter is indeed at the height of his creative powers.«
Bernhard Heckler / Süddeutsche Zeitung, Munich

Donna Leon's latest non-fiction gem Backstage enters the Spiegel bestseller list at #7, right on publication. On the Austrian bestseller list, the book is an instant #5, and on the Swiss one, an instant #6.
 
Another essential book for all Brunetti fans – and a great pleasure for everybody else too, as Publishers Weekly found: »Even readers unfamiliar with Leon’s fiction will be delighted by these dispatches.«

»As always, location is as much a character as Brunetti himself, and Leon brings Venice and its colorful, and sometimes annoying, citizenry to life through vibrant vignettes. Delightful, breezy, and illuminating.«
Carol Haggas / Booklist, Chicago
 
The UK edition by William Heinemann will be published in July, the US edition by Grove/Atlantic is going to follow in August. 
 
So far, rights are sold as follows:
English/UK (William Heinemann) 
English/US (Grove /Atlantic) 
Finnish (Otava) 
French (Calmann-Lévy) 

Green Gold by Luca Ventura entered at #15 on the Spiegel bestseller list right on publication. With #4 and #7 on the bestseller lists in Austria and Switzerland, Luca Ventura has landed yet another striking success. The sales figures speak for themselves: within just the first two months, 25’000 copies have been sold.

Here are the latest quotes for Green Gold:
»In the new novel, too, the author conjures the flair of rolling waves and craggy cliffs, sweet-smelling herbs and tasty food into our fantasy.«
Münchner Merkur, Munich

»Green Gold will have you longing for warm summer evenings on a South Italian terrace, in front of you a steaming plate of porcini mushroom pasta, refined with the best olive oil.«
Babina Cathomen / Kulturtipp, Zurich

Last year, Luca Ventura’s series was also launched in Italy and France by Giunti and Livre de Poche, to great success. Both publishers are following up with the second instalment these days. Catedral and Univers acquired Spanish and Catalan rights and Tänapäev acquired Estonian rights. Film rights are optioned. 

»A rollercoaster of emotions, a cheerful novel about a fatal failure – you have to be able to pull that off! «
Elke Heidenreich / Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, Cologne

»Christian Schünemann presents a marvellously eccentric and fast-paced book here, which,  although offering a hint of drama, is mostly very funny.«
Stefanie Neuhausen / WDR, Cologne
 
»A multi-faceted family novel in which you get really close to the protagonists.«
Katrin Krämer / NDR, Hamburg

»An outstandingly relaxed and humorous, vivid and authentic story about the attitude towards life, friendship and self-discovery.«
Norbert Striemann / Radio Mülheim, Cologne
 
»Well balanced between laconic wit and quiet melancholy.«
Silvi Feist / Emotion, Hamburg
 
»Schünemann succeeds at creating a multi-layered portrait of German society that’s overwhelming the first time you read it. It makes you want to read it again immediately.« 
Münchner Merkur, Munich
  

Please let us know if you would like to see our English sample.

Ósmann was recommended by New Books in German for an English language publication and therefore an English translation will be funded by Pro Helvetia. 
 
Icelandic rights have been secured by Forlagið.
 
»Schmidt has written an impressive book that sprays you with spindrift from the Greenland Sea and from an eventful life.«

Katharina Teutsch / Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Cologne

»A must-read for fans of Scandinavian culture, and for enthusiasts of portraits of fascinating persons who have been meaningful for many people’s lives.«
Benedikt Dirrigl / Nordbayern, Nuremberg

»Joachim B. Schmidt brings this archaic world to life in all its ambivalence – in wild, mystical beauty and harsh reality.«

Babina Cathomen / Kulturtipp, Zurich

Elena Fischer’s Paradise Garden continues to travel: We have just sold Turkish rights to Domingo and Serbian rights to Publik Praktikum.
 

»Billie whispers in our ears. The revolt breathes in these chapters brimmed with hope and longing. She’s got a sound all of her own, feverish, eclectic.«
Éric Neuhoff, Le Figaro littéraire

»And indeed you’ll cry, a lot. But they’re both cold and hot tears, heartbreaking and moving. You’ll even smile.«
Rita Balestriero / D – La Repubblica delle Donne, Rome

»Heartbreaking and funny at the same time.« 
Het Parool, Amsterdam
 
»Compelling. With all its tension, speed and humor, this coming-of-age story is extremely suitable as a young-adult novel. But don't neglect it if you're over eighteen.«
Trouw, Amsterdam

»I loved this book from page one onwards. It will be beneficial to your heart and soul.«
Jana Šlinská / Denník N, Bratislava

»A book that makes you think on complexity of family ties and developing identity. Tears of laughter and sadness.« 
Raamatukodu, Tallinn

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

The Netflix series Ripley (based on Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley) received the renowned ›Peabody Award‹ in the category ›Entertainment‹. The award ceremony took place on 1 June in Los Angeles.

Rights sold: 
Arabic (Al Mada), Armenian (Antares), Bulgarian (Fama), Catalan (Navona), Chinese/CN (Shanghai Translation), Chinese/TW (Owl/Cité), Czech (Slovart), Dutch (Arbeiderspers), English/UK (William Heinemann), English/USA (Norton), Finnish (WSOY), French (Calmann-Lévy), Galician (Kalandraka), Georgian (Diogene), Greek (Agra), Hebrew (Hakibbutz Hameuhad), Hungarian (Kossuth), Indonesian (Gramedia), Italian (La nave di Teseo), Japanese (Kawade Shobo), Korean (Eulyoo), Latvian (Zvaigzne), Norwegian (Gyldendal Norsk), Polish (Noir sur Blanc), Portuguese/BRA (Intrínseca), Portuguese/PT (Relógio d'Agua), Romanian (Art), Russian (Azbooka-Atticus), Serbian (LOM), Slovak (Slovart), Spanish/world (Anagrama), Swedish (Modernista), Turkish (Iletisim), Ukrainian (Nebo BookLab), Vietnamese (BachvietBooks)
 
Rights still available:
Croatian, Danish, Icelandic, Estonian, Lithuanian

Now published in translation: Allmen and Mr. Weynfeldt in French

French edition of Allmen and Mr. Weynfeldt by Martin Suter by Phébus, Paris.