November 2025

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Did the Frankfurt Book Fair end yesterday or today? This is our mindset these days because we were happy to close one deal after another at the fair and in the meantime, so that the fair adrenaline stretched longer than usual.

Furthermore, there's a new face on the team: Patrizia Hasler is your new contact for film rights.

    
Your Diogenes Rights Team,

✉️ Susanne Bauknecht (Rights Director)

✉️ Patrizia Hasler

✉️ Jana Lissek

✉️ Claudia Reinert

✉️ Andrej Ruesch

We have closed eight deals for Takis Würger's For Polina during or straight after the Frankfurt Book Fair: Danish (Gad, pre-empt), Greek (Psichogios), Hungarian (Európa), Norwegian (Cappelen Damm, also in a pre-empt), Polish (Literackie), Portuguese/BRA (Zain), Portuguese/PT (Bertrand), and Romanian (Bookzone). Meanwhile, we are reviewing offers for Swedish rights.

Therefore, For Polina will be available in 23 languages (as of today):
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)

Please find our English sample by Katy Derbyshire here.

Great news for our literary highlight in our spring 2026 programme: Polish publisher Pauza bagged Esther Schüttpelz' second novel Green Wave four 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.

We have commissioned an English sample, which will be ready soon. There is more to come for this book, we are sure!

Another prominent Frankfurt title was Julia Engelmann's Where the Sky Never Ends: We sold Slovak rights to Ikar.

Rights currently sold:
Russian (Azbooka)
Slovak (Ikar)
Spanish/world (Urano)

Please find our English sample by Katy Derbyshire here.

We have just sold English rights to Ósmann by Joachim B. Schmidt: Bitter Lemon Press, the British publisher of the Kalmann mysteries, secured English language world rights. The release of their edition is scheduled for spring 2027.

Furthermore, Forlagið have just released their Icelandic edition of Ósmann. With the success of his two Kalmann books, to be published in 14 languages and being adapted for a TV series in Iceland, Joachim B. Schmidt has definitely become an essential figure in contemporary Icelandic literature. Ósmann and its author were prominently featured on the broadcast Kiljan on Icelandic public TV station RÚV – here’s a link to the on-site conversation between host Egill Helgason and Joachim B. Schmidt: Kiljan - Spilari RÚV
 
Rights currently sold:
Czech (Prostor)
English/world (Bitter Lemon)
Icelandic (Forlagið)
 
»A truly delightful read by the author of the Kalmann books.«
Bóktíðindi, Reykjavík

Please find our English sample by Jamie Lee Searle here.

Bernhard Schlink was awarded the ›Prize of the European Novel‹ (›Premio de Novela Europea Casino de Santiago‹) for his novel The Granddaughter. The ceremony took place in Santiago de Compostela in Spain on 28 October 2025. The Granddaughter was praised by the president of the Cultural Club of the Santiago Casino as a portrait of a very complex Germany at a dangerous moment in Europe.

To date, the first six books of Luca Ventura's Capri mystery series have sold an astounding total of 300’000 German copies. 

We have closed another two-book-deal with Giunti for the third and fourth instalments of the series, In a Hidden Cove and Pale as the Moon.
 
Rights currently sold of In the Middle of August: 
Arabic (Al-Arabi) 
Catalan (Enciclopèdia Catalana) 
Estonian (Tänapäev)
French (Livre de Poche) 
Italian (Giunti) 
Spanish/world (Enciclopèdia Catalana)

In the French newspaper Le Monde des Livres, Isabelle Mandraud writes: »...the third instalment of a story that straddles the line between caustic fantasy and raw reality. Andrey Kurkov excels in this genre.«

The UK and US editions will be published in spring 2026.

Rights currently sold:
English/UK (MacLehose)
English/US (HarperVia)
French (Liana Levi)
Italian (Marsilio)
Polish (Noir sur Blanc)
Romanian (Paralela 45)
Ukrainian (Folio)

A stage adaptation of the novel The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith is currently on tour in the UK. Adapted by Mark Leipacher, it opened in September in Oxford and will be in theatres until May 2026. 

Furthermore, the new stage adaptation of Ripley by Joanna Murray-Smith opened at the ›Sydney Theatre Company‹ in August and can now be watched at the ›Arts Centre Melbourne‹. 

»Highsmith’s cool moral ambiguity survives intact: are we watching a victim of class envy, or a predator who learns how to flourish?«
Samantha McGregor / Oxfordshire Guardian (on the UK adaptation)

We were happy to rediscover Seeds and more Seeds, the classic from the year 1959 by Tomi Ungerer, which we are going to publish in January 2026. And two publishers promptly joined us.

Rights currently sold: 
French (École des Loisirs)
Italian (Lupo Guido)

Soon to be published in translation: Allmen and Mr. Weynfeldt by Martin Suter in Italian

Sellerio, Palermo.