Beside the Sea
Véronique Olmi
A single mother takes her two young sons on a trip to the seaside. They stay in a hotel, drink hot chocolate and go to the funfair. She wants to protect them from an uncomprehending and cold world. She knows that it will be the last trip for her boys.
A haunting and thought-provoking story about how a mother’s love for her children can be more dangerous than the dark world she is seeking to keep at bay.
"This is a mesmerising portrait ... it should be read." Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian
"Stories of mothers who are unable to cope, are rarely, if ever heard. Making Beside the Sea such an important book." Rachel Lichtenstein, author
The French bestseller, first published in 2001, has been translated into all major European languages - now for the first time available in English.
Translated from French by Adriana Hunter.
120pp, Paperback with Flaps, £8.99
February 2010
ISBN 978-0-9562840-2-0
English World Rights, Canadian Rights sold to McArthur & Co
Stone in a Landslide
Maria Barbal
The beginning of the 20th century: 13-year-old Conxa leaves her home village in the Pyrenees to work for her childless aunt. After years of hardship she finds love with Jaume – a love that will be thwarted by the Spanish Civil War. Approaching her own death, Conxa looks back on a life in which she has lost everything except her own indomitable spirit.
"There is an understated power in Barbal’s depiction of how the forces of history can shape the life of the powerless." Financial Times
"So vibrant, that it makes me want to take scissors to everything else I read." The Guardian
The Catalan modern classic, first published in 1985, now in its 50th edition, with over 50 000 copies sold in the last two years in Germany alone, for the first time in English.
Translated from Catalan by Laura McGloughlin and Paul Mitchell.
126pp, Paperback with Flaps, £8.99
June 2010
ISBN 978-0-9562840-1-3
English World Rights
Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman
Friedrich Christian Delius
Rome one January afternoon in 1943. A young German woman is on her way to listen to a Bach concert at the Lutheran church. Innocent and naïve, the war is for her little more than a day-dream, until she realizes that her husband might never return.
This is a mesmerizing psychological portrait of the human need to safeguard innocence and integrity at any cost - even at the risk of excluding reality.
A literary masterpiece by one of Germany's most renowned contemporary writers.
"The book's last paragraph, overtly expressing nothing more than the young woman's intention to write a letter, is one of the most moving conclusions I've ever read." Nick Lezard, The Guardian
"What a superb translation. This extraordinary and eloquent novella, a true tour de force, has made me long to find more of Delius's work straightway." Miranda Seymour, author
Translated from German by Jamie Bulloch.
125pp, Paperback with Flaps, £8.99
September 2010
ISBN 978-0-9562840-0-6
English World Rights