English world rights (Seagull), Spanish world rights (Hidalgo), Chinese simplex rights (Beijing Qingyan), Chinese complex rights (China Times Publishing), France (Piranha), Italy (Del Vecchio Editore), Hungary (Bookart), Bulgaria (Atlantis), Republic of Moldova / Romanian Rights (Cartier), Estonia (Atlex), Serbia (Presing Izdavastvo), Macedonia (Ars Lamina)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Book Club (Bertelsmann), German Audiobook (Der Hörverlag)
Two sisters, one driver: Their journey through Bulgaria becomes a black-humored pay-off with their father and his country.
Two sisters are travelling through present-day Bulgaria. On the first half of their journey they were part of a grand convoy of limousines, taking the bodies of 19 Bulgarian expatriates, including their fathers, from Stuttgart back to their homeland. Now they are tourists, being chauffeured by Rumen Apostoloff. He wants to show them his countryâs treasures but his attempts to mediate between Sofia and Stuttgart are not successful. For both sisters the Bulgarian inheritance is a heavy load.
»The novelâs brilliance rests in the way it mercilessly plays with language. The reader simply cannot get enough of the often gruff, sometimes pointed, sometimes theatrical meandering tirades of the bellicose tyrant of a heroine.« Literaturen
»Lewitscharoffâs style does not center on an analysis or exposition of the dysfunctional family, but instead on its transformation into the comic, the burlesque, the grotesque, into a Punch-and-Judy show at the worldâs great carnival.« Die Zeit
»Those looking to get to know Sibylle Lewitscharoff will find a little bit of Eichendorff, a little Robert Walser and Peter Handke, and a bit of world-weary impudence and a tremendous desire for expression, a great deal of politeness and precision, a penchant for despising the absurd and, above all, a well-traveled savviness that is as at ease in different surroundings as it is stubborn to not be dissuaded from the conviction that life is full of beauty.« SĂŒddeutsche Zeitung
»Apostoloff is brimming with ferocity, plays on language and impertinence. Sparkling, enjoy-able literature.« Der Spiegel
»The most dazzling stylist of contemporary German literature unleashes a barrage against Bulgaria.« Die Welt
Things arenât great with our flighty hero. Not even the clear night sky can entice him from his bed. The disappointment about the humiliation his »so-called friend« inflicted on him is too great.
Gloomy weeks skulk by until the phone rings one morning and a not entirely unlikable lady whom Pong has just met voices interest in the empty flat in his house. The background check comes...
Sibylle Lewitscharoffâs narrator is looking down onto his own grave, the bereaved friends and neighbours, onto the strange and the familiar in the city that is moaning under the oppressive heat...
Arabic world rights (Fawasel)
A highly dramatic scene: a father leans over the defenceless boy, the knife flashing in his hand â when, at the last moment, an angel orders him to sacrifice a ram instead of his own son. The...
Russia (Medina)
Renowned Dante scholars from all around the world meet in the ancient hall of Maltese at the Roman Aventine, within view of the St. Peterâs Basilica. The center of interest is Danteâs Divine...
France (Piranha)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Audiobuch); German Entire Radio Reading (NDR)
France (Piranha), Italy (Del Vecchio)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Random House Audio)
English world rights (Seagull), Spanish world rights (Adriana Hidalgo), Chinese simplex rights (Shanghai Translation Publishing House), France (Les Belles Lettres), Italy (Del Vecchio Editore), Bulgaria (Atlantis), Slovenia (Sodobnost)