Rights sold
UNHAPPINESS AT THE AURORA HOUSING ESTATE by Réka Mán-Várhegyi sold to Italy (May 2019)
Réka Mán-Várhegyi’s short story collection, Unhappiness at the Aurora Housing Estate has been sold to the Italian publisher Spider and Fish. The characters of this surprisingly mature first volume by the winner of the European Union Literature Prize 2019 are Hungarian intellectuals and other middle-class characters who are trying to find their place in the world. More
MAGNET HILL by Réka Mán-Várhegyi sold to five territories (May 2019)
Magnet Hill, the novel of Réka Mán-Várhegyi, winner of the European Union Prize for Literature 2019 has been sold to Bulgaria (Colibri), Croatia (VBZ), Italy (Spider and Fish), Macedonia (Artkonekt) and Serbia (Heliks). More
World English rights to A MARKET DAY by Pál Závada sold (April 2019)
Pál Závada’s novel on anti-Semitic pogroms of 1946 in Hungary has been sold to Seagull. How do people come to be part of a lynch mob? To be more precise: what makes passers-by in a village and customers at a market turn against their neighbours who had just come back from death factories? Pál Závada’s new novel tries to give an answer to this question. More
THE BIRDS OF VERHOVINA by Ádám Bodor sold to Syria (March 2019)
The Arabic rights to Ádám Bodor’s novel The Birds of Verhovina have been sold to Fawasel, Syria. More
THE WAR AFTER THE WAR TO END ALL WARS by Benedek Totth sold to Bulgaria (March 2019)
Benedek Totth’s post-apocalyptic adventure story that takes place in a city that had been bombed to ruin in a war between Russian partisans and American commandos has been sold to the Bulgarian publisher Ergo. More
MY TANK by Viktor Horváth sold to Bulgaria (March 2019)
Viktor Horváth’s My Tank, a novel about the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union and its satellite states in 1968, has been sold to the Bulgarian publisher Ergo. More
ON INTIMATE TERMS by Edina Szvoren sold to Serbia (December 2018)
The Serbian publisher Heliks bought the translation rights to a short story collection by Edina Szvoren. Praised as one of the most important Hungarian books of the last decades, On Intimate Terms is the first volume by Edina Szvoren, the most compelling short story writer in Hungary today. More
TURKISH MIRROR by Viktor Horváth sold to Minerva, Romania (November 2018)
Turkish Mirror takes the reader on an adventurous journey back in time to 16th century Hungary, when the country was still a new suzerainty of the victorious Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent. Winner of the European Union Prize for Literature in 2012, Turkish Mirror has been published in eight languages to date. More
DEAD HEAT by Benedek Totth sold to Aramis, Romania (November 2018)
Elements of the teenage novel, the detective story, the psychological thriller, and the Bildungsroman mingle in this strange text about teenagers, loitering mostly unhappily, sometimes sad but more usually angry. A cult novel which is like Trainspotting in the swimming pool, according to fellow writer György Dragomán. More
INCOGNITO by Tibor Noé Kiss sold to Lambda, Slovenia (October 2018)
The rights to Incognito (Inkognitó, 2010), a gripping account of the life of a transgender person in Hungarian society, have been sold to Slovenia. More
AQUARIUM by Krisztina Tóth sold to China (June 2018)
Yilin Press has bought the Chinese rights to Krisztina Tóth’s first (and so far, only) novel, Aquarium. Shortlisted for the Internationaler Literaturpreis in Germany in 2015, Aquarium is a novel about Budapest in the 1950s. More
FOLLOWING YOU by Krisztián Grecsó sold to Syria (May 2018)
Fawasel, a press based in Lattakia, Syria, has bought the Arabic rights to Krisztián Grecsó’s novel Following You. Previously published in Turkish, this is a coming-of-age novel in which a teenager fights for his position as gang leader and tells his story through his love affairs. More
Bulgarian rights to MARKET DAY by Pál Závada sold (May 2018)
The Sofia-based publisher Riva has bought the Bulgarian rights to Pál Závada’s novel, an inquiry into the psychology of lynch mobs. Market Day tells the story of anti-Semitic pogroms of 1946 in Hungary. More
Czech rights to STONE FROG by György Spiró sold (March 2018)
Novela Bohemica has bought the Czech translation rights to György Spiró’s most recent book, Stone Frog. A dystopian adventure story that takes place in the past and in the future, Stone Frog is a historical satire about the frailty, stupidity and helplessness of human beings. More
Albanian rights to Viktor Horváth’s TURKISH MIRROR sold (March 2018)
Ejal Publishing has bought the Albanian rights to Viktor Horváth’s novel, Turkish Mirror, a book which takes the reader on an adventurous journey back in time to 16th century Hungary, when the country was still a new suzerainty of the victorious Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent. Winner of the European Union Prize for Literature in 2012, Turkish Mirror has been published in eight languages to date. More
English world rights of THE STORY OF A STAMMER by Gábor Vida sold (March 2018)
The English world rights of Gábor Vida’s The Story of a Stammer (Egy dadogás története, 2017) have been sold to Seagull Books. Described by critics as “the autobiography of Transylvania,” Vida’s novel tells the story of a Hungarian family in Romania at the end of the 20th century. The Story of a Stammer describes rural life in the Ceaușescu era, with its oppressive atmosphere, dictatorship and poverty. More
HAPPY NORTH by Árpád Kun sold to France (January 2018)
The French rights of Árpád Kun’s first novel have been sold to Viviane Hamy. Happy North (Boldog Észak, 2013), a beautiful novel which takes place partly in Africa, partly in Norway, has already been published in Czech (Volvox Globátor), Turkish (Alakarga), Serbian (Dereta) and Spanish (Tropo Editores). More
THE WAR AFTER THE WAR TO END ALL WARS by Benedek Totth sold to France (January 2018)
After the success of Benedek Totth’s first novel, Dead Heat (Holtverseny, 2014), published in French in the brilliant translation of Natalia Zaremba-Huzsvai and Charles Zaremba in the Actes Noirs series of Actes Sud, the French publisher also bought the rights for the young writer’s new novel, The War After the War to End All Wars (Az utolsó utáni háború, 2017), a post-apocalyptic adventure story about a young boy. More
NATURAL LIGHT by Pál Závada sold to Slovakia (February 2018)
Pál Závada’s magnum opus, now sold to Slovart in Slovakia, is a novel about World War II, as well as the years leading up to it and following it. The story narrates the life of inhabitants of a large Slovak- populated village in Hungary, at home and in various locations in Central and Eastern Europe. More
CRASH TEST by Anna Szabó T. sold to Slovakia (February 2018)
Zeleny Kocúr has bought the Slovakian rights to the first prose volume of poet Anna Szabó T. Written in condensed, highly charged prose, Crash Test (Törésteszt, 2016) consists of monologues and dialogues that capture moments in which the essence of a life or of a relationship comes to light. Zeleny Kocúr is planning to publish Crash Test together with The Bonfire (Máglya) by György Dragomán – incidentally, the husband of Anna Szabó T. – as part of a series of contemporary Hungarian literature. More
SHE LETS ME IN by Judit Szaniszló sold to Serbia (November 2017)
Judit Szaniszló’s She Lets Me In (Beenged, 2016), a book that has been praised as ‘an Eastern European Bridget Jones’s Diary,’ mapping the world of a thirty-something woman in Hungary today, has been sold to Areté, Serbia. More
PIXEL by Krisztina Tóth sold in Italian (September 2017)
Edizioni ETS has bought the Italian rights to Krisztina Tóth’s Pixel, a novel in short stories, sold into eight languages to date. More
SEPTEMBER 1972 by Imre Oravecz sold to France
A volume of prose poems by poet and novelist Imre Oravecz has been sold to the French publisher Cambourakis. In September 1972, Oravecz tells the story of a woman and a man, from their meeting until their separation, their joys and their pain. More
COMMUNIST MONTE CRISTO by Noémi Szécsi sold to Albania (July 2017)
The Albanian rights to Noémi Szécsi’s Communist Monte Cristo (Kommunista Monte Cristo, 2006) have been sold to Libraria Tirana Times. Szécsi’s novel, winner of the European Union Prize for Literature (2009) offers an introduction to 20th century Hungarian history and exposes the imbecility of politics. Previously, rights had been sold to Macedonia (Ili-ili), Serbia (Zavet), Bulgaria (Ergo), Croatia (Naklada Ljevak), Turkey (Tekin) and Italy (Mimesis). More
A selection of Zsófia Bán’s essays sold to Germany (June 2017)
Matthes & Seitz Berlin bought the German rights to a selection of essays by Zsófia Bán, to be published in their series entitled ‘Spurensicherung’ under the title Der Sommer unseres Missvergnügens (translated by Terézia Mora). Previously, Bán’s collection of short stories When There Were Only Animals (Amikor még csak az állatok éltek, 2012), published by Suhrkamp Verlag, was shortlisted for Der Internationaler Literaturpreis 2014. More
INCOGNITO by Tibor Noé Kiss sold to Poland (January 2017)
The rights to Incognito (Inkognitó, 2010), a gripping account of the life of a transgender person in Hungarian society, have been sold to the Polish publisher Książkowe Klimaty. More
THE BIRDS OF VERHOVINA by Ádám Bodor sold in Italian (May 2017)
The rights to The Birds of Verhovina by Ádám Bodor have been sold to the Italian publisher Il Saggiatore. The Birds of Verhovina is the description of a totalitarian society that alternately provokes laughter and shuddering in the reader. More
World English rights of PIXEL by Krisztina Tóth sold (June 2017)
The thirty tales of this ‘novel in short stories’ explore the invisible threads that connect relatives and strangers alike. World English rights have been sold to Seagull. More
