Sales Report Frankfurt Bookfair

Rights to a large number of Dutch non-fiction titles were sold during and after the Frankfurt Book Fair. Of the titles in the latest Quality Non-Fiction from Holland, Physical Exercise by Midas Dekkers was sold to Tiderne Skifter (Denmark). Disturbances of the Mind, the latest book by psychologist Douwe Draaisma, was sold to Eichborn (Germany) and PIW (Poland). Draaisma reconstructs the histories of doctors Parkinson, Alzheimer, Korsakov, Asperger and other discoverers of diseases that now carry their names.

Frank Westerman’s new book Ararat was sold to Christoph Links (Germany) and Harvill Secker (United Kingdom). Ararat, which will be published in early 2007, is Westerman’s most personal book yet. It is a journey along the fault-line between religion and science, taking the author to the top of the biblical Mount Ararat in Turkey, where Noah’s Ark is said to have grounded.

The Hour of the Rebels by Lieve Joris was sold to Piper (Germany) and Actes Sud (France). Lieve Joris takes readers deep into the life of a man caught up in the first pan-African war, Joseph Kabila’s struggle against the Congolese dictator Mobutu.

Other rights sold:

• Jelto Drenth’s The Origin of the World to Libros de Araucaria (Argentina);
• Geert Mak’s My Father’s Century to Tiderne Skifter (Denmark);
• Etty Hillesum’s Diaries to Assírio e Alvim (Portugal) and Karmelitánské (Czech Republic);
• Wim Blockmans and Peter Hoppenbrouwers’s Centuries of Distinction. A History of Mediaeval Europe to Routledge (United Kingdom);
• Han van der Horst’s History of The Netherlands to Agram (Croatia) and Ves Mir (Russia);
• Johan Huizinga’s The Waning of the Middle Ages to Carmel (Israel) and
• Vincent Icke’s Christiaan Huygens. Past Perfect to Typotex (Hungary).

Sample translations

We are currently preparing sample translations of Almost Human. Images of the Middle East by Joris Luyendijk, Mayans Ancient and Modern by Dik van der Meulen and Marta Durán de Huerta, World Revolution by Erik van Ree and The World is Being Ruined by Virtue by Bernard Mandeville.

Sample translations of Physical Exercise by Midas Dekkers, The Human Scale by Salomon Kroonenberg, Allah and Eva by Betsy Udink and Smoke Signals by Ineke Holtwijk are already available. All these samples are (or will be) accessible via our website or can be sent to you on request.

by Maarten Valken

Published: November 8, 2006 features | non-fiction