Open Letter published Arnon Grunberg's Tirza last year, and was interested in bringing out two more of his novels in translation, De man zonder ziekte (see the Dutch Foundation for Literature information page) and De asielzoeker, but, as publisher Chad Post now reports in the tellingly-titled Reason #387 Why Publishing Is a Thankless, Frustrating Business at Three Percent, they apparently won't be.
Basically, Grunberg's 'literary' agent(s) think Open Letter doesn't have quite the necessary: "power and marketing force in order to get Arnon the breakthrough he deserves" and are looking for bigger and better opportunities.
Chad offers some interesting details and background -- both noting that Tirza got some pretty damned good media coverage, including in the (still-)notoriously-translated-fiction-phobic The New York Times Book Review and that it had only sold (presumably just) "over 2000 copies". (I admit I'm stunned that it didn't do better -- as you've heard me say for years, from long before it came out in English, this is one hell of a good book, and it's one of my favorites-of-the-year; how and why it didn't fare better than Herman Koch's somewhat similar but nowhere near as good The Dinner remains a mystery to me (and, no, it can't just be the marketing/distribution weight they were able to throw around: Tirza got pretty decent support, too).)
Chad has a brief mention of who he was dealing with, but this Arnon Grunberg Agency -- "Nijgh & Van Ditmar and Lebowski Publishers join forces to promote foreign sales of Arnon Grunberg's oeuvre" -- founded two years ago, seems an interesting approach to foreign rights marketing ("In addition to international rights sales, the publishers will also see to the promotion and positioning of Arnon Grunberg's work abroad"). Interesting -- but one wonders how well though-through their plans and ambitions are.
As Chad notes:
More to the point, now: who is going to jump on board now ? Open Letter had open arms; Penguin, who I suspect did not do well with The Jewish Messiah (not Grunberg's best), surely feels once-burned -- and as far as fiction in translation of this sort goes, how many US options are there anyway ?
Presumably, his agency sees a set-up like he has with German-Swiss publisher Diogenes, who publish him regularly in their nice uniform editions, and they want that sort of cozy arrangement with a US major too. Good luck with that.
(Note that Grunberg has been even more poorly-served in the UK market -- with Comma Press (another not-juggernaut) the only locals to publish anything by him (Amuse-Bouche).)
Grunberg is one of the major European writers of our day -- one reason eleven of his books are under review at the complete review -- and he obviously deserves a larger audience in the English-language market, with more of his titles translated. Open Letter seems like a great fit to make that possible -- even if the immediate cash-rewards aren't as great as they would be if a major can be convinced to take him on. But are the majors seriously considering his work ? (Sure, they should be -- but they tend to have funny other ideas .....)
Basically, Grunberg's 'literary' agent(s) think Open Letter doesn't have quite the necessary: "power and marketing force in order to get Arnon the breakthrough he deserves" and are looking for bigger and better opportunities.
Chad offers some interesting details and background -- both noting that Tirza got some pretty damned good media coverage, including in the (still-)notoriously-translated-fiction-phobic The New York Times Book Review and that it had only sold (presumably just) "over 2000 copies". (I admit I'm stunned that it didn't do better -- as you've heard me say for years, from long before it came out in English, this is one hell of a good book, and it's one of my favorites-of-the-year; how and why it didn't fare better than Herman Koch's somewhat similar but nowhere near as good The Dinner remains a mystery to me (and, no, it can't just be the marketing/distribution weight they were able to throw around: Tirza got pretty decent support, too).)
Chad has a brief mention of who he was dealing with, but this Arnon Grunberg Agency -- "Nijgh & Van Ditmar and Lebowski Publishers join forces to promote foreign sales of Arnon Grunberg's oeuvre" -- founded two years ago, seems an interesting approach to foreign rights marketing ("In addition to international rights sales, the publishers will also see to the promotion and positioning of Arnon Grunberg's work abroad"). Interesting -- but one wonders how well though-through their plans and ambitions are.
As Chad notes:
In case you're not aware of Arnon's publishing history in the U.S., in 1997, Farrar, Straus & Giroux brought out his debut novel, Blue Mondays. A few years later, 2001 to be exact, St. Martin's brought out Silent Extras. Three years later, Other Press brought out two of Arnon's books, Phantom Pain and The Story of My Baldness. Then, in 2008, Penguin brought out The Jewish Messiah. And finally, in 2013, Open Letter publishes Tirza.As Chad notes, that sort of publication history, while impressive on one level, also raises some red flags -- i.e. why didn't any publisher stick with him for more than two books ?
More to the point, now: who is going to jump on board now ? Open Letter had open arms; Penguin, who I suspect did not do well with The Jewish Messiah (not Grunberg's best), surely feels once-burned -- and as far as fiction in translation of this sort goes, how many US options are there anyway ?
Presumably, his agency sees a set-up like he has with German-Swiss publisher Diogenes, who publish him regularly in their nice uniform editions, and they want that sort of cozy arrangement with a US major too. Good luck with that.
(Note that Grunberg has been even more poorly-served in the UK market -- with Comma Press (another not-juggernaut) the only locals to publish anything by him (Amuse-Bouche).)
Grunberg is one of the major European writers of our day -- one reason eleven of his books are under review at the complete review -- and he obviously deserves a larger audience in the English-language market, with more of his titles translated. Open Letter seems like a great fit to make that possible -- even if the immediate cash-rewards aren't as great as they would be if a major can be convinced to take him on. But are the majors seriously considering his work ? (Sure, they should be -- but they tend to have funny other ideas .....)