Going global

In just one month Fiona Kidman’s novel The Book of Secrets appeared in Paris as Le Livre de Secrets to full-page reviews in nearly all leading daily newspapers; her poetry collection Where Your Left Hand Rests was translated into Italian as Dove si Posa la Mano Sinistra (by a team of translators in New Zealand and Italy, led by Marco Sonzogni from Victoria University); and her story Hats appeared as Sombreros in a Spanish anthology of New Zealand short stories called Un pais de cuento, translated and edited by Paloma Fresno Calleja and Janet Wilson. The anthology’s 25 stories include the work of Katherine Mansfield, Albert Wendt, Vincent O'Sullivan, Patricia Grace, Fiona Farrell, Owen Marshall and Sue Orr. Kidman also received confirmation that German rights have been sold for her most recent novel The Infinite Air.

Her French publisher has previously published her short-story collection The Trouble with Fire and her novel The Captive Wife (entitled Rescapée), published in 2006. The covers of the French editions follow a standard design, an approach which is in stark contrast to the Romanian edition of The Captive Wife (Lupta cu Destinul) published in 2009.

Speaking of Romania, another publisher there has just bought Romanian language rights to Craig Cliff’s The Mannequin Makers. Meanwhile Ben Atkins’ novel Drowning City, published in March 2014, has sold to a German company, and Judith White’s novel The Elusive Language of Ducks has been released in the UK this month. White’s novel will also be published in Taiwan, as will Carl Nixon’s Rocking Horse Road. Previously Taiwan has sampled New Zealand writing through Paul Cleave’s novels, but readers there were also treated to a lot more with New Zealand being the Guest Country of Honour at the 2015 Taiwan International Book Exhibition.

No bad for residents of a few shaky isles at the bottom of the Pacific. Keep your eyes out for these New Zealand authors and more making big waves around the world.