This list contains all the books that Ailantus bought Dutch translation rights for and the Dutch titles they control translation rights for. 
The foreign titles mention the original agent, not the subagent, or the publishing house that controls the rights. We try to update this list with our acquisitions and try to list all the other foreign publishing houses who acquired rights as well so that you don’t purchase a title in vain.
 
We didn't have time to update for a while, but we have been buying some fantastic books. Here's the complete Ailantus list with all the new stuff we bought for Frankfurt 2010 in Ailantus purple.

Chris Adrian The Children’s Hospital [US]
Rights: Janklow & Nesbit
Adrian's debut  Gob's Grief was published by Lidewijde Paris at Querido's. His second novel The Children's Hospital got superb reviews. Adrian is being considered as one of the most interesting young talents in the US and is now been chosen as one of the best 20 writers under 40 by The New Yorker. After a storm a children's hospital gets separated from the main building and floats around with sick children and staff and family. In daytime: the earth has gone, the hospital is a kind of self service kind of machine with an angel in the intercom who only wants to serve once she has been named. Jemma thinks this is all nonsense, but she has to give in. You can't talk about this book without getting in to details because is magical. It hilarious, is really deeply moving, there is loads of dark humor in it and a lot of sex. And in fact it is about the world coming to an end.
I think this is one of the best book I've ever read. It's very very long but I wouldn't have missed a page. We will publish in february 2011. I'm sure it will work. It's for readers of David Mitchell and of people of science fiction. It can go every way.
 
Elisa Albert The Book of Dahlia [USA] and Why this Night is Different [USA]
Rights: WritersHouse
Dahlia Finger, a 29 year old pot head, under employed misanthrope, has a lethal type of cancer. With the help of an infuriating, relentlessly cheerful You Can Beat Cancer self-help book she has a look at her life. ‘Superb first novel’ PW **  
Albert's shortstories are not as straight forward as her novel. But they are witty and sharp and moving in a way.
 
Steven Amsterdam Things We Didn't See Coming [Aus]
Rights: Ralph Vicinanza
Linked stories by thé New Name in Australian literature. The unnamed main character finds himself in all sorts of unforseen situations that seem to head towards the end of the world. Enormously strong and intense voice. Someone to watch. Now on the longlist for the Guardian First Novel Award.
 
María Cecilia Barbetta Änderungsschneiderei Los Milagros [Germ / Arg]
Rights: S. Fischer
This debutnovel by the Argentinian author Barbetta - written in German - is a delight. It tells the story of the young Mariana Nalo who works in the dressmakers shop of her aunt where she meets her alter-ego Analía Morán. She has to change her mothers wedding gown for her and that sets the story in motion. For instance why is her name an anagram of Analía's name? Intelligent, witty, intruiging and special. Published with all sorts of pictures, really great. Winner of the Aspekte Literatur Preis.
Sold to: Argentinia (Edhasa), Finland (Atena), Korea (Muhhakdongne).
 
John Biguenet Oyster [US] and a selection from The Torturer's Apprentice [US]
Rights: HarperCollins US
A family history from the south of the US in the fifties. Rivalry between two marriages get to a climax when the young daughter is forced into a marriage to the old father of the other family in order to save the family property and boat. She decided to take things into her own hands. Wonderfully written. Old debut now a bestseller in France. Shortlisted for the big French readers' award.
Biguenet's stories are amazing. The author knows how to create a world and time in only two lines. After reading you need a bit of time to come to your senses.
 
Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès Là oú les tigres sont chex eux- Where the tigers are at home [Fr]
Rights: Wandel Cruse Ag
Winner of the Prix Fnac, Prix Médicis etc. A Superb novel with many storylines and subplots. In the centre Eléazar who gets the request to translate and abridge the biography Schott wrote on Athanasius Kircher. You get the lives of all the people involved, bits and pieces of the astounding biography and the thoughts of Eléazar on all this. Exciting, erotic, funny, suspenseful writing. A masterpiece. Brilliant reviews in Holland. Raving really. But: you love it or you hate it. We love it. 3rd printrun.
 
Jean-Marie Blaxs de Roblès Le montagne de minuit  [Fr]
Rights: Wandel Cruse Ag
After his stunning long novel Where the tigers are at home English right still fee get them now a shorter one. Man writes a novel about his childhood in an apartment building with a very quiet friendly ascetic neighbour. Each chapter is being read and commented upon by his mum and she has a whole different idea of the past. Exciting. Beautiful writing. Very good follow up after his big one for us. And if you want to start with him, very good appetizer for the big thing.

Karin Brynard Plaasmoord /Murder on Huilwater [SA]
Rights: NB Publishers
The young painter Freddie has been murdered in her farm together with the black girl she’s adopted. Her sister Saar comes over to help solve the crime with the Inspector. Amongst Freddies paintings is one showing the exact pose in which Freddie was put when killed. Fabulous story, not just a thriller. Received four literary awards and was shortlisted for two more. Written in a very lively deadpan tone.
 
Peter Cameron The city of your final destination [US]
Rights: Irene Skolnick
Very well written and exciting read. Student Omar wants to write the biography of a dead author but forgot to wait for the family to agree. He travels to Uruguay where they all live and gets entangled in a strange family setting. He's doing fine until his girlfriend shows up. Moving and a superb read, bestseller in Italy. A movie will be out in 2009 with Anthony Hopkins!!
 
Peter Cameron Andorra [US]
Rights: Irene Skolnick
Another magical story from Cameron. Guy arrives in Andorra to start a new life. He gets to know the important people, rents a house, but no-one knows who he is really. They learn that his wife died and later that he had a child as well. But when a corpse shows up in the harbour he is a suspect. And later on another one... You read it like a sort of Great Gatsby novel, that atmosphere, but at the final page he plays a trick on you and turns the whole thing upside down. Wonderful.
 
Lindsay Clarke The Water Theatre [UK]
Rights: United Agents
Classic story in a way: lower class boy Martin befriends upper class boy Adam and discovers a new world: politics and Africa. Adam’s father Hal  becomes Martin’s mentor. The book starts when Hal lies dying and asks Martin to find his two estranged children in Italy. The past has come between them all. Very good atmosphere, Atonement like. Sort of happy ending.

Matthew Condon The Trout Opera [Aus]
Rights: RC&W
Major big Australian novel. Masterpiece. Got nominated for several awards. 99 year old Wilfred Lampe get taken away form his farm where he still lives alone in order to be patched up for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, as living symbol of their history. But Lampe thinks he's dead and in heaven and sees his whole life go by. From the magical moment when he was the star actor in the Trout Opera aged six, until his long life love was lost to another man. The village saw Lampe been taken and sends an alarm that he has been abducted... so the Olympics people have to go and find his only relative a great niece who doesn't know Lampe exists and he doesn't know her either. And besides she doesn't want to be found. Charming reading, many lines. Moving, witty, lots of history, big scenes and characters.
 
Nicolas Dickner Nikolski  [Fr Can]
Rights: Éditions Alto Inc., Canada / Montreal Contacts
Three young people wander around longing for family. They meet but never know they are related. The reader does though. Wonderful debut novel full of imagination and in a great style. Novel was short listed for the Governor General’s award, and got 4 other prizes. Sold to: UK (Portobello), France (Éditions Denoël), Israel (Ketter Books), Russia (Centrepolygraph Publishing)
 
Nicolas Dickner Tarmac [Fr Can]
Rights: Éditions Alto Inc., Canada / Montreal Contacts
Brilliant second novel. Unbelievably witty and endearing and yet with such a strong independent voice. Hope Randall lives in a family that awaits the end of the world. When she meets Mickey - and he falls totally in love with her - she learns that life can be very different. Enter: a guru up with a final date! Hope she dashes after him and ends up in Japan. Fantastic ending!
 
EKM Dido Another Me [SA]                                                                                                                  
Rights: Umuzi / Random House South Africa
A woman is in hospital after a severe attack. When she comes by from a coma she doesn't know who she is and after recovery is being sent to a homeless centre. She has to figure out who she is. A bestseller in South Africa, written by the first ‘brown’ African female successful write in SA.
 
Gerard Donovan Julius Winsome [Ire]
Rights: The Wylie Agency
A literary beauty: Julius' dog has been shot and he instantly shoots three men in the hunting forest. He was brought up with Shakespeare and the 3.000 books his dad left him. A mix of suspense in a very literary language. Donovan is a top talent, his previous books were short listed for many awards. Sold to: US, UK, France, Germany, Israel, Spain
 
Gerard Donovan Schopenhauer's Telescope  [Ire]
Rights: The Wylie Agency
A baker digs a hole, a teacher is watching and talking to him. It's war and they discuss impacts of war through the ages. The baker sided with the enemy. The techer knows his wife could be dead or in a camp somewhere. The baker knows more. Then the hole gets more and more the shape of a grave. Longlisted for the Man Booker Award.
 
Liam Durcan García’s Heart [Eng Can]
Rights: The Bukowski Agency
Young neurologist Patrick is  being called to the international crime court in The Hague (NL) to talk to the lawyer of the mentor from his teens. A journalist has revealed that the mentor assisted the torturers in Honduras as a doctor. Not a story about crime, but about morals and ethics. Sold to: Italy (L’Ancora del Mediterraneano), USA (Thomas Dunne Books)
 
Marina Endicott Good to a Fault [Eng Can]
Rights: The Wylie Agency
Helen hits her car into an old van. Out spils a whole family, apparently bleeding. In the hospital it turns out that the mum has cancer. Helen 'to make up' takes care of what quickly turns out to be a dysfunctional family. She falls in love with the children. But then the mum gets better and wants her kids back. Intriguing and witty, endearing and a bit sat. Shortlist Giller Prize.
 
Adam Foulds The Truth about these Strange Times [UK]
Rights: United Agents
Howard McNamee takes care of an old lady in hospital. When she dies her family wants to thank him and take him with them to London as friend for their ten year old very talented son, Saul Dawson-Smith, who doesn't have many friends and who seems to getting on very well with the man. As Howard notices that Saul freaks out at a math championship he elopes with the child. An adventurous strange trip follows. Very endearing, moving novel. Winner of the 2008 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year award. 'There is much to admire in this debut, from the assured descriptions to the well-judged blend of comedy and drama.' The Times
 
Adam Foulds The Quickening Maze [UK]
Rights: United Agents
A doctor runs an asylum but has his own ambitions as well. He want to make a machine so the crazy people can make themselves usefull. When Lord Alfred Tennyson's brother comes to the asylum, the doctor sees an oppotunity and asks the family to invest. Based on facts. Beautifully written, like his debut. Short List Man Booker 2009.
 
Assaf Gavron CrocAttack [Isr]
Rights: Kinneret / Luchterhand Random House Germany
The Israeli Eitan survives three terror attacks and becomes a tv celebrity. The Palestine Fahmi Sabich is in a coma and contemplates the things that happened to him and his relation to Eitan. It's about the fateful meeting of two ordinary people, who become the heroes of a grotesquely irrational saga. Witty, fast,  political incorrect, harsh but true. Fantastic book.
 
Assaf Gavron Hydromania [Isr]
Rights: Kinneret / Luchterhand Random House Germany
Israël in the future: The Palestines have the power, Israël is a mere city near a lake. Japan and China are the worldpowers and control the supply of water worldwide. A young couple gathers water illegaly. They seem to get away with it but then they get betrayed and the pregnant main character has to find her own way ot survive. Very strong plot, very convincing.
 
Carla Guelfenbein El resto es silencio [Chili / Sp] The rest is silence
Rights: PNLA
A young boy with a heart disorder tries to live life with his divorced dad and his new wife and her daughter. He was told his mum died during labour but when he finds out she commited suicide and was jewish things get awkward. Very moving. Instantly reprinted in the Netherlands.
 
Elizabeth Hay Late Nights on Air [Eng Can]
Rights: Bella Pomer
Winner of the Canadian Giller Prize 2007. Novel of the Year 2008; Beautiful book of a bunch of stranded people up north in Canada. You follow them for thirty years and get the full picture of their lives. Book on friendship, love and betrayal. Beautiful setting in a wonderful language. Sold to: Italy (Neri Pozza), Russia (Eterna), Estonia (Eesti Ramaat), Germany (Schöffling & Co.)
 
Michiel Heyns The Children’s Day [SA]
Rights: Blake Friedmann
Famous for translating Agaat by Marlene van Niekerk into English, but fab smart writer. Boy in  English highschool in Bloemfontein learns that tehy have to play a friendly tennismatch against the polytech school, considered a school for poor white people. To his horror one of the boys from the poor white village he grew up in is part of the team. This boy behaves as if they were friend. The story then goes to and fro from present  to past. Wonderful climax. Witty and smart. Got several awards and nominations. Can be read as cross over young adult.
 
Lawrence Hill  The Book of Negroes [Eng Can]
Rights: Trident Media Group
Based on facts. Hill tells the story of the child Animata that is brought to the States a slave. She knows to make some sort of carreer and ends up in New York as a free slave. She manages to get to Nova Scotia where life is hard and returns to Africa. When her old village is beyond reach she travels to London to help the abolitionists. Superb good read with huge impact. Winner of the Commonwealth Prize.
 
Tobias Hill The Hidden [UK]
Rights: ILA
The new Hill is about digging in Sparta. Ben has left the UK for Greece to think about his life. He bumps into a friend on his way to archeological excavations in Sparta en edecides to join him. There he finds a group of people who try to keep him out of things. He is desperate to become their friend, one of them. But he pays a high price. Suspenseful and very well wrtiiten.
 
Binnie Kirshenbaum The Scenic Route [USA]
Rights: Ira Silverberg / Harper Collins US
American divorcee Sylvia meets in Florence the wonderful American-living-Paris Henry. They decide to travel together but early only Sylvia learns that Henry married for money and has no intention of giving up his marriage. His wife is in India with her guru and this gives the two a limited amount of time to spend together. They confide in oneanother, tell their lives, their loves and their losses. Melancholically funny, moving and smart. A story about the true meaning of friendship and love. May 2009.
 
Michael Köhlmeier Idylle mit ertrinkendem Hund / Idylle with drowning dog [Ger]                                    
Rights: Hanser Verlag
Literary short novel about an author and his editor. Seems to be about writing, and stories etc. but in fact it's about the author and his wife finding a way to cope with their daughters death after a climbing accident. Superb way of telling a story without telling it. Magnificent. Autobiographical.
 
Reif Larsen The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet [USA]
Rights: Denise Shannon
Superb debut novel written and designed by 28 year old Reif Larsen. Big news all around the world. It's the story of a 12 year old little boy with a talent for drawing maps. When he wins a Smithonian contest he sets out on a very adventurous hobo trip to Washington. Many sidelines,  explanations, drawings and cartoons in the margins. Alice in Wonderland meets Charles Dickens, Jonathan Safran Four, Danielewski, Chris Adrian, Ordinary People etc. Does that help? Anyway: We at Ailantus fell in love with it. May 2009. Sold to: Brasil (Nova Fronteira), China (China Times), Denmark (Linhardt & Ringhof), Germany (S. Fischer), Israel (Kinneret-Zmora), Italy (Mondadori / Strade Blu), Korea (Gimm-Young), Norway (Cappelen Damm), Spain (Seix Barral), Sweden (Forum), UK (Harvill Secker), US & Canada (Penguin Press)
 
Michèle Lesbre The red sofa [Fr]
Rights: Sabine Wespieser
Short listed for the Prix Goncourt. Very literary novel about a young woman who contemplates her life on the trans-Siberian express to her lover who stopped answering letters. Didn't win the Prix Goncourt but should have according to the Dutch press. Lesbre has an impressive bibliography.
 
Mathieu Lindon Mon coeur tout seul ne suffit pas [Fr]
Rights: Arabella Cruse
Mathieu receives a letter from a woman stating to be the daughter of his best friend informing him of the death of his lifelong friend. He doesn't have a clue who that friend may be but somehow he has to find out. He leaves Paris to visit the daughter but finds a whole family: Milodi's widow, daughter and his two enchanting grand children. He gets involved with family although he doesn't want to. Beautiful atmosperic and original story.
 
Kopano Matlwa Spilt Milk [SA]
Rights: Jonathan Balls
Young new talent from Africa. Winner of several awards for her debutnovel Coconut. This is the story of a female black director of a school of excellence in South Africa. She wants to make something new and special. Then 4 kids get caught in the schoolbus doing obscene things and for the first time the school has to punish children and correct them. A white priest gets the assignment. But when he and the director meet it turns out they have a past. They recognise each other but decide to shut up. Moving, witty and a very original way to keep up a mirror. Could be read as cross over young adult.
 
Carel van der Merwe No Man's Land [SA]
Rights: The Marsh Agency
Paul has to appear for the Truth and Reconciliation Committee to get amnesty. When he was in the army he was in the special forces and one of there actions killed to people by accident. That is what Paul believes. He thinks his wife supports him, but when he gets home, she's gone. He goes to look for her in London. But his life has changed for good. Very honest novel.
 
David Mitchell The Unheard Prayers of Jacob de Zoet / The Thousands Autumns of Jacob de Zoet [UK]
Rights: Curtis Brown
1799: The Dutchman Jacob de Zoet arrives at Decima - the artificial island near Nagasaki - to check the trade books for traces of corruption. His countrymen don't appreciate that and so his only friend is one of the Japanese interpreters. But then he meets Orito by chance, a midwife who miraculously saved a Japanese baby and is thus allowed on the island where no Japanese may come. She can study with doctor Marinus, but he is not very keen on getting the two acquainted. For over 2 centuries the Dutch were the only link between Japan and the rest of the world! 1000% David Mitchell. Worth waiting for. Spring 2010
 
Blake Morrison The Last Weekend [UK]
Rights: United Agents
Ian tells the story of a weekend he had with his wife and a befriended couple. They go back a long time, to the time they were at University. Ollie and Ian were best friends, unlikely best friends and in later life the difference have only increased. That Ian is still in love with Ollie's wife doesn't help either. Superbly suspenseful, very unreliable narrator.
 
Martin Mosebach Was davor geschah / What happened before [Ger]
Rights: Hanser Verlag
Young man and woman are together for short while when she asks, like in the ABBA song: what happened before you met me. And then he starts his very elaborate story. About how he came to Frankfurt, met all these people. And she keeps intervening: so that's when you got to know such and such etc. Superbly written, all sorts of entangled storylines. Suspenseful. And of course she gets jealous :-).  Bought in auction. Could work everywhere.
 
Erika Murray-Theron Tapissery with small animals [SA]
Rights: Tafelberg Cape town
If you know the movie Festen you know the tension of this book. A family gathers in Tsitsikamma for a holiday but the peace at the surface is not what it seems. All the differents past and one huge secret are finally dealt with. Very beautifully written.
 
Guadalupe Nettel The Guest [Sp/Mex]
A yong girl lives with a strange 'creature' in here. She calls it the guest or the thing. She lives in constant fear it might take over. At close reading, though, you realise it's nothing more than her bad other side that she has to learn how to deal with. Beautiful writing from a very talented writer. She got awards for her short stories. Book appeared in French simultaneously.

Anne Peile Repeat it  today with tears [UK]
Rights: Andrew Nurneberg
Debutnovel but written as if by a very experienced author. Young woman 16 years old doens't know better than that her dad is dead. When she finds out that he is still alive, she tracks him down and seduces him. She has no other idea as how to get the attention from man than trough sex. It;s not about the sex or incest. Mind you: the father doesn't know that she's his. Moving. Breathtaking, very good reviews in the UK. Not sensation seeking. Not cross over or young adult but for young women yes.
 
Riana Scheepers Katvoet [SA] 
Rights: Riana Scheepers
Wonderful to have her back after ten years of absense. Stories yes but very strongly linked. Stories and women with impact. Suspenseful a bit Isabel Allende like form time to time. Very good atmosphere and feel. One of the best story writers I know.
 
Burkhard Spinnen Decathlon [Germ]
Rights: Schöffling & Co.
Former Olympic Decathlon sportsman Farwick is being shot at in the street.  Police commissioner Grambach has to research the attack on Farwack. He thinks Farwick organised the attack himself and sets off to proof it. Funny & smart.
 
Jonathan Trigell Boy A [UK]
Rights: Serpent’s Tail  UK
A 24 year old man leaves prison after 15 year. He killed, with a friend ' Boy B', a young girl. He gets a new identity, a job and a room but the media open a witch hunt in order to track him down. Moving, hard, beautifully written, sad and very smartly constructed. Now a movie and short listed for two Bafta’s. Voted best ‘book to talk about 2008’ in the poll organised as part of World Book Day.
 
Kate Walbert A Short History of Women [US]
Rights: Janklow & Nesbit
In a really smart way Walbert follows thorugh English and American history the lives of five very different women. The oldest died for the suffragette cause, fearing World War One might get all the attention, but her offspring has other difficulties to deal with. Magnificent changing of voices, wonderful intertwining of story lines. Superb book. Raving reviews.
 
Natalie Young We all run into the Sunlight [UK]
Rights:  ILA
For who loves Rachel Cusk and Ian McEwan according to Alma Books. Partly true. Style is definately genuine and clever. Fifties in the South of France: a couple from Paris sets up a vineyard near an old castle. Lucie leaves after her son runs away when a fire has killed his best friends. Years later a young couple arrives. Kate falls in love with the forlorn empty castle as if it has a spell. The past has to be revived in order to sort out who is the owner. Exciting, intriguing. Fantastic read. We pre-empted. 
 
Translation rights handled by Ailantus
 
Frank Noë Spellbound [NL] * Rights: Ailantus
Main character is in an asylum because he murdred his landlady with whom he had a relationship. He has only one true friend: Jim. Their friendship is strange and suspenseful. In the end it turns out to be a creation of his schizophrenic mind. The book tells about the love affair and the murder in a very interesting poetic voice. Dutch author was in the past shortlisted for the Libris award.
 
 
René Snoek Poste restante [NL] * Rights: Ailantus
Ludo writes very personalised travel books, but makes them all up. His colleagues steals pictures from the internet to illustrate them. A photograph brings back memories of the 1968 summer with his childhood idol Sylvie. He lost track of her after a nightmarish accident during that holiday. His debut novel was shortlisted for two debut awards. Poste restante is funny, mild and melancholic.