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It's a surreal yet fascinating experience to see a novel that one has written published in a language that one doesn't understand. At one time, my overseas translations were confined to Germany and Italy, and even though my German is rusty and my Italian very limited, at least if I opened the book I would have a rough idea of the translation. It's rather different with the new Chinese and Japanese editions of Gallows Court.
I'm excited that the book is being published in both countries. I've never had a novel published in either country before, though The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books and The Golden Age of Murder have appeared in Korean and Chinese editions, while The Life of Crime is due to be published in both China and Japan in due course.
The cover artwork, as you can see, is distinctive in each case. It's interesting to me that both publishers have focused on an image of Rachel Savernake (and the same was true of the US edition). It's been different in the UK, where three different types of cover artwork have been used already - the third being a design by Ed Bettison which is in the same style as the very successful cover he produced for Mortmain Hall. Speaking of which, I've also just received my author copies of the Chinese edition of Mortmain Hall, and the artwork is equally striking:
I find it interesting that it's Rachel Savernake, rather than any of my earlier protagonists, who has achieved a breakthrough in two important markets. There are probably a number of reasons for this, among them the fact that the Golden Age ingredients seem to appeal to Chinese and Japanese readers. Of course, it's not easy to do much in England to promote the book to readers in such distant lands, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the publishers' PR efforts are sufficiently successful to prompt them to acquire more Rachel Savernake books. Time will tell!
2 comments:
With a variety of societal shifts, a believable female protagonist of character and intelligence is just the attention getter to deliver the goods for the young bright reader, as well as crime fiction fans. Female protagonists, good female protagonists, rather than just good characters within the story, have always been at a premium. An interesting study in itself; trail blazing Victorian female police officers and private detectives who were never followed through and developed at the time, so every generation has needed a very special detecting heroine to lead and remind, whether Selwyn Jephson's Eve Gill (still a template) Peter O'Donnell's Modesty Blaise, TV's Honey West or the Girl From UNCLE. While too many heroines of modern fiction are stock characters, or to be more precise, stock damaged quirky female characters. So Rachel Savernake rather stands out as she stands pretty much alone.
And I love the covers; very eye catching, and which indicate there is a serious and appealing female lead in these pages. Lovely stuff!
Thanks, Liz, a very interesting comment as always. I was very gratified at Bouchercon when Elly Griffiths talked about the uniqueness of Rachel as a character.
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