Busy days for the Peony Literary Agency, who recently announced the sales of three books from two of their authors: Han Han's Youth and 1988: I Want to Talk to This World have both been bought by Simon & Schuster US, to be translated by Allan Barr and published in the second half of 2012; and Yan Geling's The Flowers of War (金陵十三钗), to Other Press, translated by Nicky Harman, to be published next January.

Congratulations!

For further information please contact Marysia Juszczakiewicz in Hong Kong at marysia@peonyliteraryagency.com, or Tina Chou in Shanghai at tina@peonyliteraryagency.com. Full press releases below:

Peony Literary Agency is delighted to announce that World English language rights for Han Han’s Youth and 1988: I Want to Talk to This World, have been sold to Simon & Schuster US. The books will be translated by Allan Barr with Youth publishing second half of 2012 in the US. French rights have been sold for Youth, and Simplified Chinese rights to Lu Jinbo at Wanrong Books. French, Italian and Korean rights have been sold for 1988. Peony Literary Agency is handling world translation rights.

Youth contains Han Han’s true voice, with not a word deleted or altered, compiling 70 of his most representative pieces in the past eight years. Through Youth, readers will get to know China, a country that is going through tremendous changes.

1988: I Want to Talk to This World is a story about a road trip taken by the narrator with a pregnant prostitute, driving a car named 1988. Hailed by many as Han’s best novel yet, 1988 has been considered as a “road novel”, reminiscent of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road.

Peony Literary Agency is delighted to announce that US rights for Geling Yan’s The Flowers of War have been sold to Judith Gurewich at Other Press (www.otherpress.com ), scheduled to be published January 2012. Rights have also been sold to the UK (Random House UK), Spain (Santillana), Germany (Random House ?CKnaus Verlag), Italy (Rizzoli), Netherlands (Arbeiderspers), and France (Flammarion).

The Flowers of War is based on true events that occurred during the Nanjing Massacre of 1937. This powerful novel is a now major film by Chinese director Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern) starring Christian Bale.