27 June 2005
Italian
I have finished copies of Labyrinthin German - Das verlorene Labyrinth and English. I've also got details of the Italian edition - I codici del Labirinto - from Piemme.
The title in German means 'the lost Labyrinth'. The Italian title means 'the Labyrinth codes'.
I've been published in other languages before. In fact, the Dutch publisher Unieboek - which has acquired the rights to Labyrinth in Holland - published my novel Eskimo Kissing. Rather wonderfully, it was that same editor who bought Eskimo Kissing all those years ago! (It's scheduled for later publication, though, in Dutch, so I don't have any cover shots or extracts.)
It's fascinating to see how the publishers in different countries are going about selling the book (there's also the US, Canada, Catalonia, France, Greece, Portugal and Russia) and I am incredibly grateful for the amazing creative efforts put in by editors, designers, marketing and publicity people, sales reps and buyers ...
And it's wonderful to see the blurbs and advertising strap lines in different languages.
On the cover of the UK edition, it says:
Three secrets. Two women.
One Grail.
On the German edition it says:
Es begann mit einem Geheimnis - dem letzten Geheimnis des Lebens. Es begann im Zeichen des Labyrinths. Und es endet da, wo es begann.
Now, I'm not very good in German, but I suppose you could translate something like this:
It began with a secret - the last secret of life. It began with a clue in the Labyrinth. And it ends, where it began.
In Italian, the advertising strap line is called the 'strillo'. Elisabetta Migliavada at Piemme has chosen:
Un mistero sepolto per ottocento anni …
Tre pergamene e il segreto del Graal.
Cosa si nasconde nel cuore del Labirinto?
If my shaky Italian is reliable, that translates as:
A mystery buried for eight hundred years ...
Three parchments and the secret of the Graal.
What is hidden in the heart of the Labyrinth?
And alongside all the excitement and delight, there are the inevitable nerves. As publication approaches, I feel more and more like an actor waiting in the darkened wings, unsure of how she will be received by the unseen audience ...
The Labyrinth is a place of contrasts.
