March 27 Update: Gray Tan has informed Chinese Books, English Reviews that the Italian-language rights have just been purchased by Corbaccio (Longanesi Group).
The Dutch-language rights to Right Bank of the Argun (额尔古纳河右岸) by Chi Zijian (迟子建) been sold to Heleen Bluth of House of Books, in a pre-empt, by Marianne Schonbach Literary Agency on behalf of Barbara J Zitwer and Gray Tan at The Grayhawk Agency.
The novel is a first-person narrative told from the point of view of an aging Evenki woman in the last years of the 20th century. She chooses to stay behind when her tribe abandons the forested mountains of Northeast China for “civilized” life among town dwellers, where their beloved reindeer will be cooped up like cattle.
A best seller in China last year, Right Bank of the Argun won the 7th Annual Mao Dun Literary Award in 2008.
Read more about the Evenki at Wikipedia, or see my translation of an excerpt from the author’s Afterword. To contact Gray Tan, e-mail: grayhawk@grayhawk-agency.com
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