Arabic publisher secures Márquez deal

Cairo-based publishing house Dar al-Tanweer Egypt has signed the first Arabic-language rights deal for Gabriel García Márquez.

Sherif-Joseph Rizk, the publisher’s director, signed the substantial five-figure, six-year deal for world Arabic rights with Teresa Pinto of the Agencia Literaria Carmen Balcells. The four books in question are One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera, Autumn of the Patriarch and The General in his Labyrinth.

Márquez has been widely published in Arabic translations, since One Hundred Years of Solitude was first published by Dar Almada in the late 1980s. However, these were unauthorised editions, produced in a region with limited and rarely enforced copyright laws.

Rizk told The Bookseller: “The deal is significant on many levels. First, it illustrates a maturation in the Arab publishing industry—this is by far the largest foreign rights deal in the history of Arabic
publishing. Second, it shows further commitment by publishers towards implementing Intellectual Property rights and fighting piracy. Third, it shows the power a foreign writer like Márquez can have over Arab readers.”

Dar Altanweer hopes to eventually acquire audio rights to the Márquez novels as well.