Pushkin signs debut from Turkish free-speech activist

Pushkin Press has signed The Peace Machine by journalist and free-speech activist Özgür Mumcu, whose father, an investigative journalist for the Cumhuriyet newspaper, was assassinated when the author was just 15.

Pushkin Press bought World English from the Barbara Zitwer agency on behalf of the Kalem Agency. German and Spanish rights have also been sold.

With a plot spanning the cities of Istanbul, Belgrade and Paris, the novel presents a depiction of Europe as it plunged towards conflict in the days leading up to the Great War, and in doing so offers "keen insights" about today’s world, the publisher said.

Daniel Seton, commissioning editor at Pushkin Press, said: "The Peace Machine, an instant bestseller in Turkey, is both a gripping historical adventure story in the tradition of Verne and Dumas and a powerful, important book for our times. Özgür Mumcu is an extremely exciting new literary voice and I’m absolutely thrilled that his debut will be the first Turkish novel on the Pushkin Press list."

Pushkin will publish The Peace Machine in 2018.