Bloomsbury bags Leky's UK debut

Bloomsbury is to publish German bestseller What You Can See From Here by Mariana Leky, translated by Tess Lewis, following a three-way auction.

Publishing director Emma Herdman acquired UK and Commonwealth (excluding Canada) and audio rights for the novel from Devon Mazzone at FSG in a one-book deal.

What You Can See From Here has been translated into 14 languages, adapted for the stage, and has sold more than 600,000 copies in its native Germany, where it was voted Independent Booksellers’ Favourite Novel of the Year. Bloomsbury will publish as a flapped b-format paperback in July 2021.

The publisher's synopsis reads: "On a beautiful spring day, a small village in Western Germany wakes up to an omen: Selma has dreamed of an okapi. Someone is about to die. As the residents of the village begin acting strangely, Selma's granddaughter Luise looks on as the threat of imminent death makes long-carried secrets weigh heavily. But when death finally comes, it does so in a way none of them could have predicted. A bittersweet portrait of village life and the wider world that beckons beyond, What You Can See From Here is a blend of tragedy and comedy, and a thoughtful meditation on the way loss and love shape not just a person, but a community."

Berlin-based Leky trained as a bookseller before studying cultural journalism at the University of Hildesheim. She won the Allegra Prize for her first set of short stories, and in 2005, she was awarded the Advancement Prize for Young Artists from the State of North Rhine-Westfalia for her novel First Aid. What You Can See From Here is her first novel to be translated into English.

Herdman said: “There’s a quote from the Munich Mercury that says, ‘What You Can See From Here manages something only a few books achieve: it makes you happy.’ Given the year we’ve had, we need these books. This is a novel that’s full of joy and human connection, but one with real emotional heft too, [and it's] never saccharine or twee.”

Lewis added: “Mariana Leky’s generous, bittersweet humour highlights her characters’ flaws and foibles while her eye for telling details brings them vividly to life. It is a delight to trace the echoes and images woven through this subtly structured novel.”