Fitzcarraldo snaps up RCW staffer Katharina Volckmer’s début

Rogers, Coleridge & White staffer Katharina Volckmer’s "audacious" début novel has sold to Fitzcarraldo Editions.

Originally written in English, world rights to The Appointment were acquired from the author by editor Joachim Schnerf at French press Grasset & Fasquelle, which will be publishing the novel in France. Tamara Sampey-Jawad, Fitzcarraldo's associate publisher, subsequently bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Heidi Warneke, rights director Grasset & Fasquelle.

North American rights have been sold to Lauren Wein at Avid Reader Press, with simultaneous publication in the UK and US scheduled for September 2020. The novel has also sold in Spain (and Catalan), Russia, Italy, Holland and Croatia.

Volckmer lives in London where she works at Rogers, Coleridge & White as a foreign rights assistant. The Appointment is her first novel.

The synopsis reads: "In a well-appointed examination in London, a young woman unburdens herself to a certain Dr Seligman. Though she can barely see above his head, she holds forth about her life and desires, her struggles with her sexuality and identity. Born and raised in Germany, she has been living in London for several years, determined to break free from her family origins and her haunted homeland. But the recent death of her grandfather and an unexpected inheritance both force her to examine the past and offer the chance of a new beginning."

Sampey-Jawad said: "We’re thrilled to be welcoming Katharina Volckmer to Fitzcarraldo Editions. Razor-sharp and subversively funny, The Appointment is a feminist Portnoy’s Complaint [Philip Roth's controversial novel published in 1969] for today’s generation, exploring with wit and tenderness the myriad ways we seek to make peace with ourselves and others in the 21st century."