Pushkin lands Elena Medel's 'exceptional debut'

Pushkin Press will publish a debut novel by “the next great literary voice in Spain”, Elena Medel.

Deputy publisher Laura Macaulay acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to Medel’s Las maravillas (The Wonders) from Maria Cardona at Pontas Literary & Film Agency at auction. Rights have been sold in Spain, Germany and Greece. Pushkin will publish in spring 2021.

The publisher says Las maravillas is an “exceptional debut… an honest and lyrical bildungsroman in which readers see how money, family and social class mark the lives of two women from different generations”. Showing intertwined lives on the outskirts of Madrid, it is also promises “an evocative” portrait of Spain, from the last years of Franco’s dictatorship to the present day. Medel is “the next great literary voice in Spain,” according to Pushkin Press.

Macaulay said: “This is one of the most buzzed about debuts I’ve encountered, readers have been universally gushing about this author, and I cannot wait to publish the extraordinary Elena Medel in English.”

Medel added: “Publishing with Pushkin is a dream, since I've known their list for years. I am very grateful and excited for what’s to come.”

Medel was born in Córdoba in 1985, and lives in Madrid. She is the author of three collections of poetry, essays, and a children’s book. Her poetry debut My First Bikini was published in English (Jai Alai Books, 2015) and was translated by Lizzie Davis. Her other poems have been translated into 15 languages. She is also the founder and director of the poetry publishing house La Bella Varsovia. She has been awarded several literary prizes, including the XXVI Loewe Prize and the Princess of Girona Foundation Awards 2016 in the Arts Category, and last week Harper’s Bazaar awarded her the Literature Achievement Award 2019.