Nobel – ACHUKAblog

as reported in The Bookseller:

Andersen Press has acquired a children’s book by this year’s winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Patrick Modiano.

The story, Catherine Certitude, is about a young girl called Catherine whose father runs a shipping business with a failed poet named Casterade. Together they enjoy the simple pleasures of everyday life but Catherine has some questions about her life, including about why her ballerina mother left them to go back to New York.

The book is described a love letter to Paris and ballet that will appeal to fans of classic French children’s stories such asAntoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince (Wordsworth Editions). The illustrator is Jean-Jacques Sempé, who also illustrated René Goscinny’s Little Nicholas series (Phaidon Press).

Klaus Flugge, publisher at Andersen Press, acquired the exclusive UK and Commonwealth rights to the title from French publisher Gallimard.

“I’m absolutely delighted to acquire it,” he told The Bookseller. “It’s a book that will appeal to everyone from aged eight to 80.”

The book is Modiano’s only children’s title and was first published in France in 1988. It was reprinted in 1998.

via Andersen Press to publish Modiano children’s book | The Bookseller.

Tove Jansson should have won Nobel prize, says Philip Pullman

Tove Jansson, best known for dreaming up the eccentric, magical world of the Moomins, should have won the Nobel prize for literature, according to Philip Pullman.

The Finnish artist and writer, who died aged 86 in 2001, “responded to the world with a freshness and originality that have hardly ever been matched in the field of children’s books”, Pullman writes in the new issue of children’s books magazine Books for Keeps. The His Dark Materials author believes Jansson “could convey all the excitement of wonder as well as the reassurance of comfort and familial love – and in her final Moomin books, such as Moominvalley in November, evoke a mood of apprehension, loss, and mystery.” And she should, according to Pullman, “have had the Nobel prize”.

via Tove Jansson should have won Nobel prize, says Philip Pullman | Books | theguardian.com.