By Erin L. Cox, Publisher | @erinlcox
Even though summer and winter (depending on your hemisphere) are just beginning, many of us are already thinking about and planning for the end of year book fairs, most specifically Frankfurter Buchmesse.Next week, stay tuned for news about the Frankfurt Rights Meeting as it marks its 40th year. Our friends in Frankfurt have a few surprises up their sleeves for this year’s meeting, which we’ll share with you soon.
Before we board a plane or train to Germany, there are plenty of great book fairs and literary events in the coming months that we will be attending – the Warsaw International Book Fair, the US Book Show, Paris Book Market, Beijing International Book Fair, American Library Association Conference, International Publishers Association Congress, Book 2.0, and many more.
Share in the comments if you are attending any book fairs, any projects you’re hoping to sell, any rights you’re looking to buy, and what trends you are seeing in your travels as we reach the midpoint of 2026.
As we think of our own journeys around the world, this month, we are highlighting three books about women going on physical and emotional journeys.
RIGHTS ROUNDUP
The Publishing Perspectives Rights Roundup features books supplied by agents, rights directors, and some that are popular in the news. If you’d like to submit a deal to Publishing Perspectives, see the instructions at the end of this article.
Scegliti sempre (Always Choose Yourself)
By Roberto Emanuelli
- Publisher: Feltrinelli
- Original language: Italian
- Rights contact: Emanuele Malpezzi, PNLA
- Book info: Read more here
Reported rights deals:
- Germany: Aufbau / Russia: Livebooks
From an author that has sold more than half a million copies in Italy with his compelling stories of love and rebirth, comes a novel about emotional invisibility and the quiet strength of women who endure for far too long.
A story of a woman forced to confront the void within herself after a betrayal. As she spirals downward, Bea must reclaim the abandoned parts of her identity, and ask whether it is still possible to begin again not as a wife or a mother, but as herself.
Moosland (Land of Moss)
By Katrin Zipse
- Publisher: DuMont Buchverlag
- Original language: German
- Rights contact: Judith Habermas, DuMont Buchverlag
- Book info: Read more here
Reported rights deals:
- Meridiaan: Dutch / JC Lattès: French / Einaudi Stile Libero: Italian
Based on a true postwar episode, Land of Moss follows Elsa, one of hundreds of young German women sent to Iceland in 1949.
Traumatized by war, she arrives on this isolated farm where a beautiful but also harsh landscape reshapes her days. As she starts to learn Icelandic, language becomes a way back to life. With great sensitivity, Katrin Zipse masterfully weaves personal grief, hope, speechlessness, and the quiet power of nature into a moving story about the search for home and identity.
Taiwan Travelogue
By Yáng Shuāng-zǐ
- Publisher: SpringHill
- Original language: Complex Chinese
- Rights contact: Gray Tan, Grayhawk Agency
- Book info: Read more here
Reported rights deals:
- English/World: Graywolf / UK: And Other Stories/ ANZ: Scribe / Japanese: Chuokoron-Shinsha / Korean: Matisse Blue / Norwegian: Forlaget / Ukrainian: Safran / Italian: Fazi / German: Dumont / Dutch: Meulenhoff Boekerij / Thai: Bookscape / Danish: Klim / Finnish: Aula / Greek: Vakxikon / Turkish: Ayabakan / Vietnamese: Coral / Czech: Argo/ Brazilian Portuguese: Record / Indonesian: KPG / Polish: ZNAK / French: Hermann / Lithuanian: Rara / Swedish (pending) / Hungarian (pending) / Croatian (pending)
Winner of the International Booker Prize 2026
Winner of 2024 National Book Award for Translated Literature
2021 Golden Tripod Awards
May 1938. The young novelist Aoyama Chizuko has sailed from her home in Nagasaki, Japan, and arrived in Taiwan. She’s been invited there by the Japanese government ruling the island, though she has no interest in their official banquets or imperialist agenda. Instead, Chizuko longs to experience real island life and to taste as much of its authentic cuisine as her famously monstrous appetite can bear.
Soon a Taiwanese woman—who shares the characters of her name—is hired as her interpreter and makes her dreams come true. The charming, erudite, meticulous Chizuru arranges Chizuko’s travels all over the Land of the South and also proves to be an exceptional cook. Over scenic train rides and many meals shared, Chizuko grows infatuated with her companion and intent on drawing her closer. But something causes Chizuru to keep her distance. It’s only after a heartbreaking separation that Chizuko begins to grasp what the “something” is.
Taiwan Travelogue is presented as Yang Shuang-Zi’s rediscovered translation of a 1954 Japanese text written by Aoyama Chizuko. Yang completes the illusion of “historical authenticity” with forewords and afterwords written by fictional scholars and characters. Through a lighthearted and gourmet approach, Yang unburies lost colonial histories and deftly reveals how power dynamics inflect our most intimate relationships.
Interested in seeing more international titles available for translation? Visit Frankfurt Rights: the platform helps editors and rights buyers discover content across all genres, connect with rightsholders worldwide and access relevant rights information in one place. Frankfurt Rights is operated by Frankfurter Buchmesse GmbH.
Submitting Rights Deals to Publishing Perspectives
Do you have rights deals to report? Agents and rights directors can use our rights deal submission form to send us information about their books for consideration. For questions or to inquire about the cost of guaranteeing your book is featured, email Erin Cox at erin@publishingperspectives.com.
We look forward to hearing from you.
More of Publishing Perspectives‘ rights roundups are here, and more from us on international rights is here.