The decision by Houghton Mifflin, which publishes Phillip Roth and Jonathan Safran Foer, among other important authors, followed the publication of an excerpt from the book in the prestigious literary journal Paris Review. Publishing rights for The White King have also been sold in Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Italy, Israel, Finland, the Netherlands ands Bulgaria. In France, both Gallimard and Actes-Sud would like to publish the book.
Hungarian publishing house Magvető unveiled Dragomán's latest book at Budapest's 2005 Book Week. The book also attracted much attention at the Frankfurt Book Fair in the same year, leading to the sale of rights in Germany to Suhrkamp, one of the country's most respected publishers.
Dragomán is not the first Hungarian author represented by Magvető to have found success abroad over the past year. Others include Nobel Prize-winner Imre Kertész, Péter Esterházy, Ádám Bodor, László Krasznahorkai, László Darvasi, Lajos Parti Nagy and Zsuzsa Rakovszky. The US rights to Tranquility, a book by Magvető author Attila Bartis, was purchased by archipelago, and the German rights for Pál Závada's novel Jadviga's Pillow were also sold. Krisztián Grecsó's Grüss Gott!, another Magvető publication, will soon be published by Germany's Ullstein Verlag, and talks are underway on the sale of rights for György Spiró's novel Captivity in Italy and Russia.
György Dragomán's CV
1973 born in Tirgu Mures, Romania
1988 moves to Hungary
1992 finishes secondary school
1998 completes undergraduate studies at Budapest's Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), majoring in English and Philosophy
2001 completes PhD at ELTE
2002 publishes first novel, Genesis Undone (Balassi Publishers); awarded Soros scholarship
2003 awarded Brody prize for best first novel; reading of first play Nihiltakes place at Pécs National Theatre Festival; invited to Young PEN conference in Slovakia
2005 publishes second novel The White King (Magvető); awarded Déry Tibor prize
2006 awarded Sándor Márai Prize; guest at Seoul Young Writer's Festival, South Korea; guest at International PEN Conference in Berlin; awarded scholarship by Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin; awarded Artisjus Prize
In addition to writing, Dragomán has translated works by Samuel Beckett, James Joyce, Ian McEwan, Ivrine Welsh and Mickey Donelly into Hungarian.
Visit Dragomán's homepage at http://dragoman.extra.hu/?language=en
