Norwegian Thriller Sells After 8-Way Auction in Germany
The Ice, a thriller by Norwegian screenwriter John Kåre Raake, has sold to Goldmann in Germany after an eight-way auction. Norwegian agency Northern Stories controls all rights, and there are offers in Finland, as well. Gyldendal Norsk Forlag will publish in Norway this coming February, and the book is about a former Special Forces commando who finds a group of Chinese researchers murdered in their laboratory in the North Pole.

Dutch Book on Math Sells in Sweden and Other Territories
Pluses and Minuses: Mathematics and the World Around Us by Stefan Buijsman, about the role math has played throughout history and its significance in our lives today, has sold in Sweden to Natur och Kultur, in Hungary to Libri, C.H. Beck in Germany, and ZNAK in Poland. At press time, there were also offers in on the book from several other territories. Rights are being controlled by the originating publisher, De Bezige Bij, which released the book in earlier this month. The author was born in 1995 and earned a PhD at a very young age. Michael Carlisle of Inkwell is representing US/North American rights.

Italian Sale for True Crime Book
The true crime book Hitman: The Art of Evil by journalist Andrea Galli, sold at auction to Rizzoli in Italy, in a deal handled by originating agent Vicki Satlow. A sale has also closed with Vulkan in Serbia, and an auction is ongoing in Poland. The book examines Julian Sinanaj, the accused killer of perhaps as many as 20 people, who was arrested in 2014, and the culture of criminal activity in Albania.

French Novel Adds Six Publishers
Real Life by Adeline Dieudonne, published in France by Editions de l'Iconoclaste, has sold to six foreign publishers, including Dtv in Germany and Atlas Contact in the Netherlands. The novel was published in August and is about a young girl coming of age in a family dealing with a tragic accident.

Italian Mussolini Novel Draws Attention
M. The Son of the XX Century by Antonio Scurati, an 800-page historical novel published in Italy in October by Bompiani, just sold to Fourth Estate in the U.K, HarperCollins in the U.S., Intrinseca in Brazil. Previous deals for the book have closed with Fraktura in Croatia, Alfaguara in Spain and Klett-Cotta in Germany. Italian Literary controls rights to the book and said it is about the life of Benito Mussolini, focusing on his rise to power from 1919-1924. According to the literary agency, it is the first novel to feature Mussolini as the protagonist.