German rights A child of God (Rachida Lamrabet) sold

(Rachida Lamrabet as seen by photographer Koen Broos.)

The prestigious Luchterhand Literaturverlag (Random House) has acquired the German rights of the book A child of God (Een kind van God) by the award-winning Rachida Lamrabet.

In A child of God Rachida tells ordinary stories about extraordinary people. They cross each other on the bus, in an old people’s home or at a wedding. After briefly meeting they continue their own story. In this surprising book you can feel the heartbeat of countless stories that pass us by and of which we can only assume their existence. Courageously and passionately, Lamrabet wrote a chronicle of joy, atrocity and the unpredictable fate in the metropolis. She writes right from the shoulder. The amazement in these stories evokes an electrifying tension. The atmosphere invoked by Lamrabet, holds fathers who struggle with themselves and a mother who fights with all her heart and soul for her child. The next generation tries to draw a better life from insecurity, ambivalence and humour.

Last year, Luchterhand acquired the rights of Woman Country (Vrouwland), the debut by Rachida Lamrabet. The German translation Frauland will be published in January 2010.

In January, Rachida Lamrabet won the BNG Literature Award for A Child of God. The jury was of the opinion that: "with guts and passion, Lamrabet has written a chronicle of the joy, the horrors and the unpredictable destiny in the city. The astonishment in these stories creates an electrifying tension".