Happy New Year! At the Pontas Agency, we’re excited to see new stories become books, TV series and films in 2025.
Here are some of the first books by Pontas clients that will be published in 2025. Books both in original language and in translation will be hitting bookstores around the world.
The year started off with a new edition of the Japanese translation published by Shunjusa of Cantik Itu Luka (Beauty Is A Wound), the epic novel of magic realism by Indonesian author Eka Kurniawan. Next up is another translation: Camille Neveux’s An Orchard in Damascus (Le verger de Damas), a multi-generational family drama set against the backdrop of the Syrian revolution, will be out in Italian bookstores on January 14th published by Tre60. The original French edition was published by JC Lattès in early 2024.
We’re also excited for Spanish author Susana Fortes, whose new novel, Just One More Day (Sólo un día más), following the legendary love story between Albert Camus and María Casares, will be published on January 15th with Espasa/Planeta in Spanish. January will also be packed with crime fiction: Clea Koff’s first installment in the Jayne Hall and Steelie Lander series, Silent Evidence, will be available in the US on January 21st, after publishing in the UK in 2024 with Avon/HarperCollins, and UK-based author Jill Johnson’s Hell’s Bells, the second installment in the Eustacia Rose series will be published in paperback in the UK at the end of the month by Black & White Publishing.
Speaking of paperbacks, Benjamin Carteret’s debut novel Perséphone will finally be out in pocket format with Le Livre de Poche on March 26th with a stunning new cover design, after being published in early 2024 by trade publisher Charleston. The title has been shortlisted for the Livre de Poche Readers’ Prize 2025. The month of March will also bring Ethiopian-born Catalan writer Ennatu Domingo’s second book to readers in the original Catalan and translated into Spanish: On Both Sides of the Mirror.
We also want to highlight two debuts hitting shelves in February: Spanish debut author Sama Helalli’s Operation Kerman, a thrilling feminist adventure novel, which will be published by Roca Editorial/PRH and Selali Fiamanya’s Before We Hit the Ground, with which he won The Borough Press open submission competition and was named runner-up in the 2021 Pontas & JJ Bola Emerging Writers Prize. All rights to this title are exceptionally handled by The Borough Press.
Another debut worth highlighting is Anne Sénès’ Double Room (Chambre Double), which will be published in English (translated from the French by Alice Banks) by Orenda Books in the UK on June 19th. Last but not least, we’re proud to announce that in June, readers will also be able to enjoy debut author Ayotola Tehingbola’s short story collection, Lagos Will be Hard for You, published by Masobe Books in Nigeria. The collection was a finalist for the 2024 Restless Books New Immigrant Writing Prize in Fiction.
Stay tuned for more cover reveals on our end soon: several other Pontas clients are publishing new titles in 2025, including Indian debut novelist Bhavika Govil (whose Vogue India pick Hot Water will be out with HarperCollins India in April), UK debut author Marcia Hutchinson (whose The Mercy Step will be published by Cassava Republic in July), returning crime author Clea Koff, whose second installment in the Jayne Hall and Steelie Lander series, Deadly Evidence, will be published in the UK by Avon/HarperCollins in April, and mystery writer Jill Johnson, whose third installment in the Professor Eustacia Rose series, Bella Donna, will be published in late May in the UK by Black & White Publishing.
For more information about any of the above titles, please contact Anna Soler-Pont (anna@pontas-agency.com).