In the middle of the pandemic, when most of the books have been put on hold and publication dates have been postponed, some titles were just released. Among these, at the Pontas Agency we want to make sure readers can reach the French translation of Shubhangi Swarup’s debut novel, Dérive des âmes et des continents (the original title in English being Latitudes of Longing); Minna Salami’s debut non-fiction Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone (just published almost simultaneously in the UK and the US); Gustavo Rodríguez’ Les matins de Lima (the French translation of his novel Madrugada); and Aubrey Rhodes’ debut novel The Secret of Provence House, just out in the UK.
Shubhangi Swarup is confined in Mumbai (India) and she has sent us a photo of her “co-working space” with her little daughter; while Aubrey Rhodes is in Madrid (Spain) using an old desk of a relative.
Meanwhile, in Stockholm (Sweden), Olivier Truc has announced that he just finished his new novel in confinement, in an improvised new (and shared) office after his entire family has to telework from home; and Gustavo Rodríguez is finishing his strict quarantine in Lima (Perú) with this view of the Pacific ocean after he got back from Madrid and Paris, where he was promoting his novel.
The Pontas team have completed our third week of confinement. We're fine and, despite all the worrying news around us, we keep on working and are in a good mood. We are more glad than ever to have prepared the company to be able to work remotely, be it while travelling or while in emergency situations like the current one. Everything is in the cloud and technology (and some extra time, even more discipline and patience, we must say too) allows us to keep representing authors from the five continents as if we were in the office.
Good news are that Maria Cardona’s little Enzo is discovering books for the first time:
Let's keep calm, keep well, keep going between writing and reading!