New John Katzenbach books only in Spanish and German?

[Doitsu]

Two books by John Katzenbach, who's probably best known for Hart's War, seem to be only available in Spanish and German:

By Persons Unknown, 2017 (DE: Die Grausamen; ES: Personas desconocidas)
The Analyst II, 2018 (DE: Der Verfolger; ES: Jaque al psicoanalista)

Does anybody know if the original English books are available as ebooks?

[darryl]

How bizarre. I'd love to know what's going on. The Analyst was an excellent book. I'd love to read the sequel. But I can find no trace whatsoever of it in English.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

Two books by John Katzenbach, who's probably best known for Hart's War, seem to be only available in Spanish and German:

By Persons Unknown, 2017 (DE: Die Grausamen; ES: Personas desconocidas)
The Analyst II, 2018 (DE: Der Verfolger; ES: Jaque al psicoanalista)

Does anybody know if the original English books are available as ebooks?

Are you sure these are real books? "Fantastic Fiction" (normally a reliable guide) lists nothing for Mr Katzenbach after 2015's "The Dead Student", and these books appear not to exist even as paper books in English. Nor do they appear to be listed on the author's own web site at http://www.johnkatzenbach.com/ .

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Are you sure these are real books?

Yes, because the Spanish translations (Personas desconocidas, Jaque al psicoanalista) and the German translations (Die Grausamen, Der Verfolger) are available on Amazon.

Originally Posted by HarryT

Nor do they appear to be listed on the author's own web site at http://www.johnkatzenbach.com/ .

Apparently, the author's website and his Facebook profile haven't been updated since 2016.

[darryl]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Are you sure these are real books? "Fantastic Fiction" (normally a reliable guide) lists nothing for Mr Katzenbach after 2015's "The Dead Student", and these books appear not to exist even as paper books in English. Nor do they appear to be listed on the author's own web site at http://www.johnkatzenbach.com/ .

I also visited Fantastic Fiction and various other sites with the same result, and had the same question. Certainly non-English versions seem to be available on Amazon. This is an English Description for the Analyst II from PRH (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/b...9781949061345/):

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

THE LONG-AWAITED SEQUEL TO THE ANALYST, JOHN KATZENBACH’S MOST EMBLEMATIC AND BESTSELLING NOVEL, HAS ARRIVED.

It’s been 5 years since Dr. Starks put an end to the nightmare that almost cost him his life and one that destroyed any shred of life he had, managing to beat Rumplestiltskin and his brothers Virgil and Merlin.

Now in Miami, Ricky Starks continues to work as a psychoanalyst. However, Rumplestilskin has returned, and this time he tries to enlist Ricky’s help because someone has threatened his brothers in a very perverse way. It is evident that he will not take no for an answer.

It seems that the books are genuine. I have emailed PRH Consumer Services asking for details or at least a contact to get details. Hopefully some member here may be able to throw further light on the issue in the meantime.

[darryl]

I sent this email to PRH Consumer Services on 15 February 2019:

John Katzenback - The Analyst II - ISBN 9781949061345

I am writing to enquire about the likely availability of this title in the English language. It seems that this book, although written by a US born author, has been published in Spanish but not in English. I cannot find any indication whatsoever as to whether and when an English edition will be available.

Please advise. If you are unable to assist perhaps you would be kind enough to provide details of how I might be able to get further information.

regards,

I received this reply on 16 February 2019:

Good morning Darryl,



Thank you for your email and interest in our publications.



That title has been translated into English for three different formats – please see below information for the

Publishers handling the various editions/prints. Should you need anything further, please let us know.

ANALYST, THE

Reprint Large Print Vol.

English

Thorndike Press

ANALYST, THE

Book Club Volume

English

Bookspan LLC

ANALYST, THE

Condensed, Abridged, Adapted

English

The Reader's Digest Association,AKA Trusted Media Brand





Thank you,

Penguin Random House
SJ-863811

I wrote back on 17 February pointing out that their reply related to the first book, not the second, and did not relate to the ISBN in my email. Having received no further reply I wrote to them again on 22 February.

To date I have received no response.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by darryl

To date I have received no response.

The whole thing is very strange. This usually only happens if an author is dead and/or there are royalty disputes.
However, Katzenbach gave interviews in 2018 and seems to be very much alive.
Maybe he fell out with his agent/publisher after selling the translation rights.

[darryl]

Still no further response from PRH. Have now written a completely fresh query in the hope that they will tag it as new and this time deal with it.

I have no idea what is going on. This is an English language author. The book would have been written in English. I can only imagine there is some sort of problem with the rights.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by darryl

Still no further response from PRH.

I somewhat doubt that they'll be able to answer your question. According to the author's website, his English publishers are Grove Altlantic (US) and Head of Zeus (UK). IMHO, It couldn't hurt to send your question to these publishers as well.

[darryl]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

I somewhat doubt that they'll be able to answer your question. According to the author's website, his English publishers are Grove Altlantic (US) and Head of Zeus (UK). IMHO, It couldn't hurt to send your question to these publishers as well.

A good idea, though the information on the author's site is woefully outdated. Interestingly enough both publishers are independent, though longstanding and no doubt traditional. I'm interested in reading the sequel to the Analyst. It was quite an exceptional thriller. I remember reading it and finding it so good that it was immediately passed around the readers in my family, who all loved it. Not an immortal work of literature, but a really exceptionally good and entertaining read. I wish they'd play their games with other books.

[darryl]

A further update. Firstly, I've exhausted options with PRH who say there is no English "translation". I have just sent a polite enquiry to John Katzenbach's agent who will hopefully take a moment to reply. I will of course post further if and when I hear anything.

[darryl]

One Final update. John Katzenbach's agent was gracious enough to reply and very quickly. No details were given. I will quote the complete body of the reply verbatim:

English version is coming soon.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by darryl

One Final update. John Katzenbach's agent was gracious enough to reply and very quickly. No details were given. I will quote the complete body of the reply verbatim:

Apache

[darryl]

It is good to know that there will be an English version and "soon". The concern, of course, was that there was some king of rights dispute or other problem with the English version. We may never know why the translated versions were released first.

[Doitsu]

The Mexican website El Financiero reported that Katzenbach is interested in a Netflix deal.

John Katzenbach quiere llevar sus libros a Netflix

El escritor John Katzenbach, autor de libros como El Psicoanalista, reveló en entrevista para En EF y Por Adela que espera llegar a un acuerdo con Netflix para producir series sobre dos de sus libros.

"Absolutamente Netflix. Estoy seguro de que obtendré un trato con Netflix sobre dos libros ya publicados", respondió a la pregunta de si le interesaría la realización de series.

Translation:

Writer John Katzenbach, the author of books such as The Analyst, revealed in an interview for En EF and Por Adela that he hopes to sign a deal with Netflix to turn two of his books into TV series.

"Absolutely, Netflix. I'm actually optimistic that I'm going to have a Netflix deal on a couple of old books,"* he replied to the question whether he'd be interested in turning his books into TV series.

*I inserted his original answer here. The Spanish text mentions two books.

This might explain why everyone is so tight-lipped.