I was wandering around the web yesterday and found that my German publisher, Blanvalet (a division of Random House) now has the details up on their website for the release of the German-language edition of As Darkness Falls – to be released in May, 2010, under the title Schwarze Dornen. The translator is Carsten Mayer.
The cover is quite striking, although very different from both the Australian and UK editions:
While the image isn’t directly related to events in the book, I think it does effectively create a sense of menace in conflict with the natural world, which does reflect some of the themes of the book. Plus, it does catch the eye, and will make the book stand out on the shelves and tempt a reader to pick it up – and that is what a cover image is supposed to do, so therefore I like it!
The title translates (I’m pretty sure) to ‘Black Thorns’. It’s not unusual for a foreign-language edition to have a different title; translation is not as simple as just replacing words with their equivalent ones in the other language. Sometimes there isn’t an equivalent word, and many factors are taken into account; the style of the writing, the sound and rhythm of words, their meanings and subtleties within the language, the culture and cultural references, and, of course, what will appeal to the book-buying public! Schwarze Dornen sounds strong, and is probably easily remembered, plus it evokes a sense of the atmosphere of the book, so I think it’s a good title for those reasons!
Hi Bron – that’s a great cover. It really does hold a sinister feel as does the title. My German publishers are the same as yours and I laughed when I saw my cover! They’ve got a saddle hanging over a veranda – which is fine… except I don’t mention a horse! But I’ve seen others that have just played on the Australian theme, with our big rock and aborginal artwork all over it – nothing to relate to the story.
Hi Fleur! Your cover has a homestead feel, and it’s an appealing image, emphasising the rugged setting, so I imagine that will tempt people to pick it up off the shelves! It’s interesting that they’ve labelled both our books with an Australian tag – yours Australien-Saga, and mine Australien-Thriller. Let’s hope the German interest in Australia continues to grow!
Hmmmm! Bron,after just blogging about Dark Country over on jenjmcleod.blogspot (I loooooved Dark Country), I’m not so sure about this cover. I find my head slowly tilting to one side until I’m almost standing on me head. Could be to much wine, I guess LOL. Seriously, what’s not to love about a cover whjen your name’s on it!! They obvioulsy know their readers. In fact, it’s great to see so many interpretations. I think it highlights the complexity and brilliance of the story.
Wow!
Isn’t it interesting how such different covers can both fit the same novel? Things to ponder…
Hi Jenn and Azteclady! I do find the different interpretations fascinating – as well as all the different places the book gets shelved! Here in Australia, it can be found sometimes in romance, more often in crime (many bookstores have no romance section, but there’s always a crime section!), and sometimes it’s in the Australian fiction area – or just in general fiction. I think the German cover is focused on the crime/thriller market – although the fact that there’s a small, pretty bird dead on the cover does evoke emotion, too, so it does speak to both aspects of the novel, I guess!
Bronwyn, I love the new cover and am chuffed at another country’s people having you to read and treasure. —– ‘Schwarze Dornen’ is okay with me; I quite like it. —— I guess it sings from the page better than ‘Dunkel Land’ —– But then I’m still in love ‘my’ tree —- Eric
Hi Eric,
yes, I love the German cover, too. Hopefully the Germans will like it, and be intrigued enough to pick it up off the book shelf! I’ll be interested to see what the response is to the story in Germany and Europe.