We're revealing another cover

Just try to keep up with us!

Remember when we announced our acquisition of Rim Battal’s I’LL LOOK MYSELF IN THE EYES (Je me regarderai dans les yeux), which Liza Tripp translated from the French? It comes out next November as part of our fall collection (which you can subscribe to now—gift yourself or a loved one the surprise of receiving three immersive reads as they are released). Well, here is the fantastic cover Faceout Studios designed for us:

We love this cover. It has the right vibe for a story whose protagonist is a 17-year-old girl confronting tradition, patriarchy, and the need to develop and express her own values and find her own freedom. While this is not what the industry calls a YA—young adult—book, it will certainly appeal to a younger demographic in addition to a, well, less young one! We feel the image conveys just enough to indicate the Moroccan setting without falling into cliché. The swirl of smoke from the train is a nod to the transgression that sets off the story, and the train itself is both a literal image of a train ride the protagonist takes, and a figurative representation of a voyage that brings her to a new place in her thinking.

It’s always interesting to me to see how different the covers of a single book are across territories, i.e. in different countries. For comparison, here is the French cover of the same book:

And the Brazilian one:

We decided to go in a different, non-face direction. The American public is used to more complex covers, relying on them to provide a good sense of what lies within the book. European covers tend to be more minimalist; this French one above is actually pretty detailed and colorful compared to many.

This book has been racking up prizes in France, and we can’t wait to share it with a North American audience. We’ll be hosting the author and the translator in NYC and Boston in November, and we hope we’ll see many of you then. In the meantime, reserve your copy now, and get some special author extras when the book comes out.

New partnership!

If you’re local to the Boston area, stop by The Roasted Granola Café in Arlington, MA next Friday, May 29th for a little Galiot pop-up bookstore and the launch of a new partnership.