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| How a Tiny British Publisher Became the Home of Nobel Laureates | How a Tiny British Publisher Became the Home of Nobel Laureates |
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| LONDON — When Jacques Testard started his own publishing company in 2014, he wanted a name that suggested a crazy endeavor. Testard called the imprint Fitzcarraldo Editions, a reference to the 1982 Werner Herzog movie in which a rubber baron tries to haul a 320-ton steamboat over a hill in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. | LONDON — When Jacques Testard started his own publishing company in 2014, he wanted a name that suggested a crazy endeavor. Testard called the imprint Fitzcarraldo Editions, a reference to the 1982 Werner Herzog movie in which a rubber baron tries to haul a 320-ton steamboat over a hill in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. |
| “It was not a very subtle metaphor on the stupidity of setting up a publishing house,” Testard, 37, recalled recently. Publishing often “feels like you’re just digging a hole in the ground and chucking money into it,” he added. | “It was not a very subtle metaphor on the stupidity of setting up a publishing house,” Testard, 37, recalled recently. Publishing often “feels like you’re just digging a hole in the ground and chucking money into it,” he added. |
| Eight years later, Fitzcarraldo Editions seems far from a madman’s folly. It is one of Britain’s most talked-about publishing houses, with a reputation as the English-language imprint of choice for Nobel Prize winners. When the French writer Annie Ernaux was awarded the 2022 literature prize last week, she became Fitzcarraldo’s third author to gain the honor, after Olga Tokarczuk, of Poland, in 2019, and Svetlana Alexievich, a Belarusian journalist and writer, in 2015. Fitzcarraldo Editions is also the British publisher for Jon Fosse, a Norwegian author and playwright, who is regularly among bookmakers’ favorites for the award. | Eight years later, Fitzcarraldo Editions seems far from a madman’s folly. It is one of Britain’s most talked-about publishing houses, with a reputation as the English-language imprint of choice for Nobel Prize winners. When the French writer Annie Ernaux was awarded the 2022 literature prize last week, she became Fitzcarraldo’s third author to gain the honor, after Olga Tokarczuk, of Poland, in 2019, and Svetlana Alexievich, a Belarusian journalist and writer, in 2015. Fitzcarraldo Editions is also the British publisher for Jon Fosse, a Norwegian author and playwright, who is regularly among bookmakers’ favorites for the award. |
| And Fitzcarraldo is making waves outside the Nobel. Since 2017, a dozen of the house’s books, including Fernanda Melchor’s “Hurricane Season” and Maria Stepanova’s “In Memory of Memory,” have been nominated for the International Booker Prize, one of the highest-profile awards for translated fiction. In 2018, Tokarczuk’s “Flights” won that one, too. | And Fitzcarraldo is making waves outside the Nobel. Since 2017, a dozen of the house’s books, including Fernanda Melchor’s “Hurricane Season” and Maria Stepanova’s “In Memory of Memory,” have been nominated for the International Booker Prize, one of the highest-profile awards for translated fiction. In 2018, Tokarczuk’s “Flights” won that one, too. |
| The day after the Ernaux announcement, Testard said that he had ordered the reprinting of 65,000 copies of her books to keep pace with demand, a huge number for Fitzcarraldo, given that it sold around 135,000 books across all its titles in 2021. | The day after the Ernaux announcement, Testard said that he had ordered the reprinting of 65,000 copies of her books to keep pace with demand, a huge number for Fitzcarraldo, given that it sold around 135,000 books across all its titles in 2021. |
| Sitting in the company’s one-room office in South London on Friday, Testard said that he would think it “very silly” if people called Fitzcarraldo the home of the Nobel. “It’s not like we have a strategy to try and win,” he said. His taste just happened to align with “a bunch of older bourgeois Swedish people” who decide the Nobel each year, he added. | Sitting in the company’s one-room office in South London on Friday, Testard said that he would think it “very silly” if people called Fitzcarraldo the home of the Nobel. “It’s not like we have a strategy to try and win,” he said. His taste just happened to align with “a bunch of older bourgeois Swedish people” who decide the Nobel each year, he added. |
| Yet British literary insiders say that the imprint’s success cannot be explained by luck alone. Paul Keegan, a former editor at Penguin Classics who gave Testard his first publishing job in 2012 at an imprint called Notting Hill Editions, said that much of the British publishing industry was “baffled” by Fitzcarraldo’s success. But, Keegan noted, the fact that Testard reads fiction in French and Spanish, as well as in English, made him able to spot authors whom other editors in Britain’s “monoglot, insular” publishing world might miss. | Yet British literary insiders say that the imprint’s success cannot be explained by luck alone. Paul Keegan, a former editor at Penguin Classics who gave Testard his first publishing job in 2012 at an imprint called Notting Hill Editions, said that much of the British publishing industry was “baffled” by Fitzcarraldo’s success. But, Keegan noted, the fact that Testard reads fiction in French and Spanish, as well as in English, made him able to spot authors whom other editors in Britain’s “monoglot, insular” publishing world might miss. |
| Gaby Wood, the director of the Booker Prize Foundation, said that she imagined other publishers felt a “certain amount of envy” toward Fitzcarraldo. “What Jacques has got is a sense that the world can bring you important work,” she said. That made him stand out in a publishing industry that had a “somewhat pathetic” attitude toward fiction not written in English, she added. In 2018, only about 6 percent of fiction published in Britain and Ireland had been translated from another language. | Gaby Wood, the director of the Booker Prize Foundation, said that she imagined other publishers felt a “certain amount of envy” toward Fitzcarraldo. “What Jacques has got is a sense that the world can bring you important work,” she said. That made him stand out in a publishing industry that had a “somewhat pathetic” attitude toward fiction not written in English, she added. In 2018, only about 6 percent of fiction published in Britain and Ireland had been translated from another language. |
| Testard, who was born in France but educated in England and Ireland, said that he had taken a roundabout route to publishing. As a student at Oxford University, he was on track to study for a doctorate in history until he sat through a seminar on “the memorial bells and fountains of Oxfordshire from 1847 to 1857” and realized he needed to change path. “It felt a bit futile,” he said. | Testard, who was born in France but educated in England and Ireland, said that he had taken a roundabout route to publishing. As a student at Oxford University, he was on track to study for a doctorate in history until he sat through a seminar on “the memorial bells and fountains of Oxfordshire from 1847 to 1857” and realized he needed to change path. “It felt a bit futile,” he said. |
| Instead, he worked at The Sunday Times of London for a few months, then secured internships at publishers in France, Britain and the United States. At one of those, in New York in 2010, he was struck by the number of vibrant literary magazines that were being published in the United States, including N+1 and Bomb. With a friend, Ben Eastham, he decided to start his own version in Britain. Called The White Review, it has since become well known for publishing work by future literary heavyweights, including Sally Rooney and Joshua Cohen, the American author who won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for fiction. | |
| Yet Testard had bigger ambitions. He began Fitzcarraldo Editions in February 2014, having borrowed enough money from a family member to pay his rent for two years and publish at least 10 books. He had a vision from the outset, he said, including that half of its catalog would be books in translation and that all of its titles would be at “the more radical end of contemporary writing,” pushing “the boundaries of form” and mixing genres such as memoir and fiction. | Yet Testard had bigger ambitions. He began Fitzcarraldo Editions in February 2014, having borrowed enough money from a family member to pay his rent for two years and publish at least 10 books. He had a vision from the outset, he said, including that half of its catalog would be books in translation and that all of its titles would be at “the more radical end of contemporary writing,” pushing “the boundaries of form” and mixing genres such as memoir and fiction. |
| Fitzcarraldo’s first book, Mathias Énard’s “Zone,” was a mission statement of sorts, Testard said. That 521-page novel, a stream of consciousness told in a single sentence, was “intensely gripping” despite its challenging appearance, Testard said. | Fitzcarraldo’s first book, Mathias Énard’s “Zone,” was a mission statement of sorts, Testard said. That 521-page novel, a stream of consciousness told in a single sentence, was “intensely gripping” despite its challenging appearance, Testard said. |
| Testard’s methods for discovering and acquiring work are hardly unique. He said that he received tips from editors at publishing houses across Europe and in the United States, as well as from translators and authors he trusts. Yet he benefited from an attitude among most British and American publishers that foreign fiction was too expensive or difficult, he said. In 2014, at the Frankfurt Book Fair, he said that he had inquired about the English-language rights to Alexievich’s “Second-Hand Time,” an oral history of the collapse of the Soviet Union, and was surprised to learn that nobody had bought them. The book had already sold hundreds of thousands of copies in France, he added. | |
| Alexievich’s agent initially refused to sell him the rights, Testard said, because Fitzcarraldo had only published two books at the time. (The agent relented the next day after receiving no other bidders, Testard noted.) | Alexievich’s agent initially refused to sell him the rights, Testard said, because Fitzcarraldo had only published two books at the time. (The agent relented the next day after receiving no other bidders, Testard noted.) |
| In another example, Jennifer Croft, one of Tokarczuk’s translators, said that she had approached Testard with an excerpt from “Flights,” a series of meditations on travel, originally hoping that it might run in The White Review. When he bought several of Tokarczuk’s novels for Fitzcarraldo, they had already been turned down by about 15 U.S. publishers, Croft said. | In another example, Jennifer Croft, one of Tokarczuk’s translators, said that she had approached Testard with an excerpt from “Flights,” a series of meditations on travel, originally hoping that it might run in The White Review. When he bought several of Tokarczuk’s novels for Fitzcarraldo, they had already been turned down by about 15 U.S. publishers, Croft said. |
| All of Fitzcarraldo’s novels have the same simple cover, with the title and the author’s name in white type on a blue background; its nonfiction titles have white covers, with the text in blue. Testard said that the design (by Ray O’Meara) was influenced by the catalogs of European publishers like Éditions Gallimard, in France, that have similarly minimalist looks, giving a sense of unity between the imprint’s titles. | All of Fitzcarraldo’s novels have the same simple cover, with the title and the author’s name in white type on a blue background; its nonfiction titles have white covers, with the text in blue. Testard said that the design (by Ray O’Meara) was influenced by the catalogs of European publishers like Éditions Gallimard, in France, that have similarly minimalist looks, giving a sense of unity between the imprint’s titles. |
| In 2020, The Face, a British style magazine, called Fitzcarraldo’s editions “the most beautiful books on the shelf,” adding that they had become an instant way for readers to signal their own cleverness, whether commuting on public transit or posing on Instagram. | In 2020, The Face, a British style magazine, called Fitzcarraldo’s editions “the most beautiful books on the shelf,” adding that they had become an instant way for readers to signal their own cleverness, whether commuting on public transit or posing on Instagram. |
| Testard said that each accolade for the company had led to a much-needed leap in revenue. After Alexievich won the 2015 Nobel, Testard said that he had sold the U.S. rights for “Second-Hand Time” to Random House for a six-figure sum, allowing him to take on his first employee. Fitzcarraldo now has a full-time staff of six and is scheduled to publish 24 books next year, including “Porn: An Oral History” by the British writer Polly Barton, a debut novel about motherhood from the translator Kate Briggs, and “Owlish,” a twisted fairy tale by the Hong Kong author Dorothy Tse. The imprint’s plan — which includes the introduction of a classics line with titles such as Simone de Beauvoir’s “A Very Easy Death” — was outlined in a series of Post-it notes stuck to the office wall. | Testard said that each accolade for the company had led to a much-needed leap in revenue. After Alexievich won the 2015 Nobel, Testard said that he had sold the U.S. rights for “Second-Hand Time” to Random House for a six-figure sum, allowing him to take on his first employee. Fitzcarraldo now has a full-time staff of six and is scheduled to publish 24 books next year, including “Porn: An Oral History” by the British writer Polly Barton, a debut novel about motherhood from the translator Kate Briggs, and “Owlish,” a twisted fairy tale by the Hong Kong author Dorothy Tse. The imprint’s plan — which includes the introduction of a classics line with titles such as Simone de Beauvoir’s “A Very Easy Death” — was outlined in a series of Post-it notes stuck to the office wall. |
| Many of the planned titles were new books by authors that Fitzcarraldo had already published (it has eight Ernaux titles in its catalog). Testard said that the commitment to follow authors no matter what they produced was another way his imprint stood out in a British publishing industry that tended to focus on success. He was adamant that this approach was the right one. | Many of the planned titles were new books by authors that Fitzcarraldo had already published (it has eight Ernaux titles in its catalog). Testard said that the commitment to follow authors no matter what they produced was another way his imprint stood out in a British publishing industry that tended to focus on success. He was adamant that this approach was the right one. |
| “Risk-taking and having a commitment to authors over time,” he said, “really does work.” | “Risk-taking and having a commitment to authors over time,” he said, “really does work.” |