A Q&A with Fitzcarraldo Editions

We're absolutely delighted to be partnering with Fitzcarraldo Editions for Independent Bookshop Week this year and we thought it would be the perfect opportunity for our booksellers to ask them some questions!

Can you tell us about the story behind Fitzcarraldo Editions?

How did it all start? Fitzcarraldo Editions was founded in 2014 with a focus on publishing ambitious, imaginative and innovative writing, both in translation and in the English language. The name is taken from the 1982 Werner Herzog film in which a rubber baron tries to haul a 320-ton steamboat over a hill in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. You can infer any metaphor about the publishing industry you like from that… The first book we published, Zone by Mathias Enard, tr. Charlotte Mandell, was acquired by our founder and publisher Jacques Testard and serves as something of a mission statement for everything we’ve done since. It’s a 521-page stream of consciousness novel told in a single sentence. While that may sound like a daunting novel to get into, it’s an incredibly gripping read. Another early highlight was Pond by Claire-Louise Bennett, which seems to still be astounding readers nearly ten years on from its initial publication. Since then, we’ve gone on to publish over 100 more books across fiction and essay, including works by the 2015, 2018, 2022 and 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature laureates Svetlana Alexievich, Olga Tokarczuk, Annie Ernaux and Jon Fosse. We also launched a classics list last year with highlights including A Very Easy Death by Simone de Beauvoir, tr. Patrick O’Brian and The Possessed by Witold Gombrowicz, tr. Antonia Lloyd-Jones. We’ll also begin publishing poetry from January 2025.

You mostly publish fiction and non-fiction in translation. Are there any specific challenges to publishing translated titles?

We aim to publish half our catalogue in translation and the other half is English language original. However, I think it’s fair to say that in general we are better known for our books in translation as the authors tend to be very established in their countries and those reputations do still carry some weight in the UK. One of the main challenges is that those authors tend to be based overseas, which makes it quite expensive for a publisher of our size to bring them over for extensive promotion. However, at Fitzcarraldo Editions we have an ethos that if an author wants to do events and a tour, we will make it work for them. Another challenge would be that for a long-time the typical British reader was quite conservative in their book choices and probably stick to something written in English. Perhaps because translated works were perceived as more difficult? Now there much more of an appetite for translated works, which only seems to be growing, and it’s great to see as there are so many amazing writers out there not writing in English.

How did you decide on your iconic blue and white cover designs?

The series and typeface were both designed by Ray O’Meara, our art director. It’s inspired by continental publishing houses like Gallimard in France, who publish books with a very minimal, typographic cover design. The design helped us to stand out in bookshops against the sea of crowded covers that you usually see on British books. It also creates a sense of democracy across our list. Every book at Fitzcarraldo Editions gets the same level of attention and care, whether that be a Nobel Prize winner or a debut author, and the uniform design helps to reinforce that ethos. The idea with our books is that if you’ve enjoyed one, you’ll invariably enjoy many others, so the series design helps readers find and recognise our books.

Are there particular themes or styles that you feel Fitzcarraldo titles share?

As mentioned, we feel that once you’ve read and (hopefully) enjoyed one of our books, you could pick up any other and find something similar in there. At our core, we like to think that all the books we publish are ambitious, imaginative and innovative in their own ways. We often talk about our catalogue being a constellation, with each book connected in some way by theme, style, spirit, structure, or something even less tangible. Memory and fragmentation are themes that are prominent in many of our titles, though. There is obviously Annie Ernaux and Svetlana Alexeivich, but more recently José Henrique Bortoluci, Heather McCalden or Polly Barton and many more explore memory in illuminating and original ways. We also talk about publishing as a political act when discussing our list. Something like You Have Not Yet Been Defeated, a book of selected works by the Egyptian writer, technologist and political activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah who has been held as a political prisoner by Egypt since 2013, is undeniably political. There is also a novel like Minor Detail by Adania Shibli, tr. Elisabeth Jacquette, which due to the ongoing crisis in Palestine is an even more urgent read now than it was when we published it in 2020.

Will your upcoming poetry releases feature a new cover design?

There will indeed be a new design! A lot of hard work has gone into creating something that feels like it can stand alone but also displays a continuity with everything else that has come before it at Fitzcarraldo Editions. We’re launching the list in January 2025, and we will unveil the new design later this year. There’s not long to go until everyone will get to see it.

Can you recommend some of your favourite bookshops (to work with and to browse)?

Being based in London, we unfortunately don’t get to visit Portobello Bookshop as much as we’d like to. However, we admire the way you work from afar and it’s why we were so keen to work closely with you for Independent Bookshop Week this year. Otherwise, we have a great network of independent bookshops in London we work with regularly and just to browse. Those include Burley Fisher, The Broadway Bookshop, Pages of Hackney, London Review Bookshop, The Word and Brick Lane Bookshop just to name a few. Outside of London it’s always great to get to Voce in Birmingham, RareMags in Stockport, Gloucester Road Bookshop and Storysmith in Bristol, House of Books and Friends in Manchester, and so many others!

Can you describe your ideal bookshop?

One only selling Fitzcarraldo Editions? No, in seriousness, the most important thing about any bookshop is the booksellers. The ideal bookshop would be run by really dedicated team of booksellers that are knowledgeable about the books they have on offer and are generous with their time and attention for every customer. It’s amazing when bookshops group books in interesting and unexpected ways, rather than just by genre. It gets you thinking differently and could lead you to read something you’d never expect to. It’s also proof that those booksellers really care about their readers, which is one of the best things about visiting a bookshop rather than buying online. The space would be big enough for a few different people to browse comfortably but not feel too cavernous. It would also need to have a great events programme and space to serve some coffee and something sweet to enjoy while reading your latest purchase.

Thanks to Joel at Fitzcarraldo Editions for answering our questions!