October 2026

Hello

Apologies for the later than usual catch-up. 

It was the Frankfurt Book Fair, which stands like an all-encompassing monolith in the diary, with days full of meetings, evenings full of dinners with other editors, and (if you’re brave or twenty-five years younger than me) a lot of parties. Anyway, apart from a tricky train journey home – Brussels station was taken over by the student protests – it was a very good week. Lots of interesting chats, meetings with new editors and rights people, especially from territories that Foundry hasn’t published from before and even a deal on another book by one of this year’s favourite authors, which will be something for you to look forward to.

Typographia

Before dashing off to Germany, we had a truly lovely day at the Typographia fair, organised by Libreria at the end of September. Although we didn’t get to listen to any of the talks because it was sell, sell, sell, it was a brilliant and totally inspiring day, largely because we got to meet so many of you there. We don’t get to meet our readers face-to-face anywhere near as often as we’d like to (although we’re plotting how to remedy that), so it was a great treat to chat about the list and listen to what you think about what we’re doing. Thank you all for coming and a massive thank you to Aaron and the team at Libreria for creating such a special event. Let’s hope that it’s the first of many.

Ève Guerra and Karim Kattan in the UK

As the days are getting shorter, what better way could there be to spend an autumn evening than listen to some wonderful authors talking about their books? It’s a good job, then, that we are welcoming Ève Guerra and Karim Kattan to the UK to talk all things Repatriation and Eden at Dawn.

Ève will be here during the week of October 26th. She’ll be visiting East Bristol Books, Dormouse in Belper in my home county of Derbyshire, Voce Books in Birmingham and ending with an event at the Institut Français (who have supported the whole tour) on Thursday 29th. She’ll be in conversation with Clodagh Kinsella, her translator as well, so the conversations around her very powerful book should be wide-ranging and fascinating in equal measure. For full details of the event and to book, you can follow this link. 

After the excitement over his longlisting for the National Book Awards for Translated Fiction, we are thrilled to have Karim back in London for two events to talk about his extraordinary Eden at Dawn. On Tuesday November 3rd, he will be with our great friends at Veranda books, talking to Abla Kandalaft and the following night, Wednesday November 4th, he’ll be at Ibraaz talking to author Tareq Baconi. Both events promise to be fascinating conversations and there are still some tickets left, so if you’re interested in either (or both!), we’d love to see you there. 

Pity Piety Mercy

Our final book for 2026 is landing very soon. We’re going back to Italy on November 2nd for Pity Piety Mercy by the brilliant (and sickeningly young) Antonio Galetta, translated by the inimitable Antonella Lettieri. 

This is a brilliant book. I know I always say that, but there is something unusual and special about this political satire and choral novel that really lays bare the broken political and power structures that all of us in the “western democracies” are witnessing and feel pretty powerless about. It’s election time again in a small town that could be anywhere but is in fact amongst the dying olive groves of Puglia. Everything is about to kick off; lines are being drawn, “us” and “them” are taking positions and jostling for votes, as alliances are made in the shake of a hand, the wink of an eye or over the chink of an espresso cup in the bar on the piazza. 

What follows is a scorching, surreal, hilarious, dystopian satire as we follow the public and private vicissitudes of a cast of wannabe politicos and absurd factions as they scrabble for power. Imagine The Thick of It in a cocktail shaker with The Leopard and just a dash of Middlemarch as a bottom note. Although it’s set in Puglia, it has so much to say to all of us, particularly in the UK, after our interesting last ten years, with its series of eye-opening political decisions and a rotating door of prime ministers. 

Both Antonio and Antonella are from small towns in Puglia, which makes the writing more electric and the book made quite an impact in Italy, as runner-up in the 2023 Premio Italo Calvino and winner of the 2024 Premio Campiello Opera Prima, the country’s two most important awards for debut novels. 

Foundry at the Foundry

Just a reminder that we’re going to be going back to these roots to do a pop-up event at the amazing David Mellor Round Building factory in Hathersage Derbyshire, one of the most thrilling and innovative cutlery designers working in the area today. Foundry is going back to the Foundry for one day only on Saturday 14th November and we hope any of you in Sheffield, Manchester or the surrounding areas will come and see us.

The Round Building is easily accessible by train to Hathersage station from both Sheffield and Manchester Piccadilly, the Café is fantastic, and as well as our books, there is the David Mellor shop, filled with the most beautiful things for the kitchen and home. It’s a perfect pre-Christmas gift-buying day out. We’ll be back with more details soon but wanted to get the date in your minds as early as possible.

It’s a perfect pre-Christmas gift-buying day out where we’ll also have exclusive offers for this pop-up:

3 for 2 on all our titles

£12 for our two Longlisted books, THE DUKE (International Booker) and EDEN AT DAWN (National Prize for Translated Fiction)

I’ll sign off there, but I’ll be back in a couple of weeks with full details of our Foundry at the Foundry event and a sneak preview of what’s coming of the press in 2027.

À très vite

Richard

Editor