Within 20 minutes after the Nobel Prize winner in literature was announced, sales of Dom Dzienny, Dom Nocny, by Olga Tokarczuk, reached 600 times the previous week. 20 minutes ago, he was still just a dark horse without a reading group in Douban, a public film and book review website.

At that time, Zheng Zhong, Head of Zhejiang Literature & Art Publishing House, was on a train from Beijing to Hangzhou. “It’s not a surprise that Tokarczuk won the Nobel Prize for literature. Earlier this year, the Publishing House purchased and acquired the copyrights for Pokot and Opowiadania bizarne.”

The news of the award both delighted him and made him anxious. What made him anxious was that although translation had started, its progress must be accelerated. “Polish is a smaller language, and there are only a few translators who can undertake a project at this level.” Zheng hoped that both books could be published around the awards ceremony at the end of this year. What delighted him was that it seemed within their expectation, and it made sense that the author had won the prize. “We have not only acquired this copyright, but also those of other authors with the chance to win the Nobel Prize – such as Cesar Aira from Argentina, Martin Walser from Germany, and George Sanders from the US – as well as some with potential to win the prize in the future, such as Keiichiro Kirano from Japan, and Leila Slimani from France.”

Zheng said, the Publishing House has released The Works of John Maxwell Coetzee, winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in literature. It plans to release three masterpieces by Patrick White, Nobel Prize winner in literature from Australia. In the future, it will release works by a number of authors with potential to win the Nobel Prize.

Zheng said, “it’s our mission to tell China’s stories to the world. We will also begin to encourage foreign writers to write more about China and Zhejiang, and invite them on exchange visits to help them write about China. Mo Yan has already exclusively authorized Zhejiang Literature & Art Publishing House to publish all of his works. We plan to invite a writer at the level of Nobel Prize to China each year to have a summit dialogue with Mo, creating a literature reading festival.”

Executive Editor: Bei Xu

Translation: Bei Xu, Wenjin Chen