Turkish Group Buys Publication Rights of Hassanzadeh’s Novel Hasti

The publication rights to the novel ‘Hasti’, authored by Farhad Hassanzadeh, has been sold to a Turkish publisher.

Preliminary talks with Turkey’s Timas Publishing Group,  based in Istanbul, were held during the 2017 Frankfort Book Fair and resulted in the publication of another novel of Hassanzadeh, ‘Ziba Sedayam Kon’ (Call Me Ziba) in Turkish language, ISNA reported.

The Turkish publication house is reportedly interested in purchasing the rights of illustrated childrens works of Hassanzadeh such as ‘Kooti Kooti’ consisting of humorous short stories, and ‘Mr. Color and the Naughty Cat’.

First released in 2010, ‘Hasti’ (meaning existence in Farsi) is one of the most popular teen novels published by the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults. The book is the tale of a teenage girl who refuses to be girlish like her peers. She is a tomboy, wishing to be a truck driver, pilot or a soccer goalie when she grows up.

The novel received the Silver Turtle award for most popular novel among teenagers at the Flying Turtle Awards 2012, held by the Book City Institute and the professional journal in children and young adults’ literature. It also got an appreciation from the Children’s Book Council of Iran in the same year and was nominated for book of the year in 2011.

Hassanzadeh, 55, has influenced children’s and young adult literature in Iran for more than 25 years. The Children’s Book Council of Iran has nominated Hassanzadeh to represent the country at the 2018 Hans Christian Andersen Awards, the highest international recognition given to an author and an illustrator of children’s books. Presented by International Board on Books for Young People, a Swiss non-profit organization, the awards are given every other year at the IBBY’s biennial international congress, each time held at a different member country.