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Made in Italy: La vita invisible di Addie Larue

As a major bestseller and BookTok megahit, it’s no surprise that V.E. Schwab's groundbreaking book, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, can be found in translation in a variety of Italian bookstores as La vita invisibile di Addie LaRue. 

France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever―and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world. But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.

Acquired by Oscar fantastica, a Mondadori imprint dedicated primarily to sci-fi/fantasy among other speculative works, La vita invisibile di Addie LaRue was translated by Marina Calvaresi for Italian publication. The original English edition was published by Tor, an imprint of Macmillan, in early October 2020. A little over a month later, in November, La vita invisibile di Addie LaRue hit Italian shelves. 

V.E. Schwab is no stranger to bestselling books that amass large and loyal followings, with the Shades of Magic and Cassedy Blake trilogies and the Villans series to name a few. This reputation, alongside the (correctly) anticipated hit nature of the book, is likely what led to the deal being made so early on. For La vita invisibile di Addie LaRue to be available so quickly after the English release means that the translation and Italian sales contracts were likely made well within the timeframe of the domestic contract processes; no matter how well oiled the team, no publisher can get a book out in a single month without having started the translation, proofing, and design processes well in advance.

Victoria "V.E.” Schwab is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen books, including the acclaimed novel The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, the Shades of Magic series, Villains series, This Savage Song, and Our Dark Duet. Her work has received critical acclaim, been featured in the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Washington Post and more, translated into more than a dozen languages, and has been optioned for television and film. When she’s not haunting Paris streets or trudging up English hillsides, she lives in Edinburgh, Scotland and is usually tucked in the corner of a coffee shop, dreaming up monsters.

Marina Calvaresi is a literary and essay translator for Mondadori, and has worked with a variety of works in her many years of trade translation. Some of her work includes Tunnel di ossa, Città di spettri, and Ponte di anime, all by V.E. Schwab, as well as Donne difficili. Storia del femminismo in 11 battaglie by Helen Lewis.

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