Real
Echt

scheuring echt real
August 2014 / 256pp
Children’s & Young Adults’

This book is outside of the five-year window for guaranteed assistance with English language translation. We suggest getting in touch with the relevant funding body for an informal conversation about the possibility of support. Please refer to to our  recommendations page for books that are currently covered by our funding guarantee.

review

Christoph Scheuring’s experience as a journalist shines through in this gritty, well-researched mystery story. 

Seventeen-year-old Albert spends all his free time at Hamburg Central Station, taking pictures of farewells. In his mind, these are the moments when people are more true to themselves than at any other time. It is there that he meets and falls in love with Kati, a girl who has run away from home and now lives on the streets. Kati is fascinated by his pictures, especially by his favourite, which shows a girl with a Mona Lisa smile being embraced by a boy. 

Albert eventually realises that there is more to Kati’s obsession with this image: the girl it depicts is her sister. After their parents’ deaths, Kati’s sister disappeared and later threw herself in front of a train. Kati refuses to believe that she really wanted to kill herself and thinks that the boy in the picture might have had something to do with her sister’s death. Together, she and Albert set out to try and uncover the truth about what happened. Real is a compelling piece of fiction that will leave a lasting impression on adult and Young Adult readers alike.

press quotes

‘Realistic, tough, but heartwarming.’ – Buchkultur

about the author

Christoph Scheuring has written for many important German newspapers and magazines such as Der Spiegel and Die Zeit. Real, his first Young Adult novel, was inspired by street kids he met while researching one of his articles.

rights information

Translation rights available from:

Magellan & Co., Germany
Contact: Viola Ahles
Tel: +49 951 160 98 407
Email: viola.ahles@magellanverlag.de

Our contact in London:

Tibooks Agency
Contact: Tina Amor
Email: tina@tibooks.co.uk

Magellan is an independent publishing house focusing on picture books and children’s and Young Adult fiction. They launched their first programme in July 2014 and aim to publish around fifty titles a year, all of them special in their own way.

translation assistance

Applications should be made to the Goethe-Institut.

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