CHINESE author Mai Jia was the central figure at the Mai Jia’s Night event in Frankfurt on Oct. 9, the day the world’s first biggest book fair opened.

It’s the first time a Chinese author is featured at a themed event during the Frankfurt Book Fair, signaling wider interest in original Chinese works.

More than 100 publishers from 20 countries interested in copyright cooperation on his books attended the event.

Mai’s “Decoded,” a riveting story about an orphaned math genius devoted to cryptography and deciphering, first went global with its Spanish version published by Planeta.

The English version was published in 2014 by Penguin and was called one of “the 20 best spy novels of all time” by The Daily Telegraph.

Its copyright was sold in 33 languages worldwide.

The focus at the author’s night was his third book from the trilogy, “The Message,” which is also a spy novel.

“The Message” generated keen interest from foreign publishers.

Head of Zeus, the British publisher of Liu Cixin’s “Three-Body” trilogy, bought the right to the English version. A deal was also signed that night to sell the novel in the Italian, Portuguese, Turkish, and Finnish markets.

Olivia Milburn, the English translator of Mai’s trilogy, said: “‘Decoded’ and ‘In the Dark’ are one kind of book; ‘The Message’ is different — it is a crime story in which all the witnesses are lying ... it is a puzzle story, and readers will enjoy trying to discover what has happened.”

Literary agent Tan Guanglei said Mai’s works appeal greatly to foreign readers with the kinds of stories they are familiar with and would love to read, but in some sense it’s also so unique and different.

(SD-Agencies)