Tom Lamont May 7, 2010

Can you judge a book by its cover?

It's a quirk of publishing that novels are routinely given completely different jackets in different countries, often with baffling results. Tom Lamont investigates this curious state of affairs

Martin Amis book covers — Book covers for Martin Amis's House of Meetings as published in the UK and Germany
Photograph: Observer Photograph: guardian.co.uk

JK Rowling book covers — What prompted the Italian book designers to give Harry Potter a hat shaped like a mouse?
Photograph: Observer Photograph: guardian.co.uk

Jonathan Safran Foer book covers — A monochrome cover of Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated as sold in the UK and US (left). And France's more raunchy interpretation of the novel... Andrew Smith, deputy art director at Penguin says of the UK edition: “The publisher wanted something beautiful and eye-catching. This was designed by Jonathan Gray, who worked very closely with Jonathan Safran Foer, batting ideas back and forth. That’s a pretty odd scenario – often the author is the last person in the loop.”
Photograph: Observer Photograph: guardian.co.uk

Ali Smith book covers — The Accidental by Ali Smith. Book covers for the UK and Sweden
Photograph: Observer Photograph: guardian.co.uk

Hilary Mantel book covers — Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel as sold in the UK and US (right). Julian Humphries, head cover designer at Fourth Estate: “The book’s editor wanted a strong, simple graphic idea [for the UK], so it seemed a very obvious route to go with a Tudor rose. We got it painted up by an illustrator and that was it – very simple, everybody liked it, and it went straight through all the stages of approval.”
Photograph: Humphries, Julian/Observer Photograph: Humphries, Julian/guardian.co.uk

Alexander McCall Smith book covers — Alexander McCall Smith's Tears of the Giraffe as sold in the UK (left) and reimagined in France to resemble an issue of National Geographic
Photograph: Observer Photograph: guardian.co.uk

Stieg Larsson book covers — Stieg Larsson book covers from the UK and France
Photograph: Observer Photograph: guardian.co.uk

McEwan book covers — Ian McEwan's Solar as distributed in the UK and Germany (right)
Photograph: Observer Photograph: guardian.co.uk

PD James book covers — UK and US (right) book covers for The Private Patient by PD James. Megan Wilson, art director at Knopf Doubleday: “We tend to play up the anglophile aspect of PD James novels in the US, but as the novels are set in Britain it would be hard not to. I think our production tends to be of a higher quality: better paper, finishes and special effects.”
Photograph: Observer Photograph: guardian.co.uk

Sebastian Faulks book covers — Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks from the UK (left) and the more restrained Chinese version of the novel
Photograph: Observer Photograph: guardian.co.uk

Steve Toltz book covers — Steve Toltz's A Fraction of the Whole as sold in the UK and Germany (right). Nathan Burton, freelance designer: “There are so many themes going on in the book, it was a real pain for me to begin with. In the end I chose quite a boring sepia photograph of the Australian outback, but with holes cut in the cover that showed through to a bright colour underneath. The idea was that the cover would then be a fraction of its whole.”
Photograph: Observer Photograph: guardian.co.uk

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