After a bidding war among seven houses Angelology, the debut novel from Danielle Trussoni, has gone to Viking in a preempt. Eric Simonoff of Janklow & Nesbit made the deal for world English rights (excluding Canada); the book's editor is still being decided. Though Simonoff would not confirm Angelology's price tag, rumors are swirling that it went for well into six figures.
The novel has been gaining buzz because of parall Da Vinci Code-esque work; it follows a young nun in upstate New York who, in uncovering a correspondence between the former mother superior and Abigail Rockefeller, unwittingly reignites an ancient war between a society of angelologists (a group that studies angels) and the Nephilim (the monster-like descendants of angels and humans). The book pulls from a variety of religious and mythical histories and, per Simonoff, "blends biblical lore, the Orpheus myth, the apocryphal Book of Enoch and the fall of the rebel angels." All this, he adds, "with bravura storytelling."
Simonoff, who's handling world rights, has also closed a number of foreign deals, with sales in Italy, Germany, Brazil and Canada. Trussoni, an Iowa Writers' Workshop grad, chronicled her tumultuous Wisconsin childhood in her first book, the memoir Falling Through the Earth, which was selected as one of the 10 Best Books of 2006 by the New York Times. Simonoff also mentioned that Trussoni is planning a series and is already at work on a second book, Angelopolis.
