Soho Press Nabs Japanese Prize Winner
Juliet Grames at Soho Press acquired world English rights to Kaoru Takamura’s novel Lady Joker. Chigusa Ogino at the Tuttle-Mori Agency brokered the deal on behalf of Shinchosha. The novel, which won the Japan Mystery and Suspense Grand Prize, explores a famous extortion case that happened in Japan in the 1980s, known as the Glico Moringa case. A Japanese film was also based on the book. Soho’s edition of the novel will mark the first time Takamura has been translated into English.
Bennett Starts ‘Feminist Fight’ at Harper
Time.com columnist Jessica Bennett sold North American rights to The Feminist Fight Club to Julie Will at HarperWave. Will won the book in a 12-publisher auction orchestrated by Howard Yoon at the Ross Yoon Agency. The book marks Bennett’s debut; describing it, Yoon said it will be “a guide for professional women (and men) to deal with the microaggressions and subtle sexism in the workplace and beyond.” Bennett, who regularly contributes to the New York Times, specializes in, as Yoon put it, pieces about “women, sexuality and pop culture.”
Dallas Reporter Lands at Bloomsbury
Anton Mueller took world English rights to Alfred Corchado’s Shadows at Dawn for Bloomsbury. Corchado, author of the novel Midnight in Mexico (Penguin, 2013) and a reporter for the Dallas Morning News, explores Mexican immigration in America by chronicling the story of a group of men who meet at one of the country’s first Mexican restaurants, in Philadelphia, during the 1980s. Bloomsbury said the book follows “their friendship and their career paths over decades.” Jin Auh at the Wylie Agency brokered the deal for the author.
Goleman, Davidson Get ‘Altered’ at Avery
For Penguin’s Avery imprint, Caroline Sutton nabbed North American rights to Daniel Goleman and Richard J. Davidson’s Altered Traits. Max Brockman at Brockman, Inc., brokered the deal for the authors. Davidson is a neuroscientist who directs the Waisman Brain Imaging Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the book draws on his research to document the scientific benefits of meditation. As meditation has become more in vogue, the book, Avery elaborated, shows that the practice can be more than just “pleasantly relaxing”; it can “alter our brain, our personal traits, and even our genomes for the better.” Goleman is a psychologist, author (Emotional Intelligence) and science journalist (frequently writing for the New York Times), and he and Davidson are longtime friends.
Dey Street Gets Bones’s Story
Radio talk show host Bobby Bones has brokered a deal with William Morrow’s Dey Street Books imprint to publish his memoir. The Bobby Bones Show, which is taped in Nashville and syndicated nationally, draws roughly four million listeners every week, according to Alan Nevins at Renaissance Literary & Talent, who brokered the deal. In the book, which Dey Street’s Lynn Grady bought world rights to, Bones will share his life story of growing up in a small Arkansas town (population roughly 800) to become a media personality. The book will also delve into his tough childhood: his mother, who struggled with drugs, died young. Carrie Thornton at Dey Street will be editing.
