Gardiner to Dutton
In a six-figure two-book deal, Edgar-winner Meg Gardiner signed with Dutton. Shane Salerno at the Story Factory represented Gardiner, selling North American rights to the titles to Ben Sevier and Jessica Renheim. The first book in the deal, set for June 2017, will launch a new series featuring a young female PI who, Salerno explained, “will be drafted by an elite group of FBI criminal profilers to help track and capture the nation’s most notorious serial killers.” Although book one in the series is set in the present, Salerno said it is partially inspired by the case of the Zodiac Killer, who was never captured and left notes for the media during a murder spree that seized the Bay Area during the late 1960s.
HC to Release New Silverstein
Alyan Pours ‘Salt’ on HMH
Hala Alyan sold North American rights, at auction, to her debut novel, Salt Houses. Lauren Wein at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt brokered the agreement with agent Michelle Tessler. Alyan, a Palestinian-American poet who has written for journals such as Prairie Schooner and Colorado Review, delivers a multigenerational tale about a well-to-do Palestinian family in the novel. Unfolding in various cities, from Boston to Beirut, Salt Houses, Wein explained, is a “sweeping, intimate, achingly beautiful tale of exile and diaspora” that “slices right through an infamous cultural divide, exploring the Palestinian experience in a fresh, searching, engaging, and accessible way.” The book is set for a fall 2017 release.
Nye Sells New Book to Rodale
Science educator and TV personality Bill Nye sold U.S. rights to Everything All at Once to Leah Miller at Rodale. Nye, who is best known for his PBS TV show Bill Nye the Science Guy, was represented in the deal by Marc Gerald at United Talent Agency. The book, Rodale said, will “celebrate the nerd mind-set.” Championing the urge to “question everything,” Nye will teach readers how thinking like a so-called nerd can address such big-picture concerns as poverty, hunger, and crime. Calling the book “part origin story, part tale of triumphant science, and part call to arms,” Rodale thinks Everything will appeal to Nye’s significant following, which includes more than four million fans on Facebook and more than two million followers on Twitter. Rodale has Everything scheduled for spring 2017.
Wood Gets ‘Natural’ at Europa
At Europa Editions, Michael Reynolds took North American rights to Charlotte Wood’s novel The Natural Way of Things. A bestseller in the author’s native Australia, where it was published by Allen & Unwin in October 2015, the novel is, Europa explained, a “subtly dystopian tour de force about corporate control, the demonization of female sexuality, and friendship.” It follows a group of women being held, against their will, at a complex in the Australian outback. When the organization that captured the women begins to break down, they must, Europa continued, “rely on their primal instincts and innate strength to survive.” Europa plans to publish Natural Way in June.
Briefs
Junessa Viloria at Loveswept took world rights, in a four-book deal, to Destined for a King by Ashlyn Macnamara. The title is the first in a new series called Bastard Brotherhood about a deposed king seeking to regain his throne. Macnamara was represented by Sara Megibow at KT Literary, and Destined is set for September 2016.
At Soho Press, Mark Doten bought Robert Repino’s D’arc. The novel is a sequel to Mort(e), which Soho published in January 2015, and which was named an Indie Next Pick and put on a list of best science fiction and fantasy books of 2015 by SF blog IO9. Soho described D’arc as “continuing the Animal Farm on steroids saga featuring a house cat turned war hero and his canine companion.” Jennifer Weltz at JVNLA brokered the North American rights deal for Repino.
