Summit Books will publish Paris-based journalist and author Monique El-Faizy’s In This Dark Room: Secrets, Shame, and Reckoning at a French Trial, the “gripping journalistic account of the infamous 2024 rape trial,” per the publisher, that ended on December 19 with a guilty verdict for Dominique Pelicot and the many strangers the 72-year-old Provençal man invited to force themselves on his wife, Gisèle Pelicot, after he drugged her. Judy Clain acquired North American rights from Larry Weissman, who has an eponymous shingle. The on-sale date is yet to be announced.

Reagan Arthur has acquired, at auction, North American rights to journalist Marya Hornbacher’s Solo, “the story of three years, 2022–2025, of her fully nomadic life alone on the road, traveling through a rapidly transforming United States in a 16-foot Scamp trailer pulled by a Ram truck,” for her as-yet-unnamed imprint at Grand Central Publishing. David Granger at Aevitas Creative Management brokered the deal. No publication date was announced.


Hydia Scott-Riley at Emily Bestler Books has landed U.S., Canadian, and nonexclusive open market/English-language rights to Amanda Mortlock’s Familiar, the first in a two-book deal, from Emma Kapson at Verve Talent & Literary. The novel, the publisher said, explores “attachment theory and the pain of breaking toxic cycles” through the tale of “a sometimes-girl sometimes-cat who discovers her boyfriend’s a witch and she’s his familiar, magically and historically linked to a pair of strangers who appear on their doorstep.” Publication is slated for fall 2026.


French writer and actor Anne Berest and her sister, the novelist Claire Berest, have sold world English rights to Gabriële to Michael Reynolds at Europa Editions via Thomas Guillaume at Les Éditions Stock. Translated by Tina Kover, the work recounts the life of “one of the most remarkable women of the 20th century, the authors’ great-grandmother,” and will hit shelves in all markets in April, with a 50,000-copy announced English-language first printing.


Mexican author-illustrator Steph C. Solís has sold world English rights, at auction, for her graphic novel debut, The Body Was Never Found, to Anita Okoye at Abrams ComicArts. Jane Chun at Transatlantic Literary Agency arranged the deal. The book, set in Mexico City in 1965, straddles the horror and mystery categories, and follows, the publisher said, “a female artist haunted by the ghost of her mother who disappeared after a traumatic fight with the artist when she was a child.” Publication is set for August 2027.

In Brief

  • Eileen Rothschild at Wednesday Books bought North American rights, in a three-book exclusive, to A Court of Dark Water by P.C. Cast (the House of Night series), a YA romantasy series based on Scottish legends, from Rebecca Scherer and Jessica Errera at the Jane Rotrosen Agency, for a tentative summer 2026 on-sale date.
  • Chris Staros at Top Shelf Productions picked up world English rights to The Book Tour 2, the sequel to the 2019 graphic novel by Andi Watson, from Janna Morishima at Janna Co., for publication in 2027.
  • Zoie Konneker at Peachtree Teen acquired world rights to Though This Be Madness by Cass Biehn (Vesuvius), a queer, Hamlet-inspired YA Regency-era romance, from Annalise Errico at Ladderbird Literary Agency, for a summer 2027 release.
  • Leticia Gomez at Dafina nabbed world rights to the novel Burn Down Master’s House by SiriusXM radio host Clay Cane from Mark Gottlieb at Trident Media Group.
  • Nancy Paulsen at Nancy Paulsen Books took world rights to the picture book One Grumpy Baby by Lin Oliver and illustrated by Jade Orlando from Ellen Goldsmith-Vein at the Gotham Group and Anne Moore Armstrong at the Bright Agency.