SMP Wins Tibetan Saga

St. Martin's Press editor Lindsay Sagnette prevailed in a weeklong, multipublisher auction for Freedom Deep in My Heart by Tibetan activist and actress Yangzom Brauen, her mother, Sonam Dolma, and her grandmother Kunsang Wangmo. The memoir portrays three generations of Tibetan women whose lives are forever changed when Mao's Red Army crushes Tibetan independence, sending a young mother and her six-year-old daughter scrambling over the Himalayas for safety in India. Andrew Nurnberg sold North American rights and has thus far also concluded a sale in Germany. Anticipated pub date is late 2010 or early 2011.

Elsewhere at SMP, Michael Homler preempted world rights to Paul Grossman's debut, The Sleepwalkers, and a second untitled novel via Jon Sternfeld at the Irene Goodman Agency. Set in the underworld of 1932 Berlin, The Sleepwalkers pits a Jewish detective against rising Nazi power as he investigates the murder of a young woman from a European royal family.

Zoo Stories

Greenwillow publisher Virginia Duncan beat nine other bidders in an auction for My Heart Is Like a Zoo, a picture book by Michael Hall; Anna Olswanger of Liza Dawson Associates made the world rights sale for Zoo and two other books. My Heart Is Like a Zoo, Hall's first book, uses the shapes of animals and hearts to talk about children's feelings. Greenwillow plans to publish in time for Valentine's Day, 2010.

Putnam's John Rudolph beat two other bidders in an auction for Carol Buckley's untitled children's picture book featuring Tarra, an elephant actually living at the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, and Bella, a stray dog found on the sanctuary's land. Tina Wexler and Andrea Barzvi at ICM sold world rights. The unlikely friendship between Tarra and Bella received national attention when Bella had to undergo spinal surgery and Tarra stood vigil until Bella returned to her side. Author Buckley runs the sanctuary; Putnam pub date is spring 2010.

Soup to Nuts

Crown executive editor Heather Jackson preempted world rights to Sandra Beasley's Don't Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life; Glen Hartley at Writers' Representatives made the sale. In this sometimes humorous memoir, poet and American Scholar editor Beasley will intertwine her personal experience—she is allergic to well over a dozen common foods—with the cultural history of allergy. Beasley, who at one time had a brief stint as a food critic, is the author of the poetry collection Theories of Falling, published by New Issues. Crown's pub date is late 2010.

Dempsey Signs Sirota

In his first acquisition as editorial director of nonfiction at Ballantine, Luke Dempsey bought David Sirota's Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain Everything; Will Lippincott at Lippincott Massie McQuilkin sold North American rights. In the book, Sirota suggests that as the boomers move aside, the values, the spirit and mindsets of the 1980s will return as the all-grown-up children of that decade reach middle age. Sirota's previous two books were published by Crown.

Touchstone Wins a Wife

After turning down multiple preemptive offers, Victoria Sanders accepted a bid from Touchstone editor Sulay Hernandez for a memoir by Nene Leakes. The star of Bravo's Real Housewives of Atlanta will write about her life before the show and offer life lessons to young women; Denene Millner, who most recently collaborated on Steve Harvey's current bestseller, will cowrite. Touchstone has world rights, and will publish in summer 2009 to coincide with the next season of the series.