Ann Brasheres grows up, Bret Easton Ellis heads back to his L.A. roots, Julia Childs's grand-nephew talks H2O, Julie Powell hits the butcher block, Eoin Colfer does his best Douglas Adams impression and George Romero lays down the rules of zombie-dom—that and more in PW's roundup of the big books up for grabs at this year's fair.
The American Houses
HarperCollins
Among the highlights from HC this year are titles from the Prince of Wales and Joe Hill. From the Harper imprint there's Lauren Belfer's novel, A Fierce Radiance. Belfer, whose City of Light was a New York Times Notable Book, delivers a historical thriller about love, family and war in her second effort. Also from Harper is Leah Stewart's Husband and Wife, about a woman who learns her author husband has written a novel about infidelity that isn't entirely fictionalized. Prince Charles's A New Way of Looking at Our World (Apr. 2010), about his solutions to global warming (culled from years of research), will be shopped by Harper; rights sold in France and the U.K. so far. William Morrow titles include Meg Cabot's Insatiable, a humorous modern-day sequel to Dracula, and Joe Hill's Horns, a new supernatural thriller from the bestselling author of Heart-Shaped Box (and son of Stephen King); Insatiable rights sold in France and Horns rights sold in a number of countries including France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Also from Morrow is Capt. Chesley Sullenberger's Highest Duty (Oct.); rights sold in Germany.
Penguin
The house's 2010 Rep Pick, The Postmistress by Sarah Blake, will be among the titles Penguin will be pushing at the fair. The February novel, from Amy Einhorn Books, follows two women, a postmistress and a radio host, who both fail to deliver a message; rights sold in the U.K., Italy and Brazil. From Viking there's the new one by bestseller Greg Mortenson (Three Cups of Tea), Stones into Schools (Dec. 2009; rights have sold in the U.K., Italy and China. One of the big buzz acquisitions of the winter, Danielle Trussoni's Angelology (Mar. 2010), is also on Viking's slate; the title, about a clash between dark supernatural beings and a hidden earthbound society has sold in over 15 countries already. From Dutton, there's Allie Larkin's novel Stay, about a woman who mends her broken heart with some canine love from a German shepherd; the June 2010 title has sold in Italy. Also from Dutton is Robert Gregory Browne's Paradise City, the first in a series about demons plotting to turn Earth into their personal paradise, i.e., hell. From Penguin Press is Roger Lowenstein's The End of Wall Street, about the mortgage bust and financial collapse; rights sold in Australia/New Zealand and China. Riverhead has PEN/Hemingway Award—winner Chang Rae-Lee's The Surrendered, a novel about love and war; rights sold in the U.K. and Italy.
Macmillan
From St. Martin's there's Susan Wilson's novel One Good Dog (Mar. 2010), about a lonely businessman who finds solace in a friendship with an abused pooch; rights sold in, among other countries, Italy and Brazil. Also from SMP is Dana Haynes's thriller, Crashers, about a group of experts sent to unravel the mystery behind a plane crash, and Curt Stager's Our Future Earth, about the long-term effects of global warming. (SMP is only handling translation rights on Earth.) From FSG is Cathleen Schine's novel The Three Weissmans of Westport, a modern-day homage to Sense and Sensibility; rights sold in Italy, Germany and France. FSG also has John Bowe's Us: Americans Talk About Love, a collection of love stories from a wide-ranging group of people across the country; and Tim Hamilton's comics adaptation of the iconic Ray Bradbury novel Fahrenheit 451, which has already sold in eight territories.
Random House
In Ballantine's novel Sleepless (Jan. 2010) by Charlie Huston, an L.A. cop goes undercover peddling a sleep drug in a world in which an insomnia epidemic has taken hold; rights sold in the U.K. and Germany. From Bantam, there's a novel from Melanie Benjamin, Alice I Have Been (Jan. 2010), about a much older Alice, the heroine of Lewis Carroll's classic tale, reflecting on her life; rights sold in Australia/New Zealand, Brazil, Germany and Holland, and U.S. pub to dovetail the release of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. From little Random is journalist (Outside; SKI) and PBS co-host James M. Tabor's nonfiction title The Great Cave Race (June 2010), about the quest to dive the deepest cave on Earth. From Crown there's Rework (Mar. 2010) by the founders of Web application company 37Signals, explaining the outfit's philosophy; rights sold in Japan, Spain and the U.K. From Broadway is Susan Casey's The Wave: A Journey into the Dark Heart of the Ocean (Sept. 2010), about giant waves—i.e., 100 feet and over—the scientists who study them and the surfers who ride them; rights sold in Germany, Italy and the U.K. And from Shaye Areheart is Richard Harvell's novel The Bells (fall 2010) about a kidnapper/thief who, after escaping his dangerous father, finds refuge in a church choir where he's turned into a world-famous castrati; rights sold in Brazil, Germany, Holland, Korea, Portugal and Spain.
Simon & Schuster
From Free Press is Annie Leonard's The Story of Stuff (Mar. 2010), in which the self-proclaimed “toxic traveler” and coordinator of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives discusses how our overaccumulation is trashing the planet and affecting our health; rights have sold in various countries including China, Italy, Japan and the U.K. FP also has the newest addition to the You series, Michael F. Roizen and Mehmet C. Oz's You: Having a Baby; rights sold in Korea, Portugal and the U.K. From Scribner there's Alex Prud'Homme's Clean, Clear and Cold: The Fate of Fresh Water in the Twenty-First Century (Nov. 2009), about a resource that is quickly becoming more rare and valuable, from the coauthor of Julia Child's My Life in France. From the S&S imprint, there's Taylor Branch's The Clinton Tapes, a book the Pulitzer-winning author wrote based on interviews with the president throughout his eight years in office; rights sold in various countries including the U.K., Norway, Spain and Sweden. From Touchstone there's Howard Gordon's The Obelisk (Oct. 2010), a debut thriller by an executive producer/writer of 24; rights sold in the U.K.
Hachette
From Grand Central, there's George Romero's The Living Dead (July 2010), a debut novel from the cult director—behind genre staples like Night of the Living Dead—about the origin of the “zombie crisis.” In the book Romero reveals how the zombie epidemic began and tracks different groups of people from around the world as they react to, and struggle against, the walking dead; rights sold in the U.K. From Little, Brown there's Michael Koryta's So Cold the River, a supernatural thriller from the L.A. Times Book Prize—winner, about a director whose current assignment—make a documentary about a 95-year-old billionaire—unravels a mystery involving a strange rural town where celebrities and politicians once rubbed elbows; rights sold in Australia, France, Holland, Poland and the U.K. And from LBBYR, there's Jackson Pearce's Sisters Red (June 2010), a modern-day fairy tale—in-house, the title's being touted as Red Riding Hood meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer—about two sisters who hunt beasts known as Fenris, werewolves that prey on teen girls; rights sold in the U.K. and Germany.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
HMH will be pushing Nicole LaPorte's Hollywood book, The Men Who Would Be King: An Almost Epic Tale of Moguls, Movies and a Company Called Dreamworks (Apr. 2010). The former Variety reporter traces the dramatic rise and fall of one of Tinseltown's most promising studios backed, as it was, by three titans: Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Another highlight for the house is A Mosque in Munich: Nazis, the CIA and the Rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in the West (May 2010), from Wall Street Journal reporter Johnson; it follows the little-known story of how the CIA and former Nazi intelligence helped radical Islam get established in the West. And from William Mann, author of the bestselling Katharine Hepburn bio, there's How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood (Oct.), which focuses on Taylor's genius approach to stardom and how she changed Hollywood.
Perseus
From Basic Books is Douglas Hofstadter and Emmanuel Sander's The Essence of Thought (May 2010). Hofstadter (Gödel, Escher, Bach) and French psychologist Sander, per Basic, lay out the argument “that analogy is the basis for all human thoughts.” From Da Capo there's Thriller: The Making and Meaning of the Michael Jackson Masterpiece from Nelson George. And from Public Affairs is Worse than War: Genocide, Eliminationism, and the Ongoing Assault on Humanity by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen (Oct. 6), which is an examination of genocide.
Grove/Atlantic
Already sold in five countries—Australia, Germany, Holland, Israel and Norway—is Alice LaPlante's Turn of Mind, a novel about an accomplished female surgeon struggling with Alzheimer's and, suddenly, a murder charge. From Lily King (The Pleasing Hour) is Father of Rain, a psychological portrait of a domineering patriarch from the point of view of his daughter over the course of 35 years. Grove/Atlantic will also be pushing Patricia Engel's short story collection, Vida, which the publisher calls “a subtle and beautiful map of the Colombian diaspora through the eyes of a wise and wonderful young heroine.”
Hyperion
Hyperion will be pushing the forthcoming book from bestseller Michael J. Fox (Always Looking Up), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future: Life Lessons from a High School Dropout (Apr. 2010). From Voice is the nonfiction The Profiler (May 2010), about the practice of criminal profiling by a renowned practitioner, Pat Brown. Hyperion also has Whom Not to Marry (Apr. 2010) by Pat Connor, a 79-year-old Catholic priest. The book is adapted from Connor's popular lecture of the same name in which he “distills commonsense advice about how to dodge mates who would ruin your happiness.”
The American Agencies
William Morris Endeavor
The agency will be selling Bantam's The Language of Sand by Ellen Block (winter 2010). The novel, set on an island off the coast of North Carolina, follows a former lexicographer who relocates to the remote Chapel Isle, where she looks after a dilapidated lighthouse. From Riverhead there's Ann Brashares's The Memory, a 2010 adult novel from the author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, about a centuries-long love affair between two people through their various reincarnations. From Atria is Joy Fielding's The Wild Zone (Feb. 2010), a Miami-set psychological thriller. From Penguin is the whimsical novella Light Boxes by Shane Jones (June 2010), about a small town that wages war against the month of February; rights have sold in Germany, Russia and the U.K. On the YA side, William Morris is pushing Razorbill's The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller (Aug. 2010). The thriller/romance, the first in a new series by the author of the middle-grade series Kiki Strike, follows a girl with strange talents who's having disturbing visions of a life that ended decades ago in New York City. And on the nonfiction side, the agency has the May 2010 Harper title Gilded Lily by Isabel Vincent, about the Brazilian-born philanthropist Lily Safra, widow of billionaire Edmond Safra.
ICM (repped by Curtis Brown)
ICM is shopping new books by a few literary heavies. There's Bret Easton Ellis's new novel from Knopf, Imperial Bedrooms (May 2010). A sequel to Ellis's debut, Less than Zero, the book mirrors the time frame of its precursor—following Zero's characters during the four weeks before Christmas—set 20 years later; rights sold in France and Russia. ICM also has Haruki Murakami's new novel, which bowed in Japan in May, 1Q84. The book's been a hit in Murakami's home country—there are more than two million copies in print— and is rife with Orwell references (the title, some think, is a nod to 1984 with the “q” standing in for the Japanese word for the number nine) and follows a man and a woman searching for each other in a narrative that shifts through time; Knopf will publish in the U.S. and rights have been sold in France, Germany, Poland, Russia and Spain. From Noam Shpancer is the novel The Good Psychologist (Holt, Oct. 2010). ICM is handling all translation rights for the book, published originally in Israel, about a psychotherapist dealing with his own unresolved issues. In nonfiction there's Yale University Press's Why Architecture Matters by Paul Goldberger (Nov. 2009). In it, Goldberger, a Pulitzer-winning critic, explains how architecture affects our lives and offers a primer on how to look at and appreciate buildings. And from Michael Sandel is Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do. The FSG book is based on the Harvard professor's popular lecture series of the same name introducing the concepts of moral and political philosophy; in the U.K. (where Penguin is publishing), the book is going to be accompanied by a 24-part PBS series; rights sold in Brazil, Holland, Italy, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.
Ed Victor
On the YA side, Ed Victor is shopping the first book in the Blacklight trilogy, The Moving Shadows. Dubbing it a cross between Blade and Men in Black, the story, by debut novelist William Hill, follows a 15-year-old who, after his father is murdered and his mother is abducted, joins the Department of Supernatural Investigation; a six-figure deal for the trilogy is about to close in the U.K. From British journalist Andrea Busfield is a novel about the war of attrition in Cyprus, Aphrodite's War; the book's bowing in the U.K. in April 2010. The agency is also shopping Eoin Colfer's And Another Thing..., the sixth novel in Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Adams's widow signed off on Colfer's addition to the series, and the book, which Hyperion is releasing in October, is set to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the original publication of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; rights sold in a number of countries including Brazil, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany and Italy. From journalist James McManus is The Seal Man, about a marine biologist, Leo Kemp, who is rescued, against the odds, by a pod of seals after being thrown overboard; Thomas Dunne just acquired the book and rights have also sold in the U.K. From Frederick Forsyth there's the new thriller The Cobra (Putnam; autumn 2010); rights sold in Germany, Poland and the U.K.
Writers House
The agency will be offering Nora Roberts's first paperback original, The Bride Quartet, which has already sold in 10 foreign markets. There's also Neil Gaiman's narrative nonfiction title Monkey and Me, which William Morrow is publishing stateside. The book is a chronicle of Gaiman's travels throughout China as well as a retelling of a famous Chinese story involving, as Gaiman told an MTV blogger, a monkey, a pig and a water demon (hence the title). And from Michael Lewis (Moneyball) there's The Big Short, about the financial collapse and the people who predicted it. From Josh Gaylord (Hummingbirds), writing under the pseudonym Alden Bell, is the literary zombie novel The Reapers Are the Angels, which Holt is publishing; rights sold in Spain. From Melissa Marr, author of the bestselling YA Wicked Lovely series, there's Graveminder, her adult debut, which HarperCollins is publishing in the U.S., about two childhood friends who reunite in their hometown to face down a local curse; rights sold in the U.K. and Germany. On the nonfiction side, WH is shopping science journalist Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Crown, Feb. 2010), about HeLa, the “immortal” human cell line—taken nonconsensually from a poor woman named Henrietta Lacks who died of cancer in 1951—that's served, per the agency, as “one of the most widely used tools in science research.” The book focuses on the science as well as the tragic tale of the Lacks family.
Wylie Agency
As usual, the Wylie Agency is trotting out a hefty list of literary luminaries—and big bestsellers—at the fair, with new books by Roberto Bolaño, Dave Eggers, Elizabeth Gilbert, Martin Amis and Philip Roth, among many others. From Bolaño there's Los Sinsabores del Verdadero Policia, which the agency calls “the nucleus of [Bolaño's] literary universe, from which The Savage Detectives and 2666 grew.” The agency is also shopping Martin Amis's new novel, The Pregnant Widow, following a group of young friends in 1970, during their life-altering summer holiday in Italy. From Dave Eggers there's both The Wild Things—the author's adaptation of Maurice Sendak's children's classic—and his work of narrative journalism, Zeitoun. From Roth is Nemesis, a novel told from the vantage point of a 23-year-old named Bucky Cantor that chronicles a 1944 polio outbreak and its effects on a small Newark community; HMH is publishing Nemesis in 2010. Wylie also has Committed (Viking, Jan. 2010), from Elizabeth Gilbert, which is the Eat, Pray, Love author's take on marriage and her sentiment that she was, as she put it, “sentenced to wed.” Then there's Julie Powell's follow-up to Julie and Julia, Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat and Obsession, about her attempt to deal with her marital woes through a crash course in butchery.
Trident
Trident has Russian author Lena Meydan's Twilight Rising, which the agency is calling “Anne Rice meets The Sopranos,” a love story between a vampire and a human and the ensuing struggle it causes between two powerful families; Tor is publishing stateside and the book is the first in a four-book series. From Allan Folsom there's The Hadrian Memorandum (Tor, Oct. 2009), a thriller about corporate greed set in the oil fields of central Africa; it's the third book in the author's John Barron series. From Lilli Petersen is Darkwood, which does not currently have an American publisher; the book's a “steampunk YA crossover” title, per the agency, in which “a gutter rat teams up with an aristocrat's servant to steal the powerful Talisman of Yth and escape to the city's labyrinthine underworld.” Trident also has Cesar Millan and Melissa Jo Peltier's How to Raise the Perfect Dog (Harmony, Oct. 2009); the untitled memoir from Sarah Silverman, which Harper is pubbing in 2010 and which has already been sold in the U.K.; and Cristina Garcia's Central America—set novel, The Lady Matador's Hotel, about a Mexican-Japanese matadora, which Scribner is publishing in the U.S.
Inkwell Management
The agency is pushing Lionel Shriver's So Much for That (Harper, March 2010) about a marriage both tested and strengthened by a serious illness; rights sold in the U.K., Brazil and Holland. From Grist magazine editor Kathryn Schulz is Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error (Ecco, June 2010) a book in which she, per Inkwell, argues that "we are wrong about what it means to be wrong;" rights sold in the U.K., Italy and Germany. Lance Armstrong is out with Comeback 2.0 (Touchstone, Dec. 2009), a first person journal, "heavily illustrated" with color photos, of the cyclist's 2009 come-out-of-retirment season; rights sold in the U.K. and Australia/New Zealand. From Forbes editor Richard C. Morais is The Hundred Foot Journey (Scribner, July 2010), about a successful middle-aged Parisian chef who winds up on a European trip with family from Mumbia after a tragedy back at home; rights sold in Hungary, India and Portugal. From Air National Guard flight engineer Tom Young is The Mullah's Blizzard, a survival story focusing on two crew members aboard a U.S. Air Force plan, transporting a Taliban detainee, that's shot down. The agency also has Peter Buffett's Life Is What You Make It (Harmony, May 2010), which features life lessons from Warren Buffett's youngest son; rights sol in Korea.
Sterling Lord
From Adam Haslett there's Union Atlantic, a new novel from the Pulitzer and NBA-nominated short story writer (Doubleday/Nan Talese, Jan. 2010); the agency calls it “a deeply affecting portrait of the modern gilded age and a generous vision of flawed and all-too-human people.” There's also Guggenheim-winner and Columbia professor Sam Lipsyte's The Ask (FSG, Mar. 2010), a novel about a former college development officer (and husband and father), newly unemployed, asked by his former boss to reel in a big donor; rights sold in Italy. From HarperCollins is Jack Kerouac's The Sea Is My Brother, a book that combines the author's letters to friend/poet Sebastian Sampas with a previously unpublished novel; rights sold in Brazil, Canada, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia and the U.K. From Ben Greenman, the New Yorker editor and novelist, is the short story collection Correspondences, which HarperCollins acquired as part of a three-book deal; the book was originally published by the art book house Hotel St. George Press. And from Arnon Grunberg is Our Uncle, about an army man who lives in a politically unstable country and brings home a girl as a “gift” for his wife, after massacring the girl's family; rights sold in Germany and the Netherlands (where the book has come out already). The agency also had Raboert Mazur's The Infiltrator (Little, Brown, fall 2009), the former federal undercover agent's tale of infililtrating the top levels of the Medellin Cartel; the producers of Good Night, and Good Luck have book under option. From Richard Paul Evans there's The Walk (S&S, spring 2010) about a successful business who, after losing his wife, sets out and, per the agency, "walks to find his new life." In Dogs of Babel author Carolyn Parkhurst's The Nobodies Album (Doubleday, spring 2010) a novelist who's estranged rock star son is accused of murder endeavors to solve this real-life crime; rights sold in the U.K. From ethan Watters is Crazy Like Us (Free Press, spring 2010), a nonfiction book about the effects of globalization on the human mind. And, then there's the psuedonymously written trilogy from Joss Ware, Guardians of Envy (Avon is releasing book 1 in winter 2010), which the agnecy says is "part I Am Legend, part Heroes" and blends romance, action and mystery.
Foundry
The agency has a number of big YA titles this year, including the Simon & Schuster Children's debut novel The Seven Rays by Jessica Bendinger (Nov. 2009). Bendinger, a screenwriter (Bring It On) and former model, follows Beth Michaels, a young woman who starts seeing people's pasts after receiving the mysterious message: “You are more than you think you are.” Then there's The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May and June by Robin Benway (Audrey, Wait!), about three teenage sisters, navigating their parents' divorce, who discover their long forgotten childhood powers have resurfaced; it's scheduled from Razorbill/Penguin for summer 2010. And from Leila Sales is Wayward Girls, a Simon Pulse 2010 novel, the first in a two-book deal (book two is scheduled for fall 2011), set at a Boston prep school. On the adult side is psychic and medium Rebecca Rosen's Spirited: Connect to the Guides All Around You (HarperCollins, Feb. 2010); Rosen teaches readers how to be their own psychic in a book the agency dubs “The Secret meets Skinny Bitch.” On the adult fiction front, Foundry has the debut novel The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno by Ellen Bryson (Holt, 2010); set in 1865 New York, the book follows the titular character—he performs as the “living skeleton” in P.T. Barnum's American museum—whose life is changed after being hired by Barnum to be the showman's personal detective.
Dijkstra Agency
The agency, which will have bestsellers Lisa See and Mo Yan at the fair for the “Year of China” celebration, with See representing the U.S. and Mo Yan representing China. As for the titles, on the non-fiction side there's The Great Religions: Different Paths up Different Mountains which, per the agency, provides a "21st Century roadmap" for secular and religious alike to the great religions of the world. From Stanford history professor Ian Morris is War! What Is It Good For?, which argues that war, in some historical instances, has led to positive change; rights sold in the U.K. From seafaring environmentalist Charles Moore and Cassandra Phillip is Plastic Ocean (Avery, 2010), about Moore's discovery of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a continent-sized accumulation of plastic waste floating in the sea. On the fiction front is Indu Sundaresan’s Shadow Princess (Atria, Apr. 2010), the third novel in author's historical Taj Triology. From Chitra Divakaruni is One Amazing Thing (Hyperion, Feb. 2010), a novel about love, family and political upheaval; rights sold in Korea, France and Israel. From bestseller and Cosmo editor-in-chief Kate White is the stand-alone thriller Hush (HarperCollins, March 2010).
Janklow & Nesbit
On the fiction side the agency has Andre Eichman's Eight White Nights (FSG, Feb. 2010), a “lushly romantic novel” about a love affair between a young man and a young woman. There's also Lorraine Adams's The Room and the Chair (Knopf, Feb. 2010), a work of literary suspense from the Pulitzer-winning journalist. And from Rebecca Goldstein is 26 Arguments for the Existence of God (Pantheon, Jan. 2010), about “the varieties of human religious experience in a story of obsession, consuming love and divine genius”; rights sold in Brazil, Germany, Holland and the U.K. On the nonfiction side the agency is shopping The Devil and the Holy Water by Robert Darnton, NBCC winner and director of the Harvard University library; the University of Pennsylvania Press is publishing this work about slander in the 18th century in November 2009. From New Yorker staff writer Atul Gawande is The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right (Metropolitan, Dec. 2009). And from Hannah Pakula is The Last Empress: Madame Chiang Kai-shek and the Birth of Modern China (S&S, Nov. 2009); rights sold in the U.K.
Taryn Fagerness Agency
The California agency has Kathryn Johnson's The Gentleman Poet (Avon, summer 2010), a novel that works off the notion that Shakespeare's The Tempest was inspired by a real shipwreck. The agency also has Matthew Dicks's Unexpectedly Milo (Broadway, summer 2010), about a husband in a failing marriage who's trying to figure out what went wrong. There's also the debut title in Amazon's fiction program, AmazonEncore, Cayla Kluver's Legacy: A Novel. The book, which the e-tailer published in August, was originally self-published by Kluver, a Wisconsin teenager, and is primarily repped by the Marsal Lyon Literary Agency; rights sold in a number of countries including Australia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan and Spain.
Jean V. Naggar Agency
From Emily Liebert is Facebook Fairytales: Modern-Day Miracles to Inspire the Human Spirit (Skyhorse, Feb. 2010), which the agency calls a “modern-day Chicken Soup for the Soul”; rights sold in Indonesia. And from Henry Holt is a contemporary gothic from Wendy Webb, The Tale of Halcyon Crane (Apr. 2010); rights sold in Germany and Greece. On the children's side, there's Ellen Potter's The Kneebone Boy, which Feiwel and Friends is publishing in September 2010. The book's set in a small English town and follows the Hardscrabble kids who are relocated to live with their aunt in London, where they discover they might be living next door to “a horribly misshapen boy who has figured in local legend.”
Jane Rotrosen
From Kristin Hannah there's Winter Garden (SMP, Feb. 2010), a novel that switches in time—from the present day to the siege of Leningrad—and follows a family coping with the aftermath of tragedy. From Tami Hoag is Deeper Than the Dead, Hoag's first novel at Dutton (Dec. 2009). In the book, set in a California suburb circa 1985, a hunt for a serial killer coincides with the dawning of profiling as a criminal science; rights sold in Germany and the U.K. And from Lisa Gardner there's Live to Tell (Bantam, July 2010), a thriller from the bestselling author of The Neighbor; rights sold in the U.K.
Folio Literary
Folio is trotting out a number of fiction titles at the fair. There's Alicia Bessette's All Come Home (Dutton, Aug. 2010), which the agency calls an “upmarket” debut that's Julie and Julia meets Good Grief; the book sold for six figures in the U.S., and rights have sold in Germany. From Norb Vonnegut there's Top Producer (SMP/Thomas Dunne, September 2009), a Wall Street-set thriller. Folio also has the newest novel from Art of Racing in the Rain author Garth Stein.
Sanford J. Greenburger
SJGA has Katia Lief’s You Are Next (Avon, Oct. 2010) and its untitled sequel, a suspense series featuring female detective Karin Schaeffer; rigts sold in Germany. On the fantasy front there’s Blake Charlton’s Spell Wright trilogy, about a young wizard with flawed powers; the first book is out from Tor in February 2010 and rights to the trilogy have sold in the U.K. From Stephen Lawhead is The Skin Map: Book 1, the first in the author’s five-book Bright Empires series which Thomas Nelson is publishing in fall 2010; it follows, per the agency, a “time-traveling scavenger hunt through history." On the nonfiction side is H. Keith Melton and Robert Wallace’s The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception (William Morrow, Nov. 2009) which, according to the agency, is a how-to guide featuring illustrations, outlining the tricks an actual magician taught the CIA at the height of the Cold War; rights sold in Indonesia, Russia and Lebanon. And, from bestseller Dr. Daniel G. Amen is Change Your Brain, Change Your Body (Harmony, Feb. 2010), in which the M.D. establishes the connection between brain health and overall health.
Fineprint
Among the titles Fineprint will be pushing are Brains: A Zomoir by Robin Becker. The book (Morrow, summer 2010) is a faux memoir told by Jack Barnes, who was recently turned into a zombie. From Kelly Gay is The Better Part of Darkness, (Pocket, Dec. 2009), a debut fantasy novel set in Atlanta. And from Molly Harper there's the Nice Girls trilogy—Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs; Nice Girls Don't Date Dead Men; and Nice Girls Don't Live Forever—about a librarian who becomes a vampire.
The British Publishers
Atlantic/Corvus
Atlantic's new genre imprint, Corvus, offers Chris Beckett's The Holy Machine (July 2010, world rights excluding U.S., agent John Jarrold), a dystopian novel set in a city state called Illyria. Beckett beat some celebrated names to win the Edge Hill short story prize. Torsten Kroll's Secret Book of Sacred Things (Atlantic, Nov. 2010, world excluding Australia/New Zealand, agent Michael Gifkins & Associates) is about a small community of women in a devastated world. Paul Kriwaczek's Babylon reveals the history of an empire that is “a true Atlantis” (Atlantic, Feb. 2011, world rights, agent Watson Little). Novelist and nonfiction writer Jennifer Potter presents a lavishly illustrated story of The Rose (Atlantic, Oct. 2010, world rights, agent PFD).
Bloomsbury
SAS meets James Bond in travel writer Jason Elliott's first novel The Network (world, agent A.M. Heath). The new novel from Aminatta Forna, author of the prize-winning memoir The Devil That Danced on the Water, is The Memory of Love, about an English psychologist in exile in a country torn apart by civil war (world translation; rights sold in Germany and Spain; U.S., Grove Atlantic). Beirut 39 (agent, Hay Literary Festival) is a collection of new writing from the Arab world, to be published in English throughout the world by Bloomsbury, in English in the Arab world by Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing, and in Arabic throughout the world by Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing. William Dalrymple's first travel book for over a decade is Nine Lives, about how traditional religious lives in India have been affected by upheavals in the country (world; rights sold in the Netherlands, France, U.S.; agent David Godwin).
Canongate
Philip Pullman's The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, a “fiercely subversive” retelling of Jesus' life (Easter 2010), has already made headlines (world rights; rights sold in Australia/New Zealand, Canada, U.S.; agent Caradoc King at A.P. Watt.) From Dan Rhodes, one of Granta's 2003 Best of Young British Novelists, comes Little Hands Clapping, in which a bizarre German museum is the meeting point for a group of people who will shock the world with an outrageous crime (Feb. 2010, world rights).
HarperCollins
Inspired by The Turn of the Screw, John Harding's Florence and Giles is set in a crumbling New England mansion, where 12-year-old Florence devours books in secret and tells her story in a language of her own invention (Mar. 2010, world rights, Italian and Portuguese rights sold, agent Sam Copeland at the Peter Robinson agency). Dark Blood is the new Logan McRae novel, set in Aberdeen, by Stuart MacBride (Apr. 2010, world rights, agent Philip Patterson at Marjacq). Bestselling author Rosie Thomas's new novel is Lovers and Newcomers (Mar. 2010, world rights, agent Jonathan Lloyd at Curtis Brown), a story of new friends reuniting to begin a new stage in their lives. Justine Picardie has written her biography of Coco Chanel with “unprecedented access to the Chanel archives” (Nov. 2009, agent Ed Victor, world rights—U.S., Dutch, Portuguese and Chinese-simple rights sold). James Wong returns in Grow Your Own Drugs: A Year with James Wong (Feb. 2010, world rights, agent Cat Ledger). David McCandless, in Information Is Beautiful, suggests how we can process the barrage of information that comes our way (Feb. 2010, world rights, agent Simon Trewin at United Agents).
Kyle Cathie
Inspired by a green philosophy as well as thriftiness, Sian Berry's Mend It! (Oct. 2009, world rights) shows you how to mend household items ranging from knitwear to toasters. Italian Cookery Course by Katie Caldesi, who with her husband runs the La Cucina Caldesi cookery school, offers master classes and 500 recipes for regional specialities (Oct. 2009, world rights).
CCV
“The improbable, platonic love which flourishes between an insurance broker and a chess-playing donkey called Caroline” is the subject of Cornelius Medvei's novel Caroline (Harvill Secker, early 2011, world rights, agent Charles Collier of Tavistock Wood). Financial journalist Nicholas Shaxson exposes the secret world of tax havens in Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men Who Stole the World (Bodley Head, Jan. 2011, world rights).
Cornerstone
Silvena Rowe draws on her Ottoman heritage to offer a sumptuous guide to the food of the “unknown Mediterranean” in Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume (Hutchinson, May 2010, world rights, agent Felicity Blunt at Curtis Brown). Lisa Lynch's The C Word (Arrow, Apr. 2010) is based on her blog about “the frustrating, life-altering, sheer bloody pain-in-the-arse inconvenience of getting breast cancer at 28” (world rights, Dutch rights sold).
Ebury
Human Planet by Dale Templar and Brian Leith is a highly illustrated tie-in to an eight-part BBC1 series to be shown in autumn 2010 (world rights).
Faber
The discovery of a library belonging to one of Stalin's henchman leads Rachel Polonsky on a journey into Russia in Molotov's Magic Lantern (Feb. 2010; world rights excluding U.S.; Dutch rights sold; U.S. publisher Farrar, Straus & Giroux; agent Catherine Clarke at Felicity Bryan). Rob Chapman portrays the enigmatic founder-member of Pink Floyd in Syd Barrett: A Very Irregular Head (Mar. 2010, world rights, agent Sarah Such).
Headline
Number one bestseller Martina Cole's new novel is Hard Girls (Oct. 2009) about the hunt for a serial killer who is murdering prostitutes (options out for U.S. rights, French, Czech, Japanese, Romanian, Slovak, Serbian, Portuguese, Hungarian, Russian, Spanish and Indonesian). Rosie Wallace's first novel, Scandal in the House (Mar. 2010, world rights) portrays outrageous goings-on in a small Scottish town.
Little, Brown
Following its bestselling successes with Sharon Osbourne, LB has her husband Ozzy's I Am Ozzy (Sphere; Oct. 2009; world rights; rights sold in Czech, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, U.S.). Sharon Osbourne makes her fiction debut with Revenge (Sphere, Mar. 2010, world rights), about two sisters who dream of fame. Tania Carver's The Surrogate (Sphere, Sept. 2009) is a debut thriller in the tradition of Mo Hayder and Tess Gerritsen (world; rights sold in France, Germany, Russia and Turkey). Leah Chishugi, who survived the Rwandan genocide, writes about her ordeal in A Long Way from Paradise (Virago, Sept. 2010, world). Patrick Halford reveals The 10 Secrets of 100% Healthy People (Piatkus; Dec. 2009; world rights; rights sold in Arabic and in Brazilian Portuguese).
Macmillan
Awake in the Night (Macmillan, Jan. 2011, world rights, agent RCW) by Robin Blake, author of fiction and nonfiction including a biography of George Stubbs, introduces Cragg and Fidelis, detectives in 18th-century England. In Ryan David Jann's Low Life (Macmillan, July 2010, world rights via the author), a man fights off and kills an intruder, who looks exactly like him. Ben Myers's Richard (Picador, Mar. 2011, world rights, agent Mayer Benham) is the narrative of rock star Richey Edwards, who disappeared in 1995 just as his band, the Manic Street Preachers, was about to hit the big time. Adam Neville's Apartment 16 (Pan, May 2010, world rights, agent John Jarrold) is “spine-chilling commercial horror.” Joe Treasure's Besotted (Picador, Mar. 2010, world rights via RCW, Dutch rights sold to Ambo/Anthos) is set against the backgrounds of a summer in Kilross, the Brighton bombings of 1984 and the buildup to the invasion of Iraq. In The Geometry of Pasta (Boxtree, May 2010, world rights via the authors), Caz Hildebrand and Jacob Kennedy present “a striking fusion of cutting-edge design and delicious recipes.”
Octopus
Anna Pavord, author of the acclaimed Tulip, offers both a celebration of bulbs and a guide to growing them in Bulb (Mitchell Beazley, Sept. 2009, world). Michael Mosley and John Lynch's Science Story (Mitchell Beazley, Apr. 2010, world) is a tie-in to a BBC2 series examining scientific breakthroughs from classical times to the present day. Origins: Human Evolution Explained (Mitchell Beazley, Oct. 2010, world) combines the expertise of Dr Douglas Palmer with “the most accurate facial reconstructions available.” The latest work from renowned zoologist Desmond Morris is Child (Hamlyn, Sept. 2010, world), exploring the world of children ages 2—5.
Orion
In R.J. Ellory's The Anniversary Man (Orion, Sept. 2009), John Costello is the only person who can discern the pattern behind a spate of murders in Manhattan, and the knowledge will put him in danger (translation rights; rights sold in France and Germany; U.S. rights A.M. Heath). M.D. Lachlan tells the werewolf myth “as it has never been told before” in Wolfsangel (Gollancz, May 2010, world rights, German rights sold). Jim Powell's The Breaking of Eggs (Weidenfeld, Feb. 2010) is about a Polish exile who writes travel guides to Eastern Europe and whose life is thrown into upheaval by the fall of the Berlin Wall (world rights; rights sold in the U.S., Denmark, Iceland, Italy and Portugal). Katherine Webb, author of successful YA novels, turns to adult fiction with a multigenerational saga, The Legacy (Orion, Apr. 2010, world rights).
Penguin
In a clandestine research facility known simply as MEROS, military scientists have developed the most astonishing and deadly weapon known to man in advertising copyrighter Ben Dunn's first novel, Instinct (July 2010, world rights, agent Robert Dudley). John Powell's How Music Works (Aug, 2010, world rights, agent Conville & Walsh) is a “charming, straight-talking and ear-opening” guide to the subject. Malcolm Beith, a freelance reporter based in Mexico, tells the story of “El Chapo,” the world's most wanted drug lord, in The Last Narco (Sept. 2010, world rights). Those working abroad or seeking adventure there may find a collection of “survival solutions” in The Deep Field Survival Guide (Sept. 2010, world rights, agent PFD) by James Shepherd-Barron, who has worked as a military peace keeper and foreign aid worker. A compendium of Elizabeth David's classic recipes appears in The Illustrated Elizabeth David (Sept. 2010, world rights, agent Jill Norman), including the fruits of her travels in France, Italy, Greece, Egypt and India, as well as Britain.
Preface
Peter Firstbrook tells the story of Barack Obama's Kenyan family over the past 400 years in Barack Obama: A Journey Out of Africa (July 2010, world rights, U.S. rights sold).
Quadrille
Laura Santtini's Easy Tasty Italian is “a truly revolutionary approach to Italian cooking,” making use of flavorful ingredients to transform simple dishes (Oct. 2009; world rights available). Eat Right for Your Body Type (Jan. 2010, world rights available) by Anjum Anand, presenter of BBC2's Indian Food Made Easy and author of the bestselling tie-in, is advertised as the first Ayurvedic diet book to combine Western and Eastern recipes.
Quercus
The Upright Piano is a first novel by David Abbott, cofounder of advertising agency Abbott Mead Vickers, about a rash act that leads a man into great danger (Apr. 2010, world rights from the author). The Demi-Monde introduces sf/fantasy newcomer Rod Rees, who creates a world in which a simulation game involving monsters from history goes badly wrong (Jan. 2011, world rights, agent John Jarrold).
Transworld
Lockup is the second novel in the “adrenaline-fueled” Ryan Lock series by Sean Black, whose hero and his partner have to keep a state's witness alive for a week (July 2010, world rights).
Virgin
Timothy Albone's Out of the Ashes is the true story of the Afghanistan cricket team and its attempts to join the world's elite cricketing nations (May 2010, world rights).
Hodder
Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter by A.E. Moorat is set in 1838 London, and pits a newly crowned Queen Victoria in a fight against demons that threaten to overtake Britain and her monarchy (October 2009; world rights; rights sold to Harper Collins US). Untitled by Michael Caine will be a major new volume of autobiography (autumn 2010; world rights; US rights held by Amanda Urban at ICM).
John Murray
Washington Shadow by Aly Monroe is the second in her trilogy of World War II era spy books starring Peter Cotton (November 2009; world rights). In Use Your Head, Daniel and Jason Freeman offers "a comprehensive look at what makes us tick" (September 2010; world rights).
Profile
Profile's Andrew Franklin has submitted his company's titles in (erratically scanning and rhyming) limerick format.
"There once was a publishing house called Profile, / They were small, independent and nubile / On their Frankfurt rights list / There are numerous hits (all with world rights) / Come see us on stand L924, it’ll be worthwhile . . . Korea by Shelia Miyoshi Jager / Is a stunning new history, we wager / The New Scientist will show / How to Make a Tornado / And Mary Beard’s It’s A Don’s Life’s a surefire winner. Authors Jolyon Fenwick and Marcus Husselby / Give us Einstein’s Watch, a Christmas hit, surely / Find out What Darwin Got Wrong / (If you didn’t know all along) / In the book by Fodor and Piatelli-Palmarini. Serpent’s Tail have a strong list every time, / With Zeltserman’s Pariah, Killer, Outsourced and Small Crimes, / Repeat it Today with Tears by Anne Peile, / Will cause a stir, we feel, / And Musa Okwanga’s football book Will You Manage? is sublime.
The British Agencies
Christine Green
Maeve Binchy's latest, Minding Frankie, is the story of a baby left in the care of two people already struggling with their own problems who know little of each other and less of parenthood; world English-language rights sold, foreign rights available. A debut novel from Christie Egberongbe Watson, Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away, the story of 12-year-old Blessing for whom “everything changed after Mama found Father lying on top of another woman”; on submission in U.K., foreign rights available. Ali Lewis's debut, Everybody Jam, is set in the Australian outback; on submission in the U.K., foreign rights available. Costa Prize—nominee (Cloth Girl) Marilyn Heward-Mills has a second novel, The Association of Foreign Spouses; U.K. rights sold, foreign rights available. Paul James Shann's debut, Perfect Peace, is set in Brighton, the story of a woman abandoned by her longtime husband; U.K. submission pending, foreign rights available.
Maggie Hanbury
A Gecko's Farewell, set in Africa, is the debut novel by Maik Nwosu, a prize-winning author who grew up in Nigeria and is now assistant professor of world literature at the University of Denver; on U.K. submission. Sapphire is the fourth novel in Katie Price's bestselling chick lit series, total sales of which exceed one million; some foreign rights available. Man of War by Toby Vintcent is a fast-paced, gritty, true-to-life thriller set in the worlds of defense and industrial espionage, which the author knows well; on U.K. submission.
Jane Gregory
Belinda Bauer, freelance scriptwriter whose interests include psychology, sport and all forms of gambling, makes her debut with Blacklands, a thriller set in Devon; rights sold in U.K., U.S., France, Germany, Greece, Japan and the Netherlands; a second outing, Tipping Point, has been sold in the U.K. From Lucretia Grindle, who made her debut in 2003 with The Nightspinners, there's La Ville Triste, a thriller set in wartime Florence; U.K. rights sold. PW voted Mo Hayder's fifth novel, Ritual, the Best Book of 2008, and now comes Jacker, who steals cars with children inside; sold in U.K., France and Germany, TV rights optioned. In Val McDermid's latest, Fever on the Bone, Tony Hill faces his most twisted adversary yet; U.K. and U.S. rights sold, some translation rights available. Charity Norman, a barrister and family law specialist, makes her debut with Freeing Grace, a topical and emotionally charged story about adoption; U.K., B.C. and Australia/New Zealand rights sold.
United Agents
The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly is a debut suspense novel in the Nicci French/ Barbara Vine tradition; rights sold in U.K., U.S., France, Germany and the Netherlands. The Last Weekend is an homage to Othello and represents a break for author Blake Morrison; rights sold in U.K. and Holland. Josephine Bonaparte is the subject of Kate Williams's latest biography, Mistress of Empires; U.K. rights sold. Mark Keating's debut historical adventure novel, The Pirate Devlin, was discovered in the slush pile; U.K. and U.S. rights sold. The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds, youngest author on the 2009 Man Booker shortlist, is based on events surrounding the incarceration of poet John Clare; sold in the U.K., U.S., Israel, Portugal and the Netherlands. In A Week at the Airport, philosopher Alain de Botton spends a week as writer-in-residence at Heathrow Terminal 5; sold in the U.K., Netherlands, Germany, Turkey and Korea, with deals under negotiation in France, Italy, Canada, and U.S.
A.P. Watt
Andrew O'Hagan's The Life and Times of Maf the Dog, and of His Friend Marilyn Monroe is a picaresque tale told by Maf, a pooch with a great instinct for politics, psychoanalysis, literature and much besides who was Monroe's constant companion; U.K. and U.S. rights sold. Daisy Goodwin's debut novel, My Last Duchess, is a fin de siècle romance between England and America; U.K. rights sold. Matt Haig offers a dark and witty spin on vampire culture in The Radleys; on submission in the U.K. Pakistan is Jemima Khan's accessible and anecdotal, witty and revealing portrait of a country at the febrile epicenter of world affairs; U.K. rights sold. In Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays, Zadie Smith casts a sharp eye over material both personal and cultural, from British comedians to Italian divas, from Hepburn to Obama; sold in the U.K., U.S., Canada, Spain, Holland and Norway.
David Higham
Naomi Alderman tackles themes of ambition, desire and betrayal in The Lessons; sold in U.K., France, Germany and Italy. Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts by Lucy Dillon is an emotional drama certain to win the hearts of dog lovers; sold in Germany. American Devil is a debut thriller by Oliver Stark, the first in a proposed series set amid the NYPD; sold in U.K., under negotiation in Germany. Felipe Fernandez Armesto examines the momentous events in Spain in 1492 in The Year Our World Began; sold in the U.K., U.S., Italy and Spain. Lynne Truss tells the story of one woman's foray into the masculine world of sports journalism in Get Her Off the Pitch; sold in the U.K.
Blake Friedmann
Ghost Light is the latest from Joseph O'Connor (Star of the Sea), a love story that moves between Edwardian Dublin, 1920s Manhattan, London and San Francisco and is loosely based on real events; U.K. rights sold. John Saturnall's Feast by Lawrence Norfolk is the story of a 17th-century orphan who lives through the English Civil Wars to become the greatest cook of his generation; sold in the U.K., U.S., Germany and the Czech Republic. Where the Shadows Lie is the opener in Michael Ridpath's new crime series, featuring Magnus Johnson of the Icelandic police force; world English rights sold, and rights in France, Germany, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Brazil, Russia and Iceland. Set in southern Africa, The Raw Man by George Makana Clarka is “a visceral, unforgettable novel from a truly original new voice,” a prize-winning short story writer; U.K. rights sold; a literary quest novel, The Tree of Diamond, is also in train. “Perfect escapism” is what the novels of Tony Park provide—“rip-roaring adventure set in Africa,” though he himself is Australian; backlist titles include Far Horizon, African Sky and Silent Predator, as well as Part of the Pride, the real-life story of lion whisperer Kevin Richardson; U.K. and U.S. rights and translation available.
Aitken Alexander
In Office Hours by Lucy Kellaway does for office life what Alison Pearson did for domestic life; U.K. and U.S. rights sold. Catherine O'Flynn's second novel, The News Where You Are, builds on the success of her debut What Was Lost (winner of the Costa First Novel Award, longlisted for the Man Booker, shortlisted for the Guardian Prize) and is a portrait of an ordinary man trying to make sense of the lives of those around him; U.K., U.S. and Canada sold. Spencer Wells shows how humans took a huge misstep in evolving from hunter gatherers and are poorly adapted to the very world that they have created: Fallout: The Unforseen Cost of Civilization; U.K. and U.S. rights sold. The Music Instinct by Phil Ball is a demanding study of the brain and music; U.K. rights sold. Lizzie Collingham tells the history of WWII through food in The Taste of War; sold in the U.K. and U.S. In The Hidden Map of Asia, Thant Myint-U shows how the forests and impenetrable jungle that currently separates India and China are being cut down to be replaced by a superhighway through Burma that will leave China and India co-joined as never before in history; sold in the U.K. and U.S.
MBA
The Sheen on the Silk is the latest from Anne Perry, queen of the Victorian mystery, who this time ventures into Byzantium; sold in U.K., U.S., Germany, France, Spain and Serbia. Clare Morrall (Astonishing Splashes of Colour) tells the story of “a comfortably average” woman who returns from a holiday alone to discover she's been married to a money launderer who has now vanished in The Man Who Disappeared; sold in U.K., France, the Netherlands and Lithuania. Trust Me, I'm a Vet is the first in a new contemporary romance series featuring a country vet, written by Catherine Woodman, herself a country vet; rights sold in U.K. and Germany. John Clare, poet and madman, is the inspiration for The Poet's Wife, the second novel by Judith Allnatt; U.K. rights sold; Daniel Depp's background as a scriptwriter and film producer lend authenticity and an eye for detail to his debut novel, Babylon Nights; sold in the U.K., U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Japan and Russia.
David Grossman
The long-awaited new novel by Andrea Levy, author of the award-winning Small Island, is The Long Song, set in the 19th-century; U.K., U.S., Canadian, French, German and Dutch rights sold.
Tony Peake Associates
Jonathan Coe's new novel, The Terible Privacy of Maxwell Sim, is the story of “a man falling through the vortex of his own life” by the author of the '80s satire What a Carve Up!; rights sold in the U.K., with options in the U.S., Brazil, France, Germany, Spain, Greece, Holland, Italy, Portugal, Turkey, Romania and Russia. Sleeper's Wake by Alistair Morgan is set in modern-day South Africa, the story of a freelance journalist who regains consciousness after a car accident in which his wife and young daughter also died; rights sold in U.K., Holland and Portugal. Simon Reynolds' Total Wired: Post-Punk Interviews and Overviews is a companion to Rip It Up and Start Again: Post Punk 1978—1984, featuring 32 interviews with post-punk's most innovative and colorful personalities; rights sold in U.K., U.S. and Italy. The England's Dreaming Tapes by Jon Savage features uncut interviews on which the original book was based, among them Malcolm McLaren, Chrissie Hynde, Johnny Rotten and Derek Jarman; sold in the U.K., U.S. and Italy.
Curtis Brown
Inheritance is the debut novel of Tara Palmer Tomkinson, the original “it” girl, set in the world of private jets, sparkling parties, double-crossing godfathers, mysterious identities and international intrigue; U.K. rights sold. Rock Chicks by Ronni Cooper is the story of three strong women, three best friends and all centre-stage in the lives of the world's greatest rock band - Valley of the Dolls for our time; U.K. rights sold;
There's a new novel from David Mitchell, award winning author of Cloud Atlas, set on a tiny artificial island off Japan, which became a Dutch trading colony in the 17th-19th centuries; U.K. and Dutch rights sold, 18 options. On behalf of Gelfman Schneider, Curtis Brown is selling a biotech thriller in the Michael Crichton tradition (untitled) by Paul McEuen, professor of physics at Cornell; U.S. rights sold.
Must You Go? My Life with Harold Pinter is Antonia Fraser's memoir of her 33 years with playwright Harold Pinter, who died on Christmas Eve 2008; rights sold in the U.K., U.S. and France.
Rogers, Coleridge & White
Plenty of laughs in Nicola Baker's Burley Cross Post Box Theft, which finds two policeman searching through 27 letters with the task of solving a crime - the shocking attack on a post box in the village of Burley Cross; U.K. right sold. Parrot and Olivier in America is the latest from Man Booker-winner Peter Carey, a historical novel set in France and the New World; rights sold in U.K., U.S. and Canada. Hugo Hamilton, author of The Speckled People, draws on his Irish-German background to offer a compelling and original view of contemporary Ireland, the nature of welcome and the uneasy trespassing into a new country, The Trespassing; rights sold in U.K. and Germany. Melanie McGrath's White Heat is an environmental detective adventure in which Russians, Americans, Canadians and Danes battle it out to secure mining and oil prospecting rights in the world's last unclaimed territory, the Arctic, which fast becomes the scene of the new cold war; rights sold in U.K. and U.S. Snowdrops, the debut novel by A D Miller, until recently The Economist's man in Moscow, is set in a lethally cold Russian winter as a young English lawyer tells how he lost his soul in Moscow's corrupt nightclubs and dachas; rights sold in the U.K., U.S. and Canada, with offers from France, Germany, Italy and Brazil. Post-WWII austerity provides the inspiration for Gerrard Woodward's Nourishment, which begins with an act of unintentional cannibalism; rights sold in U.K.
Jenny Brown Associates
The Getaway meets A Simple Plan in The Cold Kiss, a noir thriller by John Rector, prize-winning short story writer; rights sold in U.K./Commonwealth, U.S., Canada, Germany and Holland. Journalist Craig Robertson makes his debut with Random, which finds a serial killer on the loose in Glasgow in this first of a series; world English rights sold, translation available. Sara Sheridan's The Secret Mandarin is set in China at the time of the opium wars, when actress Mary Penney disgraces her respectable relations by becoming pregnant; sold in the U.K., Spain and Serbia. In Vanessa and Virginia, Susan Sellers, a professor of English and related literature at the University of St Andrew's and an expert on Woolf's life and work, recreates the tale of two sisters as Vanessa might have told it; sold in U.K. and U.S., Spain, Sweden, Holland, Turkey and Korea. Give + Take by Stona Fitch tells the story of Ross Clifton, a brilliant jazz pianist and a talented thief, who steals millions of dollars in diamonds and BMWs and gives all the money away; sold in the U.K., U.S., Greece and Taiwan.
Conville & Walsh
What happens when the hero who once saved your life also turns out to be a criminal and a murderer? Find out in Sympathy for the Devil by Howard Marks — crime fiction written by a genuine criminal mastermind; U.K./Commonwealth rights sold. Rebecca James makes her debut with Beautiful Malice, in which family life is shattered by a brutal murder; U.K./Commonwealth rights sold, German under offer. Childbook is the latest novel by award-winning Irish writer, dramatist, poet and actor Dermot Healy, set in an unnamed country devastated by a series of natural disasters; rights sold in U.K./Commonwealth and Canada. Advice for Strays is a debut novel about loss, love and a very unusual friendship by Justine Kilkerr; U.K./Commonwealth rights sold. Finally, there is Project X by Anonymous, a book in the arena of popular psychology/sociology; under submission in all territories.
Janklow & Nesbit U.K.
Jasper Fforde, author of the celebrated Eyre Affair, embarks on a new series of novels with Shades of Grey; sold in the U.K. and U.S. Ours Are the Streets is a debut novel by Sanjeev Sahota, a portrait of a clever, fundamentally good man who finds himself trapped between two worlds; sold in U.K. In The Bed I Made, the second novel by Lucie Whitehouse, Kate flees London to escape a man she met in a Soho bar but cannot escape the shadows; sold in U.K., Germany and the Netherlands. Journalist, author and polymath Tim Radford has written a book that is promised “to change the way you think about the universe and your place in it forever;” all rights available. The Backwards Law: How Failure, Uncertainty and Death Can Save Your Life by international journalist Oliver Burkeman examines the theory that the harder we try to achieve what we think of as positive, the less we succeed; all rights available.
For more Frakfurt Book Fair 2009 coverage, from PW and BookBrunch, go here.
