Author and former president of Penguin Group Canada David Davidar has written a new novel that is set in the world of international book publishing. The book is slated to be published in Canada by McClelland & Stewart in the fall of 2011. Canada is the first territory where rights have been sold by U.K. agent David Godwin.
Davidar resigned from Penguin in June following sexual harassment allegations from a former colleague, so the fact that his latest novel Ithaca is set in the publishing world has piqued interest and raised a few eyebrows in Canada.
Under the circumstances, Doug Pepper president and publisher of McClelland & Stewart said that he did not wish to comment on the book beyond what he said in a press release: “We’re thrilled to be publishing Ithaca. …With this book, David turns his keenly observant and passionate eye on a subject he knows well, giving us a rich, layered, and poignant novel about the publishing industry at a time of its greatest change in a century. Honest, witty, and edgy, the book’s message is ultimately hopeful, about the power of great story-telling and how it has endured and, despite the cataclysmic changes of the last several years, will continue to endure.”
Ithaca is Davidar’s third novel. The House of Blue Mangoes was published in 2002 and was translated into 16 languages. The Solitude of Emperors, published in 2007, was a finalist for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.
