What was the hot book at Frankfurt this year? Though deals were plentiful—a number of books sold before and at the book fair—agents and other insiders agreed that there was no one book everyone was talking about. But, with a rash of six-figure deals going down, the mood was high and conversations about buzz books often centered on five or six titles.
Recapping some of our earlier coverage of hot books at the fair, a number of the books we have already mentioned, kept up steam throughout the show. Lauren Beukes’s The Shining Girls, which we reported sold to John Schoenfelder in the U.S. before the fair, has remained hot. According to one insider, Schoenfelder nabbed North American rights to the sophomore novel for $600,000, which set off a wave of foreign interest. Rumor has it that British agency Blake Friedman is in the midst of a U.K. auction that started with nine publishers and now has the price tag up to $500,000.
In an odd twist, two of the hot books in Germany involved slightly similar plot devices with technology that allows for communication with the dearly departed. Or, as one scout jokingly put it, the “e-mailing the dead novels.” In Laurie Frankel’s tentatively-titled Deadmail, which Alison Callahan at Doubleday bought yesterday, a love story involves a computer genius who has invented a way for people to e-mail loved ones who’ve passed on. In Scott Hutchins’s debut novel, A Working Theory of Love, a son sees his deceased father’s stuff—a meticulous and exhaustive collection of journals detailing his life, among other things—used by scientist to create one of the first human-like computers. Love, which Penguin’s Colin Dickerman bought North American rights to just before the fair from Bill Clegg at William Morris Endeavor, has since been pre-empted in Germany and Holland with, as of yesterday, auctions underway in Italy and France.
Briefs
Tanis Rideout’s Above All Things, which Amy Einhorn acquired before the fair from Canadian house McClelland & Stewart—it’s a historical novel focused on Everest explorer George Mallory’s wife—was, last we checked, about to be nabbed in Germany and Spain with a U.K. auction almost closed. … The Swedish trilogy by Alexander Soderberg—the title of the first book is The Andalucian Friend—which is being shopped by the Salomonsson Agency will not be available to U.S. houses until November, but was bought in a major pre-empt in Sweden, as well as at auction in Italy and Germany. … Ben Fountain’s novel Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, which Curtis Brown was selling on behalf of ICM, kept people talking, especially after U.K. publisher Canongate pre-empted the book at the fair. … Dror Mishani’s Missing File, which Harper’s Claire Wachtel bought for six-figures before the fair, sold in Germany, Italy and France, after word picked up about the novel by an editor at the Israeli house, Keters Publishers. … Elizabeth Mays’s YA-ish trilogy The Falconer, which Heather Baror at Baror International has now sold in four three-book pre-empts, has the agency said, brought in over $1 million so far in combined sales. The trilogy, which some houses plan on pubbing in adult and other plan on doing in YA, is currently on submission in the States. … And, Inkwell Management’s big book at the fair, Salman Khan’s nonfiction The One World Schoolhouse, which Twelve is pubbing in the U.S. in 2013 (and which was mentioned in our pre-Frankfurt roundup), pick up some steam in Germany; a fair amount of chatter among foreign houses has led to a five-figure sale in Brazil, and the agency expects to close other deals back in New York.
