DEAL OF THE WEEK

Scribner Traps Bird’s ‘Scoundrel’

Scribner v-p and executive editor Rick Horgan bought world rights to Kai Bird’s American Scoundrel: Roy Cohn and the World He Made for mid-six figures in a five-house auction. Bird is a coauthor of American Prometheus, the Pulitzer Prize–winning 2005 biography of Robert J. Oppenheimer. Scribner described American Scoundrel as a portrait of the titular “super-lawyer, fixer, and gossip-fixated social networker” who was a mentor to Donald Trump. The book will be “especially intriguing in what it lays bare about the lessons Trump learned watching Cohn intimidate others, but, implicitly, it will also ask important questions about a dark vein in the American character that Cohn was the embodiment of and that has only become more prominent in the years since his death.” Bird was represented in the deal by Gail Ross at Ross Yoon Literary, and American Scoundrel is slated for 2025.

Blackstone Backs Mather’s ‘Breakup’

Daniel Ehrenhaft at Blackstone took North American rights to Adriana Mather’s YA rom-com The Breakup Artists. Rosemary Stimola at Stimola Literary Studio, who sold the novel, said it follows two teens “secretly hired by parents to break up their children’s bad high school relationships.” The title is set for spring 2025.

Pick-Goslar Sells Posthumous Memoir

Tracy Behar at Little, Brown Spark acquired U.S., Canadian, and open market rights to Hannah Pick-
Goslar’s memoir My Friend Anne Frank. LB did the deal directly with the book’s U.K. publisher, Ebury (which bought the title from the author, who died recently at age 94). Set for June 2023 and ghostwritten by journalist Dina Kraft, the book will, LB said, depict “the author’s unwavering grit and resilience during the Nazi occupation of Europe, the Frank family’s disappearance, and Hannah’s eventual deportation to Bergen-Belsen.”

Crown Gets ‘Lucky’

Madhulika Sikka at Crown bought world English rights to The Lucky Ones by Zara Chowdhary in a preempt. Chowdhary is a finalist for the AWP Prize for Creative Nonfiction and was represented by Anjali Singh at Ayesha Pande Literary. The publisher said that the memoir depicts the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in western India through “the eyes of a Muslim teenager,” exploring “the once proudly secular nation’s descent into hypernationalism while mapping the legacies of Indian Muslims.” The Lucky Ones is set for fall 2024.


St. Martin’s Goes ‘Porcelain’

Charles Spicer at St. Martin’s Press bought U.S., Canadian, and open market rights to Sarah Freethy’s The
Porcelain Maker. The publisher said the debut novel drew notable buzz at the Frankfurt Book Fair and has, to date, sold in six other territories. It follows German artist Bettina and Jewish architect Max, who meet in Germany in 1929, as well as Bettina’s adult daughter, Clara, who goes in search of the identity of her father in 21st-century America. The Porcelain Maker is set for fall 2023 and was purchased from Amy Fletcher at Simon & Schuster UK.


Taslim Travels to Griffin

In a two-book, North American rights agreement, Sara Goodman at St. Martin’s Griffin bought Priyanka Taslim’s adult debut, From Mumbai, with Love. Simon Lipskar at Writers House handled the sale on behalf of Temple Hill Publishing, with Quressa Robinson at Folio Literary Management representing Taslim. The title, Griffin said, follows a young woman who, after the death of her mother, attends the Mumbai wedding of a long-lost family member and gets thrown into “a succession war for the most powerful company in India, while also navigating conflicting feelings for two handsome men with agendas of their own.” From Mumbai, with Love is slated for 2024.