LB Welcomes Alderman’s ‘Strangers’
Asya Muchnick at Little, Brown has taken U.S. rights to The Strangers, a new novel from Women’s Prize for Fiction winner Naomi Alderman. The deal reunites the author and editor, who together published the breakout bestseller The Power. The deal was negotiated by Simon Lipskar at Writers House on behalf of Veronique Baxter at David Higham Associates. Little, Brown describes the book as “part memoir, part speculative fiction, wholly unique, in which Alderman wrestles with grief even as a mysterious new species is discovered, forcing humans to reconsider what it means to share our planet.” The Strangers is set to publish in 2026.
Harper Voyager Lands Adult Fantasy Debut
After an auction, Priyanka Krishnan at Harper Voyager has signed North American rights to bestselling YA author Victoria Aveyard’s adult fantasy debut, Tempest. Harper said the book, set in a world inspired by the Golden Age of Piracy, follows “a former noblewoman facing execution for treason unless she helps the ruling empire capture their most wanted enemy—the last great pirate captain—and the only man she has ever loved.” Suzie Townsend at New Leaf Literary & Media brokered the deal. Tempest is scheduled for a 2026 publication.
Graywolf Signs Multimedia Poet
Multimedia poet Carolina Ebeid has sold world rights to Hide to Jeff Shotts at Graywolf. The publisher said Ebeid draws on her Palestinian and Cuban heritage “to look simultaneously at history and at the future, contend with the traumas of upheaval and mourning, and to explore the way languages convey or obscure meaning and memory” in a book that uses “a formally divergent collage of lyricism, photography, and technology” to ask readers to “consider the possibilities of collective thinking and future dreaming.” Ebeid was not agented in the deal. No publication date has been announced.
Giddings Meets Amistad at ‘Crossroads’
Amistad has acquired North American rights to Meet Me at the Crossroads by Megan Giddings (Lakewood). Dan Conaway of Writers House negotiated the deal, and executive editor Rakesh Satyal will edit. The publisher said the novel centers on “a young woman grappling with the loss of her sister,” who “embarks on a journey of self-discovery and profound personal growth.” A June 2025 publication is planned.
FSG Takes Internet Inventor’s Memoir
Farrar, Straus and Giroux executive editor Alexander Star has picked up U.S. rights to This Is for Everyone, a memoir by Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web. Sarah Chalfant at the Wylie Agency negotiated the deal. FSG called the book “a bold manifesto for advancing humanity’s future” in which Berners-Lee “will tell the story of his iconic invention, exploring how it launched a new era of creativity and collaboration while unleashing a commercial race that today imperils democracies and polarizes public debate.” The book will also take on AI, including an “in-the-room account of the foundations for this transformative technology.” This Is for Everyone is scheduled for September 2025.
Random House Buys Journo’s Gaza History
Pulitzer-winning New York Times correspondents Ronen Bergman and Mark Mazzetti have sold North American rights to Jericho Wall to Andy Ward at Random House. Elyse Cheney at the Cheney Agency and Rafe Sagalyn at CAA handled the deal. Random House said the book is “a deeply reported account of the decades-long lead-up to the October 7 attacks and the war in Gaza, from the capture of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967 to the rise of Hamas, and from the full story of Hamas’s secret plans for the attack to Israel’s failure to anticipate it.” No publication date has been announced.
