Action heated up in the rights centre on the second day of the Frankfurt book fair, with significant interest generated by a U.K. deal for Emmanuel Jal’s War Child. With a strong five-figure bid, Elise Dillsworth at Little, Brown won out over three other rivals for U.K. rights to Jal’s autobiography, which tells the story of his path from 7-year-old soldier to Kenya’s biggest music star, poised to expand his fame beyond his native Africa.
The auction, conducted by agent Ivan Mulcahy, drew four bidders including John Murray, Macmillan and Transworld. In an auction before the fair, St. Martin’s Press paid $200,000 for U.S. rights. In Italy, Longanesi’s paperback division TEA preempted rights prior to the fair, and on Thursday, Cosmos preempted the book in Holland. War Child is set to be published in the U.S. and U.K. in early 2009, a year after the launch of Jal’s first global album through Universal Records.
Other titles that have created a buzz here still await U.S. deals. Among these, agent Theresa Park is currently conducting an auction in the U.S. for a debut novel, The Piano Teacher, by Janice Y. K. Lee. Only submitted at the end of last week, the book is quickly taking off at the fair. Park’s coagents at the Intercontinental Literary Agency already have more than one offer on the table in Italy and Spain, as well as offers in Holland and Germany.
The novel, set in World War II-era Hong Kong, follows a recently married English woman who accepts the position of piano teacher to the daughter of a connected and wealthy Chinese family. Unexpectedly, her life becomes intertwined with those of families and friends who guard a secret of national importance. The author is a native of Hong Kong who graduated from Harvard and studied with Chang-Rae Lee.
Rights to a debut novel by Dave Boling, Guernica, which Kim Witherspoon has out on submission in the U.S., have been grabbed by three publishers since yesterday, with first offers in two additional territories presently on the table. Charlotte Greig at Picador pre-empted U.K. rights, with German rights going to Droemer and Spanish rights to Suma, both also via pre-empt. Offers have also been made in Holland and Brazil.
The novel, set in the decades leading up to the bombing of the ancient Basque town, captures the event through the eyes of its townspeople. It’s also a love story between an enemy of Spanish nationalists forced to flee his fishing village for Guernica, and the charismatic dancer he meets there. Boling is a journalist in the Pacific Northwest.
U.S. rights for Debra Adelaide’s A Household Guide to Dying are still up for grabs, as publishers in other territories continue to snap up rights. Phyllis Westberg at Harold Ober went out with the U.S. submission late last week. The novel, Adelaide’s third, first attracted notice when it went for six figures in an auction for ANZ rights in late September. Since then, HC UK pre-empted in a six-figure deal, and Italian rights were pre-empted yesterday by Salani. Auctions are currently ongoing in Holland and Germany, and there is an offer on the table in Spain.
The book tells the story of a wife and mother working as an advice columnist at a newspaper who is dying of cancer at 40, whereupon she begins writing what may be her final work of advice: a handbook on dying. Adelaide is a creative writing teacher at University of Technology, Sydney; her previous novels are The Hotel Albatross (1995) and Serpent Dust (1998), neither of which were submitted in the U.S.
