An aging rocker, a dog whisperer, a bestselling pastor, some literary icons (living and dead) and a Paris Review editor—turned-deli employee are just a few of the authors who will be vying for attention from foreign editors in this year's rights tent.
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THE AGENTSInkwell ManagementOn the fiction side for Inkwell there's Lesley Kagen's Shenandoah Valley—set Tomorrow River (Dutton/NAL), about a set of twins whose mother goes missing. The book is the first hardcover by Kagen, whose last two paperback originals were bestsellers. From Jim Lynch, author of The Highest Tide, comes Border Songs (Knopf), a novel about a dyslexic Canadian border patrol agent who's obsessed with birds. On the nonfiction side the agency has When the Weather Changed by Christopher Potter, “the story of mankind in one long unifying arc,” tracing our evolution from Homo sapiens to the present. (U.S. rights are on offer to HarperCollins.) And from former UCLA prof Arthur De Vany, who's long studied the effects of diet and fitness, there's Revolutionary Fitness (HarperCollins), which promises a plan to reverse the aging process; U.K. rights sold.Ed VictorOn the fiction side, Ed Victor agents will be pushing Josephine Hart's The Truth About Love, a tale of “love, for a country, for a family,” involving an Irish clan and a German visitor; U.K. rights sold. There's also Joan Blakewell's All the Nice Girls, a WWII tale about “heroic deeds and painful separations”; U.K. rights sold. On the nonfiction side the agency has Nigella Christmas (Hyperion, 2009), a holiday primer from the Food Network star; rights sold in the U.K., where the book bows this month. And from Rebecca Winters Keegan comes Project 880 (Crown, 2009), a behind-the-scenes look at James Cameron's ambitious 2009-slated film Avatar, a lavish project promised to introduce groundbreaking moviemaking technology.Cheney LiteraryThis small outfit headed by Elyse Cheney has the forthcoming memoir from the newly crowned Ann Landers, Amy Dickinson. The Mighty Queens of Freeville (Hyperion) is Dickinson's account of raising her daughter after her husband left, in the titular upstate New York town where the local women become an extended family; rights have sold in the U.K., Italy and Brazil. From New York Times journalist Warren St. John there's Outcasts United (Spiegel & Grau), about a Georgia soccer team made up of teenage refugees; rights have sold in the U.K., Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and Japan. From former Discover writer Alex Stone there's Fooling Houdini (HarperCollins), about Stone's involvement in an underground magic circuit; rights have sold in the U.K. and Canada. And from Gayle Tzemach there's The Dressmaker of Khair Khana (HarperStudio), a nonfiction account of a 19-year-old who defied Taliban law to start her own sewing business in Afghanistan.ICM/Curtis BrownFrom ICM, whose foreign rights are now handled by Curtis Brown, there's Helen Fisher's Why Him? Why Her?, a book from the love expert that answers age-old questions about why we fall in love with one person over another. The agency is also shopping Jack Horner and James Gorman's How to Build a Dinosaur (Dutton, 2009), in which Horner, a renowned paleontologist, and Gorman, the “Science Times” editor at the New York Times, reveal new scientific discoveries that allow more accurate re-creations of dinosaurs. From Michael Sandel, there's Justice: A Journey in Moral Reasoning (FSG, 2009), which takes off from the Harvard professor's intro course on moral and political philosophy, the most popular in the school's history; rights sold in the U.K. Curtis Brown is shopping Ann Mah's Kitchen Chinese (Harper, 2009), a “semi-autobiographical novel” about the former Viking editor's sojourn in Beijing, living with her sister and working as a freelance food writer. CB also has Joe Gores's Spade & Archer (Knopf, 2009), a prequel to The Maltese Falcon authorized by the Dashiell Hammett Estate.Trident Media GroupAmong the titles Trident will be shopping is the three-volume Hellhole series (Tor Books) from Dune co-authors Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson. The books are due out in 2011, 2013 and 2015, and follow the colonization of the harsh titular planet; rights sold in the U.K. (Trident also has Herbert and Anderson's three new volumes in Frank Herbert's series: Jessica of Dune, Irulan of Dune and Leto of Dune; Tor is publishing in 2010, 2012 and 2014.) Trident also has Marilynne Robinson's Home (FSG, Sept.), the author's new bestseller and companion piece to her Pulitzer-winning Gilead; rights have sold in France, Italy, the Netherlands and the U.K. On the nonfiction side the agency has Cesar Millan's A Member of the Family (Crown, Oct.), about how to integrate your dog into the family; 750,000 announced U.S. printing, and rights sold in the U.K.William MorrisHolding On (Knopf, May 2010), by Scott Lasser is a novel about a woman who loses her brother in 9/11 and then goes to find the child he never knew. There's also the novel Goddess of Infinite Faces (on submission in the U.S.) by Jean Fong Kwok, about a Chinese teen's move from Hong Kong to Brooklyn. WM has Quentin Tarantino's much-hyped, and in some places maligned, screenplay Inglorious Bastards; the film, about Jewish-American soldiers who ruthlessly kill a bunch of Nazis during WWII, is in preproduction. On the nonfiction side, the agency has Serena Williams's untitled memoir (Grand Central, 2009); Dutch rights preempted. Cognitive neuroscientists Mark Jung-Beeman and John Kounios offer Aha! The New Neuroscience of Insight (on submission in U.S.), which explores why and how sudden insights happen in the brain—and how people can increase the chances of having those aha moments.Sanford GreenburgerAmong the titles the agency will be pushing: Daniel Amen's Magnificent Mind at Any Age,about improving cognitive ability (U.K. rights sold), and Nine Kinds of Naked (Harvest Books) by Tony Vigorito, a novel about “synchronicity and the mystery of cause and effect.” (Rights sold in France, Israel, Italy, Poland, Spain and Turkey.) Also on the SJGA slate is Jodi Lipper and Cerina Vincent's How to Love Like a Hot Chick (Collins, Jan.), the pair'sfollow-up to How to Eat Like a Hot Chick; rights sold in Spain, Brazil and Germany. And from Lorna Byrne there's Angels in My Hair (Doubleday, Mar.), an autobio of a modern-day Irish mystic; rights sold in Germany, Spain and Taiwan.Janklow & NesbitTrotting out some heavy hitters, the agency has titles by Michael Moore and Malcolm Gladwell. From Moore there's Mike's Election Guide 2008 (Grand Central, Aug.) and from Gladwell it's Outliers: The Story of Success (Little, Brown, Nov.), an examination of what makes people successful. There's also Colin Beaven's No Impact Man (FSG, 2009), about a 40-something journalist who tries to live in his Manhattan apartment, with his wife and toddler, for a year without leaving any environmental footprint, and Masoof Farivar's memoir, Confessions of a Mullah Warrior (Grove Atlantic, 2009), about the author's transition from Afghani soldier to Harvard undergrad.Jean V. NaggarNaggar, which is having its international scouts sell its titles this year, is heavy on fiction: Dianne Dixon's debut, Lima Street, which went to Doubleday in a six-figure deal, is about a 30-something's discovery that changes his perspective on his family and his childhood; rights sold in Germany. The agency has another debut, Zoe Klein's Drawing in the Dust, about a female archeologist who agrees to help an Arab couple excavate the possibly haunted grounds beneath their home; rights sold in Brazil. From Mary McGarry Morris there's The Last Secret (Shaye Areheart, 2009), about a woman whose discovery of her husband's affair dovetails with the reemergence of a secret from her own past; rights sold in France and Turkey. And from Ginnah Howard is Night Navigation, a novel reminiscent of the “dark family dramas of Sue Miller and Alice McDermott,” in which a mother and son cope with the suicides of two family members. The Gernert Co.Gernert is shopping J. Saunders Elmore's novel The Amateur American (Crown, 2009), about a down-on-his-luck American teacher in France who signs on to be a translator for an Arab businessman. Also on the fiction side, the agency has Stewart O'Nan's Songs for the Missing (Viking, Oct. '08) an examination of a family crumbling in the wake of a daughter's disappearance. In nonfiction, NBCC president John Freeman offers Don't Send (Scribner 2009), an examination of how e-mail has changed our personal and professional lives. And from critic/essayist Christina Nehring there's A Vindication of Love (HarperCollins, 2009), which looks to debunk the notion that “romantic love and intellectual commitment—especially intellectual feminist commitment—are mutually exclusive.”Wylie AgencyAndrew Wylie is shopping two novels from Philip Roth, the recently published Indignation (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) and the fall 2009-slated The Humbling (HMH, fall 09), about a 60-year-old stage actor who, with his career falling apart and recently widowed, comes face-to-face with “an unusual erotic desire.” Wylie is also shopping Salman Rushdie's latest, The Enchantress of Florence, which has already sold in a number of foreign territories and Orhan Pamuk's The Museum of Innocence (Knopf), which was published in Turkey in 2008 and will launch at the fair. Then there are two novels by the Albanian poet Ismail Kadare, The Accident and The Siege. Wylie will also be working on previously unpublished titles from three big literary estates: there's the last work from Vladimir Nabokov, The Original of Laura, which was unfinished at the time of the author's death and, according to Wylie, “has been under lock and key for years”; Robert Bolano's The Third Reich; and, from Cuban author Guillermo Cabrera, La Ninfa Inconstante.The Dijkstra AgencyThis West Coast outfit has the fantasy debut from Dakota Banks, The Mortal Path (HC, Sept. 2009), about a 17th-century healer who's taken for a witch. From Glenn Cooper there's Book of Souls (HC, 2009), a sequel to Secret of the Seventh Son, which follows an FBI detective's search for a missing volume in “the world's most mysterious and extraordinary library.” Another debut novel on Dijkstra's table will be Stones of Fire (Berkley, Dec. 2009) by Chloe Palov, about a photographer who witnesses a murder during the theft of an ancient Hebrew relic. On the YA side, the agency is shopping Alternative Ed (Knopf, Sept. 2009) by LouAnne Johnson, a coming-of-age novel about a juvenile delinquent by the author of Dangerous Minds.Writers HouseThere's one book that Writers House is betting will be big in Germany—a debut novel by Anne Fortier called Juliet. At press time, a rep at the agency said a U.S. offer was “imminent” for this “epic literary novel” whose heroine has family ties that link her to the true story that inspired Romeo & Juliet. The novel, which switches between medieval and present-day Sienna, is being called “a cross between The Thirteenth Tale and The Birth of Venus,” according to the rep at WH.THE PUBLISHERS
Simon & Schuster
New titles from Joel Osteen, Phil McGraw and the megaselling duo Roizen and Oz are among those S&S will be pushing at the fair. Oprah beneficiary-turned-frenemy McGraw has the self-explanatory Real Life: Preparing for the 7 Most Challenging Days of Your Life, which Free Press published in September; Dutch, Hebrew and Spanish rights sold. Then there's Osteen's Daily Readings from Become a Better You (Free Press, Oct.), a companion piece to the pastor's bestselling Become a Better You; Korean and Spanish rights sold. From Roizen and Oz, there's YOU: Being Beautiful (Free Press, Nov), the newest addition to the pair's health/self-improvement franchise; British, Chinese, Korean and Portuguese rights sold. S&S also has a new one from Bob Dylan (S&S, Nov.), Hollywood Foto-Rhetoric: The Lost Manuscript, a collection of photos by Barry Feinstein paired with poems from a recently rediscovered collection by the singer; first serial in the New Yorker. And from Other Boleyn Girl author Philippa Gregory, S&S has a new trilogy called the Cousins War; Touchstone will publish the titles in 2009, 2010 and 2011.
Macmillan
From Stephen Faris there's the climate change book Forecast (Holt, 2009); rights sold in Australia/New Zealand, China, Japan and Brazil. Paul Schneider offers Bonnie and Clyde: The True Story Behind the Myth (Holt, 2009) a thoroughly researched tome, culling from interviews and FBI documents, about the infamous Depression-era outlaws. Richard North Patterson is out with Eclipse (Holt, 2009), about a lawyer trying to save a West African leader embroiled in a corrupt local political battle. Then there's Denis Johnson's Nobody Move (FSG, May), the NBA-winning author's homage to crime fiction; rights sold in the U.K. and Canada. Also from FSG is the fiction debut by Paris Review and Outside contributor Wells Tower, a short story collection called Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned (March '09); rights sold in the U.K., Netherlands, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Russia. And from St. Martin's, there's Beth Harbison's Hope in a Jar (June 2009), a novel about two women trying to revive an old friendship, by the author of Shoe Addicts Anonymous.
Random House
RH has is pushing a new book by Reading Lolita in Tehran author Azar Nafisi, Things I've Been Silent About (Random House). In this memoir, Nafisi discusses her family and, in particular, her strained relationship with her mother. Also on Little Random's table will be a new one from Reza Aslan, the Middle East analyst for CBS News and author of No god but God. In How to Win a Cosmic War, Aslan discusses the motivations behind terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda and offers solutions on how to deal with Jihadism. Then there's a new thriller from TheTemplar Legacy author Steve Berry, Charlemagne Pursuit (Ballantine), about a dangerous quest after a manuscript is discovered in the tomb of Charlemagne. And from Barry Eisler there's Fault Line (Ballantine), a new thriller that the house describes as “one part Lee Child, one part Vince Flynn—but all Eisler,” about two estranged brothers who reunite when one becomes the target of an international plot to control a powerful new technology.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Houghton is pushing a collection of the cult strip from Fun Home graphic novelist Alison Bechdel, TheEssential Dykes to Watch Out For. HMH also has Caldecott Medalist and MacArthur fellow David Macaulay's The Way We Work, about how the human body operates. From Peter Rock there's the novel My Abandonment, about a father and daughter living off the grid, inspired by true events; film rights have been optioned by Linda Reisman and Anne Harrison. And from William Mann, who penned the Kate Hepburn bio The Woman Who Was Hepburn, there's a new bio of Elizabeth Taylor, How to Be a Movie Star.
Penguin Group USA
From Walter Mosley there's The Long Fall (Riverhead), a mystery featuring a new PI, hard-drinking former boxer Leonid McGill. Dutton will be shopping the untitled “digi-novel” by CSI creator Anthony Zuiker, which fetched an advance in the millions and involves an elaborate companion Web site with filmed footage. From tennis star Monica Seles there's Getting a Grip (Avery), a memoir about Seles's career as well as her off-court struggles. Another star-driven title is Influence (Razorbill), by Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, featuring shots of the twins from their personal stash along with interviews they've conducted with people who've influenced them. And from Kathryn Sockett is The Help, the lead fiction title for Amy Einhorn Books, about three women—two African-Americans and one white socialite—in Jackson, Miss., circa 1962.
Grove Atlantic
Grove has Robert Olen Butler's Hell, a “witty novel of good, evil and free will” from the Pulitzer Prize winner. From Josh Weil there's The New Valley, a fiction debut about three men in rural America. On the nonfiction side, Grove will be pushing Aidan Hartley's Wild Life, a portrait of Kenya by an award-winning African journalist; rights sold in the U.K. Grove also has an “original and challenging history of the global Communist experiment and its lessons” from Oxford historian David Priestland, False Gods: A History of Communism; rights sold in the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands and Italy.
HarperCollins
On the HC table will be Wally Lamb's new novel, The Hour I First Believed (Harper, Nov.), about a couple who, after taking teaching jobs at Columbine High School in 1999, try to put their lives and marriage back together in Connecticut; rights sold in the U.K., Australia/New Zealand, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Israel, Poland and Brazil. From Andrew Gross there's Don't Look Twice (Morrow, March 2009), a new mystery by the author of The Dark Tide and The Blue Zone; rights sold in the Netherlands, Germany, Poland and the U.K. And in My Korean Deli (June 2009), Paris Review editor Ben Howe chronicles his eye-opening experience of working in the world of the Manhattan literati by day and going home at night to help his wife's Korean parents run their Brooklyn deli; rights sold in Canada and Germany and film rights optioned by New Line. Another memoir of note on Harper's list is from Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler (Ecco, April 2009); book's currently untitled and David Dalton is co-writing. On the nonfiction side, Francine Prose is out with Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife (Harper, Sep 2009); rights sold in the Netherlands.
Hachette Book Group USA
Grand Central is out with a “suspense-filled” WWII fiction debut, An Honorable German (May 2009) by Charles McCain. From Lisa Nichols there's No Matter What (GCP/Springboard, April 2009), a guide by the motivational speaker and bestselling author on how to tone your “bounce-back” muscles in order to overcome obstacles life puts in your path; rights sold in the Netherlands, Norway and Italy, with offers in from Brazil and Germany. From Little, Brown there's The Boy Next Door (2010) by Irene Sabatini, a story set in Zimbabwe after its independence; rights sold in Norway, the Netherlands, Brazil, Italy, Sweden and Germany. Also from LB is Science's Curiosity Cabinet (2010) by Sam Kean, which touches on everyone from King Midas to Marie Curie in telling “the fascinating, untold stories behind each element of the periodic table”; rights sold in Norway, Korea and Israel. And from LBBYR, there's Michelle Zink's YA Victorian gothic thriller, Prophecy of the Sisers (2009); rights sold in the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Russia.
