In a big pre-Frankfurt deal, agent Danny Baror closed a major sale, in the U.S. and the U.K., for Dan Burstein, Arne de Keijzer, and John-Henri Holmberg's Secrets of the Tattooed Girl. Baror sold the book, in two high six-figure deals, to St. Martin's Press in the U.S. and to Weidenfeld & Nicolson in the U.K. Subtitled The Unauthorized Guide to the Stieg Larsson Trilogy, the book looks to tap into the success Burstein found with his other Secrets titles, such as his bestselling Secrets of the Code (Vanguard Press), which was a companion reader to Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code.
Baror, who runs Baror International, said he's fielding requests from a number of foreign publishers now and expects to close more foreign deals in Frankfurt. Holmberg, a Swedish author and translator who was also a close friend of Larsson's, will bring his personal connection to bear in Secrets of the Tattooed Girl, and the book will explore the historical context and themes of the novels, as well as some of the mysteries that continue to shroud Larsson's legacy, namely the question of whether there is, somewhere, an existing manuscript for a fourth book in what remains a trilogy. Baror said that Holmberg was "one of a handful of people in whom Larsson confided," and that he reviewed all three of the novels in the Larsson's trilogy when they were still in manuscript form.
Burstein said Secrets of the Tattooed Girl will examine a range of topics Larsson touches on in the novels, from violence against women to the collapse of the Swedish welfare state.
According to Baror, there are more than four million copies of the Secrets books in print, available in over 30 languages.
