Here's a preview of the hot titles the big six will be selling at the London Book Fair. Among the highlights are two books about Joseph Heller, whose Catch-22 was published 50 years ago; Gwyneth Paltrow's cookbook; a new book from Augusten Burroughs; and memoirs from Diane Keaton, Rob Lowe, Randy Pausch's widow, a Microsoft cofounder, the world's oldest living Holocaust survivor, a close friend of Michael Jackson, and God.
Hachette Book Group
Grand Central Publishing is highlighting The Gilly Salt Sisters by Tiffany Baker, author of The Little Giant of Aberdeen County; Gwyneth Paltrow's cookbook, My Father's Daughter (rights sold in France, Germany, Italy, and the U.K.); and Alice Ozma's The Reading Promise, about a young woman whose single father, an elementary school librarian, read aloud to her every night, starting from when she was a child until the day she left for college (rights sold in the U.K.). Little, Brown's titles include the debut thriller The Five Hundred by Matthew Quirk (Finnish, German, and Italian rights were pre-empted; and Dutch rights have also sold); Regina O'Melvey's The Book of Madness and Cures (rights sold in Holland, Italy, and Brazil); and When Last I Saw You by Anne Korkeakivi. Among the books from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers are Daughter of Smoke and Bone by National Book Award finalist Laini Taylor (rights sold in Brazil, China, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Korea, Norway, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, and Taiwan); James Patterson and Jill Dembowski's third installment of the YA series, Witch & Wizard: The Fire; and Middle School, the Worst Years of My Life by James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts, which is Patterson's first ever illustrated middle-grade book.
HarperCollins
Among the fiction offerings from HarperCollins's flagship imprint are
New York Times bestseller Daniel Silva's
Portrait of a Spy and Jennifer Haigh's
Faith, which
PW gave a
starred review to and which has already sold in Denmark, Holland, Poland, and the U.K. There's a Harper One title by renowned Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh,
The Novice: A Story of True Love, and Matthew Norman's
Domestic Violets, a Harper Perennial title the publisher says is in the vein of Jonathan Tropper and Tom Perrotta. On the nonfiction side, Morrow is bringing
51 Fridays by Fayezah Abdelhamid, a modern Muslim-American woman about to turn 25, whose father is determined to find her a husband by arranging weekly matchmaking sessions; and
My Friend Michael: Growing Up with the King of Pop by Frank Cascio, a close friend of Jackson for more than 25 years, which has sold in Brazil, France, Italy, and Spain. Harper is highlighting
Sharon: Portrait of a Leader by Gilad Sharon, the former Israeli prime minister's youngest son and confidante (rights sold in Israel); Nina Sankovitch's
Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading (rights sold in Brazil, Holland, Italy, and Portugal). There's also Clayton M. Christensen's
How Will You Measure Your Life? (rights sold in Holland, Japan, and Korea) from Harper Business and Arielle Ford's
Wabi Sabi Love: Finding Perfect Love in Imperfect Relationships from Harper One.
Macmillan
John Hart's previous titles have sold around the world, from Brazil to Vietnam; this year, Thomas Dunne Books is shopping Hart's
Iron House. Dunne is also bringing
Tempest by Julie Cross, for which film rights have been optioned by Summit Entertainment (of Twilight fame) (rights sold in Brazil, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Portugal, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and the U.K.); and
The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga, the first book in a trilogy that is set in the world of the TV series and the comic book series
The Walking Dead, which sells approximately 25,000 copies every month (rights sold in Spain and the U.K.). SMP's titles include an untitled book by Augusten Burroughs, which the author describes as "
Running with Scissors, with recipes," and
Just One Catch: A Biography of Joseph Heller by Tracy Daugherty, scheduled to tie in with the 50th anniversary of the publication of Heller's
Catch-22. Farrar, Straus and Giroux is selling world rights except for the U.K. to
Threats by Amelia Gray, billed as "experimental" in style. FSG is also featuring
Luminous Airplanes by Paul LaFarge. Henry Holt's titles include
Stories I Only Tell My Friends by actor Rob Lowe (rights sold in the U.K.);
India Calling by Anand Giridharadas, whom
PW recently profiled; and
Wizard of Lies by Diana B. Henriques, who led the
New York Times's coverage of the Bernie Madoff scandal.
Penguin Group (USA)
On offer from Putnam is
The Song Remains the Same, the fourth novel by Allison Winn Scotch. Viking is bringing
Columbus: Four Voyages by Laurence Bergreen; Riverhead has
The Long Goodbye by Slate critic
Meghan O'Rourke (rights sold in Holland and the U.K.); and the Penguin Press is presenting
Willpower: The Rediscovery of Humans' Greatest Strength by Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney (rights sold in Brazil, Germany, and the U.K.). A dystopian novel, the first in a trilogy,
Children of Paranoia by Trevor Shane, is available from Dutton, and Perigee has Goldie Hawn's
10 Mindful Minutes, aimed at parents who want to give their kids "social emotional skills to cope with everyday stress." Other titles include
Heaven's Shadow by David S. Goyer and Michael Cassutt (Berkley/NAL), a new sci-fi adventure trilogy, with film rights that have been sold to Warner Brothers in a seven-figure deal and international rights sold in Indonesia, Russia, and the U.K. Portfolio has
Idea Man by Paul Allen, cofounder of Microsoft (rights sold in Brazil, Germany, and the U.K.; first serial to run in
Vanity Fair); Gotham has
Jagger: A Biography by Marc Spitz (rights sold in Brazil) and
The Magic Room: A Story About the Love We Wish for Our Daughters by Jeffrey Zaslow, who coauthored Randy Pausch's
The Last Lecture.
Random House Publishing Group
Crown's offerings consist, in part, of
American Desperado, a memoir by cocaine dealer Jon Roberts, star of the documentary
Cocaine Cowboys, co-written with Evan Wright, who wrote
Generation Kill;
The Office actor Mindy Kaling's
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), which Crown says is in the tradition of Nora Ephron and Chelsea Handler; and
Dream On, a memoir by Jai Pausch, about caring for her now deceased husband, Randy Pausch, author of
The Last Lecture. Bantam has the next Stephanie Plum book from Janet Evanovich,
Smokin' Seventeen (rights sold in the U.K), and Ballantine is bringing the adventure thriller
The Deep Zone by James M. Tabor, who wrote
Blind Descent. Little Random's titles include a bildungsroman/spy thriller/exposé by Adam Johnson called
The Orphan Master's Son, which has sold in Holland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Poland, and the U.K.; Diane Keaton's
Then Again (rights sold in Brazil, Holland, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and the U.K.); and Annie Leibovitz's
Pilgrimage, with an introduction by Doris Kearns Goodwin, for which there will be material available at the fair. On offer from Spiegel & Grau are
Start Something That Matters by Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS Shoes (rights sold in Korea), and Caroline Stoessinger's
Alice's World: 107 Years of Wisdom and Life Lessons, which tells the story of Alice Herz-Sommer, the world's oldest living Holocaust survivor (rights sold in Brazil, France, Holland, Italy, and the U.K.).
Simon & Schuster
S&S's titles include a holiday novel from radio and TV host Glenn Beck,
The Snow Angel (Threshold);
How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Digital Age by Dale Carnegie, timed to the 75th anniversary of the original publication (U.K. rights are with S&S U.K.); and an untitled memoir by Jaycee Dugard, who was kidnapped in 1991 and was missing for more than 18 years before her reappearance in 2009 (rights sold in France, Holland, Japan, and the U.K.). S&S is also bringing
The Last Testament by God (seriously) with David Javerbaum, which it is calling the "ultimate celebrity autobiography" (Javerbaum co-wrote
America: The Book and
Earth: The Book). Other books from S&S are
Yossarian Slept Here, a memoir by Erica Heller, daughter of
Catch-22 author Joseph Heller;
Deed to Death by D.B. Henson, a paperback thriller that sold 77,000 when the author self-published it; and
So Much Pretty, a debut novel by Cara Hoffman, which received a
starred PW review.