No doubt about it: the anticipation of selling a couple million copies of Bill Clinton's memoir made for a decidedly buoyant mood at this year's show. But all the buzz about Clinton's June release didn't overshadow the fall fiction and nonfiction, which Carol Horne, buyer for the Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge, Mass., proclaimed "very solid," with plenty of breadth and enough familiar names to draw a wide variety of readers. Borders fiction category manager Joe Holtzman put an even finer point on it: "Clinton will make our year, and Wolfe's new novel could take it even higher."
Literary Names Are Back
Though galleys of
Tom Wolfe's third novel weren't available at the show, I Am Charlotte Simmons (FSG, Nov. 9) quickly emerged as one of the fiction front-runners. At the Sunday morning breakfast, booksellers laughed heartily at the white-suited author's account of researching his tale, which is set at a fictitious Ivy League school with a big sports program and skewers the whole sexed-up, keg-swilling milieu. "There are moments in his writing that can really be remarkable, and he has proven he can keep it fresh. But [without having read the galleys,] it's a leap of anticipation," said Karl Killian, owner of Brazos Bookstore in Houston, Tex.
Phillip Roth's The Plot Against America (Houghton, Oct.)—which imagines Charles Lindbergh as a U.S. president who negotiates a cordial agreement with Hitler—was another hot topic. "I'm really looking forward to it," said Deb Morris, buyer, Politics & Prose, Washington, D.C. "It's a cautionary tale that's very relevant, especially in this political climate. I also think it's interesting that such a straightforward writer as Roth is writing an imaginary history." Others who have read it say that a pivotal female character may draw readers who've been put off by Roth's male-dominated tales.
Like Roth's novel, which several booksellers pegged for a major book prize,
Marilynne Robinson's long-awaited second novel, Gilead (FSG, Nov.), struck many as a likely award-winner. Independent and chain booksellers were unanimously rhapsodic about her 1980 debut, Housekeeping. On the train home from BEA, Karl Pohrt, owner of Shaman Drum in Ann Arbor, Mich., "immediately fell in love with the wise and generous voice of the minister-narrator of Gilead, which is about family generations and the strangeness at the center of life." Placing the book in "the wisdom tradition in North American literature," Pohrt told PW he intends to hand-sell it "to anyone who will listen to me."
Robinson was one of a number of favored writers who are reappearing after an absence of many years. Another is
Cynthia Ozick, who will tour for the first time in her long career for Heir to the Glimmering World (Houghton, Sept.). The novel is "a great family story set in 1930s New York with some good laughs," said Paul Ingram, buyer at Prairie Lights Bookstore in Iowa City, Iowa.
Francisco Goldman has also returned after seven years, with a novel based on the life of Cuban poet-revolutionary Jose Marti, The Divine Husband (Grove, Sept.), which has fired up booksellers like Paul Yamazaki of City Lights in San Francisco and Rick Simonson at Elliott Bay Bookstore in Seattle, Wash. "It plays with time and works on several levels, but the plot is straight-ahead enough to pull in readers," Simonson said.
Gish Jen's first novel in seven years—a tale of a multicultural family called The Love Wife (Knopf, Sept.)—found a fan in Harvard Bookstore's Carol Horne. "It's fabulous," she said. "I've read all of her books and this is a step up to the next level. The ending is very strong." Horne also has high expectations for
Russell Banks's The Darling (HarperCollins, Oct.), a tale of a woman who flees her political past for a different life in Liberia; it's his first since 1998's Cloudsplitter. And she found cause for celebration in
Mark Helprin's return after almost 10 years, with The Pacific and Other Stories (Penguin Press, Oct. 21).
At the Harcourt booth, a new novel by
Emma Donoghue (Life Mask, Aug. 12), and collections of short works by
Yann Martel (The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, Nov. 10) and
Michael Faber (The Courage Consort, Sept. 14) turned heads. Sandra Torkildson, from a Room of One's Own in Madison, Wisc., was pleased that Donoghue's tale of a love triangle among the 18th-century Beau Monde allows her to explore the gender and sexual politics of the same period as her breakout novel, Slammerkin.
On the floor, talk also turned to last year's NBA nominee
T.C. Boyle, whose new novel, The Inner Circle (Viking, Sept.), drew approval from several booksellers. The historical setting in Alfred Kinsey's 1950s sex lab struck Borders fiction buyer Robert Teicher as "good subject matter" that was enhanced by the strong jacket image of a couple necking in a vintage car.
Novels to Watch
As for debut fiction, two hefty tomes grabbed the lion's share of the attention.
Susanna Clarke's 780-page tale of how magicians helped the English defeat Napoleon, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (Sept.), was heralded by a banner outside the show floor, badge lanyard giveaways and a distinctive jacket. That fanfare prompted both Margaret Maupin of the Tattered Cover in Denver and Borders's Teicher to comment that Bloomsbury is making all the right moves. The book is "absolutely terrific," added Debi Morris, general manager and buyer of Barbara's Bookstores, Chicago, who disputed some booksellers' comparisons to Harry Potter. "It's fantasy, but that's because it's assumed in the book that magic is a part of everyday life," she said. "It's written in the style of the period, and is flawless."
Nor did the 900-page girth of
Gregory David Roberts's Shantaram (St. Martin's, Oct.) quash the appeal of this semi-autobiographical novel written by an Australian bank robber and escaped convict who fled to India, which was a #1 bestseller in Australia. "The size of it just makes it that much better because you can really get into this whole life," said Susan Wasson at Bookworks in Albuquerque, N.Mex., though others observed that it may be hard for two long novels to break out.
One author whom many booksellers thought might hit a new stride is
Mark Spragg, whose novel An Unfinished Life (Sept.) was recommended to Knopf editor Gary Fisketjon by author Kent Haruf. "It has some of the tension of Bastard out of Carolina," said Karl Killian of Brazos, about this tale involving a girl caught between her mother's desperation and her grandfather's anger. It doesn't it hurt that the film version, starring Jennifer Lopez and Robert Redford, will be released by Miramax on Christmas Day.
A summer book, Crossing California by
Adam Langer (Riverhead, June), also picked up speed at the show. "I loved it," said Debi Morris of Barbara's Bookstores. Comparing it to The Corrections, she added, "the characters are really well drawn. They have flaws, they're not always pleasant, but they're so human. It's dead on."
Few visitors to the Little, Brown booth chatted with publisher Michael Pietsch without receiving a green galley of The Ha-Ha (Jan. 2005) by
Dave King and hearing him praise the story of a mute Vietnam vet who finds redemption through an unexpected relationship with a needy boy, which he also touted on the buzz panel.
Another novel from that panel, presented by MacAdam/Cage editor Anika Streitfeld, made it onto Entertainment Weekly editor Tina Jordan's must-read list. When PW bumped into her back in New York, she had clearly enjoyed
Amanda Eyre Ward's second novel, How to Be Lost (Oct. 8), about a young woman who, after the loss of her sister, redefines her relationship with her quirky mother. Jordan also gave the nod to The Sunday Philosophy Club (Pantheon, Sept. 28), the first installment of a series set in Scotland by
Alexander McCall Smith, whose debut series about Botswana's #1 ladies' detective agency has been a runaway hit.
Meanwhile, a first novel from Grove, Broken for You, by
Stephanie Kallos (Sept.) won the passionate enthusiasm of Julie Norcross of McLean & Eakin Booksellers in Petoskey, Mich. The story of "two women and their past doesn't miss a beat," she said, comparing it to Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees. "I gave the galley to my daughter after I read it, and she just told me, 'Mom, I'm dreaming about Wanda and Margaret!' This book will sell well, it'll be around for a long time," Norcross predicted.
The Brand Name Beat
No one expects the names at the very top of the bestseller lists to change significantly this fall. Booksellers expected a second solid year of holiday sales from
Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, which will be reissued in a new illustrated edition (Doubleday, Oct. 19; 500,000 first printing).
Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven is also likely to remain strong with the help of a prime-time TV movie with Jon Voight and Ellen Burstyn, set to air in December on ABC, corporate sibling to the book's publisher, Hyperion.
Still, plenty of other brand-name fiction lit up the booths, including
James Patterson's London Bridges (Little, Brown, Nov. 8; one million printing) and the first of
Janet Evanovich's two standalone novels for HarperCollins, Metrogirl (Nov. 9; one million printing). But it was
Nelson DeMille who kicked up buzz with Night Fall (Warner, Nov. 22; one million printing), his first hardcover in two years, which features a major character from Plum Island. "The story is fascinating," said Borders's Holtzman of the tale of two lovers on a beach who witness the downing of TWA flight 800 over Long Island, New York, in October 2001.
Chain and indie chick lit favorite
Jennifer Weiner was also clearly poised for a major breakout with her third hardcover, Little Earthquakes (Atria, Sept. 14). As it happens, her second novel, In Her Shoes, has been made into a movie starring Cameron Diaz that will be released by Fox 2000 in November, and HBO is developing a series based on her first novel, Good in Bed. "This is her year," said Holtzman.
For Lynda Bryan, store manager at Brentano's in Davenport, Iowa,
Suzanne Brockmann was another author who's "ready to explode." Predicting that her next book, Hot Target (Ballantine, Dec. 28), will be big, Bryan added, "I have husbands and wives reading her books. She's a really good crossover author, similar to Iris Johanson."
On the fantasy front,
Stephen King returns with the seventh and final installment of his Dark Tower series, which threatens to be his last book ever: The Dark Tower (Scribner, Sept. 21). Meanwhile,
Stephen R. Donaldson has revived his Thomas Covenant series from the 1980s in The Runes of the Earth (Putnam, Oct.).
Mario Puzo's famous franchise is also back. The GodfatherReturns (Random, Nov. 16) will be "huge," said Suzanne DeGaetano, co-owner of Mac's Backs on Coventry in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, whose enthusiasm is based on the involvement of
Mark Winegardner, chosen by Random after a national search. "He's a fine writer," she said.
More Politics
Time and again booksellers seem bolstered by the quality of the fall nonfiction lineup, though opinion was divided over how much political titles will dominate other key categories in this election year. "The political book is going to take over," predicted Roberta Rubin, owner of the Book Stall at Chestnut Court in Winnetka, Ill. "I think the historical books are going to suffer because of it." But Barbara Theroux, owner of Fact & Fiction in Missoula, Mont., was more upbeat: "Our historical category is pretty active right now," she said. "I think all those that are out right now are going to carry through the fall." Readers may also be so bombarded by politics that they will look for respite in other books, suggested Susan Wasson from Bookworks.
That said, there's no denying the Clinton factor. Booksellers expect
Bill Clinton's My Life (Knopf, June 22) to charge through the summer and fall, selling at least as many or even more than Hillary Clinton's memoir. "In terms of biography," said Maupin, "no one else is going to compete against that."
For other political books, "sales will be strong through the election, as long as 60 Minutes keeps putting them on," said Jim Harris, owner of Prairie Lights Bookstore. "Leslie Stahl is the one who determines which political books are going to sell. She's the boss."
Though Stahl hasn't indicated her intentions with respect to Gen.
Tommy Franks's American Soldier (Aug. 3; one million printing), the account of the military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq made waves at the show. Though Regan Books editorial director and buzz panelist Cal Morgan emphasized that the book won't pull any punches about strategic triumphs or shortcomings, some booksellers expressed concern that Franks isn't as much of a household name as Colin Powell was during the Gulf War.
In terms of print runs,
Kitty Kelley is next in line, with an initial run of 600,000 copies for her dishy bio The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty (Doubleday, Sept. 14), said to address persistent scuttlebutt about W.'s past drug use, mistresses and other alleged misdoings.
And after a rousing session at the Sunday author breakfast that inspired booksellers in every corner of the room to lob questions at The Daily Show's
Jon Stewart, enthusiasm was also running high for his satirical civics textbook, America the Book: A Citizens' Guide to Democracy Inaction (Warner, Sept.; 500,000 first printing).
Journalists will also be out in force before the election. New Yorker writer
Seymour Hersh's Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib (HarperCollins, late Sept.) will include new work in addition to the articles that have already played a major role in shaping the national perception of the war in Iraq. What We've Lost (FSG, Sept.; 100,000 first printing), in which Vanity Fair editor-in-chief
Graydon Carter expands on the deep dissatisfaction with the current state of the nation that has marked his monthly editor's letters, should also get considerable attention. And New York Times columnist
Maureen Dowd will unleash her trademark barbs in Bushworld (Putnam, Aug. 23).
There are also "a surprising number of conservative pro-Bush equivalents to the books that take Bush to task for policies and results that have already been published," observed Ann Christopherson, co-owner, Women and Children First in Chicago. "It seems to be a counter-offensive to the books that have come out trashing him. I don't know how they'll do. But I'm intrigued."
Some of the biggest titles from the conservative side of the aisle include
Ann Coulter's How to Talk to a Liberal (if You Must) (Crown Forum, Oct.); Senate majority leader
Trent Lott's memoir, Master of the Game (HarperCollins/ Regan Books, Sept.); and journalist
Bill Gertz's Treachery: How America's Friends and Foes Are Secretly Arming Our Enemies (Crown Forum, Sept.).
Escape into the Past
In history, the biggest buzz title by far was Shadow Divers (Random, July),
Robert Kurson's winning blend of history and deep sea adventure, about two divers who became historical detectives when they discovered a German WWII U-boat off the New Jersey coast. "It's nonfiction, but it reads really well and should be a good crossover for fiction readers," said Jill Miner, owner of Saturn Booksellers in Gaylord, Mich.
The biggest historical biography of the fall, according to Ingram merchandising director George Tattersfield, is His Excellency: George Washington by
Joseph J. Ellis (Knopf, Nov.; 500,000 printing). "I've read the first hundred pages and it's wonderful—the perfect gift book by a known quantity, a Pulitzer Prize winner," he said.
Paul Yamazaki of City Lights hailed the return of
Adam Hochschild, author of KingLeopold's Ghost. His new book, Bury the Chains: Profits, Slaves and Rebels in the First Human Rights Crusade (Houghton Mifflin, Jan. 7) is about the first grassroots human rights campaign, which started in an English bookshop in 1787, and eventually helped end slavery around the world. Other booksellers were looking forward to
Harold Evans's take on American inventors, They Made America (Little Brown, 150,000 printing), which ties in to a four-part PBS series that airs in November, which the former Random House publisher will host.
Brazos Bookstore's Karl Killian was intrigued by admired literary critic
Stephen Greenblatt's speculative biography, Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare (Sept.). "I heard Norton paid a million bucks for the book, and that's a lot of money for them," he said.
Michael Fraser, humanities manager at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Cincinnati, was excited about February House by
Sherill Tippins (Houghton, Feb. 2005): "It's a fascinating book about a house in Brooklyn where all these incredible artists—Carson McCullers, W.H. Auden, Gypsy Rose Lee—all lived in during WWII. We have a lot of literary readers at our store, and they are going to snap this one up."
Last but far from least in this survey—which only scratches the surface of what's to come—is In the Shadow of No Towers (Sept. 7) by graphic book master
Art Spiegelman, whose presence conjured a line of booksellers that snaked around the Pantheon booth. The book is a genre-busting meditation on the September 11 attacks in New York City, by a man who is raising his family within a stone's throw of ground zero. But Spiegelman's sense of history won't allow him to leave out the origins of American comics in the turn of the last century, when they first captivated the masses in rival tabloids, published just a few blocks from where the towers later rose and fell.
— with reporting by Bridget Kinsella, Sarah Gold, Kevin Howell, Claire Kirch, Brianna Yamashita and Raya Kuzyk
