Preempts for Dijkstra
Sandra Dijkstra at the Dijkstra Agency has accepted a preemptive offer from Eric Chinski at FSG for Stanford professor Ian Morris'sWhy the West Rules... for Now. The work will present an array of relevant evidence, from the archeological and historical to the anecdotal, to not only support the book's title but to come up with an optimistic vision for the future. FSG holds North American rights, and a fall 2009 publication is planned.
Dijkstra also sold Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen by Pushcart Prize—winner Marilyn Chin to Norton's Jill Bialosky, who preempted North American rights. The novel, described as a surreal "bad girl" manifesto, features two Chinese sisters navigating a modern maze of Barbie dolls and cruel teenage boys. Chin is also the author of a poetry collection, Rhapsody in Plain Yellow (Norton). A summer 2008 publication is tentative.
Starr Again to Knopf
Douglas Starr, author of Blood: An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce, has signed on with Jonathan Segal at Knopf for a new work of narrative nonfiction titled The Killer of Little Shepherds: The Crime of the Century and the Birth of Criminal Forensics; Todd Shuster at Zachary Shuster Harmsworth sold world rights in a six-figure deal. The book will tell the story of Joseph Vacher, one of the most vicious serial killers of all time who methodically killed and dismembered dozens of young men and women across Belle Epoque France, as well as the two men whose detailed crime-scene analysis and pioneering expertise in forensics helped bring the killer to justice.
Two First Novels
Penguin's Kathryn Court has just bought a first novel for the Viking list titled Salt; the author is Jeremy Page, a script editor at Film Four, and the North American rights deal was negotiated by Sloan Harris at ICM. The novel traces three generations of a family in the salt marshes of East Anglia, opening with the discovery of a downed German pilot in the marsh, and culminating in the coming-of-age of the narrator some 40 years later. Salt is slated for summer 2007.
Harper's Claire Wachtel has acquired Detective Kubu and a Carrion Death, and a sequel, by Michael Stanley, from agent Marly Rusoff in a six-figure deal for world English rights. These are the first in a series of books set in Botswana and featuring an African detective whose police department is weighed down with bureaucracy and corruption. Kubuunfolds when a game ranger finds the carrion remains of a white man being eaten by hyenas, leading to a chain of crimes. Stanley is a pen name for two South Africa—born professors.
MTM on Diabetes
Mary Tyler Moore will describe overcoming a lifetime of obstacles caused by the Type 1 diabetes she has lived with for more than 40 years in My Life with Diabetes, which St. Martin's Phil Revzin has acquired in a North American rights deal with Wayne Kabak at WMA. In the book, Moore, who is the international chairman of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, will look at all aspects of Type 1 diabetes, including causes, complications, management, and latest research and technologies. Author Kalia Donner will assist with research for the project, and St. Martin's plans an early 2008 publication.
Secret Auction
Debut author Pseudonymous Bosch has sold a middle-grade novel, The Name of This Book Is Secret, to Little, Brown's Jennifer Hunt, who acquired it in a two-book deal, at auction, from Sarah Burnes. Secret is a tale of two outcasts who find themselves deciphering secret codes and uncovering hidden plots as they follow the trail of a missing magician. Little, Brown holds North American rights.
