Hot Debuts
Warner's Amy Einhorn won North American rights at auction to Min Jin Lee's first novel, Free Food for Millionaires, via Bill Clegg at William Morris. The novel explores issues of race and class through the story of a Princeton-educated daughter of Korean immigrants who returns to New York City after graduation, where she struggles with issues of identity and culture while her trust-fund friends and white boyfriend see only opportunity and choices. The author is a graduate of Yale and Georgetown Law School.
Riverhead's Megan Lynch has preempted a novel titled The Island of Eternal Love by Daina Chaviano; agent Laura Dail sold North American rights. Originally published in Spain by Grijalbo and likened to a Cuban The Joy Luck Club, Chaviano's English-language debut is a sweeping saga that follows three generations of three different families born in three different continents whose stories all intertwine in Havana. Lynch bought the book based on the original Spanish, as no English translation exists yet. Dail, who will be selling U.K. rights shortly, has already sold rights in eight other countries. Riverhead is looking at a tentative spring 2008 publication.
Two for S&G
Cindy Spiegel has acquired world rights to Israeli journalist Ari Shavit's Unholy Land: Israel Between East and West from Tina Bennett at Janklow & Nesbit. The book will consider how the state of Israel arrived at the present moment, from historical, political, social and personal perspectives. And Spiegal & Grau's Michael Mezzo has acquired an Australian debut novel titled A Fraction of the Whole; the author is Steve Toltz, and Elizabeth Sheinkmanat Curtis Brown sold North American rights. The book is about a man's struggle to make sense of his own father and his discovery of the truth of his own origins, in a journey that spans the Australian bush, bohemian Paris and the jungles of Thailand.
Winning Odds
Danny Sheridan, who provides the daily odds for all sporting events for USA Today, will write a book titled Taking Them to the Cleaners One Shirt at a Time: Confessions of the World's Leading Sports Handicapper; Warner's Rick Wolff acquired world rights from sports attorney Art Kaminsky. Sheridan will combine insider tips on how sports fans can improve their own odds of picking winners, especially in NFL and college football, along with an array of his own sports betting stories. Warner plans a fall 2007 publication.
Hemingway Revisited
Hemingway grandson John Hemingway has written A Strange Tribe, which agent Jane Dystel has sold to Rob Kirkpatrick at Lyons Press in a North American rights deal. John, the son of late, troubled youngest son Gregory, will explore the similarities between his transgender, bipolar father and his famous grandfather, drawing on the correspondence between the two during the 1950s, and will also describe his own experiences growing up in the family. A spring 2007 publication is planned.
The Briefing
Morrow's Laurie Chittenden has preempted U.S. rights to a novel by Vanora Bennetttitled Portrait of an Unknown Woman from Eric Simonoff at Janklow & Nesbit; the novel, set in Reformation-era England, is told largely from the point of view of a young ward of Thomas More who is torn between two men; a spring 2007 pub is slated.... Pushcart Prize winner and My Date with Satan author Stacey Richter will move to Counterpoint for her next collection of stories, titled Twin Study; Amy Scheibe bought world rights from ICM's Kris Dahl, for spring 2007 publication.
