Glusman Lures Powers
At Norton, editor-in-chief John Glusman bought U.S. rights to MacArthur Fellow Richard Powers’s Orfeo, which will be the author’s 11th novel. Melanie Jackson at the Melanie Jackson Agency brokered the deal for Powers, whose previous books include the National Book Award winner and Pulitzer finalist, The Echo Maker. In Orfeo, which is scheduled for early 2014, a composer, Glusman said, “dreams of inscribing a piece of music in the genetic material of a self-copying cell only to run afoul of Homeland Security.” Glusman was Powers’s editor, years ago, at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and Powers’s last book was with FSG.

Baker Lands Fu Book
Bob Fu, the activist and founder of the nonprofit China Aid, has sold his story in a major deal to Baker Books, in Michigan. Agent Chris Park, at Foundry Literary + Media, handled the six-figure world rights deal for Fu, who drew headlines this year for his role in bringing blind dissident Chen Guangcheng to the States. Park said “aggressive bids” came in from numerous houses—Baker is a Christian publisher and a division of Baker Publishing Group—and the book is set for a November 2013 release. Park added that Fu has long been a behind-the-scenes operator in China, fighting for religious and political freedom, but with Chen Guangcheng’s situation, he landed in the spotlight. Bestselling author Nancy French will be writing the book, which Park called “part memoir, part current affairs,” with Fu.

Kohn Gets ‘Spoiled’ for Da Capo
In his first acquisition as a senior editor at Da Capo, Dan Ambrosio, who joined the company a few weeks ago, bought world rights to Alfie Kohn’s Fear of Spoiling from agent Wendy Strothman at the Strothman Agency. The book, scheduled for 2014, is subtitled Coddled Kids, Helicopter Parents, and Other Urban Myths; the publisher said that the author “dispels the widespread belief that overparenting and overindulgence has produced a generation of children who think too highly of themselves even as they’re incapable of making their way in the world.” The book, Da Capo added, also re-examines the parenting and education choices that have shaped this impression.