Hannah Inks Triple at SMP
Re-upping with St. Martin's Press, bestselling author Kristin Hannah (The Nightingale) closed a three-book North American rights deal with her longtime editor, Jennifer Enderlin. Andrea Cirillo at the Jane Rotrosen Agency represented Hannah. The Nightingale, which SMP published in February 2015, has, the publisher said, sold three million copies in the U.S. The book has also been optioned by Tristar and a film adaptation is currently in production. Hannah's next novel with SMP, The Great Alone, is releasing in February.

Amazon Signs Carlan to 12-Book Deal
In a six-figure world English rights agreement, Audrey Carlan signed with Amazon imprint Montlake Romance to write 12 novellas. Carlan, author of the bestselling Calendar Girl series, was represented by Amy Tannenbaum at the Jane Rotrosen Agency. Montlake said the Calendar Girl series has, to date, sold more than two million copies in English alone; the series has also been acquired in a number of foreign rights deals. The novellas will make up a 12-part series that, the publisher said, ”follows a man who helps women find love and happiness, and finds both for himself along the way.” The first three installments in the series are set to publish in summer 2018.

Greek Pol Lands at FSG
Former finance minister of Greece, Yanis Varoufakis, struck a two-book North American rights deal with Alex Star at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The first book in the deal is Varoufakis’s memoir Adults in the Room (currently a bestseller in the U.K., where it was published by Bodley Head). The second book will be a reworked version of a title Varoufakis published in Greece called Talking to My Daughter About the Economy. Agent Wendy Strothman, who has an eponymous shingle, brokered the sale; she described Adults as a candid work about Varoufakis’s “negotiations with European power brokers” and Talking as a letter from the author to his daughter “about capitalism.” FSG is set to publish Adults, which has sold in a number of other foreign rights deals, in the fall.

Morrow Nabs Comedic Travel Memoir
Audrey Murray, a comedian, sold a memoir about her travels in the former Soviet Union to William Morrow. Emma Brodie bought world rights to the currently untitled essay collection on an exclusive submission from Sanford J. Greenburger’s Stephanie Delman. The book, slated for summer 2018, will, Delman said, feature humorous stories about “the author’s passion for the former Soviet Union and the nine months she spent traveling there alone.” Murray hosts the Greenpoint Comedy Night at Word Bookstore and is a cofounder of China’s first stand-up comedy club, Kung Fu Komedy.

Sci-Fi Bestseller to Thomas & Mercer
Thomas & Mercer’s Liz Pearsons bought world rights to Joe Hart’s sci-fi thriller, Obscura. Hart, whose books have been Kindle bestsellers, was represented by Laura Rennert at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Describing Obscura, which is slated for May 2018, Rennert said it is set in a near future where “an Alzheimer’s-like disorder strikes old and young alike.” In this world, “a scientist must fight to find a cure for her daughter on a mission to space plagued by strange and deadly occurrences.” Hart has written 11 novels, the five most recent of which were published by Thomas & Mercer; his previous books were self-published.

Briefs
Glenn Yeffeh at BenBella Books bought North American rights to James Breakwell’s Bare Minimum Parenting: Making Laziness Work for You. Mark Gottlieb at Trident Media Group represented Breakwell, a professional comedy writer and father with a robust social media presence; his Twitter account claims more than 800,000 followers. Gottlieb said the book is a parenting guide “about doing just enough that if your kid fails at life, it’s not your fault, but if they succeed, you can still claim some of the credit.”

Overlook Press’s Peter Mayer and Tracy Carns took world rights to Vicki Huddleston’s Our Woman in Havana: A U.S. Diplomat’s Chronicle of America’s Long Struggle with Fidel Castro’s Cuba. Huddleston, a former diplomat, was represented by Philip Turner, at Philip Turner Books. He called the title “a candid diplomatic memoir” that lays out “what’s at stake in [America’s] fraught relationship with Cuba.” The book is slated for 2018.

Michael Flamini at St. Martin’s Press took North American rights, at auction, to Heath Hardage Lee’s The League of Wives: A True Story of Survival and Rescue from the Vietnam Homefront. Lee, who was represented by Katherine Flynn at Kneerim & Williams, is a historian who has spent much of her career working for museums. This book, Flynn said, “follows four Vietnam-era women through their incredible transformation from conservative, rule-bound, stay-in-the-background military wives to covert spies, national lobbyists, and international human rights figures—all to save the lives of their POW husbands and those missing in action.”

Harper Voyager’s David Pomerico took world rights to two new books by Elle Katharine White. The novels, Dragonshadow and Coromander, are follow-ups to White’s debut Heartstone, which was published by Voyager in January and which the house calls “a Jane Austen-inspired fantasy of manners.” Sandra Dijkstra & Associates’ Thao Le represented White in the deal.