DEAL OF THE WEEK
Renkl ‘Comforts’ Spiegel & Grau
Joey McGarvey, in her first acquisition at Spiegel & Grau, bought world rights to Margaret Renkl’s The Comfort of Crows. The book from the New York Times opinion columnist and bestseller, which is subtitled A Backyard Year, is, S&G said, “a literary devotional that charts the passing of seasons, both personal and natural.” The Comfort of Crows was sold by Kristyn Keene Benton at ICM/CAA and features four-color art by Renkl’s brother and frequent collaborator Billy Renkl. It’s slated for October.
Dell Makes Kumar ‘Mine’
Say You’ll Be Mine, the debut novel by Naina Kumar, was preempted in a two-book, North American rights agreement by Dell’s Kara Cesare. Johanna Castillo at Writers House sold the book, which Dell said was pitched as “My Best Friend’s Wedding meets Indian Matchmaking.” It follows “a young woman who—to survive being the best man at the wedding of her ex, for whom she still has feelings—enters into a fake engagement with the man her parents always wanted for her.” The second novel in the deal is currently untitled.
McCartney ‘Eyes’ Liveright
For Liveright, Robert Weil bought world rights to 1964: Eyes of the Storm by Paul McCartney. The book, subtitled Photographs and Reflections, features images McCartney shot on his 35 mm camera in 1963 and 1964, along with an introduction from Jill Lepore and a foreword by McCartney himself. The photographs, per Liveright, record the period “when Beatlemania erupted in the U.K.” and the band “became the most famous people on the planet.” They are “McCartney’s personal record of this explosive time, when the Beatles were inside looking out and were the ‘Eyes of the Storm.’ ” The title is set for June and accompanies an exhibition of the photos at the National Portrait Gallery in London. McCartney didn’t use an agent in the deal.
Connelly Re-ups at Little, Brown
In a five-book agreement, Michael Connelly re-upped with his standing publisher, Little, Brown. The bestselling author was represented by Heather Rizzo, who sold world rights to the titles to Bruce Nichols. Connelly, recently selected as the 2023 grand master of the Mystery Writers of America, will publish his 38th novel (covered under an earlier contract), Resurrection Walk, with LB in November.
Carmon Goes to One Signal
One Signal’s Julia Cheiffetz won world rights to Unbearable: Being Pregnant in America by Irin Carmon at auction. Carmon is a New York magazine senior correspondent, and the publisher called the book “an urgent account of how the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision is dramatically worsening a patchwork system whose injustices have been decades in the making.” It blends “on-the-ground reporting and profiles with legal and political history, feminist analysis, and personal storytelling.” Unbearable is slated for spring 2025, and Carmon was represented in the agreement by Linda Loewenthal at the Loewenthal Company.
RH Enters Grandjean’s ‘Kingdom’
Random House’s Molly Turpin bought North American rights to Katherine Grandjean’s Kingdom of Devils. The nonfiction work, sold by Katherine Flynn at Kneerim & Williams at auction, examines a moment in American history through the story of the Harp brothers, recognized as the country’s first serial killers. The publisher said Grandjean, a professor at Wellesley College, explores “their brutal string of murders on the post-revolutionary frontier, revealing the young United States as an unsettled, often merciless place whose legacy of violence remains with us today.”
