Just a quick posting after a very busy London Book Fair - after meetings with publishers from all over Europe and a few from Japan, I have been following-up with each of them, which is like going through the book fair in slow motion all over again. Unlike previous book fairs, there were not just one or two “hottest” manuscripts that everyone wanted most, but this time there was serious interest in several titles across our fiction and non-fiction lists. I’ll write more of an update next week, after I’m back from a much-needed escape from London to Vienna.
Archive for April, 2008
“FRIENDS LIKE THESE” SELLS IN THE US!
US rights to Danny Wallace’s heartwarming book, FRIENDS LIKE THESE, just sold to John Parsley at Little Brown (US). John said of Danny’s account of his quest track down his key childhood friends, “I’ve fallen for the book, which I can’t stop talking about and which I found funny, original, and compelling. The book has a profoundly resonant point: that in this fast-moving, career-oriented, upwardly-mobile world, we often feel a simple curiosity about what happened to people from our past. That, and with any luck we’re all turning or have turned 30, and that’s both hard and easy at once.” LB/US will publish next year and Ebury will bring out the UK edition this Summer. As I mentioned below in recent postings, Ruby Films/Miramax have already acquired the film rights and the first foreign deal is done in Sweden with Forum. I’m sure there will be more translation deals happening during the book fair!
First foreign deals for Andrew Miller’s mesmerizing new novel!
Spanish rights are now sold to Salamandra and German rights to Hanser for ONE MORNING LIKE A BIRD,
the tale of a young Japanese man forced to make life-changing decisions in 1940-41 Tokyo. This passionate yet elegant novel by one of Britain’s most acclaimed authors, who has been called “one of our most skillful chroniclers of the human heart and mind” (Sunday Times), will be a lead title from Sceptre in September 2008. I was immediately transported from the first pages. It is a fascinating and authentic window into a precipitous moment of Japanese history. Yet it is rare that a historical novel flows with such grace and intimacy. Inspired by the years that Andrew Miller lived in Tokyo and also by Andrew’s own experience of unexpected fatherhood, and with haunting images of people clinging to beauty and safety as their precarious lives are infringed by war, ONE MORNING LIKE A BIRD is a love-affirming novel that transcends all boundaries of time and place. And Andrew Miller’s international reputation continues to grow. Today, out of the blue, I received a Russian offer for two of his previous novels, the Booker Prize short-listed OXYGEN and acclaimed THE OPTIMISTS.
Just in time for the London Book Fair, the first United Agents Adult Fiction and Non-fiction Rights Lists are now posted for viewing and/or downloading here from the United Agents website! But keep checking this blog for breaking news since Lettie and I won’t be updating the Rights Lists until after the book fair, hopefully with new foreign deals for the wonderful books we’re presenting in meetings from tomorrow throughout next week!
ADAM FOULDS WINS SUNDAY TIMES YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD!
Published April 7, 2008 Uncategorized 0 Comments
In my Feb/March posting below I mentioned that Adam Foulds’ wonderful debut novel THE TRUTH ABOUT THESE STRANGE TIMES (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) was shortlisted for The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. Today we are thrilled that he has won! Authors first spotted by the judges have gone on to win or be shortlisted for a host of other prizes – the Man Booker (Zadie Smith, Caryl Phillips and Sarah Waters), the Wolfson (William Dalrymple), the Forward (Paul Farley), the TS Eliot (Simon Armitage). Meanwhile, I’ve also learned that THE TRUTH ABOUT THESE STRANGE TIMES has also been long-listed for the Desmond Elliott Prize, and as a result of all this extraordinary good news, Orion has brought forward the publication date of the paperback edition (jacket pictured left) from August to May 22nd! So far the only foreign rights sold are in Israel to Achuzat Bayit.
Simultaneously, Foulds’ epic poem THE BROKEN WORD about the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya is about to be published by Robin Robertson at Cape. It has already drawn praise from Adam Thirwell (“a major work”) and noted poets such as Michael Longley, Christopher Reid, Ruth Padel, Andrew Motion and Craig Raine (“The Broken Word is a first-class, word-perfect, brilliant debut which doesn’t put a toe wrong. The long poem is the most testing of poetic forms but Adam Foulds passes the test triumphantly.”) The Scotsman even went as far as calling Adam Foulds “disgustingly talented”!
FANTASTIC REVIEWS FOR new fiction by Adam Mars-Jones and David Szalay, and non-fiction by Toby Faber
Published April 7, 2008 Uncategorized 0 Comments
Last Wednesday I ventured farther south of the river than I’ve ever been so far, to one of London’s most delightful independent bookshops, Dulwich Books, for the long-awaited launch of Adam Mars-Jones’ extraordinary novel, PILCROW. Lee Brackstone delivered a speech describing the mythical status surrounding the book over these past 14 years within Faber and Faber, and how in this current time of increasingly “mass-market” publishing it is a particularly rare and satisfying pleasure to publish a novel that can truly be described as “Dickensian, Proustian, and Shandean”. I personally cannot claim to have waited nearly as long as others who raised a glass of wine to Adam Mars-Jones. I only first heard about his mysterious tome when it was delivered last spring, but I’ll never forget the experience of devouring every page of it as I carried the manuscript on my travels during summer and fall from London to New York to London to Amsterdam to Frankfurt to Italy and finally back to London, never noticing the weight of all that paper or the page numbers since I was utterly intoxicated by the riotous humour and sublime beauty of Adam Mars-Jones’ prose. Nor will I ever forget the satisfaction of having four of the top publishers in Italy bid for the Italian rights and accepting the best offer from the prestigious Stile Libero imprint of Einaudi, and then having Isabelle Laffont of J.C. Lattes phone me to say how much she loved PILCROW and wanted to publish it in France.
It’s now wonderful to now see reviews trumpeting PILCROW’s singular delights:
The Observer: “With echoes of Joyce, Adam Mars-Jones’ Pilcrow offers a compulsive study of serious illness… an unexpected departure for one of the sharpest critical intelligences of our time.”
The TLS: “An impressive piece of work… But Pilcrow is, apart from all else, too subtle a book to be programmatic. It renders the interior voice of an exceptional being agilely and plausibly, and it does justice to a peculiar historical moment, both brutal and byzantine, bright with possibility yet thicketed with codes and conventions. It is also, in places, very funny.”
And especially glowing reviews in The New Statesman: “Keenly intelligent…a sophisticated, sensitive and - yes - linguistically fascinating book… Instead of writing a faster-paced book that would have done a disservice to the protagonist’s experiences, Mars-Jones deploys an intricately developed aesthetic range to invigorate his novel with the vitality it might otherwise lack. The novel’s enduring interest will perhaps be guaranteed by the teasing implications of this rich and ambitious weave of linguistic playfulness and structural nuances, which together compel the reader to focus closely on the novel’s language and typography (as you would expect in a book named after a typographical character)… In fact, Pilcrow is the first of a John Cromer trilogy, so at least some of these mysteries will be unravelled in the next instalment, which shall be eagerly awaited.”
and The Sunday Times: “Although often tender, Pilcrow is rigorously unsentimental, and there is an audacious and often extremely funny matter-of-factness about the way it describes the various incapacities of John and his fellows and how they manage them… Throughout the book there is a skilful use of double perspective, with John vibrantly present not only as the boy undergoing these experiences but also as the adult looking back on them. His narrative swoops effortlessly between playful elaboration and childlike simplicity…further instalments are apparently in progress. It may seem risky for a writer who has made his reputation with a series of impeccably svelte volumes to embark on a capacious Bildungsroman, but if the rest of John’s story is as beautifully written and as truly exhilarating as Pilcrow, most readers will be cheering him on.”
I’ve been told by Adam Mars-Jones and his agent, Pat Kavanagh, that a complete draft of the next instalment of John Cromer’s extraordinary life is already written so the wait this time won’t be as long! In addition to the above reviews, The Telegraph published a great interview with Adam Mars-Jones that you can read here.
Brilliant reviews in The Guardian and The Independent for David Szalay’s debut!
Following my posting last month of a great review in the FT, I’m thrilled to see David Szalay’s LONDON AND THE SOUTHEAST receiving even stronger praise from Stuart Evers in The Guardian:
“Grimly gripping…In a narrative cluttered with scenes of heartbreak, there exists one of the most moving and deftly written scenes I’ve read in some years.”
and in The Independent: “Startlingly good…a terrific debut, written in a present tense which flashes every so often into the past – a trick which Szalay pulls off with confidence…The tension is all in the central character, his highs and lows, his attempts to escape the numbness of indifference. He drowns; he surfaces; he gasps for air. It’s a tense and compelling read.” So far only Dutch rights are sold to Mouria. I’m sure there will be interest from many other countries during The London Book Fair, and David Szalay is in the midst of writing an intriguing second novel.
FABERGE’S EGGS by Toby Faber which Macmillan launched in London last week with a wonderful party at Pushkin House now has wonderful first reviews by Sam Leith in The Spectator: “What a great idea for a book, this is — and how well-executed. Toby Faber has produced, at just the length to suit it, a hugely enjoyable and informative account of the making and afterlife of the best-known examples of the jeweller’s art. Here is a series of love stories; a historical panorama; a tale of grotesque imperial frivolity, of barbarous totalitarian wrecking and of all-American hucksterism; a parable about the nature of value; and, above all, a portrait of the endless and winning absurdity of economic man in pursuit of shiny gewgaws.”
and Nigel Jones in The Daily Telegraph:
“Like the eggs themselves, Faber’s book has multiple layers with a social history of pre- and post-revolutionary Russia… As with every family story, this one has its fair share of secrets and scandals… Faber leaves us with the tantalising possibility that the ‘missing eggs’ - those known to have been made by Fabergé but which never re-emerged after the Revolution - may yet surface. Now that would be the biggest Easter egg hunt of all.”
I’ve just begun submitting FABERGE’S EGGS internationally to interested publishers. Random House will publish in the US in October 2008.
Nick Hornby’s newest novel SLAM is now optioned by DNA films, the same people who made “28 Days Later” (one of my favourite recent films that almost scared me out of wanting to move to London, and now that I live here I can’t get up the courage to watch the sequel, not that flesh-eating zombies could be nearly as scary as the last months I spent in a nearly empty Drury House!) Nick Hornby who now has a great blog of his own, writes that he plans to adapt SLAM himself, something he hasn’t done since he wrote the UK version of “Fever Pitch” more than 10 years ago. Meanwhile, Nick Hornby recently wrote his first original screenplay for “An Education”, a film that is shooting now about a posh schoolgirl who grows up fast in 1960’s London, directed by Danish director, Lone Scherfig. SLAM, about a couple of teenagers who collide with adulthood when they suddenly find themselves becoming parents, was a New York Times bestseller in hardcover last year and Penguin has now published in paperback. Translation rights have sold in 26 languages, including Croatian, Finnish, Estonian, Slovenian, Korean, but not yet in Japanese. Three of Nick Hornby’s previous books: “Fever Pitch”, “High Fidelity” and “About A Boy” have all been made into successful, and much-loved, films. The filming of Nick Hornby’s most recent adult novel, “A Long Way Down”, is taking place now. It was first optioned in 2006 by Johnny Depp who is now a producer along with David Heyman/Heyday and the script has been written by D.V. DeVincentis who also wrote the screenplay for the film of “High Fidelity”. Warner Brothers will release “A Long Way Down” sometime in 2009.
Last week I mentioned that Fiona Neill’s best-selling debut THE SECRET LIFE OF A SLUMMY MUMMY was still free in Spain, pues ya no mas! This week I accepted an enthusiastic world Spanish pre-empt from Ediciones B. How do you say “Slummy Mummy” in 14 different languages? It will be fun to find out! You can watch a great webcast interview with Fiona Neill for Bookzone on Sky/BordersTv by clicking here.
This week Lettie and I also accepted an Israeli offer from Keter (via the Pikarski Agency in Tel Aviv) for Samantha Harvey’s novel THE WILDERNESS (scroll down for more info in my first Feb/March posting). Jonathan Cape/UK, Nan Talese Books/US, DVA/Germany, and Ambo Anthos/The Netherlands will publish this beautiful, intelligent and courageous debut novel about Alzheimer’s as a lead title in 2009.
And Swedish rights to FRIENDS LIKE THESE are now sold to Forum! This is the first foreign deal for Danny Wallace’s hilarious yet heart-warming new book that reminds me how much fun there still is to be found in my thirties, and how much I’ll always cherish my first friendships. Ebury will publish FRIENDS LIKE THESE with a huge campaign in this summer.
John Boyne’s adventurous new adult novel, MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY,is now sold in Serbia to Alnari (via Kamelia Emilova and Mira Droumeva of Nurnberg Sofia) and previously to Rizzoli/Italy, S. Fischer/Germany, Salamandra/Spain (who has sold over 670,000 copies of “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas”), and Arena/The Netherlands. Transworld/UK will publish MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY as a lead title in May 2008.
As I prepare for my first book fair as a United Agent, it’s inspiring to see United Agents this week for the first time featured in articles in The Bookseller (UK), Guardian (UK), and Variety (USA). Joel Rickett’s article in the April 4th Bookseller , “Flying a United Flag”, is the first interview given by leading book agents, Caroline Dawnay, Simon Trewin, and Pat Kavanagh since we all left PFD. The Guardian article, “United We Stand”, and Variety article, “Rebel Agents Stand United”, are interesting too for a look inside the United Agents’ film and tv departments. For any of you who didn’t catch all the press last fall about PFD, this week’s press is a good way to be filled in on the defiant birth of United Agents. I’m elated and honoured to be the first American agent to work with this brilliant team of British rebels from the “moshpit” and up!
