Italian and Dutch deals for Simon Mawer’s glorious new novel, THE GLASS ROOM!
Today Italian rights sold to Neri Pozza who made an impressive best offer to welcome Simon Mawer (pictured left) onto their list of sophisticated historical fiction and non-fiction by renowned authors. Even though two other publishers previously published Simon Mawer in Italy, Neri Pozza sees THE GLASS ROOM as a strong departure from his earlier books and will publish as a lead title with bestseller potential for Summer or Christmas 2009. Meanwhile, last week, Dutch rights were pre-empted by Ambo Anthos! They love THE GLASS ROOM so much that they want to bring Simon Mawer back onto their excellent list even though they published one of his earlier novels, “Mendel’s Dwarf”, 10 years ago. Publisher Chris Herschdorfer wrote with his offer “I’ve had a wonderful reading experience…I love the idea of using architecture as a metaphor for the future, change and hope… But also pointing the way forward, hoping for a new and unbridled future in which people will have left the ‘’dark ages’’ and live in transparent, new times… The oncoming threat of Nazism, slowly creeping closer and leaving its mark on everyone is very well done and harrowing. The way people hope it will blow over, but others are aware of the deadly threat and take measures. The richness of detail, be it describing architecture or the complicated matters of the heart and relationships is magnificent and I was very happy to see it being pulled off as storylines come full circle and there seems to be light at the ending of the story.” With Portuguese rights already swiftly pre-empted after the London Book Fair by Civilizacao/Portugal (scroll down for my previous posting below), Lettie and I expect Simon Mawer’s masterpiece will continue captivating publishers across Europe! Simon Mawer and his primary agent, Charles Walker, are delighted with the international response so far.
Dutch rights to THE TRUTH ABOUT THESE STRANGE TIMES by Adam Foulds now sold to Lidewijde Paris for her new literary fiction imprint, Ailantus! I’ve been wanting to have an author with Lidewijde ever since I first met her in the midst of editing the Dutch translation of “Cloud Atlas” when she was at Querido. I was delighted when she last year started a new literary fiction imprint at a different, family-owned company called Boom Publishers Amsterdam. Ailantus means “tree of heaven” and the first catalogue for Summer 2008 looks fantastic. Adam Foulds will be one of the first authors Lidewijde has acquired from the UK (the other notable UK author she will publish at Ailantus is David Mitchell). There is still strong interest in THE TRUTH ABOUT THESE STRANGE TIMES from other European editors I saw in London and Turin. Watch this blog for news about Adam Foulds’ intriguing second novel, JOHN’S DREAM. His agent Anna Webber will be wrapping up a fantastic UK deal very soon.
French rights to Samantha Harvey’s debut novel, THE WILDERNESS, are now sold in a pre-empt to Editions du Panama! Du Panama is a great young independent publisher and Florence Barrau is building an impressive list of strong new voices in international fiction including Chris Killen (Canongate), Kevin Brockmeier (Knopf), and Jonny Glynn (Portobello Books). In my first posting earlier this year I wrote about the fantastic first deals for THE WILDERNESS (also represented by Anna Webber). Just to recap all the wonderful things that have happened over the past few months: Dan Franklin/Cape bought UK rights and will publish February 5, 2009, Lorna Owen of Nan A. Talese Books/Doubleday pre-empted in the US and will publish February 17, 2009 with a significant first printing of 30,000 copies (extraordinary for a debut novel and by an new English author); Marion Kohler/DVA will publish as a lead title in Germany and Chris Herschdorfer/Ambo Anthos will publish as a lead title in The Netherlands. Hebrew rights recently sold to Keter. And UK audio rights are also sold to W.H. Howes (very unusual for this to happen so quickly or even at all for a literary debut novel, and on an early manuscript). Clearly, THE WILDERNESS, is a rare novel that strikes deep and immediate chords in almost everyone who reads it. I personally consider it to be one of the most courageous, original, beautiful, and intense manuscripts I’ve ever read. Samantha Harvey (pictured above left in a recent photo taken by her boyfriend, Rick Hewes) has profoundly changed the way I think about people who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease or memory loss, and even about my own fragmented puzzle of a life. I’m sure that she has a brilliant future ahead of her. It was wonderful to have Dan Franklin and Anna Webber similarly raving about Samantha’s writing at The London Book Fair and this new French deal is great for following up on all the interest. Rights to THE WILDERNESS are still available in many countries including Italy, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland.
French rights to PETITE ANGLAISE by Catherine Sanderson are now sold to Beatrice Duval/Calmann-Levy for her list of quality fiction/memoir for intelligent women! Elizabeth Gilbert’s bestselling travel memoir, “Eat Pray Love”, is another good example of this which Calmann-Levy is successfully publishing. With her offer, Beatrice wrote: “I loved PETITE ANGLAISE, I think it has a big potential as a book from an English point of view, but without the usual clichés on the French, + a strong female point of view that I am sure women will appreciate. We also want to commit to a long-term deal with her, I perfectly understand that PETITE ANGLAISE is not a one-shot and that she is ready to a well-deserved career in writing.” In my very first blog posting below there are links to the fantastic UK reviews and publicity (you can also find out all the news about PETITE ANGLAISE on her internationally famous blog). This debut memoir that reads like a novel will be published in the US (jacket above) in June (Spiegel & Grau/Doubleday). There is already a great pre-pub US review in Kirkus: “Her seamless, dramatically paced narration reads beautifully, and her ear for dialogue is excellent. Evocative descriptions of Paris are an added plus. Soap-operatic navel-gazing in engaging prose.” Translation rights previously sold in Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Israel, Finland, and Iceland, but of all of these having a great French publisher means the most to Catherine since the book is about her lifelong love affair with France where she has overcome many obstacles to make Paris her endlessly enticing home. Primary agent Simon Trewin’s reaction when I told him the news of this long-awaited French deal was “Yay yay!”
The first foreign deal for THE MINUTES OF THE LAZARUS CLUB by Tony Pollard is in Russia to AST (via Synopsis Literary Agency, Moscow)! AST is one of Russia’s biggest publishers with a great list of bestselling commercial fiction including Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code”, Elizabeth Kostova’s “The Historian”, and Kate Mosse’s “Labyrinth”. There is still a lot of interest in THE MINUTES OF THE LAZARUS CLUB from the European editors I saw in London and Turin, and it was just featured in The Bookseller as a first fiction highlight for August. There’s a picture of the Michael Joseph cover (pictured left) with this summary: “Author Tony Pollard is a forensic archaeologist, and a presenter on the BBC’s “Two Men in a Trench”. His debut novel is a historical thriller set in Victorian London. The Lazarus Club is composed of some very fine minds-Darwin, Babbage and Brunel among them-but young ambitious Dr. George Philips is about to encounter a dark conspiracy.” I think you’d be hard-pressed to read a more confident, suspenseful, and authentic historical thriller. Michael Joseph is publishing THE MINUTES OF THE LAZARUS CLUB as the “British historical thriller of the year.” Penguin just produced unusually elegant and enticing advance reading copies, and in-house enthusiasm signals that they see THE MINUTES OF THE LAZARUS CLUB as a potential bestseller. Primary agent is James Gill.
WHY US?: HOW SCIENCE REDISCOVERED THE MYSTERY OF OURSELVES is now sold in Portugal to Civilizacao! Again, my assistant, Lettie, has secured the first foreign deal for one of our most-requested new submissions (the other being Simon Mawer’s novel, THE GLASS ROOM, which Civilizacao pre-empted the week after LBF). I never knew the Portuguese to be so fast! WHY US is one of the most fascinating and controversial manuscripts I’ve ever read (it’s a provocative challenge to Richard Dawkins and the author, James Le Fanu, is represented by Caroline Dawnay who was Dawkins’ first agent for his first three books including “The Blind Watchmaker”). This major new view of the past one hundred and fifty years of evolutionary biology will be unlike every other Darwin book published in anticipation of his bicentennial. HarperCollins/UK (editor Richard Johnson) and Pantheon/US (editor Dan Frank) expect WHY US? will cause a considerable stir when they publish in February 2009. Not only is it a surprisingly eloquent and beautifully written book, with a strong narrative component telling the story of the protracted quest for the secret of who we are, culminating in the surprising discoveries of the recent past such as the Human Genome Project, but WHY US? profoundly rocked my fundamental assumptions about evolution. It’s a daring philosophical challenge that offers a way of thinking critically and independently in a world that is increasingly polarized. James Le Fanu’s previous book, “The Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine” (Little, Brown) won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in 1999.
Swift German Pre-empt for UNDER THE PAW: CONFESSIONS OF A CAT MAN by Tom Cox!
I only just submitted this hilarious memoir about the author’s relationships with six cats, and also his wife, Dee, who fortunately adores The Bear, Janet, Ralph, Shipley, Pablo, and Bootsy as much as Tom does. One German editor, Julika Jaenicke of Ullstein, immediately read it and loved it and phoned me a few days later to tell me her whole editorial team loves it. We agreed on a pre-emptive offer and UNDER THE PAW will be published in hardcover on the List imprint that has already made bestsellers in Germany out of entertaining and highly original non-fiction such as “The Game” by Neil Strauss and “The Know-it-All” by A.J. Jacobs. Simon & Schuster is just about to publish UNDER THE PAW in the UK in June (jacket pictured left). Tom Cox, who was formerly a music journalist for The Observer (his columns were published as a previous book, “The Lost Tribes of Pop”), also has a funny blog called “little cat diaries”. I haven’t submitted UNDER THE PAW in any countries besides Germany yet, but with this enthusiastic German pre-empt I’m ready to let Tom Cox and his cats out of the bag into the world! Primary agent is Simon Trewin.
Spanish rights to COUNTERKNOWLEDGE by Damian Thompson are now sold to Critica/Planeta! Wonderful to have this powerful little treatise, that the Guardian described as a “bracing assault” and that Francis Wheen praised as “an invigorating trumpet blast”, still catching on after translation rights sold last year to Einaudi/Italy, Nikkei/Japan, and in Croatia. Norton will publish in the US in September. Atlantic Books published the hardcover in January 2008 and has sold through three printings and 10,000 copies. The paperback (pictured left) will be published in July and is featured in The Bookseller Autumn Paperback Preview as “one to watch” and “an engaging and witty guide in differentiating between fact and opinion”. You can read more about COUNTERKNOWLEDGE and how to disarm conspiracy theories, quack medicine, bogus science, and fake history on Damian Thompson’s excellent website here. Primary agent is Simon Trewin.
Lucy Dawson’s bestselling debut, HIS OTHER LOVER, is now sold in Turkey (via Anatolialit) to Artemis, the Turkish publisher of Fiona Neill, Candace Bushnell, Sophie Kinsella, Marian Keyes, and other top women’s fiction! HIS OTHER LOVER continues to sell strong in the UK with over 35,000 copies sold of Sphere’s trade paperback and it has been reprinted four times since publication in mid-March, a sensational success for a first novel! So far HIS OTHER LOVER has sold to Rowohlt/Germany, House of Books/Holland, Szo/Hungary, and Avon/HarperCollins/USA. Lucy Dawson’s primary agent, Sarah Ballard, just told me that Lucy has completed a fantastic second novel, WHAT MY BEST FRIEND DID, which will published by Sphere in early 2009. I’m looking forward to reading this tale of a female betrayal soon. Scroll down to my post-LBF posting for some more great news and links about Lucy Dawson (pictured right).
THE SECRET LIFE OF A SLUMMY MUMMY by Fiona Neill is now sold in Norway to Gydendal, in a pre-empt! Editor, Cathrine Bakke Bolin, found it a perfect fit for her DROPS series of classy commercial women’s fiction such as Sophie Kinsella, Lauren Weisberger, Lisa Jewell, Melissa Bank, Jane Fallon. This is the 16th translation deal for Fiona Neill’s bestselling debut! I will be featuring her second novel at Frankfurt. Arrow’s UK paperback edition continues to climb the bestseller lists with Nielsen reporting over 220,000 copies sold since publication in February.
