Pat Kavanagh just sold Jane Borodale’s intriguing debut novel in a two-book deal to Clare Smith/Harper Press! HarperCollins will publish THE BOOK OF FIRES in late Spring or early Summer 2009. Zoe Pagnamenta is handling the US submission in New York. I delighted in the manuscript from start to finish, finding it unusually suspenseful and accomplished for a first novel, and I think many modern women will be captivated by the independent-spirited heroine, a country girl who becomes apprentice to a secretive London fireworks maker. There are romantic undertones, vivid detail about the creation of fireworks, and surprising twists at the end. I’m hopeful that even in the midst of summer, THE BOOK OF FIRES will spark interest across Europe!
Archive for June, 2008
Andrew Martin’s brilliant railroad mystery series set in the Edwardian-era (1901-1910) and featuring detective Jim Stringer has been shortlisted for the Library Dagger in the UK’s most prestigious crime and thriller awards – the CWA / Duncan Lawrie Daggers 2008. The winners will be announced at the Awards Dinner to be held at the Four Seasons Hotel in London’s Park Lane on Thursday 10th July. Faber & Faber has just published the fifth Jim Stringer mystery, DEATH ON A BRANCH LINE which seems to be the most suspenseful and international so far, and Jim Stringer’s suffragette wife, Lydia, plays a bigger role in the story. I was completely absorbed by the previous book, MURDER AT DEVIATION JUNCTION, and I’m looking forward to reading DEATH ON A BRANCH LINE in a few weeks on the train north to Edinburgh! The Sunday Times just picked it as one of the 100 Best Holiday Reads (40 of which are fiction). Neri Pozza published the first book in Italy and Harcourt in the US. UK Sales are building and reviews have been increasingly strong with each title:
“The best sleuth that 200 years of the railways have ever produced.” Independent on Sunday
“Superior potboilers.” London Review of Books
“Crime narratives dispatched with a Dickensian relish…Delectable stuff.” Daily Express
“Unerringly sharp and pioneeringly original, it locks the reader in from start to finish.” Spectator
“Martin could be compared, in a way, to W.G. Sebald…He is possessed of a sense of humor quite missing in Sebald. But he does share that writer’s mood of alienated possession of the past. His is an original voice, and the historical novels are the best I have read this century.” Katherine A. Powers, The Boston Globe
The paperback of Christopher Brookmyre’s ATTACK OF THE UNSINKABLE RUBBER DUCKS is #1 in Scotland on both the Top 10 Scottish charts and the Top 10 General paperback charts (ahead of Alexander McCall Smith, Khaled Hosseini, Kate Mosse)! Last summer this brilliant mystery was an instant bestseller in hardcover. I was delighted when Abel Gerschenfeld/Denoel pre-empted French rights to ATTACK OF THE UNSINKABLE RUBBER DUCKS with one of the most memorable responses I’ve ever received, beginning with: “Abso-f***ing-lutely fan-f**ing-tastic! He plays with you until the very end, doesn’t he. Brilliantissimo - haven’t read anything quite like this in a long time.” Denoel is planning a big launch for RUBBER DUCKS in France next spring. This summer, Christopher Brookmyre’s newest hardcover thriller, A SNOWBALL IN HELL, is certain to build upon his success when Little, Brown publishes in August. Christopher Brookmyre is also for the second year in a row shortlisted for The Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year Award, the only crime award that is voted on by the public. The winner will be announced on July 17th in Harrogate. I’m looking forward to seeing Chris talk about A SNOWBALL IN HELL at Edinburgh where he’s doing three different events - the first sold out within 3 days of the Book Festival box office opening. For more information about Christopher Brookmyre and his consistently fantastic novels visit his excellent website here. Aside from France, all translation rights are available, but there is strong interest in Italy and Germany where I recently submitted A SNOWBALL IN HELL. I’ve written in previous postings below how much I’m loving every twist.
Last night at the Society of Authors annual awards ceremony, David Szalay’s debut novel, LONDON AND THE SOUTH-EAST, was announced as the winner of this year’s main Betty Trask Award of £10,000! Jonathan Cape published LONDON AND THE SOUTH-EAST as a paperback original in April and critics were so impressed by David Szalay’s powerful writing and characters that The Independent even reviewed it twice! “Startlingly good… this is a terrific debut, written in a present tense which flashes every so often into the past – a trick which Szalay pulls off with confidence.” (Bill Greenwell in The Independent, April 4th )
and ”«««««London and the South-East is a funny, painful, graphic demonstration that our job is a crucial part of our identity…It’s compulsively readable, with a strangely convincing sense that all the events, unpredictable though they are, are what really would have happened, rather than what suits the plot.” (Brandon Robshaw in The Independent on Sunday, April 13th)
So far the only foreign sale was to the excellent Dutch publisher, Mouria, who will publish in Holland this August 2008 (with the title “Can I Make You An Offer?”). David Szalay is close to delivering to his overjoyed primary agent, Anna Webber, an intriguing and even more ambitious second novel that Dan Franklin/Jonathan Cape already has under contract. More on this before Frankfurt, but now is the time to read LONDON AND THE SOUTH-EAST! I was hooked on every word and amazed by how much depth and suspense David Szalay reveals in the inner life of an ordinary London salesman who could also be a salesman in any city.
Meanwhile Jim Gill’s author, Thomas Leveritt won a Betty Trask Award for his debut novel, “The Exchange Rate of Love” (rights controlled by the publisher, Harvill Secker), and two of Simon Trewin’s authors also won prizes last night. Steven Hall picked up a Somerset Maugham prize from the Society of Authors for THE RAW SHARK TEXTS (one of the most breath-seizing and mind-bending debut novels I’ve ever read which I enjoyed selling into over 20 languages when I was maternity cover Rights Director at Canongate), and at a different awards ceremony, Fiona Neil won ‘Most Loveable Heroine’ for Lucy Sweeny in THE SECRET LIFE OF A SLUMMY MUMMY at the Melissa Nathan Award For Comedy Romance. UK paperback sales of SLUMMY MUMMY are close to totalling 300,000 copies, and Simon Trewin was just told by Arrow that it is the fastest selling paperback fiction debut in the UK for the past three years! Foreign rights have sold in 22 languages!
Wonderful US reviews for Sylvia Brownrigg’s new novel!
Published June 9, 2008 Uncategorized 0 Comments
One of the manuscripts that struck deepest chords in me last year was Sylvia Brownrigg’s new novel, MORALITY TALE, now published in the US by Counterpoint and coming soon in the UK from Picador. It’s gratifying to read such strong reviews in The New York Times:“Divinely deadpan…Brownrigg’s writing will remind readers of Carol Shields whose quirky adjectives gave texture to her writing in a way that seemed effortlessly engaging and astute.”
and San Francisco Chronicle: “Curious, teasing, idiosyncratic and strangely charming…It’s a witty parable, a slight but subtle dissection of modern marriage…Illuminated by its sympathy toward its oddly innocent cast of characters, it presents the dilemmas of daily commitment and redemption in a form even burnt-out cynics might find palatable.”
MORALITY TALE was also featured in The Bookseller as a July fiction highlight: “This is a sensitive novel of temptation, yearning and guilt portraying how unlooked-for love can devastate a life.” MORALITY TALE displays a much lighter and wittier style than Brownrigg’s acclaimed previous novel, “The Delivery Room“, and I think it will appeal to a wider readership, while still advancing Brownrigg’s reputation on both sides of the Atlantic. She has been praised by Michael Chabon as having “perfect pitch, and she sees with amazing depth and tenderness into the hearts of her real-as-real characters – and into the reader’s heart too.” Over a single weekend last September, I savoured every word of MORALITY TALE. It’s deeply romantic and passionate without being at all cloying or sentimental; instructive and illuminating with out being overly moralistic; and warm and funny without ever being frivolous or unrealistic. And the surprise ending takes place during the outbreak of a rainstorm so vividly conveyed that you can smell and taste it in the air. All translation rights to MORALITY TALE are available and I hope foreign editors will now take notice. You can read more about Sylvia Brownrigg and her novels on her excellent website.
After putting my assistant, Lettie Ransley, in charge of submissions to Greek publishers, she has negotiated three new deals in one week!
Kedros has now bought Greek rights to John Boyne’s new novel, MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY! Rights previously sold to Salamandra in Spain, where they’ve sold over 1 million copies of “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas” and it was awarded the prestigious “Que Leer” Prize as the best novel to be translated into Spanish in 2007; S. Fischer Verlag in Germany, where Shatzinsel (the young adult imprint of S. Fischer) sold over 50,000 copies of “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas” and it is shortlisted for the prestigious 2008 Deutschen Jugend Literatur Preis in Germany! The winner will be announced at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair in October. MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY is also sold to Rizzoli/Italy, Grup 62/Catalan, Arena/The Netherlands, Alnari/Serbia, St. Martin’s Press/USA, and Doubleday/Canada. And now also in Brazil to Companhia das Letras. Transworld just published in the UK and the hardcover is selling strong and getting great reviews, affirming John Boyne as one of the world’s most brilliant storytellers. Meanwhile, the first press about the Miramax/Heyday film which will be released on September 12th appeared in a Daily Mail column last week, “As producer David Heyman says, the film sneaks up on you and ends with a wallop. The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas will, I strongly believe, emerge as one of the best films of 2008.” You can read the full “Watch out for” paragraph and see a photograph of young star, Asa Butterfield, at this link. I think “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas” is one of the most sensitive and powerful book-to-film adaptations I’ve ever seen and it is certain to draw even more readers to John Boyne’s novels. The total worldwide sales of “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas” has now passed 2.5 million copies and rights have been sold in 36 languages!
First translation deal for WHERE UNDERPANTS COME FROM is a Greek pre-empt from Oceanida! Joe Bennett’s wonderfully witty and uniquely illuminating window into contemporary China is now published by S&S UK and is a big bestseller in New Zealand, overtaking “The Secret” and “The Last Lecture” to be #1 on the NZ International Non-fiction List! There was a great review in The Financial Times:
“Amazed that anyone can sell a five-pack of underpants in a New Zealand supermarket for less than $10 and make a profit, Joe Bennett follows his purchase back to its source: China, in the midst of an economic boom. After posing as a buyer in Shanghai and touring the factories in Quanzhou where his pants were made, he tracks down the raw material itself in the cotton fields around Urumqi, thousands of miles away in western China. At every step, Bennett discovers large-scale industry powered by cheap labour and an insatiable thirst for commerce. He admits that he initially knew nothing about China, arguing that the west is generally ignorant of the country that now provides so many of its clothes. As much a piece of travel writing as it is an overview of the political and economic climate in China, Where Underpants Come From is a fascinating and personal account of a country undergoing rapid change.” Hopefully Oceanida’s Greek pre-empt is the first of many more!
Oceanida also pre-empted Greek rights to THE LUMINOUS LIFE OF LILLY APHRODITE! Oceanida is truly an excellent publisher whose fiction authors include Margaret Atwood, John Banville, Sebastian Faulks and Tracy Chevalier. We’re thrilled that Beatrice Colin will now join this fantastic list, and it’s great to add Greece to the Italian (Neri Pozza) and Dutch (Q/Querido) pre-empts I accepted for THE LUMINOUS LIFE OF LILLY APHODITE on an early version of the manuscript last year. Riverhead/US and John Murray/UK will publish as a lead summer hardcover in August and with great advance praise from David Ebershoff, Sheri Holman, Emma Donoghue, Jennifer Gilmore, Publisher’s Weekly (see my post-LBF posting below), I’m sure Beatrice Colin’s heartbreakingly beautiful novel will continue captivating publishers across Europe. THE LUMINOUS LIFE OF LILLY APHRODITE is one of the most imaginative, vibrant, and daring works of historical fiction, and featuring the most intriguing heroine, I’ve read since Michel Faber’s “The Crimson Petal and the White”.
