STERLING LORD LITERISTIC, INC.
Foreign Rights Guide FICTION & NONFICTION
Spring 2013
From THE SEA IS MY BROTHER by Jack Kerouac, Artforum 2011
STERLING LORD LITERISTIC, INC. 65 BLEECKER STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10012 Tel: +1 212-780-6050 www.sll.com
FOREIGN RIGHTS MANAGER Szilvia Molnar szilvia@sll.com Tel: +1 646 652 3276 Cell: +1 347 401 1345
fiction recent sales & deliveries PANIC IN A SUITCASE by Yelena Akhtiorskaya ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������3 SAINT MAZIE by Jami Attenberg ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������4 AT THE BOTTOM OF EVERYTHING by Ben Dolnick ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������5 THE SLIPPAGE by Ben Greenman ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������6 THE VIOLET HOUR by Katherine Hill �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������7 SOIL by Jamie Kornegay ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������8 THIS IS THE WATER by Yannick Murphy ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������9 TAMPA by Alissa Nutting ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������10 THE GOOD LUCK OF RIGHT NOW by Matthew Quick �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������11 THE SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK by Matthew Quick �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������11 THE COLLECTED WORKS OF A.J. FIKRY by Gabrielle Zevin �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������12
recent fiction highlights THE BEST OF YOUTH by Michael Dahlie ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������14 THE MORELS by Christopher Hacker ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������15 BEING ESTHER by Miriam Karmel ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������16 THE SHELTER CYCLE by Peter Rock �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������17 THE LOVE SONG OF JONNY VALENTINE by Teddy Wayne �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������18
commercial fiction THE CROOKED BRANCH by Jeanine Cummins ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������20 THE WEIGHT OF SMALL THINGS by Sherri Wood Emmons �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������20 A STEP OF FAITH by Richard Paul Evans ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������21 THE MEDICI BOY by John L’Heureux ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������22 APPROACHING THE SPEED OF LIGHT by Victoria Lustbader �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������23 THE CLOUD by Matt Richtel ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������24
nonfiction recent sales & deliveries THE MERCILESS BOOK OF METAL LISTS by Howie Abrams �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������35 PREDISPOSED by Alford, Smith & Hibbing ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������26 ON MY KNEES by Periel Aschenbrand ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������33 SHUT UP, YOU’RE WELCOME by Annie Choi ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������34 EX by Jessa Crispin.........................................................................................................................................................................26 TOPSY by Michael Daly ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������28 CAPTAIN PHIL HARRIS by Josh & Jake Harris ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������35 THE PUSH by Eleanor Henderson & Anna Solomon ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������26 FURIOUSLY HAPPY by Jenny Lawson ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������33 HUNGRY GIRL: JUST DESSERTS by Lisa Lillien ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������36 THE FURIES UNLEASHED by Steven M. Miner ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������30 THE FIGHT OR FLIGHT FACTOR by Scott Steinberg ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������27 STRINGER by Anjan Sundaram ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������29 I KISS YOUR HANDS MANY TIMES by Szegedy-Maszák ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������31 AN ENLARGED HEART by Cynthia Zarin ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������32
fiction - recent sales & deliveries
Yelena Akthiorskaya
Panic in a Suitcase PUBLICATION
Spring 2014, Unedited manuscript available
PUBLISHER
Riverhead (US & Canada)
AGENT
Jim Rutman
EDITOR
Megan Lynch
When the Nasmertov family moved from Soviet Odessa to New York City, they left behind discrimination, genteel poverty, a lack of opportunity, and uncle Pasha, a burgeoning poet. A neurotic, an isolationist, and (to the family’s great dismay) a recently converted Christian, Pasha stages a quiet rebellion by stalling on his promise to join the family in the Russian-Jewish enclave of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn: he can’t, or won’t, shake the psychic handcuffs that keep him from a decision. For better or worse, Pasha gets to remain what he is—a Russian poet. Crouched in the kitchen, crashed in front of the incomprehensible television, riveted, confounded: the Nasmertovs are at once Soviet Jews and Americans, stuck somewhere between worlds, shambling along the border, packed like dizzy sardines. But if the Nasmertov parents can only afford to look forward, learning the rules of aspiration, the family’s youngest, Frida, on her rickety way towards adulthood, can only look back. Her voice and deeply embedded perspective turn the novel into a counter-history—a novel of what might have been, a portrait of nearly twenty years of halted progress. PANIC IN A SUITCASE is a piece of art that so deeply inhabits the experience of a particularly Russian journey while foregoing the comforting clichés. In rich, lyrical prose, Yelena Akhtiorskaya explores the shifting perspectives on what it means to be in the US, forever new and unsettled. The language is peerlessly inventive and a stylistic precedent is difficult to locate.
Yelena Akthiorskaya was born in Odessa, raised in Brighton, educated at Hunter and then at the Columbia MFA program. Her work has appeared in n+1, where portions of PANIC IN A SUITCASE were featured, The New Republic, and Tablet, among others. She lives in New York City.
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fiction - recent sales & deliveries
Jami Attenberg
Saint Mazie PUBLICATION
Summer 2014, Manuscript: Summer 2013
PUBLISHER
Grand Central (US & Canada)
AGENT
Doug Stewart
EDITOR
Helen Atsma
For decades Mazie Phillips has run a movie theater on the Bowery in New York City, but what she is famous for is helping the homeless. She gives them money and soap every day, lets them watch movies for free at her theater, and at night, she tends to their needs among the dark streets of New York. But Mazie Phillips is a real broad too: boozy, feisty, and funny, she is “the Queen of the Bowery.” Inspired by Joseph Mitchell’s legendary essay collection Up in the Old Hotel, Jami Attenberg imagines the life of this real good-time girl turned saint about whom very little is known. Mazie’s troubled love life, her struggles with poverty and family, and her unique way of living outside of society’s constructs will be brought to life in a funny, smart, heart-wrenching, unique new novel from critically acclaimed Jami Attenberg.
Praise for THE MIDDLESTEINS “Caustic, entertaining, and bighearted.” —The New York Times Book Review “[THE MIDDLESTEINS] is so warm and well-observed that, despite any mockery, the destinies of these flawed, strong, and fragile people come to matter to us deeply.” —The Independent (UK)
OPTION PUBLISHERS FRANCE (LES ESCALES) ITALY (LA GIUNTINA) NETHERLANDS (AGATHON) RUSSIA (EKSMO) TAIWAN (AMYGDALA) TURKEY (MARTI YAYINLARI) UK (SERPENT’S TAIL)
“It’s warm, it’s insightful but most of all, it’s very funny.” —The Times (UK) Jami Attenberg has written for The New York Times, New York, Salon, Nylon, Nerve, and other publications. Her debut collection of stories, INSTANT LOVE, was published in June 2006. She has since then written three novels: THE KEPT MAN, THE MELTING SEASON, and THE MIDDLESTEINS, which was a New York Times bestseller. A Chicago native, she currently lives in Brooklyn.
www.jamiattenberg.com
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fiction - recent sales & deliveries
Ben Dolnick
At the Bottom of Everything PUBLICATION
September 2013, Galleys available
PUBLISHER
Pantheon (US)
AGENT
Doug Stewart
EDITOR
Jenny Jackson
In this heartbreaking and loving story, the friendship between two boys comes to a sudden halt when a terrible accident leads to the death of a stranger. After years of keeping their involvement a secret, Adam is approached by Thomas’ parents who are in dire need of help; Thomas has run away to India and his mental state is rapidly deteriorating. Since Adam’s own life has stagnated, he agrees to help rescue his old friend. The adventure that begins to unfold brings the young men to examine the guilt, torment, and sorrow they have been carrying since their childhood. Ben Dolnick has a rare gift for portraying adolescence with a directness and sincerity that leaves no one untouched.
Praise for ZOOLOGY “An exciting, confident, and thoroughly endearing debut. Dolnick writes with a maturity that belies his years, and ZOOLOGY—distinguished by a rare combination of narrative patience and instinctive kindness—is a real cause for celebration.” —George Saunders, author of Tenth of December “Ben Dolnick is a writer of incredible sensitivity. ZOOLOGY explores the tricky journey to adulthood with honesty, humor, and generosity.” —Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything is Illuminated
Ben Dolnick was born and raised in Chevy Chase, Maryland. He received his undergraduate degree from Columbia University. He has worked as a bookseller, a tutor, a research assistant in an immunology lab, and as a zookeeper at the Central Park Zoo. Dolnick made his debut in 2007 with ZOOLOGY, a coming of age novel mostly set in New York. He is also the author of the novel YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE, which was published in 2011. He currently lives in Brooklyn.
www.bendolnick.com
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fiction - recent sales & deliveries
Ben Greenman
The Slippage PUBLICATION
April 2013, Books available
PUBLISHER
Harper Perennial (US & Canada)
AGENT
Jim Rutman
EDITOR
Cal Morgan
William Day shares a simple suburban and childless existence with his wife Louisa. When she approaches him with the unexpected demand to build a house for their small family, William must confront some uncomfortable truths about his life and future: is this the ultimate dream? Is this what one should desire? As William feels the urge to reexamine his own expectations, he loses his footing and enters into “the slippage”—a state of boredom, frustration, and unfulfilled needs. Will an affair with an ex-girlfriend bring William out of this trap, or will it confirm the obvious? With vivid imagery and sparkling metaphors, Greenman portrays a modern relationship with his trademark sarcastic wit, shining light on what it truly takes for a marriage to survive.
“Ben Greenman’s relentlessly funny novel engages with the mystery whereby a seemingly sane man can take steps to simultaneously solidify and destroy his life. /…/ Brilliant and wry.” —Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia “With THE SLIPPAGE, Ben Greenman proves what many of us suspected: he’s one of our best writers, and he can do anything. /…/ It’ll be the book of the year.” —Darin Strauss, author of Half A Life and Chang & Eng “Ben Greenman is an original. In THE SLIPPAGE he has done the impossible—written a romantic novel about mid-life marriage.” —Amy Sohn, author of Motherland and Prospect Park West
Ben Greenman is an editor at The New Yorker and author of several acclaimed works including CELEBRITY CHEKHOV, WHAT HE’S POISED TO DO, PLEASE STEP BACK, SUPERBAD, A CIRCLE IS A BALLOON, and COMPASS BOTH. His fiction, essays, and journalism has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, McSweeney’s, The Paris Review, Zoetrope: All-Story, Opium, and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two children.
www.bengreenman.com
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fiction - recent sales & deliveries
Katherine Hill
The Violet Hour PUBLICATION
July 2013, Galleys available
PUBLISHER
Scribner (US & Canada)
AGENT
Jim Rutman
EDITOR
Nan Graham
Once blissfully in love, now complacent and unfaithful in marriage, Cassandra has been with Abe for more than twenty years. On a pleasant summer afternoon they embark with their precocious college-bound daughter, Elizabeth, on a short sailing trip that will rupture the family’s apparently thriving, enviable orderliness for good. THE VIOLET HOUR is a family love story that spans decades and coasts, starting in the foggy waters of the San Francisco Bay and moving to a funeral home in Washington D.C., with an important stop at a fishing village in turn-of-the-century Finland. A novel of death and desire, confounded hopes and expectations, and the emotional inheritances we accept or deny from our parents, it is a meditation both on the ways in which we hurt those closest to us and on the quiet harshness of modern American life.
RIGHTS SOLD GERMANY (ULLSTEIN) UK (VIKING)
“Katherine Hill’s THE VIOLET HOUR reminds us that in every family mistakes are made—and redemption is possible. A wise, engrossing novel of familial love, betrayal, and forgiveness.” —Kate Walbert, author of A Short History of Women “Like Sue Miller and Alice Hoffman, Katherine Hill limns the commonplace dreams and sorrows of the restless middle class. Ranging from post-grad Berkeley in the ‘80s to post-Katrina Manhattan, THE VIOLET HOUR is an old-fashioned family romance.” —Stewart O’Nan, author of Last Night at the Lobster and Emily, Alone
Katherine Hill’s short fiction has appeared in n+1, AGNI, Colorado Review, The Common, Philadelphia Stories, and Word Riot. She is the recipient of the Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction, the Marguerite McGlinn Prize for Fiction, and has received fellowship support from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Her articles and reviews have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Bookforum, Poets & Writers, The Believer, and Philadelphia City Paper, among other publications. She is an assistant editor at Barrelhouse. She lives and writes in Cambridge, MA.
www.katherine-hill.com
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fiction - recent sales & deliveries
Jamie Kornegay
Soil PUBLICATION
September 2014, Unedited manuscript available
PUBLISHER
Simon & Schuster (US & Canada)
AGENT
Jim Rutman
EDITOR
Marysue Rucci
Stuck waist-deep in the nutrient-rich mud of his flooded field, Jay Mize discovers a dead body. Were Jay in his right mind, he might have reported the body to the police who are, at that very moment, searching for a missing tourist from Ohio. He might not have dragged it back to his farm under the cover of night, might not have gotten his hands dirty, but Jay is not in his right mind. He hasn’t been for some time. SOIL is a story about psychic tectonics and about the gravitational pull of one man’s apocalypse. It’s about a young, struggling farmer with an estranged wife and son, a ruined crop, bully neighbors, and a simple, decaying dream: to farm his small patch of rural Mississippi soil in the most responsible and renewable way possible. Disgraced, insolvent, quite possibly cuckolded, Jay tends the flooded breadth of his untenable ground, sinking ever deeper into a paranoid obsession as the stakes of his decisions grow unchecked around him. SOIL borrows selectively and smartly from various genre conventions while stirring up all kinds of majestically gnarly local atmospherics. We are in ‘cross-over’ territory with a pacing and perspectival alternation that keeps us perpetually on the hook. And the ending—well, that’ll do you in.
Jamie Kornegay lives in the Mississippi Delta, where he moved in 2006 to establish an independent bookstore, Turnrow Book Co. Prior to the opening of his bookstore, Kornegay was a bookseller, events coordinator, and radio show producer at the renowned Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi. Kornegay studied creative fiction under Barry Hannah at the University of Mississippi. SOIL is his first novel.
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fiction - recent sales & deliveries
Yannick Murphy
This is the Water PUBLICATION
Spring 2014, Unedited manuscript available
PUBLISHER
Harper Perennial (US & Canada)
AGENT
Judy Heiblum
EDITOR
Maya Ziv
This is the water; it consumes and guides the lives of the characters in this novel. This is the bustling, chlorine-infused swim facility; a killer swims unnoticed amongst his future victims here. This is the swim team; these are the girls with shy breast buds who compete against the clock. These are the swim parents who get up at 5am, carry their sleeping children to the car, and drive them to out-of-town swim meets. This is the swim mom, Annie, who we follow in her mundanely comfortable domestic routines. Annie, who yearns for the attention of her best friend’s handsome husband, Paul. This is Paul, who once went for a drive with a nurse named Bobby Chantal. And this is where the story takes its first unpredictable turn. Bobby Chantal was found with her throat slit, neck split, like an open Pez dispenser. Annie’s mounting yearning plunges the novel into the dark psychological undercurrents of placid family life: this is Annie washing her thinning hair, noticing that the flesh around her face feels looser. This is her husband, Thomas, who is oblivious to Annie’s growing concern that they no longer touch. This is Annie, the swim mom who might be too old, too unappealing to even be a serial killer’s victim. But if her family is at risk, she is fit enough to kill. This is award-winning Yannick Murphy’s extraordinary new novel.
Yannick Murphy is the author of THE CALL, SIGNED MATA HARI, HERE THEY COME, and THE SEA OF TREES. Her story collections include STORIES IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE and IN A BEAR’S EYES. Her children’s books include THE COLD WATER WITCH, BABY POLAR BEAR, AND AWHOOOOOOO!. She is the recipient of various awards including the 2012 Laurence L. & Thomas Winship/PEN New England Award, a Whiting Writer’s Award, a National Endowment for the Arts award, and a Chesterfield Screenwriting award.
www.yannickmurphy.com
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fiction - recent sales & deliveries
Alissa Nutting
Tampa PUBLICATION
July 2013, Galleys available
PUBLISHER
Ecco (US & Canada)
AGENT
Jim Rutman
EDITOR
Lee Boudreaux
Celeste Price: 26, gorgeous, married, teaches eighth-grade English in suburban Tampa. She drives a red Corvette and has a handsome cop husband. They are envied and admired by every casual observer in their orbit. Why wouldn’t they be? TAMPA, Alissa Nutting’s scorching and unrepentant debut novel, counts the ways. With crackling, stampeding, rampantly sexualized prose, Nutting entertains and implicates us with every awful confidence of her undeterrable anti-heroine. Celeste is a predator, stopping at nothing to secure the flittering, tentative reciprocations of the 14-yearold boys in her afternoon classes—to scratch an itch so fundamental, to fill cravings so deviously free of hesitation, that we are challenged to very nearly admire the depths of her abandon. With a pornographer’s palette and a psychopath’s forethought, she plays the seductress, and puts a live wire to our most taboo fantasies. TAMPA is a grand, satirical, serio-comic treatment of want, but within that embedded critique is a tide of titillation the reader is dared to shun: we are helplessly alone with this narrator and the novel she carries. At a point when transgressive sex in fiction has been fetishized, normalized, and publicized past the point of banality, Nutting has given us something altogether different with which we must reckon.
RIGHTS SOLD CZECH REPUBLIC (ODEON) FRANCE (SONATINE) GERMANY (HOFFMANN UND CAMPE) HUNGARY (ATHENEUM) ITALY (EINAUDI) KOREA (LANG STORE) NETHERLANDS (MEULENHOFF) PORTUGAL (DIVINA COMEDIA) SPAIN (ANAGRAMA) UK (FABER & FABER)
Alissa Nutting is an assistant professor of creative writing at John Carroll University. She is the author of the award winning collection of stories, UNCLEAN JOBS FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Oprah, Tin House, Fence, Bomb, among other publications. TAMPA is her first novel.
www.alissanutting.com
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fiction - recent sales & deliveries
Matthew Quick
The Good Luck of Right Now PUBLICATION
Spring 2014, Unedited manuscript available
RIGHTS SOLD
PUBLISHER
HarperCollins (US)
AGENT
Doug Stewart
EDITOR
Jennifer Barth
BRAZIL (EDITORA INTRINSECA) CANADA (HARPERCOLLINS) GERMANY (ROWOHLT/KINDLER) GREECE (IKAROS) ISRAEL (ACHUZAT BAYIT) ITALY (SALANI) KOREA (JOONGANG) NETHERLANDS (XANDER) NORWAY (CAPPELEN DAMM) POLAND (OTWARTE) PORTUGAL (PRESENCA) RUSSIA (AZBOOKA) SERBIA (VULKAN) SPAIN (DESTINO) TAIWAN (MARCO POLO) TURKEY (FENIKS) UK (PICADOR) FILM: DREAMWORKS
Meet the one and only Bartholomew Neil: a middle-aged man who doesn’t quite fit in. Slightly damaged and slightly beaten down, he has always lived with his beloved mother, but after her death he is left to fend for himself in the big world. Bartholomew finds himself on a pilgrimage of sorts, headed to Ottawa, Ontario with his new librarian girl-crush, her foul-mouthed but loving brother, and the local priest who has just been kicked out of his parish. All told through a series of elaborate and engaging letters addressed to Richard Gere (yes, Richard Gere) we follow Bartholomew on an expedition of the heart and mind, and root for him as he tries to come to terms with the strangeness that he harbors inside. In THE GOOD LUCK OF RIGHT NOW, the good triumphs over evil, offering everyone a place in this world no matter how different you are, since you are really only as strange as strange is allowed to be.
The Silver Linings Playbook PUBLICATION
September 2008, Books available
PUBLISHER
Sarah Crichton Books (US & Canada)
Pat Peoples has just been released from a mental health facility. Down on his luck, recently abandoned by his wife, and living with his parents once again, Pat searches desperately for a silver-lining. This New York Times bestseller is a riotous and poignant story of a man regaining his memory and coming to terms with the magnitude of his wife’s betrayal. Matthew Quick’s work has received the 2009 PEN/Hemingway Award Honorable Mention, was named an Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award for Young Adult Fiction Finalist, won the Michigan Library Association’s Thumbs Up! Award, and made the YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults 2011 list. THE SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK was adapted to the screen by the Weinstein company.
RIGHTS SOLD BRAZIL (EDITORA INTRINSECA) BULGARIA (EMAS) CHINA (HUAXWENTIANXIA) CZECH REPUBLIC (EUROMEDIA) ESTONIA (TANAPAEV) GERMANY (ROWOHLT/KINDLER) HUNGARY (KONYVMOLYKEPZO) ISRAEL (ACHUZAT BAYIT) ITALY (SALANI) JAPAN (SHUEISHA) KOREA (NEXUS) LITHUANIA (BALTOS LANKOS) NETHERLANDS (XANDER) POLAND (OTWARTE) PORTUGAL (PRESENCA) RUSSIA (AZBOOKA) SLOVAKIA (IKAR) SPAIN (DEBOSILLO) SWEDEN (SUNTOWER) TAIWAN (MARCO POLO) TURKEY (FENIKS) UK (PICADOR) FILM: WEINSTEIN COMPANY
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fiction - recent sales & deliveries
Gabrielle Zevin
The Collected Works of A.J. Fikry PUBLICATION
April 2014, Final manuscript available
PUBLISHER
Algonquin (US)
AGENT
Doug Stewart
EDITOR
Kathy Pories
A.J. Fikry is the disillusioned and persnickety owner of the local bookstore on Alice Island. A.J.’s business is slowing, he has lost his wife in a tragic car accident, and his most prized possession has just been stolen under embarrassing circumstances. What could possibly happen to rekindle A.J.’s love of life and literature? One day A.J. finds a baby girl alone in the children’s section, serving as new beginning and igniting a burgeoning love affair with a sales rep from a small publishing house. In this polished gem of a novel, readers will be delighted by the quirky cast of characters and the tight, fast-moving story. Gabrielle Zevin’s ability to tug at our heartstrings is on full display as she teaches us that we are all much more than one novel or one short story; we are all our collected works.
Praise for MARGARETTOWN “Zevin’s writing is both playful and touching.” —Publishers Weekly “....effectively taut prose.” —Entertainment Weekly “A droll piece of romantic whimsy, with an unexpected resonance.” —Kirkus Reviews
RIGHTS SOLD BRAZIL (COMPANHIA DAS LETRAS) DENMARK (LINDHARDT OG RINGHOF) FINLAND (GUMMERUS) FRANCE (FLEUVE NOIR) GERMANY (KARL BLESSING VERLAG) ICELAND (FORLAGID) ISRAEL (KETER) ITALY (NORD) KOREA (MUNHAKDONGNE) NETHERLANDS (ATLAS/CONTACT) NORWAY (SILKE) SPAIN (LUMEN) SWEDEN (FORUM) TURKEY (TIMAS) UK (LITTLE, BROWN)
Gabrielle Zevin is the author of THE HOLE WE’RE IN, MARGARETTOWN, ELSEWHERE, and the hugely successful young adult series: BIRTHRIGHT. She has also written screenplays and criticism. She was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for the screenplay of the cult hit, CONVERSATIONS WITH WOMEN. In 2000, she graduated from Harvard with a degree in English and American Literature.
www.gabriellezevin.com
12
recent fiction highlights
recent fiction highlights
Michael Dahlie
The Best of Youth PUBLICATION
January 2013, Books available
PUBLISHER
W.W. Norton (US)
AGENT
Doug Stewart
EDITOR
Jill Bialosky
Harvard graduate Henry Lang is the awkward but charming type. When his parents die in a sailing accident, the 24-year-old is suddenly left with an inheritance of fifteen million dollars. Henry moves to Brooklyn in the hope of embracing a perhaps slightly naïve vision of contemporary youth culture. Instead, he stumbles into a series of troubling situations and disheartening romantic adventures, putting his identity and integrity to the test in this affable modern comedy. Richard Russo, the author of Empire Falls writes: “Michael Dahlie writes the way Cary Grant used to act, that is, with a seeming effortlessness and grace that is truly maddening to those of us who know how difficult it is. THE BEST OF YOUTH, his fine new novel, is another infuriating case in point.”
RIGHTS SOLD ITALY (NUTRIMENTI)
“A lovable, feel-good novel.” —The Wall Street Journal “Every young writer can probably tell stories about the chaos and romance of their first year as a working scribe. But Henry Lang, the hero of this novel by Dahlie, has juicier tales than most. /…/ An engaging novel.” —Kirkus Reviews “A thoughtful and delightful new novel.” —New York Post
Michael Dahlie won the 2009 PEN/Hemingway award for his novel, A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO GRACEFUL LIVING, and received a Whiting Writer’s Award in 2010. He is currently the Booth Tarkington Writer-in-Residence at Butler University in Indianapolis.
www.michaeldahlie.com
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recent fiction highlights
Christopher Hacker
The Morels PUBLICATION
April 2013, Galleys available
PUBLISHER
Soho Press (World English)
AGENT
Doug Stewart
EDITOR
Mark Doten
The Morels are a happy family of three living in New York City. So why does Arthur publish an autobiographical novel that rips his tightly knit family apart at the seams? Arthur’s old schoolmate Chris is fascinated with this very question as he becomes reacquainted with the family man. As a single, aspiring filmmaker, Chris envies everything Arthur has: from his beautiful wife to his charming son to his seemingly effortless creativity. But things are never what they seem. Written in a style that is both lucid and emotional, THE MORELS takes a unique look at the power of family and art. This modern novel challenges us to think about questions to which there are never any easy answers.
“Verdict: one of the top first novels of the year. The author spins out the story at a fast clip, creating a believable and entertaining tale. Woven into the fabric of the work are discussions of the function of art in society, the difficulty of arriving at the truth, and a thoughtful, compassionate detailing of the social and personal repercussions of individual actions and beliefs.” —The Library Journal (Starred Review) “Hacker does more than establish himself with this fine debut; he delivers a mission statement and the book retains the same ability to shock as its namesake.” —Publishers Weekly “Hacker is a fine writer....The air of talent lingers on this debut.” —Kirkus Reviews
Christopher Hacker received a BA in Music Composition from the University of Michigan and an MFA from Columbia University. His stories have appeared in Quarterly West and The Rake, and he was a finalist for a Pushcart Prize in 2009. He currently lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife. THE MORELS is his first novel.
www.christopherhacker.com
15
recent fiction highlights
Miriam Karmel
Being Esther PUBLICATION
March 2013, Books available
PUBLISHER
Milkweed (US & Canada)
AGENT
Doug Stewart
EDITOR
Daniel Slager
Esther Lustig is old and growing older every day. Having lost her husband and the majority of her friends, Esther lives on her memories and does her best to avoid her daughter’s “implications” to move into a retirement community. Through her adventures and her devilishly delightful outlooks Esther attempts to come to terms with the meaning of a modest life. With tremendous empathy and understanding, BEING ESTHER explores the interior consciousness of an elderly woman who lives as much in the past as in the present. In spare and refreshingly unsentimental prose, Miriam Karmel has written a profound debut novel that portraits the last days of a woman’s life.
RIGHTS SOLD POLAND (WELTBILD)
“Karmel’s novel of womanhood, the love and strife between mothers and daughters, marital dead zones, and the baffling metamorphosis of age is covertly complex, quietly incisive, and stunning in its emotional richness.” —Booklist “A novel about an eighty-five year-old widow living in suburban Chicago may not sound irresistible, but thanks to Karmel’s beautifully precise prose, her absolute fidelity to her characters and their vicissitudes, and her keen wit, BEING ESTHER is impossible to put down. What a wonderful debut.” —Margot Livesey, author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy
Miriam Karmel’s fiction and nonfiction have appeared in numerous publications, including Bellevue Literary Review, Dust & Fire, The Talking Stick, Sidewalks, Passenger, Jewish Women’s Literary Annual, and Water~Stone Review. She has been the recipient of Minnesota Monthly’s Tamarack Award, the Kate Braverman Short Story Prize, the Arthur Edelstein Prize for Short Fiction, and two Carol Bly Nonfiction Awards. Karmel has worked professionally as a newspaper reporter and magazine editor, and most recently as a freelance writer specializing in medicine and health. She lives in Minneapolis.
16
recent fiction highlights
Peter Rock
The Shelter Cycle PUBLICATION
April 2013, Books available
PUBLISHER
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (US & Canada)
AGENT
Jim Rutman
EDITOR
Lauren Wein
Francine and Colville grew up in the Church Universal and Triumphant, a religion that believed the world would end in the late 1980s. The two childhood friends played in the Montana wilderness while their parents built underground shelters, with the invisible spirits watching over all of them. When the apocalypse did not occur, the children were forced to grow up in a world they believed shouldn’t have existed. Twenty years later, a search for an abducted girl reunites Francine and Colville who will have to face the Church’s teachings again. THE SHELTER CYCLE is an eerie and tender tale, which fictionalizes the experience of a small group of people who join and then leave a cult, only to attempt to reintegrate themselves back into a completely different world. Occasionally delving into magical realism, THE SHELTER CYCLE humanizes and empathizes with what, at least to an outsider, seems to be an extreme collection of beliefs, offering a thoughtful portrait of an unfamiliar view of the world.
“[Peter] Rock further demonstrates his literary finesse with this intense novel. /…/ Steeped in foreboding grimness, the real beauty in Rock’s narrative lies not in the carefully revealed secrets, but in the curious humanity within each of them. —Publishers Weekly “At times, Rock’s uncanny ability to combine mysticism with blunt realism is reminiscent of Flannery O’Connor.” —Tom Perrotta, author of The Leftovers Peter Rock’s previous novel MY ABANDONMENT won the Alex Award and the Utah Book Award. He has written four other novels and one short story collection. Rock has taught fiction at the University of Pennsylvania, Yale, Deep Springs College, and in the MFA program at San Francisco State University. He is a Professor of Creative Writing in the English Department at Reed College. He currently lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and two fierce young daughters.
www.peterrockproject.com
17
fiction
Teddy Wayne
The Love Song of Jonny Valentine PUBLICATION
February 2013, Books available
PUBLISHER
Simon & Schuster (US & Canada)
AGENT
Jim Rutman
EDITOR
Millicent Bennett
A twisted bildungsroman set inside the concert venues and tour buses of rock star Jonny Valentine. This novel, told from the perspective of the titular eleven-year-old pop star, follows the young star’s cross-country tour. During his journey, Jonny confronts the gilded tribulations of bubblegum-pop-stardom while chasing the specter of his absent father among his countless, faceless fans. Jonny speaks and thinks with a perverse hybrid of tween naïveté. The marketing-savvy lingo he has picked up comes from his hard-partying manager/mother and entourage of proxy friends: a distracted bodyguard, an aging choreographer, an overeducated private tutor. Teddy Wayne chronicles a child’s narcissism writ large and the result is a darkly humorous, thoroughly gripping portrait of the artist as an all-too-young man.
RIGHTS SOLD ITALY (MINIMUM FAX) SPAIN (BLACKIE BOOKS) UK (DUCKWORTH)
“What makes Mr. Wayne’s portraits of Jonny, his mother, and the tour staff so persuasive—and affecting, in the end—is his refusal to sentimentalize them, combined with his assiduous avoidance of easy stereotypes. As for Jonny, he is a highly observant and thoughtful narrator, caught up in the swirl of big-time American success, but with growing intimations of its dark side. Mr. Wayne does not reduce him to a showbiz victim /…/ Mr. Wayne depicts Jonny as a complicated, searching boy, by turns innocent and sophisticated beyond his years, eager to please and deeply resentful, devoted to his unusual talent and aware of both its rewards and its costs. This is what makes THE LOVE SONG more than a scabrous sendup of American celebrity culture; it’s also a poignant portrait of one young artist’s coming of age.” —The New York Times Book Review Teddy Wayne is the recipient of the 2011 Whiting Writers’ Award, the NEA Creative Writing Fellowship, as well as the 2011 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize runner-up. He is a finalist for the 2011 New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award and 2011 Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He is a graduate of both Harvard University and Washington University in St. Louis, where he has taught fiction and creative nonfiction writing. His debut novel, KAPITOIL, was published in 2010 to much critical acclaim. His work has also appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Time, Esquire, McSweeney’s, and The Wall Street Journal. Teddy Wayne lives in New York. www.teddywayne.com
18
commercial fiction
commercial fiction
Jeanine Cummins
The Crooked Branch PUBLICATION
March 2013, Books available
PUBLISHER
New American Library (US & Canada)
AGENT
Doug Stewart
EDITOR
Claire Zion
After the birth of her daughter, the resilient Majella finds herself feeling isolated and exhausted as a mother in modern-day New York. At her childhood home in Queens, Majella discovers the diary of her maternal ancestor, the tough but equally terrified Ginny Doyle. The new mother is shocked to read a story of murder in her family history during Ireland’s Great Famine. Determined to uncover the truth of her heritage, Majella sets out to explore Ginny’s past, discovering surprising truths about her family and ultimately, herself. “...this is what you have to look forward to: the first page, Ms. Cummins’ luminous prose, and that feeling we’re all hoping to find when we sit down to read: ‘This is it—a book I’m going to love.’” —Carolyn Parkhurst, author of The Dogs of Babel and The Nobodies Album
Sherri Wood Emmons
The Weight of Small Things PUBLICATION
April 2013, Books available
PUBLISHER
Kensington Books (US & Canada)
AGENT
Judy Heiblum
EDITOR
John Scognamiglio
Corrie Phillips has an enviable life, even if it’s not quite the one she wanted. She enjoys working at her university alumni magazine, her house is beautiful and her husband, Mark, is attentive, handsome, and wealthy. Still, after years of frustration and failed attempts, Corrie is desperate for a child and haunted by the choices of her past. When an old boyfriend returns, Corrie’s new feelings put her marriage and stable life at risk. Faced with an unexpected choice, Corrie must now weigh what she needs most against what her heart has always desired.
20
commercial fiction
Richard Paul Evans
A Step of Faith PUBLICATION
May 2013, Final manuscript available
PUBLISHER
Simon & Schuster (US)
AGENT
Laurie Liss
EDITOR
Karen Thompson
Following the #4 New York Times bestseller THE ROAD TO GRACE, Richard Paul Evans’ hero Alan Christoffersen faces a life-changing crisis on his journey to grace. After the death of his beloved wife, after the loss of his advertising business to his once-trusted partner, after bankruptcy forced him from his home, Alan Christoffersen is a broken man. Leaving everything he knows, he sets out on an extraordinary cross-country journey; with only the pack on his back, he walks from Seattle to Key West—the end of the map. Along the way, Alan begins to heal, meeting people who teach him lessons about love, sacrifice, and forgiveness. But in St. Louis, Alan faces another life-changing crisis, and now the journey is in jeopardy. THE WALK SERIES is an unforgettable and inspirational series of books that provides hope and spirit in these modern times. A STEP OF FAITH is the fourth book in the series.
*Richard Paul Evans’ titles have sold over 15 million copies world-wide. Praise for THE WALK “Evans’ latest inspirational novel is the first in a planned series about a man who sets out to walk across the country in the wake of a personal tragedy. /…/ The idea of a man leaving on a soul-searching cross-country trek is an intriguing one, and the pages turn quickly...this initial offering is definitely a journey worth taking.” —Booklist Richard Paul Evans is the #1 bestselling author of THE CHRISTMAS BOX. Each of his twenty-two novels have appeared on the New York Times bestseller list. His books have been translated into more than twenty-five languages, and several have been international bestsellers. Four of Evans’s books have been produced as television movies. Evans has received the Washington Times Humanitarian of the Century Award and the Volunteers of America National Empathy Award for his work helping abused children. Evans lives in Salt Lake City with his wife and their five children.
www.richardpaulevans.com
21
commercial fiction
John L’Heureux
The Medici Boy PUBLICATION
June 2013, Galleys available
PUBLISHER
Astor + Blue Editions (World English)
AGENT
Peter Matson
EDITOR
Robert Astel
The worlds of art, politics, and passion collide in John L’Heureux’s masterful new novel, THE MEDICI BOY. With rich composition, L’Heureux ingeniously transports the reader to Donatello’s Renaissance Italy—directly into his workshop, as witnessed through the eyes of Luca Mattei, a devoted assistant to Donatello. John L’Heureux’s longawaited novel delivers both a monumental and intimate narrative of the creative genius, Donatello, at the height of his powers. With incisive detail, L’Heureux beautifully renders the master sculptor’s forbidden homosexual passions, and the artistry that enthralled the powerful and highly competitive Medici and Albizzi families. The finished work is a sumptuously detailed historical novel that delves deeply into both the sacred and the profane within one of the Italian Renaissance’s most consequential cities, fifteenth century Florence.
“On the basis of Donatello’s great statue of David, and against the background of the witch hunt against gay men in 15th-century Florence, John L’Heureux has built a gripping story of love, genius, and betrayal.” —J.M. Coetzee, Nobel Prize and two-time Booker Prize award winning author of Waiting for the Barbarians and Disgrace “A novel bursting with love—collegial, artistic, and erotic. John L’Heureux brings to life the bliss and treachery of the Italian Renaissance through prose as passionate as his characters. Deeply enjoyable, THE MEDICI BOY soars like an operatic aria, before breaking our hearts.” —David Henry Hwang, playwright and author of M. Butterfly and Chinglish
John L’Heureux is the prize-winning author of such works of fiction as THE MIRACLE, HAVING EVERYTHING, THE SHRINE AT ALTAMIRA, COMEDIANS, AN HONORABLE PROFESSION, and A WOMAN RUN MAD. A former Jesuit priest (he left the order in 1971) and contributing editor to The Atlantic Monthly, he has taught at Georgetown, Tufts, Harvard, and has for many years been Professor of English at Stanford University.
22
commercial fiction
Victoria Lustbader
Approaching the Speed of Light PUBLICATION
August 2013, Galleys available
PUBLISHER
Tom Doherty Associates (US & Canada)
AGENT
Laurie Liss
EDITOR
Whitney Ross
APPROACHING THE SPEED OF LIGHT is a story of tragedy and triumph, fragility and strength. Victoria Lustbader’s brave narrative shines a powerful light on the lasting damage caused by childhood demons that can prevent a light from blossoming, on the relationships needed in order to overcome them, and on one man’s attempt to solve the elusive puzzle of true happiness. Until he was nine years old, when he was adopted into a loving family, Jody was a little boy whose only experience of love was a painful, twisted hell. Now, two decades later, he moves from one woman to another, pointedly avoiding love—the thing he wants most but has never known how to give or take. Jody trusts only his wise and faithful dog Einstein to truly understand him and the darkness that haunts his life even in the bright light of a summer’s day. A chance meeting with Tess, an elderly woman still mourning her longdead son, sends Jody on a journey back to the tortured memories buried deep below his scars. Tess brings Jody together with Ella Landreth and her shy young son, Evan. These people grow to need one another far more than any of them could have ever imagined.
Praise for STONE CREEK “What you’ll love: the author’s affection for her emotionally wounded characters is palpable and infectious, making it nearly impossible not to get invested in the plot.” —The Washington Post Victoria Lustbader, a former book editor, divides her time between New York City and Southhampton, NY. Her previous novels include HIDDEN and STONE CREEK.
www.victorialustbader.com
23
commercial fiction
Matt Richtel
The Cloud PUBLICATION
January 2013, Books available
PUBLISHER
HarperCollins (World English)
AGENT
Laurie Liss
EDITOR
Tessa Woodward
Disoriented and bloody after a near-deadly fall onto the subway tracks, freelance journalist Nat Idle discovers that a beautiful stranger has come to his aid and the burly man who barreled into him had intended to do Nat harm. What he doesn’t know is why. His quest for answers leads him to uncover a handful of mysterious deaths and a bizarre neurological disorder plaguing the children of the Bay Area… as he ventures into the Cloud. In a brave new world, the Cloud is where we store data, secrets, and dreams. But it is something more—something insidious with the power to change not just how we interact with the world, but our behavior and brain. Nat, in search of the truth, finds himself lost in a psychedelic maze, discovering things that cannot possibly be, realizing there is no one and nothing he can trust… not even in his own mind.
RIGHTS SOLD POLAND (MUZA)
“A pulse-pounding, down-the-rabbit-hole-tale where everyone has a secret, information comes at a deadly price, and danger is always closer than you think. Be prepared to stay up very late; this book is worth it!” —Lisa Gardner, author of The Killing Hour “THE CLOUD is a non-stop, paranoid thriller whose terrors are all too believable. Richtel spins today’s cutting-edge technology into a story that will keep you guessing to the last page—and render you speechless when its final secret is revealed.” —Joseph Finder, author of High Crimes
Matt Richtel is a writer and journalist for The New York Times. In 2010 he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. Born in Los Angeles, Richtel grew up in Boulder, Colorado. He received a BA degree in rhetoric from the University of California at Berkeley in 1989 and a MS degree in journalism from Columbia University in 1990. He lives in San Francisco with his family.
www.mattrichtel.wordpress.com
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nonfiction
nonfiction - recent sales & deliveries
John R. Alford, Kevin B. Smith & John R. Hibbing
Predisposed
The Biology Behind Polarized Politics PUBLICATION
Dec 2013, MS: April 2013
PUBLISHER
Routledge (World English)
AGENT
Judy Heiblum
EDITOR
Michael Kerns
Three long-time political scientists push to unite biology with politics by presenting astonishing evidence of how people differ politically not just because they grew up in different cultures or on different sides of the track, but because there is an embedded biological machinery that predisposes people to see and understand the world in different ways. These predispositions are in turn responsible for a significant portion of the variation which produces the political conflict that marks human history.
Jessa Crispin
Ex
Exiles, Ex-Pats and Ex-Countries PUBLICATION
2015, MS: Summer 2014
PUBLISHER
University Chicago Press (WE)
AGENT
Judy Heiblum
EDITOR
Susan Bielstein
EX will explore exile and belonging through Jessa Crispin’s own experience and that of figures including: William James who early in his career flees to Berlin; Igor Stravinsky who finds shelter in Switzerland during WWII; the British Maud Gonne who thought herself more Irish than the Irish; James Joyce’s wife, Nora Barnacle, who followed him to Trieste, among other places; and the notorious Rebecca West who went to the Balkans to learn how the world worked. Written by Bookslut.com editor and founder, EX is an engaging mixture of travel writing, personal narrative, history and quirky biographies. As something of a migrant herself, Crispin shares her refreshing, unapologetic, but always humble reflections on a variety of famous and infamous personalities who decided to fling themselves to some far corner of the world and start anew.
Eleanor Henderson & Anna Solomon
The Push
True Birth Stories for the 21st Century PUBLICATION
2014, MS: Summer 2013
PUBLISHER
Farrar, Straus & Giroux (US)
AGENT
Jim Rutman & Julie Barer
EDITOR
Emily Bell
Novelists Eleanor Henderson and Anna Solomon have joined together to create a volume that fills the void: a book that honors the elemental act of childbirth, gathering stories of labor and delivery in their full and remarkable variety as it is experienced in the 21st century by women who have made self-expression their business. Here is a book that transcends the limits of the how-to/what-to guides that fill the shelves of preparation-minded, expecting parents. Speaking to both women who have gone through the birth process already, and newly anxious mothers-to-be, this anthology will include a wide-ranging group of esteemed writers/luminaries to represent diverse experiences and backgrounds, offering something for every reader.
26
nonfiction - recent sales & deliveries
Scott Steinberg
The Fight or Flight Factor How Fear, Change, and Risk Separate the Haves From the Have Nots PUBLICATION
September 2014, Proposal available
PUBLISHER
Penguin / Perigee (World English)
AGENT
Celeste Fine
EDITOR
John Duff
We live in scary times with economic crisis and unemployment haunting many individuals. The importance of a university degree and work experience has been devalued. Millions of educated, hardworking, and productive people have done everything right, but they are still worried about their jobs, uncertain of what the next step is, or frustrated by their outcomes. Getting ahead seems to come with a new set of rules and a new set of winners, and it’s not the usual computer wizards you might expect. Ultimately, the difference between winning and losing is either being fearful or having the guts to overcome these obstacles. Business and innovation strategist, and one of today’s top technology futurists, Scott Steinberg believes that under all circumstances, how we respond to fear is crucial. When we react emotionally, and without adequate information, we can exhaust ourselves to no end and needlessly run in circles. In THE FIGHT OR FLIGHT FACTOR, Steinberg will aid the reader to evaluate fear and reveal that the secret to success lies in adopting a four-part strategy to train ourselves to better address the challenges we confront by learning to objectively focus, engage, assess, and react (F.E.A.R.).
Scott Steinberg is the CEO of TechSavvy Global, a management consulting firm that helps clients cultivate competitive advantage on the back of emerging trends. He has been hailed by the European Commission as “one of the best gurus on innovation and competitive advantage strategies to accelerate growth.” His clients include Microsoft, Intel, Sony, AT&T, and MTV. Steinberg has been cited as a leading authority by the Associated Press, BusinessWeek, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, USA Today, MSNBC, and more. He is a nationally syndicated columnist on change and innovation for Rolling Stone, CNN, The Huffington Post, and Fast Company, Inc., and is a strategic insider for more than 400 media outlets, including The New York Times and Entrepreneur. www.toptechexpert.com
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nonfiction - recent sales & deliveries
Michael Daly
Topsy
The Startling Story of the Crooked Tailed Elephant, P.T. Barnum, and the American Wizard, Thomas Edison PUBLICATION
July 2013, Galleys available
PUBLISHER
Grove Atlantic (US & Canada)
AGENT
Philippa Brophy
EDITOR
Morgan Entrekin
The first elephant arrived in America in 1796, but it wasn’t until after the Civil War that the circus in America entered its Golden Age, thanks to P.T. Barnum and others in the business. A War of the Elephants emerged with declarations of whose performance animals were younger, bigger, or more “sacred,” and bringing our hero, Topsy—an elephant falsely billed as the first native-born—to America. In 1903 on Coney Island, New York, Topsy was electrocuted—over the past century, this bizarre and ghoulish execution has developed into somewhat of an urban legend. Many historical forces conspired to bring Topsy, Thomas Edison, and those 6,600 volts of alternating current together that day. With fantastic detail, Michael Daly brings this world to life, its caravans and crooks, its sideshows and athletic feats. He captures the life of the animals, both the horrible cruelties they suffered and, when treated with kindness, their remarkable performances. Daly expertly guides the reader through this peculiar and enduring story, rich in period Americana, and full of larger than life characters, both human and elephant. TOPSY is a touching and entertaining tale.
Michael Daly has been a newspaper journalist and columnist for many years, currently with The Daily Beast. He is the author of THE BOOK OF MYCHAL: THE SURPRISING LIFE AND HEROIC DEATH OF FATHER MYCHAL JUDGE about his friend, an NYFD chaplain who died on 9/11. In 2002, Daly was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. He lives in Brooklyn.
28
nonfiction - recent sales & deliveries
Anjan Sundaram
Stringer
A Reporter’s Year in the Congo PUBLICATION
February 2014, Final manuscript available
PUBLISHER
Doubleday (US), Penguin (India)
AGENT
Robert Guinsler
EDITOR
Gerry Howard
Anjan Sundaram, a fresh Yale graduate, turns down attractive offers from Wall Street and decides to plunge into the Congo’s chaos as a journalist. The young author befriends impoverished street children, journeys into the forest in search of radioactive ore, and lives with a sex-obsessed arms dealer in a war zone. As the tension in the Congo grows, the story also gives way to an unusual love affair with the woman that Sundaram will marry. Written in an intimate, confessional tone, STRINGER: A REPORTER’S YEAR IN THE CONGO recounts Sundaram’s remarkable journey as he seeks to explore his own internal conflicts in a country at war. There are those who believe the world may one day—of certain crises or wars—resemble a place like the Congo, but this extraordinary place may also present to us an idea of our own future. By turns sensitive and violent, Anjan Sundaram paints a portrait of what ordinary people can become in extraordinary conditions.
RIGHTS SOLD UK (ATLANTIC BOOKS)
“What a debut! It’s not often one reads a book of reportage from a difficult foreign country with such feverdream immediacy, such tense intelligence, and such an artful gift for story-telling. That this is Sundaram’s first book makes that rarity a wonder. Here is a commanding new writer who comes to us with the honesty, the intensity, and the discerning curiosity of the young Naipaul.” —Pico Iyer, author of Video Night in Kathmandu “Stringer is an extraordinary work of reportage. Anjan Sundaram is the Indian successor to Kapuściński.” —Basharat Peer, author of Curfewed Night Anjan Sundaram is an award-winning journalist who has reported from Africa for the Associated Press and The New York Times. His writing has appeared in Foreign Policy, Fortune, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Telegraph and The Guardian. He received a Reuters award for his environmental reporting on Pygmy tribes in the Congolese rainforest. Sundaram has worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, San Francisco. He graduated from Yale with a degree in mathematics.
www.anjansundaram.com
29
nonfiction - recent sales & deliveries
Steven M. Miner
The Furies Unleashed The Soviet People at War, 1941-1945 PUBLICATION
Fall 2015, Proposal available, Full MS: August 2014
PUBLISHER
Simon & Schuster (US)
AGENT
Jim Rutman
EDITOR
Thomas LeBien
The 14th Century Asian despot and Middle Ages conqueror was buried in a sarcophagus covered by the world’s largest single piece of jade. The legend said that if the cover would be disturbed, the greatest conflict would be unleashed on the world. In THE FURIES UNLEASHED: THE SOVIET PEOPLE AT WAR, 1941-1945, historian Steven Merritt Miner attempts to do no less than recontextualize the details and impact of the Soviet-German War. In this comprehensive examination, Professor Miner will recast the military, diplomatic, and social history of the USSR during the war in a way never before presented. Making use of collections of previously top-secret documents released in post-Soviet Russia—and consulting a mass of new memoirs published after the collapse of the USSR—Miner will assemble an updated narrative of this monumental clash, taking into account tangled ethnic, national, and regional realities, while blending the cultural, social, and economic factors that both devastated and made possible the bloody triumph of the Russian people. No English language book has done this before.
RIGHTS SOLD UK (HARPER PRESS)
Steven M. Miner, Professor of History and Director of the Contemporary History Institute, is a specialist in recent Russian/Soviet and East European history. His first book, BETWEEN CHURCHILL AND STALIN: THE SOVIET UNION, GREAT BRITAIN, AND THE ORIGINS OF THE GRAND ALLIANCE (1988) won the American Historical Association’s 1991 George Louis Beer prize for the Best Book of the Year in European history. He is also the author of STALIN’S ‘HOLY WAR’: RELIGION, NATIONALISM, AND ALLIANCE POLITICS, 1941-1945 (2003).
30
nonfiction - recent sales & deliveries
Marianne Szegedy-Maszák
I Kiss Your Hands Many Times Hearts, Souls, and Wars in Hungary PUBLICATION
August 2013, Galleys available
PUBLISHER
Spiegel & Grau
AGENT
Philippa Brophy
EDITOR DETAILS
Julia Grau Includes 10 b&w photographs throughout
Pre-war 1940s Budapest was a dynamic backdrop for young romance— commerce-driven, saturated with cultural diversity, and holding a deep appreciation for the arts, the city flourished. Yet for Aladár, a rising star in the foreign ministry and a vocal advocate against fascism, and Hanna, the granddaughter of Manfred Weiss, a prominent industrialist patriarch of an aristocratic Jewish family, the onset of World War II forced their love to wait. The story of Aladár and Hanna is a true account of Marianne Szegedy-Maszák’s parents during one of the most devastating times in history. Upon German invasion in March 1944, the Weiss family was forced into hiding. In a secret and controversial deal brokered with Heinrich Himmler, the family turned over their vast holdings in exchange for a safe passage to Portugal. Aladár, sent to Dachau under arrest after talks with the Allies, was released from his imprisonment as an empty shell of himself. After nearly two years without any contact, Aladár wrote Hanna a letter, in which he warned her of his change. This would not hinder their love: in December 1945, the couple was at last wed in a devastated Budapest. I KISS YOUR HANDS MANY TIMES explains the complicated relationship that Hungary had with its Jewish population—the moments of magnificent humanism that stood apart from its history of anti-Semitism—and with the rest of the world. At once intimate and epic, it is also a story of a daughter’s attempt to extract the essence, strength, and beauty of her parents, and to resurrect a lost world of splendor.
RIGHTS SOLD HUNGARY (LIBRI)
Marianne Szegedy-Maszák’s journalism career has spanned over twenty-five years and has included covering the collapse of communism, 9/11, neuroscience, and social policy for such publications as The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, the Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, Newsweek, among others. A graduate of the University of Michigan where she majored in American Studies and Columbia University’s School of Journalism—where she won the Pulitzer Traveling fellowship—she was the founding editor of the Center for Public Integrity’s award winning newsletter, The Public I, and has been an officer on the boards of the Center for Public Integrity and the Fund for Independence in Journalism. She has ghost written several memoirs, but I KISS YOUR HANDS MANY TIMES is her first book.
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nonfiction - recent sales & deliveries
Cynthia Zarin
An Enlarged Heart A Personal History PUBLICATION
February 2013, Books available
PUBLISHER
Knopf (US & Canada)
AGENT
Peter Matson
EDITOR
Deb Garrison
An intertwining round of episodes in the life of New York writer Cynthia Zarin, this heartfelt memoir describes the parameters of love, life, and family in prose that feels nearly fictional in its richness of scene, dialogue, and mood. Whether writing about the coats she has worn over the years, vanished loved ones, the surprising outcomes of a journey, the magical landscape of Cape Cod, or the inner musings of a true New Yorker, Zarin shows us how persistently the past offers new lessons as layers of experience are added. Zarin herself is the marvelous and rueful character at the center of each tale, yearning to live in the old New York even though that world is rapidly fading. The pretty and love-struck young woman, bewildered as she sets out, learns that there are some truths in life that no tailor can alter.
“There were moments throughout AN ENLARGED HEART that reminded me of Didion at her elegiac best, which is perhaps the finest compliment I know how to pay an essayist. /…/ There is an art of withholding, as well as an art of disclosure, and Zarin reveals herself here to be a first rate practitioner of it.” —The New York Times Book Review “Poet, children’s author, and journalist Zarin was the fashion writer for The New Yorker while she was in her twenties in the 1980s, and her passion for beautiful fabric and well-tailored attire, especially coats, is the catalyst for many of her lustrously descriptive, complexly emotional, and exquisitely crafted personal essays.” —Booklist
Cynthia Zarin was born in New York City and is the author of three previous books of poetry—THE WATERCOURSE, FIRE LYRIC, and THE SWORDFISH TOOTH—and several books for children. She is a longtime contributor to The New Yorker. She is also the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ingram Merrill Foundation. She is the winner of the Peter I. B. Lavan Younger Poets Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She teaches at Yale and lives in New York City.
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nonfiction - recent sales & deliveries
Periel Aschenbrand
On My Knees PUBLICATION
June 2013, Galleys available
PUBLISHER
Harper Perennial (US & Can)
AGENT
Doug Stewart
EDITOR
Carrie Kania
Periel AschenbrAnd A u t h o r o f T h e O n l y B u s h I Tr u s t I s My O w n
A MEMOIR “Watch out Portnoy, watch out Caulfield, watch out Bukowski, watch out Candace Bushnell. Hell, everybody, real or imagined, just watch out! Because here comes Periel Aschenbrand!” —Jonathan Ames
Periel Aschenbrand seems to have no fear. She can pose naked on her book covers or wear provoking and political T-shirts (like “The Only Bush I Trust Is My Own”), but after a break-up with her longtime boyfriend, the normally indomitable Periel finds herself demoralized, sinking into the midst of a major life low—and questioning whether she’ll ever find her footing again. ON MY KNEES is a Dante-esque journey through the many rings of single-girl hell that includes crazy one-night stands; an unhealthy attachment to a dental hygienist; a run-in with Philip Roth; and, in the end, and an encounter with a man in Israel who just might be the one. Hysterical and heartfelt, ON MY KNEES traces Periel’s riotous attempt to rebuild her life, her relationships, and her trademark confidence.
Jenny Lawson
Furiously Happy PUBLICATION
2015, Proposal available, MS: January 2014
PUBLISHER
Amy Einhorn Books (US)
AGENT
Neeti Madan
EDITOR OPTION PUBLISHERS
Amy Einhorn BRAZIL (AUTENTICA) GERMANY (METROLIT) TURKEY (ITHAKI) VIETNAM (KHAITAM)
In a format similar to her bestselling memoir LET’S PRETEND THIS NEVER HAPPENED, Jenny Lawson shares stories about finding an unapologetic and ridiculous happiness while suffering from depression. In the last two decades, Lawson has been diagnosed with a grab bag of mental disorders but she has also created a satisfying life perfectly designed for her lunacy. With boundless humor, courage, and honesty, FURIOUSLY HAPPY is about finding the strength to live with depression and about the advantages of being “a little crazy.”
RIGHTS SOLD PICADOR (UK)
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nonfiction - recent sales & deliveries
Annie Choi
Shut Up, You’re Welcome Thoughts on Life, Death and Other Inconveniences PUBLICATION
August 2013, Galleys available
PUBLISHER
Touchstone (World English)
AGENT
Doug Stewart
EDITOR
Heather Lazare
The comic writer, Annie Choi has written a series of open letters and deeply moving essays on subjects close to her heart. Choi wants to tell you that she hates musical theater. She thinks sandwiches are boring. She likes camping, except for the outdoors part. She daydreams about cannibalism. At fifteen, her father made her read the entire car manual before allowing her to sit in the driver’s seat. And she once chased down a man who stole her handbag. All this is to say that Choi is one part badass and one part curmudgeon, with a soft spot for savage bears. SHUT UP, YOU’RE WELCOME paints a revealing portrait of Annie and her family in all their quirky, compelling, riotous glory. From revealing her family’s experience during the Northridge earthquake to sharing exhaustive observations of her always naked neighbor, this collection brilliantly demonstrates an unique, intelligent, witty, and thoughtful voice from one of America’s most talented female comic writers.
Praise for HAPPY BIRTHDAY OR WHATEVER “This is that rare book that delivers more than it promises; Choi tackles the theme of mother/daughter conflict with grace and humor.” —Publishers Weekly “A fresh, funny memoir that echoes the generation—and culture-clash anecdotes of fellow Korean American Margaret Cho…Choi is a gifted and witty writer…” —Entertainment Weekly Annie Choi is the author of HAPPY BIRTHDAY OR WHATEVER, a transcendent tale of coping with an infuriating, demanding, but ultimately loving Korean family. Her mother blurbed it: “I think maybe you OK at this writing. Maybe. Maybe not.“ Choi’s work has appeared in White Zinfandel, Urban Omnibus, and Pidgin Magazine, among others. She received her BA from the University of California and her MFA in writing from Columbia University. She was born and raised in Los Angeles but now lives in New York.
www.AnnieTown.com
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nonfiction - recent sales & deliveries
Howie Abrams & Sacha Jenkins ABRAMS & JENKINS
The Merciless Book of Metal Lists
The Merciless Book of Metal Lists is a highly opinionated compendium of the most random, funny, and challenging information about Heavy Metal from the last forty years. You want to know which Metal albums “jumped the shark?” What nonMetal bands Metalheads love or which album covers feature goats? How about embarrassing Metal fashion faux pas and the unfortunate original names Metal bands started with? This book has it all. In addition to some extremely irreverent lists, this energetically designed volume also features dozens of never-before-seen photographs, and contributions from Metal band members representing the likes of Slayer, Pantera, Anthrax, Exodus, Sepultura, Nuclear Assault, and many more.
PUBLICATION
May 2013, Final MS available
PUBLISHER
Abrams (US)
AGENT
Robert Guinsler
EDITOR
David Cashion
DETAILS
50 color and 25 b&w illustrations HOWIE ABRAMS is a former music business A&R rep, having held positions at In-Effec t Records, Roadrunner Records, Jive Records, and Warner Music. He has worked with many of Metal’s finest.
music editor SACHA JENKINS is the former r of Ego coautho for Vibe magazine and the Ego Trip’s Big Trip’s Book of Rap Lists and da awarde was Book of Racism. Jenkins ity’s school of fellowship to Columbia Univers l Arts Journalism journalism via the Nationa Program in 2000.
THE MERCILESS BOOK OF METAL LISTS is the ultimate collection of the most glorious and ludicrous exploration of the heaviest, most uncompromising, piss-off-your-parents, Satanic, small animal slaughtering music known to man. Spanning over 40 years of heavy metal glory, this book will contain lists, interviews, essays supported by iconic photography, illustrations, and personal artifacts from band members to entice lovers of metal from around the world.
U.S. $18.95 | CAN. $21.95 | U.K. £11.99
115 West 18th Street New York, NY 10011
Cover design by Donna McLeer white version Printed in the USA
ISBN 978-1-4197-0738-4
51895
9 781419 707384
Josh Harris & Jake Harris with Steve Springer & Blake Chavez
Captain Phil Harris
The Legendary Crab Fisherman, Our Hero, Our Dad PUBLICATION
April 2013, Galleys available
PUBLISHER
Simon & Schuster (US)
AGENT
Robert Guinsler
EDITOR
Kerri Kolen
Prior to his untimely death in 2010, Captain Phil Harris was a star of Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch, the hit show that follows the exhilarating lives of Alaskan Crab fishermen as they brave the vicious Bering Sea. Phil led his crew through hurricane-force winds and fourstory-high waves, hauling in millions of pounds of crab and raking in millions of dollars. His life on shore could serve as a reality show in itself. When he died unexpectedly in 2010, Captain Phil Harris left a hole in the hearts of millions. In this exclusive authorized biography, Phil’s two surviving sons, Josh and Jake Harris, team up with the bestselling author Steve Springer and coauthor Blake Chavez, to share the thrilling story of Phil’s remarkable life.
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nonfiction - recent sales & deliveries
Lisa Lillien
Hungry Girl: Just Desserts
200 Recipes Under 200 Calories PUBLICATION
May 2013, Galleys available
PUBLISHER
St. Martin’s Press (US & Canada)
AGENT
Neeti Madan
EDITOR DETAILS
Jennifer Enderlin Illustrations throughout
From The New York Times bestselling creator of HUNGRY GIRL comes a delicious new book full of two hundred dessert recipes, all new and under two hundred calories! HUNGRY GIRL brings you an entire cookbook of decadent treats with fewer than 200 calories each—now you can indulge and satisfy your sweet tooth with none of the guilt! This is the first-ever all-dessert cookbook from HUNGRY GIRL, and it’s sure to please sweets-obsessed HUNGRY GIRL fans everywhere. More than 1 million fans eagerly await HUNGRY GIRL’s recipes, food finds, tips, and tricks each weekday. What started as a daily email to friends and family has turned into a nationwide, multimedia phenomenon. In addition to the million-plus die-hard subscribers to her daily emails, Lisa also reaches millions more with a weekly column on WeightWatchers.com, regular contributions to Redbook magazine, and recurring appearances on television shows like the Dr. Oz Show.
*All of Lisa Lillien’s books have spent multiple weeks at the top of bestseller lists across the country, including The New York Times and USA Today. Five have debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. *As of 2011, more than 2 million copies of HUNGRY GIRL books have been sold. *HUNGRY GIRL emails go out to over 1.2 million subscribers every day. *HUNGRY GIRL has over 150,000 followers on Twitter and over 654,629 likes on Facebook.
Lisa Lillien, aka Hungry Girl, is the author of seven New York Times bestselling books, five of which debuted at the number one spot. She is the creator of the HUNGRY GIRL brand and founder of Hungry-Girl.com, the free daily email service that entertains and informs hungry people everywhere. Lillien is a typical woman battling the same food issues most females struggle with every day. She considers herself a “foodologist,” not because she has some kind of fancy degree, but because she is obsessed with food––how wonderful it is, and how much of it she can eat and still fit into her pants.
www.hungry-girl.com
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co-agents WESTERN EUROPE FRANCE: AGENCE ELIANE BENISTI Eliane Benisti, eliane@elianebenisti.com Noémie Rollet, noemie@elianebenisti.com GERMANY: PAUL AND PETER FRITZ AGENCY Antonia Fritz, afritz@fritzagency.com Christian Dittus, cdittus@fritz.com GREECE: JLM LITERARY AGENCY John Moukakos, jlm@jlm.gr ITALY: LUIGI BERNABO AGENCY Luigi Bernabo, agency@bernabo.it THE NETHERLANDS: MARIANNE SHÖNBACH AGENCY Marianne Schönbach, m.schonbach@schonbach.nl Ageeth Heising, a.heising@schonbach.nl SCANDINAVIA: LICHT & BURR AGENCY Trine Licht, tl@lichtburr.dk SPAIN, PORTUGAL, CATALAN: MB AGENCIA Mònica Martín, monica@mbagencialiteraria.es UK: STERLING LORD LITERISTIC, INC. Szilvia Molnar, szilvia@sll.com EASTERN EUROPE ALBANIA, BULGARIA, MACEDONIA, ROMANIA, SERBIA: ANDREW NURNBERG ASSOCIATES SOFIA Mira Droumeva, mira@anas-bg.com CROATIA, HUNGARY: ANDREW NURNBERG BUDAPEST Judit Hermann, j.hermann@nurnberg.hu CZECH REPUBLIC, SLOVAKIA, SLOVENIA: ANDREW NURNBERG ASSOCIATES PRAGUE Marta Soukopova, soupokova@nurnberg.cz ESTONIA, LATVIA, LITHUANIA, UKRAINE: ANDREW NURNBERG ASSOCIATES BALTIC Tatjana Zoldnere, zoldnere@anab.apollo.lv POLAND: ANDREW NURNBERG ASSOCIATES WARSAW Agata Zabowska, agata@literatura.com.pl RUSSIA: ANDREW NURNBERG ASSOCIATES MOSCOW Ludmilla Sushkova, sushkova@awax.ru TURKEY: ANATOLIALIT AGENCY Amy Spangler, amy@anatolialit.com ASIA CHINA: THE GRAYHAWK AGENCY Gray Tan, grayhawk@grayhawk-agency.com INDONESIA, THAILAND, VIETNAM: TUTTLE MORI THAILAND (NON-EXCLUSIVELY) Pimolporn Yutisri, pimolporn@tuttlemori.co.th JAPAN: TUTTLE MORI AGENCY Ken Mori, ken@tuttlemori.com Manami Tamaoki, manami@tuttlemori.com KOREA: DANNY HONG AGENCY Danny Hong, danny@dannyhong.co.kr TAIWAN: THE GRAYHAWK AGENCY Gray Tan, grayhawk@grayhawk-agency.com SOUTH AMERICA: BRAZIL: AGENCIA RIFF Laura Riff, laura@agenciariff.com.br Joao Paulo Riff, joaopaulo@agenciariff.com.br THE MIDDLE EAST ISRAEL: DEBORAH HARRIS AGENCY Ilana Kurshan, Ilana@thedeborahharrisagency.com
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