Summer 2016 catalogue by Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

131 Bloor Street West #711 Toronto Canada M5S 1S3 Telephone 416 964 9598 email beverley@slopenagency.ca www.slopenagency.com

Summer 2016

Mystery

Tony Aspler Nightmare in Napa

zra Brant has a dream job. He makes a living writing about wine, consulting about wine, and judging wine, which means he travels to the most glorious wine regions of the world.

Tony Aspler is co-founder of a charitable foundation Grapes for Humanity, which raises money for children with disabilities and victims of land mines. Honors include the Order of Canada, induction into the New York Media Wine Writers Hall of Fame, and the Queen’s Jubilee Medal. “It’s good to see Ezra Brant back in action again, this time in a caper involving mixed-up baggage and biker gangs in the Napa Valley. Its nimble pace should keep you on your toes, and it cries out for an accompanying glass of Stag’s Leap!” Peter Robinson

It also gives Ezra a close-up view of the rivalries, power grabs, and displays of ego by wealthy wine hobbyists, wine producers, wine journalists and judges. In Nightmare in Napa, Ezra is looking forward to covering the annual Premiere Napa Valley Barrel Auction. The other attraction is C.C. his lively, undemanding long-distance lover who is a respected wine producer. On the plane from New York to San Francisco, Ezra’s seatmate is an appealingly flighty red-head named Mona who is also bound for Napa to visit her twin sister Lisa. Not until they land does Ezra suspect that Mona, through her New York prison connections, has acquired something that rival motorcycle gangs in Napa will kill for. Mona has made it appear to her pursuers that she has slipped Ezra the tiny, precious object, putting him in the crosshairs of the fearsome Hells Angels gang. Also in Napa is a billionaire winery owner who is murdered and Ezra is the major person of interest for the police. Ezra has to escape from the wrath of the gang members and prove his innocence. He would also like to keep C.C. in his life, but that may be a goal too far. Tony Aspler is the author of nine novels including three previous Ezra Brant mysteries that were published from 1994 to 1996 in the UK by Headline. Rights have now reverted. He has also written more than 17 books on wine and food in his 30-year career.

Manuscript Available

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Young Adult Fiction

Henry Aubin Ride Hard, Shoot Straight, Speak the Truth

S Henry Aubin is author of the groundbreaking history, Rescue of Jerusalem: The Alliance Between Hebrews and Africans in 701 B.C, (Doubleday Can and Soho US) and the novel Rise of the Golden Cobra. He lives in Montreal. Praise for Rise of the Golden Cobra: “This is a well-crafted and intriguing adventure that exposes students to a different world.”

School Library Journal

“What gives the novel its pull as an adventure story is Nebi himself — a brave, earnest hero who has to struggle with his personal hatreds and humble status before he triumphs.”

Toronto Star

“A fine yarn -- a good old-fashioned page-turner with a solid historical grounding... Lots of heart-in-your-throat descriptions of battles.”

Montreal Gazette

“Compelling... A fast-moving and intriguing plot of military genius.”

Resource Links magazine for Canadian teachers Manuscript Available

www.slopenagency.com

etting: A little known but remarkable period when black Africans from Kush, aka Nubia, ruled Egypt (728 to 663 BCE) and defended that country from invasion by the only superpower of the day, the Assyrian Empire. For ages 12-14. Fifteen-year-old Hip, a Kushite horseman, is the youngest member of the Pharaoh’s cavalry when, seeking glory, he goes to war. The underdog army’s historically documented mission: cross the Sinai Desert and strike pre-emptively at the Assyrians while they are besieging Gaza. Hip is captured in battle, escapes and helps lead a hit-and-run raid against the enemy’s strategic supplies. His actions fulfill the conventional definition of heroism, but under the influence of Meryt -- an Israelite girl who has learned to abhor violence -- he learns that a higher, yet often unsung, form of heroism exists. Author Henry Aubin knows well this rise of African power: his non-fiction book on the Kushite military, The Rescue of Jerusalem: The Alliance between Hebrews and Africans in 701 BC, changed the way scholars think about that period and received the Canadian Jewish Book Award for History. His award-winning YA novel on the Kushites in Egypt, is Rise of the Golden Cobra. Distinctions: -Africana Book Awards Honor Book (sponsored by the African Studies -Association, U.S.) -Silver Nautilus Book Award (U.S.) -Skipping Stones Honor Book for Older Readers (U.S.) -“The Year’s Best” List, Resource Links magazine for teachers (Canada) -Young Adult Fiction Top 10 List 2008, Ontario Library Association -Best Books for Kids & Teens, Canadian Children’s Book Centre -Finalist: Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People (sponsored by TD Bank and the Canadian Children’s Book Centre). Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

History

Lita-Rose Betcherman Court Lady and Country Wife Royal Privilege and Civil War: Two Noble Sisters In Seventeenth-Century England

“Betcherman skillfully manages to keep the reader enthralled with the thriller-like pace.”

The Globe & Mail

“...an intimate view of Stuart England” The New York Times

“This is popular history at it’s best.” Jane Dunn

“The action really heats up during the English civil war, when both sisters made political and personal decisions that profoundly affected the course of their individual and collective futures.” Booklist

“Having reached adulthood on the eve of Charles I’s succession, the sisters lived through one of the most turbulent periods of British history…a fascinating introduction to two closely united lives— housewife and public figure—all the more interesting because of the contrast between them.” Times Literary Supplement

HarperCollins Canada 2005 Morrow US 2005 Wiley UK 2005

www.slopenagency.com

he lives of these amazing aristocratic sisters, Lucy and Dorothy Percy, are a window into the world of political unrest, social intrigue, and women’s lives in 17th Century Britain. The Percy sisters were born during the reign of Elizabeth I but came to prominence in the Court of Charles I in the 1630s. Lucy, the Countess of Carlisle, the court lady, dominates her circle through the position at the center of power. Her beauty, captured in magnificent van Dyke portraits, and her political skill attracted well-placed lovers for whom she traded favors. Her charm and talents as a gossip kept her in the Queen’s inner circle. Her sister Dorothy, the country wife, produced 13 children and managed the family estates while her husband, a diplomat, was immersed in scholarship. Famously shrewish, she drove her quiescent husband to violently rebel against her strictures, causing a scandal (Dorothy is an early ancestor of Princess Diana.) Lucy switched her allegiance from the Court to support the reformers. After the execution of King Charles she was imprisoned in the Tower of London for two years. Lucy and Dorothy embrace a pivotal moment in the development of democracy. This was the beginning of the movement for parliamentary reform. Lita-Rose Betcherman earned her Ph.D. in Tudor and Stuart history from the University of Toronto. She is completing Buckingham’s Man, about Balthazar Gerbier, art collector, spy and scoundrel. Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

History

Lita-Rose Betcherman The Richest Girl in England

The Marriages of the Duchess of Buckingham

K Lita-Rose Betcherman is author of the acclaimed Court Lady and Country Wife and other awardwinning works of history. Praise for Court Lady and Country Wife “...an intimate view of Stuart England” The New York Times

“This is popular history at it’s best.”

Jane Dunn

atherine Manners was a girl when she fell under the spell of the magnetic George Villiers, later the Duke of Buckingham. His family estates were nearby her father’s castle Belvoir but George, a favourite of King James, scarcely noticed her. The attention lavished by King James on George scandalized many who watched in horrified fascination as James kissed and fondled the dashing young man. George, a legendary womanizer, had no qualms about using the King’s desire and dependence to his advantage. Kate’s passion for Buckingham made her family uneasy. But Kate, the richest girl in England, was aided by George’s mother who had the young woman kidnapped and forced the marriage, much to Kate’s satisfaction. She coped with Buckingham’s numerous dalliances, his long absences on missions to Europe for both James and his son King Charles, his lavish spending, his huge debts, and his growing unpopularity. His bloody assassination left her devastated. For seven years as a wealthy young widow with a distinguished title, Kate spurned her numerous suitors. At age 32 she became intimately involved with Randal, Earl of Antrim, an Irish nobleman six years her junior and married him when she was already pregnant. With Buckingham, Kate used her influence for good works but with Antrim she had political influence as well. In the growing storm of rebellion and deadly tensions between Catholics and Protestants, Kate was suspected of influencing Antrim to join the rebel side against the King. Through the lens of Kate’s life we get a vivid view of the times, the great political battles and alliances, and the unseen role of women in this rich pageant that spans the first half of the 17th century.

Manuscript Available

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Non-Fiction

Hugh Brewster Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage

The Titanic’s First Class Passengers and Their World

T Praise for Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage: “This is one of those rare books on the subject that provides information both new and relevant, in a scholarly readable way. Highly recommended to anyone interested in the social history of the early 20th century.” Library Journal “Walter Lord’s A Night to Remember and James Cameron’s awardwinning movie set the Titanic bar high. In Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage, Hugh Brewster clears that bar with ease and shows again why the story never gets old.” Newark Star Journal “Hugh Brewster’s colourful anecdotes and telling details show how 1912 - with its love-hate affair with celebrity, its romance with technology and contempt for the power of nature - sounds eerily familiar a century later.” Globe and Mail

he wealthy and glamorous passengers who boarded the Titanic, history’s most famous ship, provide “an exquisite microcosm of the Edwardian era.” But in most books about the doomed voyage, their stories are incidental to the ship’s collision with an iceberg on April 14, 1912. The cast includes artist and writer Frank Millet, the Director of Decorations for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair; White House aide Archie Butt; John Jacob Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim; and Lady Lucile Duff-Gordon, a leading couturiere, among others. Through these vivid characters, we gain insight into the arts, politics, culture, and sexual mores of a world both distant and near to our own. All converge on the boat deck of the Titanic during the ship’s final hours and we become witnesses to a heartbreakingly poignant scene where some survive and some do not. The final chapters recount the rescue of the passengers in lifeboats by the Carpathia and the trip back to New York with only 705 of the more than 2,200 on board. Some men who survived lived under a cloud of cowardice. Others left a remarkable legacy. Hugh Brewster is a former publisher, who has written and produced award-winning books of fiction and non-fiction for children. This is the book about the Titanic tragedy that he wanted to read.

HarperCollins Canada 2012 Crown/Random House US 2012 Gawsewitch France 2012 Piemme Italy 2012 Mondadori/Random House Spain 2012 Robson Press UK 2012 Wydawnictwo Literackie Poland 2013

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Non-fiction

Edward Shorter The Merchants of Desire How Porn Became Big Business

Edward Shorter, who completed his Ph.D at Harvard, is Jason A. Hannah Professor of the History of Medicine Professor of Psychiatry at University of Toronto. His early work in European social history includes The Making of the Modern Family (1975), which helped launch a new field of study. He has written on the impact of medical issues on women’s lives in A History of Women’s Bodies (1982). Since the mid 1990s Edward Shorter has emerged as an internationally recognized historian of psychiatry with numerous publications on the evolution of this specialty. His History of Psychiatry (1997) has become the standard text in the field, joined in 2005 by A Historical Dictionary of Psychiatry and in 2009 by Before Prozac, which examines how successive generations of drugs have failed to improve the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders. Recent publications include: How Everyone Became Depressed, Oxford University Press, 2013. www.slopenagency.com

In 2005, Edward Shorter, the internationally respected medical and social historian wrote Written in the Flesh: The History of Desire, a ground-breaking work on human sexuality. It encompassed pre-history documenting attitudes and practices in the western world extending into the 1970s. A tour de force published by University of Toronto Press, it was short-listed for a major non-fiction literary award the Governor General’s Award. At the time, he thought he said everything there was to say about the topic. And then… there were signs that there were new developments—the huge appetite for pornography which turned it into a multi-billion dollar business and the acceptance of it in the mainstream as demonstrated by Fifty Shades of Grey or Amy Schumer, et al. Shorter writes: “As I got into the story, it became clear to me that the adult entertainment industry wasn’t just a source. It was part of the story. Internet porn was actually changing people’s tastes.“ Shorter is one part scholar, one part journalist, one part social commentator in his investigations of the development of the pornography business. It is now run by savvy men and women who are proud of what they do. Indeed, we in publishing know a large contingent as friends and colleagues—the eBook and print publishers like those at Random House, Amazon, Kobo, Smashwords, HarperCollins, and other merchants of erotica. The table of contents includes: Early Days ; From Movie House to Jimmyland; Is Porn Bad? Models; Abuse? Internet; Gonzo; In Front of the Camera, Behind the Camera; Woodsmen; Dominance; Anal; Gay/Lesbian; Toys; Camming and Dating; Black Porn; Transgendered. Readers, even the squeamish, will find Professor Shorter informative, entertaining and refreshingly straight-spoken.

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

History

Tim Brook Mr. Selden’s Map of China

Decoding the Secrets of a Vanished Cartographer

his is forensic history at its best, presenting an ancient map reveals the origins of world trade, and surprising twists in China’s history.

“Brook is a true practitioner of the broad, rich and currently endangered concept of the humanities... reads like a perfect day at the library.” Globe and Mail “Alternating between early modern and modern history, England and China, biography, science and culture, Brook holds us spellbound.” Financial Times “The story is full of Chinese pirates and English adventurers. Most fascinating of all, though, is Selden himself...” The Economist

“...a fast-moving, conversational narrative, which flies by before you realise you have just been guided through some of the more esoteric aspects of Chinese science or folklore... personal anecdotes and trenchant observations on how the past continues to shape the present—especially when dealing with China.” Literary Review Bloomsbury US 2013 Anansi CAN 2013 *Profile UK 2014 Ohta Shuppen Japan 2015 Nermer Books Korea 2016 Wagenbach Germnay 2016 *Translation rights

www.slopenagency.com

In 1659, a vast and unusual map of China arrived in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. It was bequeathed by John Selden, a London business lawyer, political activist, former convict, MP and the city’s first Orientalist scholar. Largely ignored, the map remained in the bowels of the library, until called up by an inquisitive reader. When Timothy Brook saw it in 2009, he realised that the Selden Map was ‘a puzzle that had to be solved’: an exceptional artefact, so unsettlingly modernlooking it could almost be a forgery. But it was genuine, and what it has to tell us is astonishing. It shows China, not cut off from the world, but a participant in the embryonic networks of global trade that fuelled the rise of Europe—and which now powers China’s ascent. It raises as many question as it answers: how did John Selden acquire it? Where did it come from? Who reimagined the world in this way? And most importantly—what can it tell us about the world at that time? Brook, like a cartographic detective, has provided answers—including a surprising last-minute revelation of authorship. From the Gobi Desert to the Philippines, from Java to Tibet and into China itself, Brook uses the map (actually a schematic representation of China’s relation to astrological heaven) to tease out the varied elements that defined this crucial period in China’s history. And it has the compelling John Selden, the epitome of the 17th century renaisance man. Timothy Brook was Shaw Professor of Chinese at Oxford when he first saw the Selden Map, and is now professor of history at the University of British Columbia. The author of eight books on Chinese history, his most widely read book is Vermeer’s Hat, which won the Mark Lynton Prize. Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

History

Tim Brook Vermeer’s Hat

The 17th Century and the Dawn of the Global World

“Vermeer’s Hat ... provides not only valuable historical insight but also enthralling intellectual entertainment.” “a spellbinding book…mind-expanding.”

The Times, UK

“Brook is a wonderful storyteller... I doubt I will read a better book this year.” The Telegraph, UK

“Timothy Brook is one of those historians who can tell world history like an adventure novel and economic history like a crime novel...After reading [this] one sees Vermeer’s world differently. And one’s own too.” Spiegel, Germany

“..provides…not only valuable historical insight but also enthralling intellectual entertainment.”

The Washington Post, US Winner: Lynton Prize in History

Bloomsbury US 2008 Chungrim Korea 2008 Edition Tiamat Germany 2009 Europa Konyvkiado Hungary 2009 Gradiva Portugal 2011 Iwanami Japan 2010 Kalima Arabic 2010 Payot & Rivages France 2009 Penguin Canada 2008 Profile UK 2008 Record Brazil 2009 Yuan-Liou Taiwan 2009 Wenhui Press China 2009 Wereldbibliotheek Netherlands 2010 Einaudi Italy 2015

www.slopenagency.com

Michael Dirda, Washington Post

he story opens in Vermeer’s studio in Delft with his stunning portrait, Officer and Laughing Girl. This intimate tableau, in which the officer wears an extravagant hat of beaver felt, subtly captures the widening world. Beaver fur from northern Canada financed voyages of the explorers looking for a route to the riches of China. Lust for luxury goods drove expansion. Pursuing beaver pelts, Champlain introduced his gun, the arquebus in 1609, and it had a profound and bloody impact on North America’s indigenous peoples. The silken wrap of Paolo’s robe, and Wen’s silver vase reveal much about east-west commerce at the time. The craving for porcelain spawned as much bloodshed as beauty. Astoundingly, tobacco and the spread of smoking is the great unintended consequence of North American discovery. It spread to Asia within decades of North American discovery, thanks to the seeds carried by the sailors. Here also are tales foreshadowing religious conflict. Globalization in cultural, legal, political, and moral spheres is very much with us, but these trail the economic web which began in the 17th Century. Timothy Brook is the author or editor of 12 books on China, including Quelling the People: The Military Suppression of the Beijing Democracy Movement and Opium Regimes: China, Britain, and Japan, 1839-1952. He is editor of a six volume series on China published by Harvard University Press. He is currently Professor of History at University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. His recent book decodes the secrets of a Chinese map at Bodleian Library, known as the Selden Map (from Bloomsbury, Profile, Anansi.) Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Health/Nutrition

Aileen Burford-Mason with Judy Stoffman

Eat Well, Age Better

How to use diet and supplements to guard the lifelong health of your eyes, heart, brain, and bones

ileen Burford-Mason is a distinguished immunologist and nutritional counsellor who lectures widely to medical professionals and lay audiences while maintaining a private practice in Toronto. Praise for Eat Well, Age Better “In an overfed but undernourished society, this book is a powerful and much-needed reminder that we are, indeed, what we eat. Eat Well, Age Better shows how nutrition is an essential foundation of our physical and mental well-being.” Dr. Gabor Mate, author of When the Body Says No “This book may have been written for the general public but it is a must-read for the medical profession, which has traditionally neglected nutrition as a crucial determinate of health in its curricula for both undergraduate and postgraduate training.” Craig E. Appleyard MD, Chair, Section of Complementary and Integrative Medicine, Ontario Medical Association “Reading this book will make you feel excited and empowered to take safe, sensible and medically sound steps to improve your health, including challenges that may once have seemed insurmountable.” Gillian Deacon, author of There’s Lead In Your Lipstick Thomas Allen Can 2012

www.slopenagency.com

Nothing protects your health more effectively than optimal nutrition, she asserts, and she shows you how to achieve it. Our cells are constantly dying and being remade. Whether your “next” body and the following one will be in good working order depends on the quality of the raw materials out of which new cells are built. The nutrients in food used to be able to provide reliable building blocks for cell renewal but contemporary methods of food processing steal micro nutrients, while urban water purification removes essential minerals from our water. Fatigue, sleep disorders, constipation, the condition of hair, skin and nails, mood, colds and flu, and weight gain are signals of nutritional deficits. Similarly, degenerative diseases that can make aging a misery including arthritis, diabetes, osteoporosis, dementia, muscular degeneration, heart disease and stroke are hastened by nutritional deficits. Aileen Burford-Mason reassures us with clear information and scientific evidence on how to age with health and vigor. After reading this book no one will be able to resist making myriad small changes whether it is applying magnesium gel for cramps and insomnia or taking vitamin D for bone health, or feeling comfortable about adding the right kinds of fat to your diet. Aileen Burford-Mason graduated from University College, Dublin and received a Ph.D in immunology. She is director of a Cancer Research Laboratory at Toronto General Hospital. She has developed a continuing medical education course on the use of diet and nutritional supplements in clinical practice. Learn more at: www.aileenburfordmason.ca Judy Stoffman was book review editor, publishing reporter and arts writer at the Toronto Star for two decades.

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Martyn Burke The Commissar’s Report

T Martyn Burke works in a multitude of worlds. He is the author of six highly acclaimed novels and co-writer of the classic comedy film Top Secret. As a film and TV producer/director, his dramas and documentaries have been nominated for Emmys and Director’s and Writer’s Guild awards. His documentary feature Under-Fire: Journalists in Combat won a 2012 Peabody Award and was short-listed for an Academy Award. He divides his time between Los Angeles and Toronto. Praise for The Commisar’s Report “...original…plot is fast and wildly complex and the twists are clever.” People Magazine “...consistently funny, surprising and inventive.” LA Times

he Commissar’s Report, originally published by Houghton Mifflin in 1984, is having a wonderful new life. HBO in the US has purchased rights for a T.V. mini-series and Martyn Burke has been commissioned to write the pilot. The novel, set in the Cold War era when Stalin was still alive, was lauded as “a wonder of intense, cinematic storytelling…honest, inventive, and memorable.” (Wall Street Journal). In this witty, comedy where missteps are deadly, Dimitri, a young hero of the Russian Revolution and Kremlin spy is secretly smitten by the sirens of capitalism. His posting to the Soviet consulate in New York is a dream come true. The dream quickly becomes a nightmare. Dimitri’s Soviet boss despises him, his wife is obsessed with the unsocialist pursuit of a Bergdorf ’s charge account, and his boyhood friend is now a CIA agent who stalks him, plotting revenge. On Wall Street, he is plagued by his wild talent for making money in the stock market. His bosses in Red Square would find this difficult to overlook if they knew. And, as Dimitri fears, the old men of the Kremlin have a dangerous habit of knowing everything, sooner or later. Burke creates a unique and highly entertaining tale of dark humor and rich understanding that is timeless. Martyn Burke, acclaimed novelist, screen writer, director and documentary film producer has a new novel, Music for Love or War scheduled for publication March 2015.

Rights Available

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Martyn Burke Music for Love or War

omic ironies and absurdities abound in this love story set against the thunderous clash of civilizations.

Praise for Music For Love or War “Martyn Burke gives new meaning to the term ‘muscular prose’... in this entertaining, well-told war story” Now Toronto

“A glorious globetrotting epic spanning class, race, and ethical borders. Burke’s personal history as a Hollywood filmmaker and combat-zone documentarian makes this book seem less written than lived—it is filled with the crystalline details and hard-earned truths that can only be gained through on-the-ground experience. Burke is a marvel. Read this book.”

Craig Davidson, author of Giller nominated Cataract City

“Burke has written a beautiful, gripping, and timely story of love, friendship, and war. This is stunning storytelling that will make your heart race, break, then soar.”

Terry Fallis

Cormorant CAN 2015

In the blistered landscape of Afghanistan, a small unit of US soldiers is dependent on the Internet connection to Constance, a Hollywood psychic who provides advice on tactics in love and war. Two men in particular seek her out. Danny, a sniper who has been up close and personal with his Taliban prey, tortures them by blaring the music of Liberace from the mountain peaks. He also displays a giant portrait of Liberace prancing in a white sequined costume, bringing a bizarre bit of Las Vegas to the Afghan killing fields, and enraging the Taliban. Danny’s obsession is finding his high school sweetheart Ariana whose terrorist father married her off to a brutal warlord. Can Constance help? His friend Hank has fled to the Afghan war to distance himself from the decadent world of Hollywood which has swallowed his beloved in its rapacious drug and celebrity culture. Constance receives them when they use their home-leave to visit her. This also is the story of a friendship forged through trials of love and danger. Will Hank and Danny survive and prevail? Can they rescue the women they love? Music For Love or War is a soaring love story and a literary tour-de-force. Martyn Burke knows war-riddled Afghanistan where he has filmed documentaries. He knows Los Angeles where he lives and works. And he knows about terrorist families based in multi-cultural Toronto, his second home. In 2012, his feature documentary Under Fire: Journalists in Combat won a Peabody and was short-listed for an Academy Award. He is now writing a pilot for an HBO mini-series based on his 1984 novel The Commissar’s Report. In 2015, Martyn received the Auteur Award from the International Press Academy. Previous recipients include Guillermo del Toro, Baz Luhrmann and George Clooney. Click here for The International Press Academy’s video highlighting Martyn’s career

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Laurie Channer Small Dead Things

A gripping plot, surprising twists, depth of character, and insights on animal behavior - including humans. Laurie Channer is a novelist and screenwriter in Toronto. Her debut novel Godblog (Napoleon Books/ Dark Star) has been optioned for film. She has won awards for her short stories and works for the Writers Guild of Canada. Learn more at: www.lauriechanner.com

andy Stoppard is not renowned for her quivering sensitivity. That may have been an advantage in her job as a detective with the Kitchener Police Dept., but when she fails office politics, she is bounced to Victims’ Services to help those impacted by crime. But Sandy can’t let go of loose ends from her previous case. Although the accused serial killer, known as the Riverside Basher, is in custody, Sandy is still obsessed about strange details surrounding him and his life. She also secretly searches dumpsters and landfill for the missing body parts of a little girl kidnap victim from a cold case. Grisly aspects of the work don’t torment Sandy whose own childhood bruises are a bridge to life’s dark side. She fears nothing except intimacy. Yet, Sandy allows her armor to be pierced by her nephews when she joins them in their school project following life in a loon nest via webcam. In a loop of fate, the loon nest leads Sandy to a breakthrough in her former kidnap case, and to the smart, sexy bird biologist Hamlet Mar who is responsible for the webcam project. The twists spiral rapidly with Hamlet Mar’s suspicious connection to a newly-abducted child whose parents are clients of Sandy at VS. Laurie Channer reserves her most terrifying twist for the end when the real Riverside Basher is revealed. In Laurie Channer’s skillful rendering, this police procedural soars beyond genre to become a spellbinding tale layered with fascinating detail and psychological insight.

Manuscript Available

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Ann Charney Distantly Related to Freud

An affecting coming-of-age tale of a precocious, wary girl in the 1950s and 1960s “Charney’s narration is elegant and understated throughout...[and] the novel offers considerable insight into the increasingly complex mind of an ambitious young writer.” Quill and Quire

“The voice of the narrator, Ellen, is strong and true, giving this delicious novel the ingenuous power of a memoir.” The Walrus

“Charney distinguishes herself in her smart, playfully organic exploration of character... With Distantly Related to Freud, Charney has crafted a witty, psychologically astute account of a girl growing into herself and her talents.”

The Montreal Gazette

“...the tone and the pace of the novel is unwavering and strong.” Praise for Dobryd

Globe and Mail

“One of the best books on a European destiny in our century.”

Stuttgarter Zeitung

‘An illuminating novel about an unusual place and time.”

US Library Review

Cormorant Fall 2008 Hurtubise World French 2010

www.slopenagency.com

llen is the central hope of her mother and a motley family of refugees who washed ashore in Montreal after fleeing war-torn Europe. Ellen’s best friend Lydia enjoys more freedom (or neglect) from her mother Magda who counsels the teenagers, “Sex is power.” Magda, a fashion executive with a wealthy, married paramour who lavishes her with gifts and travel, is a living tutorial on being a femme fatale. Ellen tests Magda’s lessons during a summer with glamorous American cousins who are part of New York’s country club set. Success has its consequences when she attracts the affection and the fraternity “pin” of a suitor. Ellen dispassionately loses her virginity but flees commitment. Sex is power, indeed, but in a power play, the tables can turn abruptly. The shock occurs when Lydia is abducted. For several sickening days she cannot be found and is feared dead. The truth horrifies Ellen who learns other weapons in power’s arsenal are even more potent when wielded by a jealous, embittered wife. Ellen’s explorations and astute comments guide us from post-war anxieties into the febrile sixties. Her cool distance masks her determined and endearing attempt at self-preservation and search for identity. Ann Charney’s novels Dobryd and Rousseau’s Garden were published in the US, Canada, France, Germany and Italy. Her short stories have appeared in Ms. Magazine, Chatelaine, Paris Transcontinental, Saturday Night, Descant, Canadian Forum, and Queen’s Quarterly. She was born in Poland, studied at McGill University and the Sorbonne, and lives in Montreal. The government of France named her Officier de l’Ordre Arts et des Lettres. Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Ann Charney Life Class

ife Class, Ann Charney’s beautiful and wry novel, portrays the allure and dangers of the expatriate life where its charms become traps.

Ann Charney’s novels Distantly Related to Freud, Dobryd and Rousseau’s Garden were published in the US, Canada, France, Germany and Italy. She was born in Poland, studied at McGill University and the Sorbonne, and lives in Montreal. The government of France named her Officier de l’Ordre Arts et des Lettres. Praise for Life Class: “Charney writes in spare, tight prose, setting a brisk pace for a lively plot line and the introduction of intriguing characters...Life Class is an inspiring affirmation of life after loss.”

Montreal Gazette

“Charney moves us from place to place with cinematic dash... Charney takes us into a community of expatriates in Venice, describes a marriage of convenience, details the sadness of post-industrial American towns and satirizes the pretensions of the art world.”

National Post

Cormorant CAN 2013

www.slopenagency.com

Nerina, a refugee from Sarajevo, has her first brush with the sophisticated foreigners of Venice when she is struggling to survive by working in a hair salon and posing nude for a life class in drawing. Meanwhile, she is plotting to exchange her life at the margins for a better life in America. Her gateway to the plush world is Helena who has lived in Venice for many years, cobbling together an existence by ferreting out people with skills useful to privileged expatriates. Through Helena, Nerina becomes a housekeeper for the Ohlstroms, a wealthy American couple. When they are called back to New York, Nerina finds herself sharing their house with one of their friends, Walter Scalin, a gay expat sliding toward homelessness. Faced with destitution in Venice, Walter decides to return to the US to occupy the house in the Adirondacks he has inherited from his grandparents. He offers to marry Nerina and to take her with him, as her best hope for realizing her American dream. From married life and a job as a cashier in Smiths Falls to work in Manhattan’s gallery scene is a quick leap for the nimble Nerina, thanks to Helena’s help once again. Nerina doesn’t realize it but an impromptu trip to Montreal with her new love interest, a Canadian artist named Christophe who takes her to Montreal is a turning point, saving her from a rootless life at the edges. She has no illusions about the art world which rumbles with greed beneath the camouflage of glamor, but when she aimlessly wanders into Gallery Sarajevo, lured only by the name, her ambition for a gallery of her own crystallizes. Investment comes from a surprising source. Helena, Nernina and their friends serve as a life class in resourcefulness for a world in flux. Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Non-fiction

Tiffany Chow The Memory Clinic

Dr. Tiffany Chow studied or trained variously at Stanford, Rush Medical College, UCLA, and was Clinical Core Director at the University of Southern California Alzheimer’s Research Center with a research program for frontotemporal dementia. Her research at Baycrest Brain Helath Memory Disorder Clinic focused on behavioural disturbances brought on by dementia as well as their apparent opposite, apathy, and how these symptoms relate to brain chemistry as seen with functional neuroimaging. “This book is the wise and compassionate friend you desperately want when you discover that you or someone you love has dementia.”

Ruth Ozeki

“ nless you are planning to die before age 65, you too are at risk for dementia, regardless of family history.” This is the sobering observation of Dr. Tiffany Chow, a prominent clinician and researcher in dementia. Yet Dr. Chow also offers knowledge and hope for an illness where there is, as yet, no cure. “This book is a summary of what I’ve learned through my research or from my colleagues about prevention and management of dementia,” she says. “Despite facing a family history of Alzheimer’s disease, there are things that those at risk can do to prevent its onset or progression.” Through her grandmother Ah Quan, born in 1906 in Hawaii of Chinese ancestry, she too, has a genetic legacy for Alzheimer’ s disease. Comparing her life to grandmother’s life, Tiffany probes what she and other women can do mitigate the impact of genetics, through nutrition, exercise, and the concepts of cerebral reserve and brain plasticity. But it is in her front-line role managing the suffering caused by dementia and aiding caregivers where Tiffany’s compassionate voice soars. She notes four goals for caregivers to address each day with the afflicted. Do I feel safe? Do I feel healthy? Do I feel happy? Do I feel loved? Taking action if at least one answer is “no” requires honesty and a higher integration with others. To answer yes to all four questions demonstrates skill at balancing life and is itself part of the protective shield against dementia’s effects. Tiffany Chow, an empathic physician and an accomplished scientist is a reassuring guide through the mysterious twists of the brain and the grace of loving relationships flowering in adversity.

Penguin Canada 2013 Commonwealth Publishing Group (China) 2016

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Farzana Doctor Six Meters of Pavement

Winner of the 2011 Rainbow Awards for Best Lesbian Contemporary General Fiction. Six Metres of Pavement was named one of the Top Ten Books of 2011 by Now Magazine Praise for Six Metres of Pavement “...excruciatingly honest...refreshingly genuine.”

Globe & Mail

“...moving...a realistic portrayal of suffering and a paean to second chances.”

Publishers Weekly

smail Boxwala made the worst mistake of his life one summer morning twenty years ago: he forgot his baby daughter in the back seat of his car. After his daughter’s tragic death, his guilt erodes his interest in life. A divorce, years of heavy drinking, and sex with strangers leave him feeling increasingly alone. But Ismail’s story begins to change after he reluctantly befriends two women: Fatima, a young queer activist kicked out of her parents’ home, and Celia, his grieving Portuguese-Canadian neighbour who, at the age of fifty, finds herself widowed and broke. A slow simmering romance develops between Ismail and Celia. Meanwhile, dangers lead Fatima to his doorstep. Each woman makes complicated demands on him, ones he is uncertain he can meet. Six Meters of Pavement is a vivid work that explores loss, regret and redemption, from a gifted author who is not afraid to take her readers deep into her characters’ interior worlds. Farzana Doctor’s first novel, Stealing Nasreen, received critical acclaim upon its release in 2007. In 2011 Doctor was the recipient of the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s Ogilvie Grant for an Emerging Canadian Author. Doctor has written on social work and diversity-related topics, and in her spare time provides private practice consulting and psychotherapy services. Learn more at: www.farzanadoctor.com

Dundurn World 2010

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Farzana Doctor All Inclusive A National Post Best Book of the Year! Two secrets grip Ameera’s life. One is the big unknown fact of her existence—the identity of her father and the reason he abandoned her. The other is a secret shame she hides from others.

“Ambitious, original, mysterious, sensual—a terrific read”

Born to a young white woman in Canada who had a fling with a student from India en route home, Ameera has no way of assuaging her curiosity about the fleeting and haphazard donor to her genetic pool.

“An ambitious, thematically voracious novel on love and the wounds we didn’t know we had”

Her other secret is her obsessive pursuit of sexual dalliances with married couples. But rumors are circulating, complaints have reached head office, and her job at a resort in Mexico where she sells excursions to tourists, is threatened.

The Toronto Star

The Globe and Mail

“Her outstanding characterization and the depth of language establish the importance of Farzana Doctor’s writing.” Austin Clarke, Giller Prize winner,

“Farzana Doctor’s original, provocative new novel seduces (and challenges) readers on every page.” Angie Abdou

“[All Inclusive] is a page turner, and Doctor is a deliciously evocative writer.”

Literary Review of Canada

Farzana Doctor, a skilled and sensitive writer, tells the story, not only from Ameera’s point of view but also from the perspective of her father Azeez and his family in India. Azeez had spent five years in Canada completing his Ph.D. To celebrate this milestone, he added another—losing his virginity. Then, he boarded that fateful Air India flight which had been sabotaged by a terrorist bomb. It crashed off the coast of Ireland killing all the passengers. Azeez’s family knew nothing of his child Ameera and attempts by Ameera’s mother to find and contact them failed in an agonizing progression of missed communications. At the all-inclusive Mexican resort, Ameera confides in a Canadian guest who listens sympathetically and volunteers to use her archival skills to see what she can uncover. Can Ameera emerge from the gaping hole in her history and the shame of her secret desire? Readers, stirred by empathy and admiration for her will be cheering her on all the way. Farzana Doctor is the author of acclaimed novels Stealing Nasreen, and Six Metres of Pavement, winner of the 2012 Lambda Literary Awards for lesbian fiction. She lives in Toronto .

Dundurn Canada 2016

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Self-Help

Stacey Gorlicky Food, Sex and You

Untangling Body Obsession in a Weight-Obsessed World

F Stacey Gorlicky is a registered psychotherapist based in Toronto, and the former host of the live TV show Mind Matters. She is a passionate spokesperson for mental-health issues and has a large following in social media. She has been the subject of numerous print articles and has been asked to host a new TV Show to be called Food, Sex and You.

ood, Sex and You is for every woman who feels uncomfortable about her body, who obsesses about her weight; who hides her eating habits; who turns to food for comfort; who yo-yo diets; who avoids mirrors; who weighs herself too often; who binges; who uses laxatives, vomits or over-exercises; who has been told by worried friends that sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s too thin; who is facing health issues related to obesity; who has been diagnosed with an eating disorder. Food, Sex and You is also for every woman who has avoided sex because she felt ashamed of her body; who undresses in the bathroom and has sex in the dark; who hides her sexual self inside layers of fat; who fears the predatory instincts of all men; who believes that owning her sexuality may turn her into a slut; who feels cheated of intimacy because of alienation from her physical self. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s for women who fail to set safe emotional and physical boundaries in their sexual relationships in their over-desire to please; who always choose the wrong partners; who have become addicted to sex to fill the vacuum inside themselves. Stacey is a beautiful young woman who overcame food addiction and her fear of intimacy with the help of support groups like Overeaters Anonymous, various therapies, treatment for her ADHD, and Eastern spiritual practices such as tantric sex. She also became a registered therapist herself, specializing in addictions, bringing her deep understanding of the issues to help her clients. Stacey reports that in 2007, at age thirty-two, she gave up bingeing as the culmination of her healing journey. Stacey has written this book with the assistance of celebrated author Sylvia Fraser.

Dundurn 2016

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

History

Modris Eksteins Solar Dance

Van Gogh, Forgery, and the Eclipse of Certainty

T Winner, $40,000 B.C Award for NonFiction 2013 Finalist, Hilary Weston Prize for NonFiction 2012

“Mr. Eksteins has a knack for pinpointing moments in the rise of Modernism that expose the deep social forces that have shaped our world... Solar Dance conveys the heady atmosphere that made Berlin the first European capital to embrace the transforming potential of art in a secular age.” Wall Street Journal

“Subtle and engaging…Eksteins tells his story in a suitably looping and layered manner, with many darts and artful reverses, suing a range of knowledge and allusion reminiscent of his 1989 masterpiece, Rites of Spring.” Globe and Mail

“Eksteins is a major historian and Solar Dance, like everything he writes, deserves a wide and attentive readership.” National Post “A marvellous, brilliant book, one that gives a clearer undersatnding of our cultural moment than just about anything published in ages.” Literary Review of Canada Harvard UP April 2012 Knopf Canada Feb 2012 Zysk Poland 2013

www.slopenagency.com

he 19th century was the century of certainty – of Marx, Darwin, Wagner; it was the century of expansion and empire. It believed that there was a line to be drawn between the subject and the object. It believed in category. The 20th Century was the century of doubt – of Marcel Duchamp, Werner Heisenberg, and Monty Python; it was the century of contraction and decolonization. It disrupted all category. A man whose spirit straddled the two ages was Vincent van Gogh. Repudiated in his own time, he became the most loved and expensive artist of the 20th Century. He was the great synthesizer who captured in his art the exhilaration of life but also its fragility and tragedy. Modris Eksteins, whose subject is the 20th century, approaches the era through the lens of the sensational trial of a Berlin art dealer Otto Wacker and his role in the forgery of 33 Van Gogh paintings. In 1925, Wacker began releasing these hitherto unknown works which he cleverly had authenticated by experts. Through the progress of this drama Van Gogh’s commercial value rocketed skyward. Doubt and disaster also were crucial to Van Gogh’s posthumous success-- his own madness and suicidal end, and the subsequent near-destruction of European civilization in fratricidal war. In the Wacker-Van Gogh story, with its cast of characters who both delight and frighten us, is the story of Weimar Germany, the rise of Hitler and the fall of the Berlin Wall. In this thrilling book, Modris Eksteins illuminates the major themes of the modern world where a culture of vitality, life, and art has overwhelmed one of authority, form, and law.

Modris Eksteins is the author of acclaimed books on modernism, Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age and Walking Since Daybreak: A story of Eastern Europe, World War II, and the Heart of Our Century. Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

History

“Eksteins is as gifted a stylist as he is a scholar. One reads it with fascination and intellectual gratitude.” Alfred Kazin

Modris Eksteins

Rites of Spring

Walking Since Daybreak

The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age

his classic, award-winning book, in print “…a witty and enterpris- since 1989, is celebrated by ing scholar” scholars and readers alike. It Kurt Vonnegut even inspired a Hollywood “...nothing less than a film, Max, starring John retrospective of our en- Cusack. tire century. Art and politics, dance and war, have never been the same. ...It is the start of a new history.”

“The Great War was the psychological turning point for modernism,” argues Eksteins. “The urge to creJames Carroll ate and the urge to destroy “This provocative and had changed places.” disturbing reappraisal of modernism rings with authority.” Publishers Weekly

Winner Trillium Award Macmillan UK 2000 OP Houghton Mifflin USA 1989 Knopf /Can 2012 Dogan Turkey 2014 Rowohlt Ger 1990/OP Plon France 1990 OP TBS Britannica Japan Editora Rocco Brazil Standard Uitgeverij Holland PIW Poland Geulhangari Korea Editorial Pre-Textos Spain Social Sciences Academic Press China

With originality and discerning historical analysis, he describes the origins, impact, and aftermath of WWI from the premiere of Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring in 1913, to the final dance by the denizens of Hitler’s bunker in 1945. This is a remarkable cultural history that redefines the way we look at our past and think about the future.

“A deeply moving and intellectually challenging view of modern history.” Los Angeles Times

“...a beautiful meditation, written with both intellectual and moral urgency.”

n his journey to 1945 and the firestorm in Berlin, Eksteins weaves the story of his family in Latvia into the major events of the era, merging the subjectivity of the modern style with the objectivity of the scholar.

Empire, war, communism, fascism, the Holocaust, Publishers Weekly genocide, the huge tide of European refuges, New “...an important reas- World immigration, freesessment of WWII and dom...These are the markers its outcome...provaca- of our turbulent age. tive and ambitious.”

Kirkus Reviews

Awards Winner Pearson Literary Prize

Standaart Nthlds 2007 Houghton Mifflin US1999 Macmillan UK 2000 OP Key Porter Canada 1999 Atena Latvia 2002

Born in Latvia, Eksteins arrived as a child in 1950 among the displaced in Canada. He surveys the wreckage from two angles: by looking back from 1989 and the collapse of the Berlin Wall and, at the same time, moving forward from the perspective of the 19th century borderlands between Russia and Germany. It is an astute and thrilling panorama from the imperial age of coherence to our current confusions and fragmented logic.

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Mystery

Howard Engel City of Fallen Angels A Mike Ward Mystery

I Winner of The Crime Writers of Canada’s Grand Master Award

“This is a terrific novel from one of Canada’s most celebrated authors. It has all Engel’s trademark wit, with his superb command of the noir genre in a style uniquely his own.” The Globe and Mail

“Mr Engel is a born writer, a natural stylist...This is a writer who can bring a character to life in a few lines.”

Ruth Rendell

“Engel can turn a phrase as neatly as Chandler...Benny Cooperman novels [are] first-class entertainment, stylishly written, the work of an original, distinctive, and distinctively Canadian talent.”

Julian Symons

“Benny Cooperman is a lot of fun to hang out. I’m delighted to see him getting into trouble again.”

Donald E. Westlake

“a Canadian icon of the mystery genre.”

Toronto Star

Cormorant CAN 2014

www.slopenagency.com

t’s 1940, Europe is at war, and Canadian journalist Mike Ward, who has spent 20 years covering the major upheavals in Paris, London, Moscow, and Berlin, is removed from the main action. He is posted to Los Angeles where news is mostly celebrity gossip churned out by movie studios. Mike is not happy. He came of age in Hemingway’s Paris of the 1920s, got close ups of the rise of fascist dictators, wrote about the fall of governments, and watched while the war dreams began to beat louder. He can’t imagine that the movie business will be as compelling. But Hollywood is a place where the glitz and glamor of the silver screen meet the grit and grime of the criminal underworld. Mike has barely unpacked when the big story lands in his lap—the “suicide” of studio executive, Mark Norman. Some suspect Norman was killed by his first wife, but as Mike follows the trail through a thicket of enemies, other possibilities emerge. Along the way, the personable journalist befriends Errol Flynn who guides him through Hollywood’s intrigue. Soon Mike is partying with John Barrymore, lunching at Chasen’s, escorting young starlets, and tangling with cops over his efforts to get the story. Set during a time of upheaval in the capital of cinema, and populated by a who’s who of colourful historical personalities from both the film and criminal worlds, City of Fallen Angels—the latest from Arthur Ellis Award-winner Howard Engel—is a classic period whodunnit. Howard Engel is on the shortlist for the Libris Award for Lifetime Achievement. His novels have been published in more than countries since his debut in 1980 and have won literary prizes. Two have been adapted for TV films. He is well known for his Benny Cooperman series of mystery novels and his memoir, The Man Who Forgot how to Read, about dealing with the affects of a stroke that nearly ended his writing career. Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Mystery Series

Howard Engel Grand Master of Mystery Dr. Zeckerman, Grantham’s wealthy psychiatrist, loses a patient to suicide. Benny suspects homicide.

Captivating insights, beautiful phrases, lovable characters and grisly crimes spill effortlessly from Howard Engel’s sleeve. His classic series of Benny Cooperman mysteries and two historical crime novels have won prizes and are widely translated. In 2014 he was named the Grand Master of Canadian mystery writers. Best of all, there is a new Engel novel, City of Fallen Angels, set in 1940’s Hollywood. The rabbi and the president of Grantham’s synagogue hire Benny when a lawyer absconds with the life savings of the congregation.

The local crime boss wants Benny to find out who is trying to kill him, and Benny can’t refuse.

Did heiress Gloria Warren collude in her own kidnapping? Where is the money? Benny, the Mob, the cops and Gloria want to know.

Benny mixes with Grantham’s elite who buy, trade and steal paintings -and also murder.

Vanessa Moss, the sexy siren in the executive suite, hires Benny to protect her. He gets more trouble than he expected.

A Hollywood movie crew is shooting more than film at Niagara Falls.

Benny’s environmental anxieties fester when a trucker with hazardous cargo is murdered.

Benny suffers a vicious blow to the head and is diagnosed with a rare condition, alexia sine agraphia. No longer having the ability to read, Benny must unmask his assailant.

Benny is awash in black-flies, cults, and murder in the Canadian wilderness, while tracking a celebrity evangelist.

An old woman whose estate is plundered leads Benny to corrupt lawyers and intrigue at a TV news station.

An old friend pleads for Benny’s help just as he’s on the verge of retirement. Her husband Jake went missing along with their life savings.

CBC TV Film

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Terry Fallis One Brother Shy

O Tim and Terry Fallis Praise for Terry Fallis: “Fallis employs an easygoing yet compelling writing style ... So what’s in a name? When it’s Terry Fallis, you know it means a good book.”

National Post

“Terry Fallis writes with a light touch and fine sense of the inherent humanity of humour, while still addressing one of the biggest questions we all have to face: Who are you? Who are you really?”

Will Ferguson , author of 419, winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize

“Gently satirical and intelligently frothy, Up and Down achieves a delightful weightlessness as transporting as the space voyage it deals with.” Andrew Pyper, bestselling author of The Demonologist

ttawa software engineer, Alex MacAskill, 25, is a painfully and chronically shy man whose once bright future was seriously dimmed by an incident in high school. It was not talked about, and it is known only by the family code name “Gabriel.” Outwardly reticent, and desperate to escape notice, Alex sustains a rich, thoughtful and witty inner dialogue that helps him cope. He never knew his father, not even his name. He was raised by a single mother, Lee MacAskill, whose battle with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis is nearing its end as the novel opens. When she dies, an envelope left for Alex reveals a secret that instantly changes his life and sets him on a search for the identical twin brother he never knew he had. Eventually reunited with his twin, Matthew Paterson, a high-flying, charismatic entrepreneur living in London, England, they piece together shreds of evidence, including an obscure tattoo linked to the 1972 Canada-Russia hockey series, to try to find the father neither of them knew. Their travels take them to Moscow only to discover their father was hiding in plain sight back in London, where he secretly kept tabs on the twin sons. The nature of his work which prevented him from becoming involved in their lives is an important feature of the plot. An initially rocky but ultimately happy reunion of father and sons leaves Alex with one final task. He tells Matthew about “Gabriel.” Matthew insists they both fly back to Ottawa to confront “Gabriel” and set Alex on the path to the person he should have become—as dictated by his genetic code. It is time to bring Alex’s vital and vibrant inner voice out into the open. It is also time for him to pursue a budding romance with a fiery work colleague that weaves its way through Alex’s narrative. One Brother Shy is a funny, poignant story of identical twins separated at birth, Cold War echoes, the strength of family ties, and the healing power of humour. Terry Fallis is a best selling author who has an identical twin brother, Tim Fallis.

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Terry Fallis Poles Apart

ail, Gender Warriors! Be prepared to submit to the beguiling spell of Poles Apart. Humor is the best option for the serious topics of feminist aspirations and male confusion and rage.

Praise for Terry Fallis: “Quite possibly the most fun you can ever have while reading about the struggle for equality. Light-hearted, wickedly funny and surprisingly touching, this novel lights up the lovability of feminism and its defenders.”

Michele Landberg

“Fallis employs an easygoing yet compelling writing style ... So what’s in a name? When it’s Terry Fallis, you know it means a good book.”

National Post

Will Ferguson , author of 419, winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize

McClelland/Random House CAN 2015

www.slopenagency.com

Everett Kane is a darling – a man who is a committed feminist. His strong mother, CEO of a Fortune 500 company, begs Ev not to tell his girlfriends. It is the reason, she says, that Ev is still single at 37. (What? Are male feminists not sexy?) Ev’s father, Billy Kane, a former autoworker on the line at Ford, is a stubborn throwback about a women’s place –i.e. firmly in the home. His attitude drove Ev’s mother to depart. Ev has suffered male guilt ever since. The Kane family comes together when Billy, now retired to Florida, is debilitated by a stroke. Ev, a free-lance writer, moves south (with his mother’s financial support) to help his father through rehab. In the same hospital, Ev meets his idol from his days as a student activist for women’s rights, the formidable feminist leader, Beverley Tanner. Warm, funny, and brilliant, Bev and Ev develop a special bond. Meanwhile, below Ev’s rental apartment, an “upscale” strip joint moves in. Longing to rekindle the idealism of his youth, Ev secretly starts a feminist blog, Eve of Equality, which rallies feminists, and has the misfortune to go viral. Ev’s cloaked attacks on the strip club anger the dancers, his mother who had a real estate deal with the owner, and the club’s owner, who brings dangerous, mob-style “heat” to the battle. Ev’s male identity is about to be revealed, potentially unleashing the fury of his feminist fans. Worse, his secret life as a feminist blogger thwarts his blossoming romantic passion for the young woman lawyer representing the strip mogul. Terry Fallis is the author of four previous, bestselling, hilarious novels that have won distinguished literary awards and been adapted for a TV mini-series and a stage musical. Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Terry Fallis No Relation Winner of the Leacock Medal for Humor

N Praise for No Relation: “Terry Fallis writes with a light touch and fine sense of the inherent humanity of humour, while still addressing one of the biggest questions we all have to face: Who are you? Who are you really?”

Will Ferguson , author of 419, winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize

“Born of a cheerful mood and a clever mind, Terry Fallis’s No Relation is an endearing book with a big heart.”

Trevor Cole, author of Practical Jean, winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour

“Fallis employs an easygoing yet compelling writing style ... So what’s in a name? When it’s Terry Fallis, you know it means a good book.”

National Post

o Relation by Terry Fallis is the story of a man who believes his name has blighted his life and thwarted his ambitions. His name? Earnest Hemmingway—spelled differently from that the iconic Ernest Hemingway, but laughable all the same. Life has been good for Hem, a middle-aged copywriter at a New York ad agency. He has had the same job for 20 years, a live-in girlfriend, and a great apartment. But as a writer, Hem believes his family name, bestowed on four generations of Earnest Hemmingways, has blocked him from his destiny as a great novelist. Hem’s cozy world shatters on a single day when he loses his wallet, his girlfriend and his job. His humiliating melt down while he tries to renew his driver’s license, which goes viral on YouTube, is the final blow. Hem’s father, however, sees it as a perfect time for his son to return to Chicago and take the helm of Hemmingwear, the storied underwear manufacturer led by three previous generations of “Earnests.” Hem has other plans. Besides, his younger sister is eager to take the job—if she can convince their misogynist father. Hem and his sister team up to expose traitors and foil a hostile takeover. Hem, meanwhile, assembles the sweetest support group this side of Freud--composed of people burdened with famous names. It allows Fallis to flirt with looping comic scenes while addressing serious issues of identity and the weight of expectations. It is a funny, endearing novel crafted by a master.

McClelland/Random House CAN 2014 Shui- Ling Taiwan 2015

www.slopenagency.com

Terry Fallis lives in Toronto where he works for a communications company. His four novels, The Best Laid Plans, The High Road, Up and Down and No Relation are each major bestsellers in Canada and are attracting a growing number of readers abroad. One secret of his success—free podcasts of the novels, chapter by chapter, available on iTunes. To see the book trailer, click here. Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Terry Fallis Up and Down

Winner 2013 Evergreen Award “Up and Down kept me smiling, made me laugh out loud, and occasionally moved me to tears.”

--The National Post

“If Terry Fallis talks like he writes, then I want to meet this man because he is very droll indeed.”

--Montreal Gazette

“In Landon Percival, Terry Fallis brings to vivid life an unexpected hero–tough yet endearing, brave yet vulnerable.”

Cathy Marie Buchanan, New York Times bestselling author

“Gently satirical and intelligently frothy, Up and Down achieves a delightful weightlessness as transporting as the space voyage it deals with.” Andrew Pyper, bestselling author of The Guardians

“Terry Fallis has done it again. Up and Down is another hilarious page-turner that also packs an emotional punch.” Ali Velshi

“A rollicking good ride. Funny one moment, serious the next, always compelling: a reminder that we can all dream.” Marc Garneau, Former astronaut

avid Stewart’s first days on the job are not auspicious. He has just joined the Toronto office of an international public relations firm, ruled from New York and Washington. David is assigned to the crossborder team on the NASA account, which is charged with boosting flagging public interest in space exploration. His team leader, the chilly Amanda Burke, is immune to his charms. The tough Washington account exec is equally dismissive. Surprisingly, the NASA client approves David’s suggestion—a lottery to find two ordinary citizens, a Canadian and American who are eager to strap themselves to a rocket headed to the space station for the trip of a lifetime. Through a series of suspenseful hurdles, Fallis keeps us laughing and rooting for David and the “aged” would-be astronaut Landon Percival. But it is the beautifully drawn portrayal of Landon and their touching relationship that stay with the reader long after the book is closed on the campaign. Terry Fallis is a novelist who has done the impossible. He self-published his first novel The Best Laid Plans, a political satire set in Ottawa, which won the Leacock Medal for Humour, and later, after it was released by M&S/Random House Canada, it was winner of Canada Reads as “the essential Canadian novel of the decade.” A 6-part TV mini-series based on it airs on CBC TV in January 2014. His fourth novel No Relation, set in New York and Chicago, is a highly original tale on the question of what’s in a name. In his other life, Terry works in public relations, and is hugely popular on the speaking circuit, with more than 100 appearances annually. He lives in Toronto, is married and the father of two sons.

McClelland/Random Can/ Can 2012

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Terry Fallis

The Best Laid Plans

The High Road

Winner of 2011 Canada Reads

Short-listed for Leacock Medal for Humour

Over 109,000 copies sold Globe & Mail Bestseller

isillusioned by politics and lacerated by Amazon.ca Bestseller romantic betrayal, Daniel Addison, a young political “It deftly explores the speechwriter, wants out. Machiavellian machinaForced to barter his lost tions of political culidealism with one last obture.” Globe & Mail ligation, he cajoles a sacrificial candidate to contest the “The Best Laid Plans has a election for the opposition certain charm, some clevparty er turns of phrase and a well-honed appreciation for the absurdities of political life.”

Montreal Gazette

“The plot is advanced with self-deprecating and side-splitting vignettes... The novel is that and much more.” Silhouette’s A&E Magizine

Terry Fallis first selfpublished The Best Laid Plans as a podcast, then as a book. It was later acquired by McClelland & Stewart. Winner of 2008 Leacock Medal for Humour McClelland & Stewart 2008

“…a new brand of pohis deeply funny satire litical satire -- the most continues the story of irreverent, sophisticated Honest Angus McLintock, and engaging CanLit has seen since Stephen an amateur politician who dares to do the unthinkable: Leacock.” Winnipeg Free Press

tell the truth.

Just when Daniel Addison thinks he can escape his job as a political aide, Angus McLintock, the no-hope candidate he helped into Daniel persuades Angus Parliament, throws icy water McLintock, a crusty Enover his plans. Angus has just gineering Professor to alOttawa Citizen brought down the governlow his name to be used. It ment with a deciding vote. will be a campaign with no “The High Road will Now he wants Daniel to signs, no rallies, no speech- entertain. There will manage his next campaign. es, and no budget. Cam- be snickers, occasional paign headquarters is Dan- snorting and hooting, Daniel helps Angus fight an iel’s jalopy. But politics is and almost certainly rip- uphill battle against “Flamelaughs.” filled with surprises. Angus roaring belly thrower” Fox, notorious for Chronicle Herald is catapulted to victory and his dirty tactics. Together he and Daniel must examthey decide to take “The ine their political principles Terry Fallis is a part- High Road” and turn the and learn how to survive ner in Thornley Fallis, race into a nail-biter with hithe political process, the a public relations com- larious ups and downs, This pany in Toronto, and is deft political satire and roughest game around. is completing his third laugh-out-loud comedy. Six part TV mini-series telecast on CBC TV.

Musical Theater production Vancouver 2015

“an easy-reading page turner...anyone with even a passing or cynical interest in the political process should enjoy The High Road and after the romp be left with some food for thought.”

novel.

McClelland & Stewart Fall 2010

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Joanna Goodman The Finishing School

A taut, layered tale of suspense at an elite Swiss school

K Praise for You Made Me Love You:

ersti Kuusk, a scholarship student at a famed boarding school in the Swiss Alps, is awestruck at first by her classmates, these daughters of privilege, who welcome her to their world.

“Goodman...is a witty, energetic storyteller.”

At the heart of her tight knit group is her roommate, the luminous Cressida Strauss, a tall beauty who is as brilliant as she is determined. Cressida fiercely pursues what she wants and gets it—until tragedy strikes.

“Ms. Goodman has a wonderful ear for dialogue and a sharp eye for the nuances of life.”

Joy Fielding

One spring night, Cressida plunges from a fourth floor balcony with catastrophic consequences. Officials quickly dismiss it as an accident, but many questions remain. Was it a suicide attempt? Was she pushed?

“Goodman’s solid writing is permeated with commentary on the societal pressures to have it all.”

These questions nag Kersti long after she returns home. She marries, becomes a bestselling writer, and embarks on exhausting cycles of fertility treatments that are straining her marriage. Why was Cressida obsessed with the banned Helvetian Society, and the two students who were expelled twenty years earlier? Why was Cressida intent on finding a missing ledger of the proceedings of a girls’ “secret society”?

Montreal Gazette

Praise for Harmony:

Publishers Weekly

“Joanna Goodman writes with compassion about human connections.” Patti Henry

When Kersti is invited to address a school reunion, she begins probing the cover-up. What she unearths is a frightening compost of deceit and abuse. In one shocking, portentous moment, Kersti makes a decision that will connect her to Cressida forever. It also raises the stakes in her need to solve the mystery, redeem her past, and rescue her marriage. Joanna Goodman is the author of three acclaimed novels. She lives in Toronto with her two children and her husband where they operate upscale retail linen shops Au Lit.

HarperCollins US 2017

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Don Gutteridge Lily Fairchild

ioneer life throbs with vitality in this magnificent saga of Lily Fairchild whose story will grip your heart and reduce you to tears.

Early Praise for Lily Fairchild: “In his masterwork of historical fiction, Don Gutteridge captures in fine, fully sensory detail the conflicts and changes of early Canada, and the prejudices, hatreds, disputes and loyalties involved in its development – all depicted through the singular experiences of a woman named Lily through the decades of her long life. There is blood and disgrace, passion and kindness, love and heartbreak and courage in Lily’s Story, every moment vividly, intimately rendered” Joan Barfoot

“Don Gutteridge’s novel is a masterly work that deserves time and attention to devour. That being said, once you start Lily’s Story, you won’t be satisfied till you reach the end. Gutteridge’s ability to draw characters that are so realistic, so likeable, is second to none.” Reader’s Favorite Reviews

www.slopenagency.com

Born in 1840 near the shores of the Great Lakes, Lily begins as a shy, motherless girl, abandoned to play the hand that fate has dealt. In the course of her remarkable life ending in 1922, communities grow around her, husbands arrive and are taken, children are nurtured, and her days are filled with toil. An illiterate washerwoman and cleaner with the gift of wisdom, they are also leavened with friendship and purpose. No one stops fate. Wars are waged, fires reap destruction, runaway slaves from the South seek refuge, oil is discovered, railways arrive bringing hustlers, politicians and princes from afar. But Lily refuses to see herself as a helpless leaf in the winds of change. When the Prince of Wales, son of Queen Victoria, eyes the young beauty on his royal progress in the colonies, she chooses “agency” and knowingly accepts the Prince’s embraces. She becomes pregnant and gives birth. It affects her life but not in ways we anticipate. Don Gutteridge proves his mastery of the historical saga in Lily Fairchild that has already enchanted early readers. A longer version of it, titled Lily’s Story, was first released in a limited paperback edition of 608 pages and as an eBook. It garnered ecstatic response but at 287,940 words was deemed long by some. He has trimmed 60,000 words from it and tightened the pacing with a view to seeking traditional publication. See reviews on Goodreads here. Don Gutteridge grew up in Point Edward Ontario, the locale of the novel. It is now surrounded by the city of Sarnia on the Michigan border. As a youth he worked on the railway and listened to the voices of the people which he captures eloquently. A prolific poet and author of more than 16 novels, he is renowned for his Marc Edwards series of mysteries set in the 1840s Rebellions era in Toronto

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Historical Mysteries Don Gutteridge: Rebellion Mysteries

Turncoat This series captures life in British North America in the 1830s under the reign of Queen Victoria. Americans

eyed Canada for annexation and Canadians agitated for autonomy from both Britain and the United States. Marc Edwards, a dashing London barrister, bored with legal studies joins the British army in 1835 and is posted to Fort York in Toronto, no place for glory. But Marc is asked by the governor to investigate a murder. Was it a political killing by rebels trying to oust British masters? Or was it personal? His loyalty to the British Crown becomes complicated when he falls in love with Beth, a Reformer and he finds his sympathies drifting. Marc solves the crimes but romance awaits.

Solemn Vows

The second in the Rebellions Mysteries opens with Marc’s humiliation in pursuit of an assassin and the murder of a prominent politician during a public rally. The investigation takes Marc from the offices of the rebels struggling against the British rulers to the mansions of the ruling elite. And it takes him into the lives and bedrooms of several charming ladies. “...terrific historical series... Gutteridge knows his history and how to build and pace a mystery novel... he weave his tale perfectly with believable characters and perfect scene setting.” --Globe and Mail

Vital Secrets

Marc Edwards, our dashing hero, is posted at Toronto’s Fort York in 1837. The arrival of theatrical troupe touring the British colony north of the American border promises light diversion. But events turn nasty when his friend Rick Hilliard falls for a young actress and is accused of murdering his rival for her affections. Marc’s investigation reveals the victim was selling smuggled American rifles to local rebels agitating for the expulsion of the British. Was the murder prompted by politics or passion? Marc’s involvement with the theater company also yields an astounding revelation about the secret of Marc’s own identity.

Dubious Allegiance

Autumn 1837, Lieutenant Marc Edwards is sent with his British regiment to subdue increasingly hostile French rebels in what later became Quebec. The brutality causes Marc to question whether the sacrifices he has made in the British Crown have been worth the cost. On his return to Toronto, Marc is accompanied by a group of seemingly innocent civilians. It becomes clear that some of his fellow travellers are not who they claim to be and Marc is the target of an unknown assassin. When a member of the group is found murdered, Marc realizes he may have more than one killer to worry about.

Bloody Relations

After being injured on the battlefields of Quebec, Marc Edwards is dissillusioned with life in the military and quits to start a family with his new wife. Lord Durham has been sent out to find a resolution to the fighting plaguing Britain’s North American Colonies. The ruling elite of the colonies resort to crime in an attempt to keep power for themselves, and it’s up to Marc to uncover their plot and ensure peace and stability for the land he has come to call home. “A novel that is so swift, humane, vividly written, and valuable, even for those not ordinarily much interested in historical fiction of any sort.” --The London Free Press

Death of a Patriot

Even after trading in his soldier’s uniform for a lawyer’s robes, Marc Edwards is called upon to help protect his new home. An American officer is wounded and captured after a border skirmish and before he can be tried and executed he’s found murdered in his cell. Marc is convinced that the young soldier accused is innocent, and must navigate a web of spies and the paranoia gripping the colony in the face of an imminent attack. “With the help of a dramatic trial sequence, Death of a Patriot once again delivers the goods, setting things up for Marc Edwards’ next series turn.” --National Post

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Non-Fiction

David Healy Pharmageddon

harmageddon has arrived. The large pharmaceutical companies have hijacked healthcare and the results are alarming.

Praise for Pharmageddon: “Neuropharmacologist David Healy’s exposé of the pharmaceutical industry’s control of modern medicine is a chilling, essential read.”

Healy, who was the first to draw attention to the now well-publicized suicide-inducing side effects of many antidepressants, presents a searing indictment of problems in health care that are leading to a growing number of deaths and disabilities. Also, often culpable are wellmeaning physicians who under the sway of drug companies diagnose for risks using “numbers” handed to them.

“It is the most powerful critique of the contemporary medical-industrial complex that I know.” Andrew T. Scull author of Hysteria and Madness

Only a small percentage of drugs now target disease. The bestselling drugs are “lifestyle” or “risk management” drugs: antidepressants, cholesterol-lowing statins, blood-sugar-lowering hypoglycemics, and treatments for osteoporosis and sexual dysfunction. Moreover, many newer generations of drugs under patent are often less effective than earlier versions.

MacClean’s Magazine (Named a best non-fiction book of 2012)

“Pharmageddon is Healy’s most important book to date. It will make a real contribution towards healing our sick system of pharmaceutical-driven medicine and helping doctors provide better care for their patients.” Elizabeth Siegel Watkins author of The Estrogen Elixir “[Pharmageddon] is provocative, challenging, and informative, and ultimately it serves as a powerful manifesto for rethinking modern medicine.” Robert Whitaker author of Anatomy of an Epidemic

The survival of pharmaceutical companies is tied to the development of blockbuster drugs, so that they must overhype benefits and deny real hazards. He is also critical of industry-controlled drug trials and the corrupted “evidence-based medical system.” These trends have basically ended the possibility of universal health care in the United States and elsewhere around the world. Dr. Healy concludes with suggestions for reform, which must come soon. David Healy is Professor of Psychiatry at Cardiff University in Britain, a former Secretary of the British Association for Psycho-pharmacology, and the author of more than 20 books and 350 artciles. He has written seminial histories of antidepressants, antipsychotics, and bipolar disorder.

U of California Press World English March 2012 Misuzu Shobo Japan 2014

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Kate Hilton The Hole in the Middle A Redbook 20 Hottest Books to Read This Spring 2016

S Kate Hilton has worked in law, higher education, public relations, fundraising and publishing. She has an English degree from McGill University and a law degree from the University of Toronto. “The pacing is fast, the suspense is strong from start to finish.” Roberta Rich

“I thoroughly enjoyed it. Kate Hilton has created a warm, memorable and insightful heroine.”

Joy Fielding

“As moving as it is entertaining, this novel is crammed with funny, truthful moments that will strike a chord with over-extended women everywhere” Hello Magazine

“Wholly deserves to be set apart from other books of its ilk.”

The National Post

ophie Whelan is the epitome of the modern, successful woman. She has a great husband, two adorable children, funny, generous friends, and a high-powered job at a leading children’s hospital. When Sophie operates at peak performance, she can cajole balky employees, trouble-shoot career disasters, and throw a dinner party for 10 without anxiety. But as Sophie’s 40th birthday looms, her seamless life reveals disturbing web-like fractures. Conflict with her boss, blossoming jealousy of her husband’s femme fatale business partner, and feelings of hopeless inadequacy as a mother and daughter, crack the edifice of her life. There is a futher complication—the reappearance of Will Shannon who was the great love and crushing disappointment of her college days. He wants her to work for his family foundation. Ordinarily, it would be a dream job. Instead, the offer presents an ocean of dragons lying in ambush. Kate Hilton has a gift for creating characters who are easy to love, a flair for social comedy, and a talent for the surprising and satisfying ending. The Hole in the Middle, a Canadian bestseller, makes its US debut in 2016. Kate is completing her second novel, Just Like Family, about a woman executive who is juggling her “work husband”, her ex-husband, and her almost husband who wants a commitment. With sharp observational humour and deep poignancy, Kate Hilton explores themes of midlife disappointment and human connection.

Watch Kate Hilton’s interviews on Breakfast Television and The Morning Show HarperCollins CAN Dec 2013 NAL/Penguin Random House US 2016

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Kate Hilton Just Like Family

Praise for The Hole in the Middle: “Hilton captures and distils the slight but constant ripping at the seams that can happen in a marriage when there is simply no time to nurture it.”

Marissa Stapley, author of

Mating for Life

“Hilton captures the delicate and often unforgiving balancing act that is everyday life for so many women.” Jennifer Robson Author of Somewhere in France

“I thoroughly enjoyed it. Kate Hilton has created a warm, memorable and insightful heroine.”

Joy Fielding

“As moving as it is entertaining, this novel is crammed with funny, truthful moments that will strike a chord with over-extended women everywhere” Hello Magazine

“Wholly deserves to be set apart from other books of its ilk.”

The National Post

very Graham has three husbands. Her ex-husband, Hugh, is a mistake she won’t repeat. An illicit affair that took an unexpected turn into matrimony, Avery’s marriage to Hugh, like her twenties self, was artistic, sexy and a little bit dangerous – until it was time to grow up. She can’t face him, because she can’t forgive herself. Her work-husband, Peter, is the charismatic mayor she has worshipped since childhood. Bound together by deep family connections, and by a shared vision, Avery has never trusted anyone the way she trusts Peter. Now his Chief of Staff, Avery is at her best professional self with Peter: cool, smart, strategic, and passionate about being of service to her community, And then there is Matt, Avery’s almost-husband, her romantic partner of fourteen years. With Matt, Avery has the comfort of a spouse without any limits on her independence. Or so she thought. When Matt announces that he wants to get married and start a family, Avery’s world is turned upside down. As she considers his proposal, Avery is forced to confront her deepest fears about love and loss, and decide who she wants to be. Just Like Family is witty, funny, and profound. Kate Hilton has an English degree from McGill University and a law degree from University of Toronto. She has worked in fund-raising and public relations and made her debut as a novelist with The Hole in the Middle, a bestseller in Canada for HarperCollins and scheduled for US by PenguinRandomHouse in 2016. A 4.5 starred review of it in RT Magazine notes: “The friendships, work relationships and struggles are so beautifully depicted that you will want to read it again to pick up the wisdom you missed the first time through.” She lives in Toronto and is the mother of two boys.

NAL/PenguinRandomHouse US 2017

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Mystery

Mary Jackman Finger Food

Praise for Spoiled Rotten: “Liz Walker, [is] a lively and believable character... and grabs your attention. She’s a gem.” The Star Phoenix

“Jackman’s entertaining debut is sure to appeal.”

Publisher’s Weekly

“Spoiled Rotten is light summer fare... fun and full of drama.”

Halifax Chronicle Herald

severed finger is delivered to the Corner Bistro in a lettuce crate. The police soon discover it belongs to Norman Fitzgerald, a recent murder victim found in a crop circle. The macabre story is leaked to the press and the restaurant fills up with diners dressed in Martian costumes. Business is business and Richard Best, manager of Corners can’t believe their good fortune. Roni Taylor, the owner, is not so sure. Roni, curious about the crop circle, visits the farm and receives a brutal welcome. She is attacked, her newly acquired friend Ramona disappears and Alex Silva, Ramona’s husband, is murdered. The most interesting resident, and possible suspect, is Ramona’s lover John Mackinnon, a country playboy with a penchant for married women. Roni is susceptible to John’s entreaties to find Ramona and help clear him of charges. The adventure beats sorting dirty linen and the mundane tasks of running a restaurant. This is the start of a new mystery series with Roni Taylor and the Corner Bistro in Ithaca, New York. Mary Jackman is a witty and lively writer, bringing murder and suspense to the restaurant business. She certainly knows the terrain, she is the former owner of a popular restaurant, Peter Pan in Toronto, where several noted chefs got their start.

SPOILED ROTTEN Mary Jackman A Liz Walker

Mystery

Manuscript Available

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Mystery

Mary Jackman Spoiled Rotten

eggy, sexy Liz Walker is the owner of Walker’s Way, a funky, hip restaurant and a breeding ground for young, soon-to-be famous chefs.

Praise for Spoiled Rotten: “Liz Walker, [is] a lively and believable character... and grabs your attention. She’s a gem.” The Star Phoenix

“Jackman’s entertaining debut, centered on a cozy Toronto bistro, is sure to appeal to anyone interested in the restaurant business.”

Publisher’s Weekly

“Spoiled Rotten is Light summer fare that also makes one salivate with all its talk of food... fun and full of drama.”

Halifax Chronicle Herald

Liz, smart and savvy, the mother of a 20-year-old son, knows how to deal with transient staff and temperamental cooks. But she is shocked when the butcher Mr. Tony, where she buys meat, is found hacked to death, the victim of a grisly murder. Moreover, she is worried when her talented young chef Daniel hasn’t shown up for work and becomes the main suspect. Liz goes looking for Daniel and winds up in the middle of a delicious plot that includes real estate machinations, a scam for selling illegal work visas, and betrayal. The fact that the police investigator on the case, David Winn, is falling for Liz adds zest to the adventure, but also raises the stakes. Mary Jackman, like her delightful heroine Liz Walker, owns a cool and funky restaurant, the Peter Pan in Toronto’s Queen St neighborhood where a few celebrity chefs (Susur Lee) got their start. In her new venture, she gives us an insider’s view of the restaurant and food business with all of its allure and some of its tribulations. Spoiled Rotten will entertain and enlighten anyone who has ever worked in a restaurant, dreamed of owning a restaurant, or eaten in a restaurant. And fans have a new Liz Walker installment to anticipate, titled Finger Food.

Dundurn World Rights Spring 2012

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Memoir

Eric Koch Otto and Daria:

A Wartime Journey Through No Man’s Land

E Eric Koch who was born in Frankfurt in 1919, lives in Toronto. His grandfather was a court jeweler and his father was an officer in the German army in WWI. Eric was deported to Canada, interned as an enemy alien during WWII. On his release, he remained in Canada, making his career at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He also is the author of 14 works of fiction and five works of non-fiction.

ric Koch was 19, on holiday from his studies at Cambridge in August 1938, when he met 17-year-old Daria. She had uncombed hair, sparkling blue eyes and ambitions to be a writer. Eric, a Jewish refugee fleeing Nazi Germany, had war and uncertainty in his future. Of Daria, he noted: “Too young for me anyway. What would I do with a schoolgirl.” Yet, their encounter at a two-star hotel in the French Alps was the beginning of a five-year correspondence, set against huge upheavals. Eric was arrested by the British as an enemy alien and sent to an internment camp in Canada. Daria, daughter of a privileged and cultured family in London, struggled to find her path in the maelstrom. Her letters are fresh and reveal a lively intelligence and considerable talent. But as the war and the years unfold, increasingly dark signs emerge. Loneliness and fear propel Daria and Eric to flirt with romantic fantasies of being together after the war. Eric, unmoored from home and the family’s upscale jewelry establishment in Frankfurt, ironically, exhibited greater resilience. Daria, whose father was a renowned musician and whose mother was from the British aristocracy, suffered emotional turbulence in London. Eric had saved Daria’s letters. When he unearthed them five decades later, they shocked him and he sought news of her. Her family rebuffed him, blaming him for grievously disappointing her. Did he lead her on? Were there junctures when different decisions could have meant a vastly different outcome? This memoir of a relationship between two young people in a time of war and internment is an engrossing, poignant tale that will be embraced by readers who admire In the Garden of the Beasts and The Hare With Amber Eyes.

University of Regina Press 2016

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Memoir

Jack Kuper Child of the Holocaust

“Marvellous . . . The charm and fascination of the book lie in the dual role of survival and growing up.” London Times Literary Supplement

Remarkable . . . Gripping . . . a child’s struggle for survival”

The Globe and Mail

“Astounding . . . a work that amounts to a letter from inside a nightmare . . . A miraculous example of the human spirit at its most resilient.” Toronto Star

“Artfully rendered . . . testifying to the spirit of a man who emerged whole from a childhood of shame and despair.” Saturday Review

“He reveals the terror, the mental and physical sufferings, and the hope and courage of a youngster’s desperate will to survive.” Seattle Times

ack Kuper was only nine years old when he came home to find everyone in his family gone. The night before, Germans had come to his village in rural Poland and taken away all the Jews. Now alone in the world, he has to change his name, forget his language and abandon his religion in order to survive. Jack wanders through Nazi occupied Poland for four years, with no place to hide and no one to trust. The harrowing true story of how he survives has been hailed as a classic, as powerful as The Diary of Anne Frank, and celebrated for its rare beauty. It has been in print in various editions in English and a dozen other languages since 1966. Jack Kuper escaped Poland and immigrated to Canada at the age of 15. He spent much of his career in advertising, producing and directing award-winning TV commercials. As a filmmaker he has written and directed several shorts. His film RUN! was honoured at the Venice Film Festival. He is also the author of After the Smoke Cleared, the sequel to this book. He now lives in Toronto with his wife Terrye and speaks often to groups about his experiences during the Holocaust.

Robson Press UK 2013 Mexico Diana/Planeta 2009 Dozens of translations/editions US, Can rights available

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Susan Ferrier MacKay

Butterfly of Venus

Dragonfly of Venus

t age 40, Elizabeth Susan Ferrier MacKay Harding, head of a is a journalist and writer who lives hugely successful music talent agency, is nursing a brooutside Toronto. ken heart and harboring a sexual secret- she has never experienced satisfaction with a partner.

Dragonfly of Venus was uthor Susan Ferrier published in German MacKay adroitly blends with Butterfly of Venus an exciting tale with an erotic by Droemer. heart. Elizabeth and Declan are now nested in a secluded retreat in Scotland, saturated in wedded bliss as parents of adorable twins.

Entering her world is Declan Thomas, a stunningly attractive, brilliant young singer/songwriter. Despite her fear of mixing business with romance, and the fact that Declan is 16 years her junior, Elizabeth is won over by the confident young man urging her to share her steamy sexual fantasies with him.

Declan, a star musician, tears himself away to fly out for a short gig. His plane crashes on an isolated rocky Scottish shore and, unbeknownst to others, he wanders in delirium, waiting for rescue. While Elizabeth awaits news, paralyzed by grief, Natasha, the woman who is obsessed with Declan, again works to usurp Elizabeth’s identity as Declan’s wife. As the stakes escalate, Natasha turns murderous. Can Elizabeth and Declan and their children get out alive?

But Declan also has a complex personal life. He is being stalked by a viperous, possessive former lover who insinuated herself into Elizabeth’s office. Elizabeth stands to lose everything: Declan, her business, her balance, and even her life. HarperCollins NA 2014 eBook Dromer Germany 2014

Droemer Germany 2014

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Non-Fiction

Leon Major with Michael Laing The Empty Voice How Good Acting Makes Great Opera

For opera lovers, theatre-goers, teachers and students of creative writing, and anyone interested in literature and dramatic structure… Leon Major’s 2006 production of The Barber of Seville was a highlight of 2006 season at Glimmerglass opera festival. He has been Artistic Advisor to Cleveland Opera and Artistic Director of Boston Lyric Opera (from 1998 – 2003). He has directed opera and theatre throughout the Americas and Europe for companies that include: New York City Opera, San Diego Opera, Vancouver Opera, Teatro Municipale (Rio di Janeiro), The Opera Company of Philadelphia, Florentine Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Washington Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, the Canadian Opera Company and The Opera Festival of New Jersey.  Productions have included: Macbeth, Falstaff, Intermezzo, Don Pasquale, The Aspern Papers, Il Barbiere di Sevilla, L’Italiana in Algeri, The Merry Wives of Windsor; Intermezzo, Salome, Don Carlos, Resurrection, Aida, Don Giovanni, Salome (co-produced with Glimmerglass Opera), Roméo et Juliette, La traviata, L’elisir d’amore and Carmen (on the Boston Common). Amadeus Press World 2011

www.slopenagency.com

pera is not only voice, says Leon Major. “Composers write complex and detailed musical scores that are grounded in stories of passion and conflict, suffering and joy, forgiveness and despair. It takes place in the theater, not in a concert hall.” The story, and therefore, the acting are crucial to the theatrical experience, almost as important as voice. Opera has had explosive growth in North America in the last 20 years, in ways that it always has been popular in many European countries. One reason is that the story on which the opera is based is more accessible thanks to surtitles, translations of the opera’s words which are projected on a screen above the stage. We can follow the action, without having to sit there with a score and libretto or studying a translation for three days ahead of time Leon Major, who has spent a lifetime in the theater, helps us find the dramatic action of the opera by using key scenes from some of the world’s best-loved operas. Witty, anecdotal, even gossipy, he brings us opera from the inside out, showing us how the director works with musicians, singers, and designers. Leon Major is founder and artistic director of The Maryland Opera Studio for the University of Maryland, College Park, where he has directed many productions including operas by Handel, Monteverdi, and Mozart.  He has also taught in Tel Aviv, Mexico City and Shanghai, as well as in the United States and Canada. Michael Laing is an education policy consultant and writer who has always loved opera, but who never thought it was more than a collection of greatest hits until he started working with Leon.

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Non-Fiction

Michael Marrus Lessons of the Holocaust

Praise for Lessons of the Holocaust: “Academic memoir, erudite historiographical essay, provocative challenge to a flood of clichés, thoughtful analysis of the nature and purpose of the historical profession, and intellectual feast—Michael Marrus’ Lessons of the Holocaust is all of these and a constant delight to read.”

Christopher R. Browning

“An important argument, relevant to scholars and popular audiences alike: that we must challenge, even discard, our unquestioned pieties regarding the Holocaust. This is an excellent, stimulating book, sure to be both well received and widely discussed.” Susannah Heschel

“Fascinating book by one of the masters...”

Yehuda Bauer

hen the eminent historian Michael Marrus was a student at Berkeley in the 1960’s, the Holocaust—the great catastrophe of European Jewry—was hardly a footnote to the study of WWII. However, as the full horror of Germany’s Nazi regime emerged, the Holocaust grew to become a central and confounding event of the 20th Century. As knowledge about the genocide of European Jews has exploded, the quest to distil its “lessons” has intensified. What can we learn from the Holocaust? Is there a redemptive message, or “take away” that may help prevent such depravity in the future? Teasing these lessons out of the ashes of World War II is far more complex than familiar platitudes might suggest. Who defines the lessons? Where do we look for them—to the victims, to the perpetrators, to the bystanders, to the political leaders? How do we commemorate or memorialize the Holocaust? Indeed, are there lessons? Michael Marrus, an internationally renowned historian and expert on the Holocaust, brings us into the conversation as he surveys this urgent question. Here are such authorities as Hannah Arendt, Elie Wiesel, Primo Levi, Raul Hilberg, Emil Fackenheim, Christopher Browning, Daniel Goldhagen, and others. Yet, they often come up short on definitive “lessons.” In this brief, sharp, stimulating analysis by a historian still totally engaged with his subject, Marrus offers the reader a new approach to the Holocaust lessons so many of us seek. Michael Marrus is the author of The Holocaust in History, The Nuremberg War Crimes Trial 1945-46: A Documentary History, Vichy France and the Jews (with Robert O. Paxton), and Some Measure of Justice, on Holocaust restitution. He is a Fellow of Massey College at the University of Toronto and the Wolfe Professor Emeritus of Holocaust Studies. He is a member of the Order of Canada.

University of Toronto Press 2016

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Non-Fiction

Dona Matthews and Joanne Foster Beyond Intelligence: Secrets for Raising Happily Productive Kids

T kids.

Dona J. Matthews, Ph.D was founding director of the Center for Gifted Studies and Education, Hunter College, City University of New York. In 2008, she received the Upton Sinclair award for her “outstanding contribution to the field of education in America.” Joanne F. Foster, Ed.D is a leading authority on gifted education. She teaches courses in educational psychology and high-level education at the University of Toronto, provides consultancy services to teachers, and serves on advisory committees. She writes a featured column in the journal Parenting for High Potential. Learn more at: www.raisingsmarterkids.net “Parents everywhere will be edified and empowered by this inspiring book.”

Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

here are thousands of books about dealing with problem children, but few about nurturing children’s intelligence and raising smarter

Intelligence is not fixed from an early age, and all children can be helped to develop their intelligence, regardless of their IQ or starting point. Two internationally recognized experts in high-level development, use their extensive experience with children, families, and schools to give parents practical techniques to improve their children’s success in school and life. What is intelligence? What can parents and teachers do to nurture it when it isn’t obvious, and support it when it is? Enrolled in advanced classes as children, and as parents of diverse learners, Dona and Joanne have long grappled with the challenges and opportunities of high-level ability. In Beyond Intelligence, they reveal how parents can identify a child’s abilities, foster creativity, bolster effort and persistence, prevent or alleviate emotional and social problems, and provide a balance of support and challenge at home and at school. They show how to embrace failures as learning opportunities and to praise children not for their intelligence but for their efforts. They draw on insights from current brain research to show that intelligence is not fixed, and can be increased. Through myriad anecdotes from their case files, and in a warm reassuring voice, they offer practical suggestions and strategies for raising smart, well-balanced, happily productive children. Dona Matthews and Joanne Foster are the authors of the award-winning Being Smart about Gifted Education, a finalist in the National Best Books 2009 Awards sponsored by USA Book News.

Anansi (World) 2014

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Non-Fiction

Ken McGoogan 50 Canadians Who Changed The World

mazing people who have built our present and are shaping our tomorrow.

“Ken McGoogan is required reading for any Canadian who wants to know the real history of our country.” —Peter Mansbridge

“McGoogan is rapidly becoming the rightful successor to populist historian Pierre Berton.” —Toronto Star

Using the successful format of How the Scots Invented Canada, Ken McGoogan takes the reader on a compelling journey through the lives of fifty accomplished Canadians born in the 20th century who have changed—and often continue to change—the great wide world. He discovers an astonishing array of activists, humanitarians, visionaries, scientists and inventors, all of whom have made an impact internationally. From Tommy Douglas, Pierre Trudeau, John Kenneth Galbraith, Naomi Klein, Marshall McLuhan, Stephen Lewis and Roméo Dallaire to Glenn Gould, David Suzuki, Mike Lazaridis, Margaret Atwood, Oscar Peterson, Leonard Cohen and thirty-seven others, Ken McGoogan shows us why and how Canadians move in the wider world as influencers and agents of progressive change. Say hello to fifty Canadians who are shaping the future. Ken McGoogan is the bestselling, author of three previous books on Arctic explorers and adventurers, Fatal Passage, Ancient Mariner and Lady Franklin’s Revenge. His awards include the Christopher Award, the Pierre Berton Award, the Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize. Fatal Passage, the story of explorer John Rae and his confrontation with Lady Jane Franklin and Charles Dickens, has been adapted for an acclaimed film, which was released in the UK, US and Canada in 2008.

HarperCollins CAN 2013

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Non-Fiction

Ken McGoogan How The Scots Invented Canada

N “...[written with] lively intelligence and [a] keen eye for detail... How the Scots Invented Canada provides a pleasurable way to get to know many of the most colourful men and women in our history.”

Globe & Mail

“McGoogan’s How the Scots Invented Canada isn’t presenting Scottish influence as absolute on the evolution of Canada, but certainly an essential one... A magnificent, rich compilation of Canadian (and Scottish) histories.” Author Rob McLennan

“All in all, there are about five million good reasons to read McGoogan’s book.” Winnipeg Free Press

o matter where you enter the history of Canada – through exploration, politics, business, education or literature -- you find that the Scots and their descendants have played a leading role. Today, almost five million Canadians identify themselves as Scottish, and their influence is felt throughout the land. Starting with his own deep roots in Scotland and early Canada, Ken McGoogan has created a lively, entertaining narrative that focuses on more than sixty Scots who have led the way in shaping this country. Early arrivals included explorers Alexander Mackenzie, Simon Fraser and the “Scotch West Indian,” James Douglas. Later, Scots such as Lord Selkirk and John Galt encouraged thousands to immigrate. Nation-builders followed, among them John A. Macdonald, James McGill and the reformer Nellie McClung. Then came the visionaries, Scottish Canadians such as Tommy Douglas, Doris Anderson and Marshall McLuhan, who have turned Canada into a nation that revels in diversity. McGoogan commemorates the first settlers to land at Pictou, Nova Scotia, and celebrates such hybrid Canadians as the Cherokee Scot John Norton, Thérèse MacDonald Casgrain and the kilt-loving John George Diefenbaker. He honours the war contributions of Scottish Canadian regiments, and he toasts Sir Walter Scott and the beloved Robbie Burns. Beautifully illustrated and handsomely packaged, How the Scots Invented Canada is an exuberant celebration of the building of a nation.

Ken McGoogan is the bestselling, author of three previous books on Arctic explorers and adventurers, Fatal Passage, Ancient Mariner and Lady Franklin’s Revenge. His awards include the Christopher Award, the Pierre Berton Award, the Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize. Fatal Passage, the story of explorer John Rae and his confrontation with Lady Jane Franklin and Charles Dickens, has been adapted for an acclaimed film, which was released in the UK, US and Canada in 2008. HarperCollins Canada 2010

www.slopenagency.com

Learn more at: kenmcgoogan.blogspot.com Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Non-Fiction

“His biography is detailed and compulsive.” The Mail on Sunday (London)

“...an exhaustive and scrupulously researched biography.”

Sara Wheeler Times of London

HarperCollins Canada 2005 Bantam United Kingdom 2007

Ken McGoogan

Lady Franklin’s Revenge

Fatal Passage

Born into a wealthy London family in 1791, Jane Griffin was denied the opportunities available to men of her class. Yet she became a world traveler, and with her husband Sir John Franklin presided over Tasmania. She helped Franklin seize the leadership of a Royal Navy expedition to find the shortcut to China. After he disappeared in the Arctic, Jane dispatched seven doomed expeditions to find him, and became the most important person in Arctic exploration.

“In Ken McGoogan’s artful telling, John Rae emerges from the shadows to take his place among the most intriguing of the 19th century arctic explorers. This is delightful reading.” Andrea Barrett

Carroll & Graf USA 2002 Bantam Press UK 2002 HarperCollins Canada 2001 Film PTV

The Observer

“A gripping tale of genuine adventures, very well told.”

Kirkus Reviews

Bantam Press UK 2004 Carroll & Graf USA 2004 HarperCollins Canada 2003

Rae’s heroic achievements were almost wiped from history by Franklin’s widow who enlisted Charles Dickens in her campaign against him.

Ken McGoogan

Ancient Mariner

Race to the Polar Sea

Samuel Hearne, the first European to reach the Arctic coast of North America, made a remarkable 3500mile journey over land in his quest for copper.

“Brisk, readable books don’t come much better than this.”

In May 1854, John Rae, a young Scottish doctor, achieved the goal dozens of Arctic explorers had attempted and failed. He discovered the key link in the Northwest Passage, and he learned the shocking truth of cannibalism among the starving crew of the expedition led by Sir John Franklin.

The harrowing expedition culminated in the infamous massacre of Bloody Falls in 1771. Later, Hearne was captured by the French in a siege against his Arctic outpost. He was torn away from his lover, a native woman, who tragically died before he could return to her.

Elisha Kent Kane, a young Philadelphia doctor, is often proclaimed to be America’s Shackleton. He led two gruelling expeditions in the 1850s to the North Pole. “An impressive case for the bravery and importance of the explorer who first identified the Greenland ice sheet.”

The young adventurer’s rightful place in Arctic legend was ruined by his love for an unsuitable woman.

“Terrifically accessible.”

Arctic Whiteout: A discovery of the Northwest Passage and the hidden truth about John Franklin.

Publishers Weekly Kirkus

Counterpoint US 2008 HarperCollins Canada 2008

NEW PROPOSAL:

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Non-Fiction

Michael McGuire Believing

The Neuroscience of Fantasies, Fears, and Convictions

ichael McGuire is a psychiatrist by training, a neuroscientist by occupation and a preeminent figure in brain-behavior research.

Michael McGuire is author or coauthor of 5 books, notably Darwinian Psychiatry (Oxford University Press) and God’s Brain. His research findings on serotonin levels and its links to dominance in vervet monkeys has been featured in the New York Times and Newsweek. His distinguished academic career includes positions at Harvard Medical School, University of California Medical School , Director UCLA’s non-human primate research facility for 20 years and Director, Gruter Institute of Law and Behavior. He lives in northern California. “An important book for any believer who now wants to know.”

—Jay R. Feierman, The Biology of Religious Behavior

“From marketing soft drinks to managing genocidal wars, the brain and its beliefs remain central. Believing will clarify how and why. It may even protect you.”

Lionel Tiger, Charles Darwin Professor of Anthropology, Rutgers University Prometheus NA 2013 Peppermint KOR 2014 Obeikan Saudi Arabia 2015

www.slopenagency.com

His interest in the mechanisms and persistence of beliefs was ignited by a tearful psychiatric patient, who, for years was unable to accept that her parents, whom she loved, were her biological parents, even in the face of overwhelming evidence. Her difficulty believing irrefutable evidence led McGuire to undertake decades of research involving vervets and chimpanzees. In this short and lively book, McGuire recounts his investigation on the latest contributions of philosophers, historians, cognitive psychologists, theologians, evolutionary biologists, and brain scientists. Notably, McGuire also draws on his own research on the role of serotonin. Each discipline has something enlightening to offer, but none is sufficient. However, nowhere is there a more complete or entertaining summary of current knowledge on belief. And surprises abound. *Belief does not cause action; action often comes first. *We believe we have made a decision or a plan, that we have free will and choices are not random, but biology says otherwise. *The default state of beliefs is resistance to change. *The brain is the product of millions of years of evolution and the mechanisms responsible for belief are unperceived in awareness. *The brain, its mechanisms and its ways of processing information are unlikely to change soon. McGuire addresses features suggested in Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman and The Believing Brain by Michael Shermer but in their work, the biological mechanisms responsible remain to be specified. It is these that McGuire addresses.

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Angela McIntyre Vicky Sula and The Playboys

he rhythms and soul of jazz in the 1920s throb in this novel of Vicky Sula, an accomplished upright bass player who dreams of leading her own band.

Angela McIntyre, born in Whitehorse, Yukon, now lives in Calgary as an event coordinator for literary festivals and runs a jam session Sunday nights at a dive bar. She recently worked under the guidance of celebrated author Tayari Jones at the Napa Valley Writers Conference in California. This is her first novel.

Raised by an impoverished single mother on Chicago’s south side, she began touring in the U.S. for the Chautauqua which brought culture to the “masses.” But she was lured to Chicago’s wild side where illegal booze flowed, sex was menacing, and murderous gangsters ruled. Get on the wrong side of power and you’re dead. When Vicky’s mobster boyfriend Joe is sent north to Moose Jaw, a prairie town in Canada, to seize control of whisky running, Vicky and her band, The Playboys, go with him. It is her chance to live out her dream -–if she can survive. Moose Jaw, equipped with maze of underground tunnels used by gangsters to run contraband booze to the rail station and to house illegal Chinese immigrants, is a marvel of corruption and surprise. Vicky, whose silky flapper dress conceals a tiny pearl handled gun strapped to her garter, is shocked to encounter a young woman chained to a bed and abused as a sex slave. She is Yoo Lin, who was following in her father’s footsteps of challenging the Chinese regime and was forced to flee. Vicky liberates Yoo Lin and vows to protect her. Although love can bloom in such toxic soil, it can’t flourish unless Vicky can get both of them out alive.

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Mystery Series The youthful, reserved Portia is growing in confidence and enlarging her social circle. Flirtatious men are vying for her attention; and she has made a close friend, a lively female journalist who becomes a little too interested in one of Portia’s suitors.

Sherlockians rejoice! There is a new detective at 221 Baker Street in 1930, and she is a treasure. At age 19, Portia Adams inherits the now famous London townhouse from her late grandfather and Sherlock’s accomplice, Dr. John Watson.

“Misri has made a clever contribution to Sherlock Holmes spin-off literature. Jewel of the Thames will introduce younger readers to the Holmes world while also appealing to seasoned Sherlock fans.” CM Magazine

While studying law, Portia proves her detective skills when she unmasks a jewel theif, avoids wrongly accusing an innocent woman of murder, and thwarts a child abduction. And then the shock: her guardian Mrs. Jones is really the notorious Irene Adler, the on-again, offagain lover of Sherlock Holmes. Their son was Portia’s father!

“Thrice Burned is like having new Sherlock Holmes mysteries to read, only now starring an inquisitive and astute young woman in London of the 1930s. And it works so, so well. Elementary, wouldn’t you say?” -CanLit for Little Canadians

A successful assignment in Italy assisting the young Principessa was a welcome respite from London and life at 221 Baker St. Home again, Portia confronts Sherlock’s disappearance after his rooms catch fire and the strange behavior of her erstwhile boyfriend, Gavin.

“Portia Adams will prove to be a whip-smart, worthy new heroine.” Quill and Quire

Home again, Portia is disconcerted by the men in her life. Her secretive, elusive grandfather Sherlock Holmes has vanished again and his rooms are destroyed by fire. Gavin, her erstwhile boyfriend who was so quick to claim her, is distancing her in favor of unsavory friends. And Brian, her rock and best friend is behaving strangely.

The trio of mysteries in Thrice Burned involve arson, art theft and the disappearance of women damned by a local priest. But it is the characters, the way Portia’s mind works to solve the mysteries, and her charm that are captivating, and satisfying.

Angela Misri has worked at the CBC as a news writer, radio producer, digital producer and manager of digital strategy. She now develops web sites and teaches journalism at Ryerson University. She is married and the mother of a 12-yearold son. She also is writing more adventures for Portia Adams, a Sherlockian tour de force suitable for all ages. “A clever and successful contribution to the mythos of Sherlock Holmes…” -The Book Lounge

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Kim Moritsugu The Showrunner All About Eve meets The Devil Wears Prada

im Moritsugu’s novel The Showrunner is set inside the high stakes world of TV series production in Hollywood.

Kim Moritsugu lives in Toronto where she gives walking tours of Toronto’s North Rosedale neighbourhood, sings in a rock choir, and teaches creative writing through the Humber School for Writers. Praise for The Oakdale Dinner Club “Witty, smart, sarcastic, The Oakdale Dinner Club is a compelling read.”

– Eva Stachniak, author of The Winter Palace and Empress of the Night.

“You know when you’re reading a book and it’s so delicious that you can’t decide whether to savor or devour it? It’s like a smart, sarcastic soap opera (Gossip Girl for grownups).”

— Robin Spano, author of the Clare Vengel Undercover Novels.

“I had no idea that reading could be so much fun! This novel is a delicious romp – social satire blended nicely with food and sex, a wonderfully wicked combo.”

– Isabel Huggan, author of Belonging

Stacey McCreedy is the new young firecracker in the Hollywood firmament. She began her career a few years earlier as an acolyte to Ann Dalloni the industry legend. Clever and ambitious, Stacey originated and developed the concept for The Benjamins, brought it to Ann who was her boss at the time, and extracted a partnership agreement to coproduce it and to run it jointly. The show is a mega hit, and Stacey is now chafing to fly on her own, free from Ann’s tyranny. At 63, Ann struggles to hide her increasing vulnerability –she is losing her eye sight, her marriage is crumbling, she is gaining weight, drinking too much, and acting inappropriately. Her distrust and criticism of Stacey is increasing. So far, so stable. Then Ann hires a delightful young assistant, Jenna Kuyt, an out of work actress, who is trying to restart her washed up career at age 20-something. The sweet little thing is a master of manipulation, picking her way through minefields as the animosity between Stacey and Ann becomes murderous. Kim Moritsugu walks the delicate lines of farce and satire with agility, but readers, in a shock of recognition, will find it realistic. Kim Moritsugu is the author of six previous novels: the romantic comedy Looks Perfect (shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award), the domestic comedy Old Flames, the literary mystery The Glenwood Treasure (shortlisted for the Arthur Ellis Best Crime Novel Award), the domestic novel The Restoration of Emily (serialized on CBC Radio’s Between the Covers), the Rapid Reads short novel And Everything Nice, and The Oakdale Dinner Club.

Manuscript available

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Memoir

Shannon Moroney Through The Glass

Shannon Moroney speaks widely on restorative justice. She is also a teacher in Toronto. Learn more at: www.shannonmoroney.com Praise for Shannon Moroney: “A compelling documentation of a flawed penal system, a nuanced look at the humanity of a violent criminal, and a snapshot of the cognitive dissonance required by romantic love. Most of all, it’s a meditation on forgiveness.” - Maclean’s

“A remarkable story... of love and betrayal, of a horribly broken man’s hidden bbrutality and his ex-wife’s boundless capacity to forgive.” - National Post

UK Title: The Stranger Inside

hen Shannon Moroney married in October of 2005, she had no idea that her happy life as a newlywed was about to come crashing down. One month after her wedding, a police officer arrived at her door to tell her that her husband, Jason, had been arrested and charged in the brutal assault and kidnapping of two women. In the aftermath of these crimes, Shannon dealt with a heavy burden of grief, the stress and publicity of a major criminal investigation, and the painful stigma of guilt-by-association, all while attempting to understand what had made Jason turn to such violence.   In this intimate and gripping journey into prisons, courtrooms and the human heart, Shannon exposes the far-reaching impact of Jason’s crimes, the agonizing choices faced by the loved ones of offenders and the implicit dangers of a correctional system and a society that prioritizes punishment over rehabilitation, and victimhood over recovery. Through it all, Shannon retained unwavering support from her closeknit family and golden circle of friends. In forging her own path to forgiveness –to let go of hope for a better past-- she won a fellowship to complete a Master’s degree in International Child Welfare in England at the University of East Anglia. She speaks internationally on restorative justice and has extensively toured Canada and the U.S., addressing university and high school students, prison inmates, legal and mental health professionals and law-enforcers on the ripple effects of crime for all victims and for society at large. She is a volunteer with Leave Out ViolencE and is a contributor to The Forgiveness Project, an international charity that encourages people to explore the nature of forgiveness and alternatives to revenge. Her radio documentary, In Harm’s Way, aired on CBC’s The Current in fall 2015.

Doubleday Canada Fall 2011 Simon & Schuster US 2012 Smon & Schuster UK 2013

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Donna Morrissey The Fortunate Brother

“H The exuberance of Donna Morrissey’s fans is boundless. Her six novels have been compared to Dickens, Hardy, Shakespeare and the Bible. Her literary awards are numerous, and her books have been widely published and translated into German, Japanese, Swedish, and Italian. Born in The Beaches, a small fishing outport on west coast of Newfoundland, she now lives in Halifax, Canada. Praise for Donna Morrissey: “Irresistible...Masterful...The rich, rocky terrain of Newfoundland has borne a native storyteller with talent to burn in Donna Morrissey.” Sunday Tribune, Dublin

er writing has what Chekhov called an indispensable layering of fact and feeling,” said author Howard Norman, one of her fans which include Thomas Keneally, Vincent Lam, and Alistair MacLeod. With The Fortunate Brother Donna Morrissey surpasses her previous accomplishments. We once again see the full range of human longing, redemption and exultation through life in a remote fishing village in the North Atlantic. Here, great environmental and technological disruptions shake both land and society. The fish are gone, taking livelihood too. It is a real place but it takes on a mythic timelessness in Morrissey’s powerful story which weaves love, grief and murder. Kyle Now, the 20-year old youngest son of Sylvanus and Addie, is a charming, popular young man. With the tragic death of his brother Chris who perished in a violent explosion in the western oil fields, Kyle feels that it is his responsibility to shoulder the family burdens. His mother, the family’s tower of strength, is undergoing cancer treatment, while his father Sylvanus takes refuge in drinking. Threatening their fragile balance are two men who menace the community. One is the feral Trap who is suspected of causing Chris’s death in the oil sands. The other is Clar Gillard, the abusive husband of Addie’s friend Bonnie. Clar’s vicious insanity was glimpsed when he tied Bonnie to a chair and sprayed her with oven cleaner.

The Sunday Times (London)

Kyle and his father have a nasty altercation with Clar Gillard and when he is found dead on their doorstep, they are suspects in his murder. Desperately, father and son struggle to protect the other from arrest and to hide their danger from Addie.

Penguin Random House Canada 2016

Even tiny, isolated communities harbor secrets, newcomers and outsiders who create turmoil in the social dynamic. Even here there are police seeking to re-establish order. With such simple materials Donna Morrissey has fashioned a breathtaking masterpiece, taut with suspense and infused with compassion.

“Morrissey summons energy ... the writing is poised, charged and tactile, almost biblical in places.”

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Donna Morrissey The Deception of Livvy Higgs

A stunning multi-generational saga of secrets and lies

Nominated for the 2013 Ontario Library Association Evergreen Award “This hauntingly beautiful novel lingers in the imagination like the sight of a storm-churned ocean, and confirms that Morrissey is one of Canada’s great storytellers.” Vincent Lam

“Haunting, emotionally insistent, lyrical and powerful in its portrait of two unforgettable women whose fates are entwined by a violent act, this is Donna Morrissey’s best work yet. Her writing has what Chekhov called “indispensible layering of fact and feeling.” Morrissey has brought the WWII era into the present with the disturbing intimacy of a seance. A rare accomplishment.” Howard Norman

he childhood of Livvy Higgs, in the idyllic, isolated fishing village on the French shore of Newfoundland was a battleground of bitterness and lies. There were tensions, veering on hatred, between those of French ancestry and those with English roots, like her father Durwin Higgs, owner of the general store. But there was also the animosity between her parents. Her doting mother fed her a thick gruel of confusion, born from the lies she imbibed from her mother Creed, who masked her humble beginnings behind a cloak of aristocracy. The death of Livvy’s mother and her growing feelings for the French boy next door prompted Durwin to cast her out from the village to live with grandmother Creed in Halifax. We meet Livvy near the end of her life as she begins to cut through the web of truth and deception that shaped her. Thanks to her caring next door neighbor Gen, a young single mother with a story of her own, Livvy completes her journey toward understanding, clarity, acceptance and love. The Deception of Livvy Higgs is a tour-de-force, a story involving the powerful forces of greed, pretensions, old wounds, terrible crimes, and the healing balm of forgiveness. Donna Morrissey grew up in the Beaches, a small fishing outport in Newfoundland. Her four previous, award-winning novels, drawing on her roots in that rich and rocky terrain, have been bestsellers in Canada and published in several languages, including German, Japanese, Swedish and Italian. She lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Penguin Can 2012

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Donna Morrissey

What They Wanted

Sylvanus Now The time is the 1950s and the place is Canada’s Atlantic coast at the edge of the great Newfoundland fishing banks.

Sylvie Now fevers for the larger world, both for herself and her vulnerable, artistic brother Chris.

“An absolute terrific original.” David Adams Richards

Brother and sister journey west to the booming oilfields to earn quick, hard cash, joining rough characters. In that throbbing angry earth, their lives are changed. Yet, out of pain and piercing grief, there is reconciliation and renewal.

“Morrissey summons energy ... the writing is poised, charged and tactile, almost biblical in places.” The Sunday Times (London)

“A splendidly unique novel.”

Alistair MacLeod

Penguin Canada 2005 Hodder & Stoghton UK 2005 W.W.Norton U.S.A. 2006 Premium/DTV Germany 2007

Penguin Canada Fall 2008 DTV Germany 2008

“A Newfoundland Thomas Hardy...Morrissey’s work is a performance, an almost oral folk epic.” The Globe and Mail

Aoyama Japan 2003 Forum Sweden 2004 Houghton Mifflin US 2003 Hodder & Stoughton UK 2002 Penguin Canada 2002

This is the love story of Sylvanus Now and the fiery Adelaide. With their heartbreaking loss and renewal of passion, we are aware that Sylvanus Now’s eternal, beloved sea is on the cusp of cataclysmic change. A powerful tale of two people caught in the upheaval of personal, social, and global change of unimagined proportions.

Donna Morrissey

Downhill Chance

Kit’s Law

Job Gale, a fisherman, hunter, logger, joins the army in World War II, leaving his distraught wife and two young daughters. When Job returns, he is broken in body and tortured with a secret shame that cascades over the family.

At 14, never having known her father, Kit becomes responsible for her mentally handicapped mother when her grandmother dies. She fends off village busybodies who try to place mother and daughter in institutions.

His young daughter Clair escapes by becoming a teacher at nearby Rocky Head, then falls in love with Luke, who courts her from afar with a story which reveals his own secret sorrow.

“Irresistible...Masterful... The rich, rocky terrain of Newfoundland has borne a native storyteller with talent to burn in Donna Morrissey.” Sunday Tribune, Dublin

Throughout the turmoil, Kit is sustained by a kindly doctor and the love of Sid, son of Reverend Ropson. Confronted by shattering revelations, Kit retains her courage and resilience.

Cairo Italy 2009 Aoyama Japan 2003 Houghton Mifflin US 2003 Heyne Germany 2001 Hodder & Stoughton UK 2002

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Memoir

Marina Nemat

Prisoner of Tehran

After Tehran

Finalist for 2012 Canada Reads

O Grinzane Book Award Italy 2008 The FreePress U2007 John Murray UK 2007 Penguin Canada 2007 Artemis Netherlands 2007 Weltbild Germany 2007 Cairo Italy 2007 Quidnovi Portugal 2007 Espasa Calpe/Planeta Spain 2007 Forum Sweden 2007 TV2Forlag Danish 2007 Psichogios Greece 2007 Tammerraamat Estonia 2007 Kinneret Israel 2007 Wisdom Korea 2007 Concept Marathi 2007 Jota Czech 2007 Planeta Brazil 2007 Trivium Kiado Hungary 2007 BWP Taiwan 2008 Alnari Serbian 2008 Duc In Altum Polish 2008 JCGawsewitch French 2008 Pustaka Alvabet Indonesia 2008 Ucila International Slovenia 2009 Pegasus Yayincilik Turkey 2010 Kalimat Arabic 2010 Sarasavi Sinhalese 2011 Film option

n January 15, 1982 Marina Nemat was arrested and sentenced to death for political crimes. It was a deadly time in Ayatollah Khomeini’s new regime, when her mildly critical article of the state in her high school newspaper put her on a watch list. Marina was seized from her family’s apartment in Tehran and taken to Evin prison. In a bizarre twist, one of the Revolutionary Guards, Ali, fell in love with her and plucked her from the firing squad with only minutes to spare. In return, he demanded that she marry him. If she didn’t, he said he would ensure that her family was harmed. After Ali was gunned down by rival factions and died in her arms, Marina was eventually released.

Bestseller in Germany, Italy, Canada • 5 printings in Portugal • 2 printings in Netherlands

“...an account as graceful, honest, and revelatory as her original.”

hen Marina Nemat walks out of the notorious Evin prison at age 18, Maclean’s Magazine after being incarcerated for 2 years, 2 months, and 12 days “[a] portrait of an artist for political crimes, and crossand the evolution of an es the busy Jordan Highway activist.” Globe & Mail in Tehran to rejoin her family, she hopes to resume her life. “...a fascinating study of one woman’s struggle to But release from prison promwin back her life from ises a freedom that is elusive. the ravages of a trau- Her loving but flawed parmatic past.” ents are wary of probing the Quill & Quire details of torture and rape. Praise for Prisoner of Her high school sweetheart Andre has waited for her. Yet, Tehran she can’t tell him about her “Gripping, elegantly forced marriage to her captor, written memoir…mas- Ali, a Revolutionary Guard, or about Ali’s death, and the terly.” The Wall Street Journal miscarriage she had suffered. “Her story is unforget- She and Andre manage to table.” leave Iran to come to CanaVogue da in 1991 and to raise two “It is an act of bravery, sons. Despite her attempts to compartmentalize her presthis book” The Globe and Mail ent from her past, survivor guilt, the burden of secrets, Penguin Canada 2010 and flashbacks of the agonies Cairo Italy Nov 2010 she suffered, intrude on her Droemer Germany 2012 life as a housewife and mother Kinneret Israel 2012 with a job as a waitress at a suburban fast food restaurant.

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Short-listed: 2010 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel

James W. Nichol

Death Spiral

Transgression

Wilf McLauchlin, a Spitfire fighter pilot returns home only to be plagued with dark and violent crimes as he discovers body after body.

When Adele Georgesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; father is captured by the German forces, she makes inquiries at the local authorities. A German soldier tries to help her navigate the bureaucracy. Love grows across the enemy lines, with devastating consequences.

Wilf begins to suspect Evergreen Award, Ontario whether he is the common motivating element Library Association in all these crimes. McArthur & Co. Canada 2009 C&T Poland 2011

HarperCollins US 2009 der Club book club Germany Goldmann Germany 2007 McArthur Canada 2008 C&T Poland 2011

James W. Nichol

James W. Nichol is a

prominent playwright and screenwriter. His book Midnight Cab was

Midnight Cab

Mass market reissue McArthur & Co. Canada 2007 Sony Japan 2006 Newton & Compton Italy 2006 Droemer Germany 2005 Canongate U.S.A. 2005 Fleuve Noire France 2005 Luitingh-Sijthoff Netherlands 2005 AST Russia 2005 C & T Poland 2005 Canongate UK 2004 Knopf Canada 2002 Rest of World: Canongate

Walker has come to the city to unearth the mystery of his early life. At age three, he was found abandoned on a deserted country road. He only has two clues to his identity: a photograph and a letter from a teenage girl. Optioned by Fox TV Studios

James W. Nichol

published in several countries including Germany where it is a best seller with sales in excess of 500,000 copies. It was short listed for the Gold Dagger award in the UK, and won the Canadian Crime Writers Award for the best first novel. He is also author of the suspenseful literary tale Transgression (HarperUS 2009). He lives in Stratford, Ontario, Canada.

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Non-Fiction

Terry O’Reilly and Mike Tennant The Age of Persuasion How Marketing Ate Our Culture

CBC Radio’s Age of Persuasion won five New York Festivals International Radio Awards, including the 2011 Grand Prize in Business and Consumer Affairs

“A lively, anecdotal primer...filled with smart and breezy tales told from an insider’s perspective.”

itty, erudite, and irrepressibly irreverent, Terry O’Reilly and Mike Tennant offer a lively social history of advertising and its impact as a major cultural force in modern life.

“[A]n instant classic on media literacy.”

Terry O’Reilly is the perfect guide to the age of persuasion. As the host, creator and co-writer with Mike Tennant of two wildly popular CBC Radio series on advertising, he is known as a delightful raconteur and scholar of media literature. But unlike academics, his day job as one of the top directors of radio and TV commercials affords him a unique perspective on marketing and how it has driven a change in the way we react to media.

Washington Post

Movie Entertainment

“Witty and insightful... this ragbag of pop culture references, anecdotes, solid research, and advice will be indispensable to marketers or anyone curious about the power and ubiquity of advertising in modern culture.” Publishers Weekly

“O’Reilly and Tennant are exceptionally talented writers...In a straightforward, popular style, The Age of Persuasion is easy-to-read and often subversive.”

Globe & Mail

Terry O’Reilly has won hundreds of advertising awards and is the co-founder of Pirate Radio and Television. The Age of Persuasion is broadcast on CBC Radio and NPR’s WBEZ Chicago. Knopf Canada 2009 Counterpoint US 2010 Cheers Publishing China 2010

www.slopenagency.com

The age of persuasion dawned in the 1880s with the rise of ad agencies. In its fledgling years, advertising was defined as “salesmanship on paper.” That concept was left in the dust with the explosion of media and consumerism. Radio in the 1920s and television in the 1950s spawned market research and the idea of persuasion as a “science.” The creative explosion in the 1960s, however, revealed persuasion to be a delicate “art.” In the 1980s, the arrival of a multi-channel universe and MTV’s rapid-fire editing of images and sound, forever altered our attention span and notions of fast and slow, short and long. Terry O’Reilly has another wildly successful show on CBC radio and Sirius, titled Under The Influence. The show has more than one million listeners, plus 60,000 weekly downloads. Its awards include the Grand Trophy at the New York Radio Festival two years in a row. Terry has been signed by Random House Canada for a book with the working title Lessons from Under the Influence for publication in early 2017. US rights for it are available. A partial manuscript or detailed proposal will be available fall 2015.

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Non-Fiction

Terry O’Reilly This I Know

Smart Marketing for Small Business

on’t outspend the competition, outsmart them!” says Terry O’Reilly.

Terry O’Reilly has won hundreds of advertising awards as a copywriter and commercial director, and is the co-founder of Pirate Radio & Television. Under the Influence is broadcast on CBC Radio and WBEZ Chicago. His audience abroad includes listeners in Britain, Germany, France, Ireland, Sweden, Australia, Japan, China, Philippines and Mexico. The New York Festival awarded the show the Grand Trophy as the Best Radio Program in 2011 and again in 2012. In 2011, iTunes named the show the Best New Podcast of the year, and in 2015 listed it as one of their top podcasts.

O’Reilly is a leading expert on advertising and a life-long practitioner of the marketing arts. He turned his passion into two immensely popular radio series on CBC radio and Sirius networks where he has more than one million listeners a week and more than 9 million podcast downloads. (Ironically, the CBC radio network carries no ads.) This I Know breaks down the techniques of advertising into 15 chapters, enlivened with anecdotes and examples, written in his same warm voice that captivates radio listeners. The contents include: *analyzing what business you are in; *perfecting your elevator pitch; *strategy --and the difference between strategy and tactics; *the power of evoking emotion in advertising; *the joys of narrative; *how to make a persuasive presentation; *timing is everything *going the extra inch *your personal brand His earlier book The Age of Persuasion: How Marketing Ate Our Culture (with Mike Tennant) was a bestseller. The Washington Post called it, “a lively, anecdotal primer…filled with smart and breezy tales….” Movie Entertainment dubbed it “an instant classic on media literacy.” Publishers Weekly said: “Witty and insightful…(it)will be indispensable to marketers or anyone curious about the power and ubiquity of advertising in modern culture.” This I Know offers strategic advice to small companies who crave the high-level thinking and marketing approach of Fortune 500 firms but can’t afford big agency fees. This book is for them.

Manuscript Available Knopf Canada 2016

www.slopenagency.com

Click here to listen to Under the Influence on CBC Radio. Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Mystery

Andrea Geddes Poole Death in a Past Tense

T Andrea Geddes Poole is a graduate lawyer, with a Ph.D in history, experience in commercial litigation, theater management and teaching and writing history.

he French-born baker who fled Paris in the turbulent 1960s for Brooklyn, New York, returns briefly 40 years later to visit his dying mother. When he is found murdered under a bridge on the Seine, the police investigation is assigned to the urbane, wry, intellectual commissaire Maurice Lalonde. At first, the baker, Jean-Marc Verdurin was thought to have left France to avoid the French military draft. But Lalonde and his commandant, Dupont, are struck by Verdurin’s collection of three articles from different newspapers, each reporting a routine school opening attended by local politicians. As Lalonde develops a time-line of Verdurin’s activities during his short family visit, he uncovers a complex past for the secretive baker. The trail leads to Verdurin’s youthful, tragic error, and his role as a witness in a major scandal in French politics. Lalonde’s suspenseful exploration contains splendid details of French life—notably, food, sharp depictions of social class and status wars, insights into the functions of bureaucracy, and the rise of a nasty conservative wing in French political life.

Manuscript available

www.slopenagency.com

Andrea Geddes Poole, who has French roots, was born in London, Canada in 1959, earned a B.A. in history from Bennington College, a B.A. and M.A. in law from Oxford University, an LL.M. in law from New York University and a Ph.D. in History from the University of Toronto. She practiced law in New York in the 1980’s. In the 1990’s she worked in theater with Circle Repertory Company and the La Jolla Playhouse. From 2006 to 2012 she taught history at Trent University. She is the author of Stewards of the Nation’s Art: Contested Cultural Authority 1890-1939 (UTP, 2009), andThe Construction of Victorian Women’s Citizenship: Miss Emma Cons and Lady Frederick Cavendish (UTP, 2014). She is now adding novelist to her portfolio of impressive accomplishments.

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Non-Fiction

David Posen Is Work Killing You?

A Doctor’s Prescription For Treating Workplace Stress

D In 1985 Dr. Posen switched from family medicine to stress management, lifestyle counseling psychotherapy and speaking. Clients include American Express, Warner Bros., Chevron, Pfizer, Research in Motion, Kraft, Microsoft, and Rogers Communications. He is quoted in such leading magazines as McCall’s, Men’s Health and USA Weekend and his TV and radio appearances have aired nation-wide. Learn more at: www.davidposen.com Praise for Always Change A Losing Game “Dr. Posen teaches us, through practical and entertaining stories, how to make our lives better in every way – and inspires us to take action!” Jack Canfield, Co-author, Chicken Soup For The Soul “This book makes change seem fun rather than a chore. Begin reading any page – you’ll not want to put this wonderful book down.” Christine A. Padesky, PhD, co-author of Mind Over Mood

r. David Posen, a leading expert on stress mastery and work-life balance, is a physician, a popular speaker, and bestselling author. In Is Work Killing You?, he confronts in blunt terms those who manage the work place. Although some level of stress is energizing, excessive stress exacts a costly toll on physical and mental health. Downsizing, economic uncertainty, technology, and abusive bosses have converged to make the workplace more toxic than ever before. In Is Work Killing You? Dr. Posen challenges distorted thinking in the workplace. He posits four arguments: 1. Workplaces are making people sick. 2. No one is talking about it. 3. Stressed out workers who put in extraordinarily long hours are actually less productive. 4. The solutions are not that complicated. In his absorbing book, illustrated with revealing anecdotes, and supported by facts from a wide range of business leaders, and bolstered with a clear description of the biology of stress, Dr. Posen hopes to give individuals and organizations the tools to stop harming their most valuable resource--their employees. A Canadian bestseller, The Little Book of Stress Relief (Key Porter) has sold more than 50,000 copies and has been translated into six languages. It is re-issued for Spring 2012 by Firefly Books. Dr. Posen’s previous books include Staying Afloat When The Water Gets Rough and his classic, Always Change A Losing Game.

Anansi (CAN) 2013

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Non-fiction

David Posen

The Little Book of Stress Relief

Always Change a Losing Game

Stress has become an integral part of the way we live. In controlled doses, it helps us perform better. Peter G. Hanson, M.D. author of The Joy of Stress But, left, unchecked, stress and Stress for Success can leave us feeling fatigued and overwhelmed, and can “It’s amazing that such lead to a number of health a little book can deliver problems. “The Little Book of Stress Relief is filled with great tips and insights. And it’s fun to read!”

such an impact! Superb!”

Rita Emmett author of The Procrastinator’s Handbook

In The Little Book of Stress Relief, stress expert Dr. Da“I love this guy!” vid Posen teaches us how The Edmonton Sun to take back control of our “Perceptive, instructive, lives and regain a healthy productive and written work-life balance. in an entertaining fashion,” Dr. Ron Taylor, Toronto Blue Jays Team Physician

Small in size, light in tone, and rich in content, The Little Book of Stress Relief offers 52 prescriptions to help us make small changes that can have a profound positive effect on the quality of our lives.

“Everyone can relate to this book! Dr. Posen teaches us, through practical and entertaining stories, how to make our lives better in every way- and inspires us to take action!” Jack Canfield, co-creator of Chicken Soup for the Soul series

“This book makes change seem fun rather than a chore. Dr. Posen shows you how to turn dreams into reality. Begin reading any page- you’ll not want to put this wonder book down”

Christine A Padesky, PhD. co-author of Mind Over Mood Director, Center for Cognitive Therapy, Newport Beach, CA

“For a change: a practical book full of the clinical wisdom of an eperienced physician”

Dr. Stanley E. Greben, Psychiatrist

Translated into six languages Firefly Re-issue 2012

“Change is a cure for stress,” says Dr. David Posen, “yet many distressed people resist beneficial change. People keep losing in business, sports, politics and everyday life by following a game plan that doesn’t work. The solution is, always change a losing game.” Although change is potentially threatening, the prospect sounds liberating. It becomes a mechanism for gradually taking control of our lives. Using sports analogies, Dr. Posen helps people look at their failed strategies and shows them how they can change the situation. There is no shortage of advice in this intelligent, entertaining, and inspirational book on the curative powers of change.

Firefly Re-issue 2013

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Non-Fiction

David Pratt

David Pratt The Impossible Takes Longer

The Lives of Nobel Laureates

ince its inception in 1901, the Nobel Prize has been the hallmark of genius. The laureates are sought after for their views on the state of the world, international affairs, the He is Professor Emeri- meaning of life, love, and, tus, Queen’s University, above all, success. David Pratt, who reads widely in several languages in the arts and sciences, has been studying Nobel laureates for decades, amassing an archive of 7,200 quotations.

Canada, was educated at Oxford, Harvard, and In The Lives of Nobel LauToronto. He lives Strat- reates, David Pratt probes ford, Ontario, Canada. Nobel laureates’ life expe-

“A fanatic is the one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.”

Winston S. Churchill Nobel Prize for Literature

“Let us not then speak ill of our generation, it is not any unhappier than its predecessors. Let us not speak well of it either. Let us not speak of it at all.”

riences and hardships for Samuel Beckett clues that predict their suc- Nobel Prize for Literature cess and what we can learn “Instead of telling girls from them. Pratt’s narrative sparkles with nuggets of biography and is threaded with delightful descriptions of their prize-winning works, all informed by historical context. Wise and often funny, Pratt’s account of these fascinating people makes you think that you too may one day grasp the brass ring.

Manuscript Available

to cover their hair, we should teach them to use their heads.”

Shirin Ebadi Nobel Prize for Peace

or more than a century the Nobel Prize has honored achievements in literature, science, and civic life. Nobel science laureates have given us X-rays, penicillin, Prozac and polio vaccine. They comprise a club of the planet’s best and brightest. From the Nobel’s extraordinary collection of talent, David Pratt compiled an original archive of 7,200 quotations and for this book selected 1,000 pithy and perceptive comments. Here are some of the world’s clearest minds on subjects like: Achievement and Failure; Work; Faith; Truth; Lies; Ideals; Death; Money; Emotions; and the Meaning of Life.

Bloomsbury US 2007 Douglas & McIntyre Canada 2007 PPM Editorial Spain 2008 Ersen Estonia 2009 Robson UK 2008 Ullstein Germany 2009 Ersen Estonia 2010 Beijing Mediatime Chinese 2013

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Tierney Read Overtures A fine romance in the classic tradition

Tierney Read lives in Toronto with her husband and three children. By day, she practises as a Knowledge Management lawyer. Overtures is her first novel.

captivating romantic comedy, Overtures hits all the high notes. First, we have the “meet cute.” Zoey Barton, a talented piano student at Juilliard, chokes badly at her audition for the prestigious Artist’s Diploma program, jeopardizing her aspirations for a career on the concert stage. Offering consolation, her two friends drag her along as they crash a fund-raiser at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Fuelled by champagne and drugs, they hijack the piano for an embarrassing, impromptu performance that goes viral. But some are charmed, and Zoey is scooped up in the arms of an amused, handsome millionaire, Charlie Rutherford. The complication: Charlie, who uses sex to mask his fears of intimacy, has a mysterious past. He has been estranged from his older brother for eight years, but now with Zoey by his side, he struggles to mend the breach. However, when Zoey meets his difficult, supremely ethical, and superbly successful brother, James, she is apprehensive that she and James are more in harmony. Can she switch brothers without sacrificing her deepest family values? Does she have what it takes to pursue a life in music and thrive? The sparkling angel dust: poor but committed music students mix with Manhattan’s elite in luxurious Park Avenue apartments, cool galleries in SoHo, and gracious country estates. The glorious soundtrack is provided by Chopin and Beethoven. Irresistible!

Manuscript available

www.slopenagency.com

Tierney Read, a graduate of McGill University, once tried to impress a boy by reading Wuthering Heights. After becoming enamoured by 19th Century English Literature, she pursued her newfound interest all the way to Oxford University. Her edgy Masters’ thesis, titled Victorian Victuals: Food, Fiction and the Construction of Identity in Works by Thackeray and Dickens can be found at the Bodleian Library. Tierney also obtained a law degree from the University of Toronto, “just in case.” Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Historical Thriller

Roberta Rich The Midwife of Venice

H Roberta Rich divides her time between Vanouver and Mexico. Learn more at robertarich.com “Roberta Rich introduces a unique heroine, and her wry humour leavens a serious subject.” Globe & Mail

“The Midwife of Venice is a compelling and engaging novel, a well-researched high-stakes drama written with elegance and compassion. Fascinating!” Sandra Gulland

Globe and Mail Bestseller No. 1 BESTSELLER on Amazon.ca, and over 11 weeks on Top 100 list Doubleday Canada February 2011 Bloomsbury Berlin Germany 2011 Gallery US February 2012 MA Editions France 2012 Inkilap Kitabevi Turkey 2012 Ebury UK 2012 Juritzen Forlag Norway 2012 Medialive Content Spain 2012 Tericum Kiado Hungary 2012 Hermes Books Bulgaria 2013 Novo Seculo Brazil 2013 Kinneret Israel 2013 Court Echelle Quebec 2013 Alnari Serbia 2013 Boekencentrun Netherlands 2013 Euromedia Czech Rep. 2015 Ikar Slovakia 2015 Petrone Print Estonia 2016

www.slopenagency.com

annah Levi, a midwife in the Venetian ghetto has gained renown for her skill in coaxing reluctant babies out of their mother’s bellies using her “birthing spoons” as rudimentary forceps. One night a Christian nobleman, Conte Paolo di Padovani, appears at Hannah’s door in the Jewish ghetto with an impossible request. He implores Hannah to help his dying wife and save their unborn child. But a Papal edict has made it a crime, punishable by death, for Jews to give medical treatment to Christians. The Conte offers her a huge sum of money, enough to enable her to sail to Malta to ransom her beloved husband, Isaac. He was captured at sea and is a slave of the Knights of St. John. Hannah delivers the infant, Matteo, a child who captures her heart. As she prepares to depart for Malta to rescue Isaac, she discovers that the baby’s uncles are plotting to murder the child in order to seize the family fortune. Hannah believes she must safeguard Matteo. She enlists her sister Jessica who is a courtesan and living as a Christian outside the ghetto. An outbreak of the plague traps them in Venice and makes them easy prey for the baby’s murderous uncles. Woven through Hannah’s travails are Isaac’s hardships as a slave in Malta. Blessed with wit and charm, he earns scraps of food as a scribe and pins his hopes for freedom on bartering his precious silkworm eggs. To reach Isaac, who believes she has died in the plague, Hannah must outsmart the Padovani family and sail to Malta before Isaac manages to buy his passage to a new life in Constantinople. The Midwife of Venice, which has sold 106,000 copies in Canada alone, has been a triumph internationally. It is followed by The Harem Midwife and a new novel which continues the adventures of Hannah Levi.

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Historical Thriller

Roberta Rich The Harem Midwife

annah and Isaac return in this opulent, riveting, and suspenseful tale--a sequel to the #1 national bestseller The Midwife of Venice.

“Rich describes the opulence of royal life in Constantinople set against conspiracy and betrayal... the more heavenly the surroundings, the more treacherous the characters.”

Toronto Star

“The details of 16th-century life in Constantinople are delightfully portrayed, the storyline is compelling …. The Harem Midwife is an entertaining read, sure to please those who enjoyed The Midwife of Venice and certain to find new fans as well.”

Vancouver Sun

“Love, roses, Turkish delight, blood, babies and a plucky heroine who triumphs. A great read!”

National Post

Hannah and Isaac Levi, Venetians in exile, have set up a new life for themselves in Constantinople. Isaac runs a newly established business in the growing silk trade, while Hannah, the best midwife in all of Constantinople, plies her trade within the opulent palace of Sultan Murat III, tending to the thousand women of his lively and infamous harem. But one night, when Hannah is unexpectedly summoned to the palace, she’s confronted with Leah, a poor Jewish peasant girl who has been abducted and sold into the sultan’s harem. The Sultan favours her as his next conquest and wants her to produce his heir, but the girl just wants to return to her home and the only life she has ever known. What will Hannah do? Will she risk her life and livelihood to protect this young girl, or will she retain her high esteem in the eye of the Sultan? An adventurous, opulent and deliciously exciting read, peopled with fascinating, unforgettable characters (a court eunuch; the calculating Sultan’s mother; the beguiling harem ladies; and a very mysterious young beauty from Rome who shows up on Hannah’s doorstep causing much havoc), this novel is sure to please fans of The Midwife of Venice and extend Roberta’s reputation as one of the most beloved historical fiction authors. Roberta Rich has once again brought history to life to delight all readers. She divides her time between Vancouver and Mexico. Learn more at: www.robertarich.com

Doubleday CAN 2013 Randomhouse/Ebury UK 2014 Simon & Schuster/Gallery US 2014 Tericum Kiado Hungary 2014 Boekencentrum Netherlands 2014 Oceanida Greece 2015 Hermes Bulgaria 2015 Juritxen Forlag Norway 2015 Euromedia Czech Rep. 2015 Inkilap Turkey 2015

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Historical Thriller

Roberta Rich A Trial in Venice

n 1575, when midwife Hannah Levi rescued the newborn son of wealthy Venetian parents from being slain by his larcenous uncle, she fled with the orphaned child and her husband Isaac to Constantinople.

Praise for The Midwife of Venice: “Roberta Rich introduces a unique heroine, and her wry humour leavens a serious subject.”

Globe & Mail

“The Midwife of Venice is a compelling and engaging novel, a well-researched high-stakes drama written with elegance and compassion. Fascinating!” Sandra Gulland

Praise for The Harem Midwife: “Rich describes the opulence of royal life in Constantinople set against conspiracy and betrayal... the more heavenly the surroundings, the more treacherous the characters.”

Toronto Star

“The details of 16th-century life in Constantinople are delightfully portrayed, the storyline is compelling …. an entertaining read, sure to please”

Vancouver Sun

“Love, roses, Turkish delight, blood, babies and a plucky heroine who triumphs. A great read!”

They doted on their adopted son and allowed themselves to hope there would be no repercussions. Matteo’s entire family had perished in the plague and Hannah and Isaac were his world. But Matteo, heir to fabulous riches of the di Padovani estate, attracted the attention of Antonio Foscari, a cold scoundrel in desperate need of a fortune. Cunning and flamboyant, sporting a sinister silver nose, Foscari still is no match for his spirited accomplice, the scheming Cesca who had wormed her way into Hannah’s life. Cesca and Foscari abduct Matteo and abscond with him to Venice. Foscari plots to have the court declare him guardian—and then plans to kill the child. When Hannah, in her distress to save her child, is lured to Venice, she is arrested and jailed. She must stand trial for the murder of Matteo’s uncle. In this stew of avarice and deceit, there is one truly noble character, the esteemed architect Andrea Palladio who owns the villa adjacent to the lands once controlled by the di Padovani family. Roberta Rich secured a respected place in the gallery of historical novelists with The Midwife of Venice, which introduced Hannah. An international bestseller, it has been licensed in 18 countries. It is followed by The Harem Midwife and Trial of a Midwife. In her next novel, Roberta Rich turns to the rich period in American immigrant history—the colorful, roiling quarter of New York’s 19th Century tenement district Roberta Rich divides her time between Vancouver Canada and Colima, Mexico.

National Post Doubleday Canada April 2017

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Hilary Scharper Perdita

H “Hilary Scharper deftly mines the beauty and wonder of both the human heart and nature in this haunting tale of enduring love.” Cathy Marie Buchanan

“The story moves effortlessly between two love stories, one from a hundred years ago, the other contemporary, both depicted with plausibility... Very suspenseful, the novel kept me guessing to the very end.” Roberta Rich

“Scharper’s prose. . .is just as measured, just as alluringly oldfashioned, as many a Pulitzer or Orange Prize winner before her.”

Globe And Mail

“Canadian author Scharper (Dream Dresses) shines in this surprising and engaging gothic novel… Impeccably researched and beautifully told, this is a tale that will stay with readers long after the final page is turned.”

Publisher’s Weekly starred review Hilary Scharper

istorian Garth Hellyer is bemused when he is assigned to interview Marged Brice, a resident of Clarkson Home for The Aged as part of his work on the Longevity Project. Official records indicate that she is 134 years old, arousing suspicions of bureaucratic error or major fraud. When Garth finally meets her, he is intrigued. Marged, looking as old as polished stone, her sharp mind occasionally drifting to reverie, tells him she wants to die but Perdita won’t let her. Not too old to be charmed by Garth, she entrusts him with her journal which he takes with him to his cottage near the Cape Prius lighthouse of Marged’s childhood. This remote peninsula on the Great Lakes was a summer respite for the elite, including a renowned artist who may have been Marged’s lover, and a prominent ornithologist whom Marged assisted. But Garth is also driven by his curiosity about Perdita, the name of the infant girl in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale who is left on a seacoast to die but is rescued by shepherds.

Hilary Scharper masterfully constructs Marged’s story set in the dawn of the 1900s and its impact on the unresolved issues in Garth’s life, offering us a glorious romance of gothic and modern. Fans of Jane Eyre, Rebecca, and Possession will enjoy the rich pageant of conflicting passions, wild storms, and the mystery of the supernatural. Hilary Scharper, who lives in Toronto, spent a decade as a lighthouse keeper on the Bruce Peninsula with her husband. She also is the author of a story collection, Dream Dresses, and God and Caesar at the Rio Grande (University of Minnesota Press) which won the Choice Outstanding Academic Book Award. She received her Ph.D. from Yale and is currently Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology at the University of Toronto.

Simon & Schuster Can 2013 La Courte Echelle Can (French) 2014 Sourcebooks US 2014/15

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Joey Slinger Nina, The Bandit Queen

N Joey Slinger’s wild and dark imagination, his subversive humor, and his surprising arcs of fancy have attracted passionate fans to his humor column which appeared several times a week in the Toronto Star. He has published two collections of his columns: No Axe Too Small to Grind, which won the Leacock Medal for Humour and If It’s A Jungle Out There, Why Do I Have to Mow the Lawn? Praise for Nina, The Bandit Queen “Funny, engaging and and original. I enjoyed it thoroughly.” Joy Fielding

“Joey Slinger’s best book yet. Nina ...is the kind of person who would steal your heart and steal your wallet...Read this book and weep. With tears of laughter.” Rod McQueen

ina Dolgoy grew up in a part of town so beaten down that even prostitutes and drug dealers have written it off. Still, she imagines that if the neighbourhood pool wasn’t boarded up, a rigorous swimming program might keep her four daughters from falling into degradation. The bitterly self-proclaimed “welfare queen” leads her community on a fund-raising, pool-fixing, self-improvement campaign. Unfortunately, the only way she can think to raise money herself is by robbing a bank. Unfortunately she isn’t very good at it. Coincidentally, her brother Frank gets out of jail and robs one. But it’s a put-up job, and unfortunately he double-crosses the bad guys who hired him and takes off with the loot. After accidentally knocking him off, the bad guys conclude that he stashed the cash in Nina’s house and start dismantling it around her ears. As mother-lion courageous as this makes her, it’s no use when even trusted friends turn out to want the money for themselves and believe she’s got it and is holding out on them. Nina and the girls have to flee for their lives. But what happens when their escape in a yellow school bus turns into a sublimely bizarre slowmotion chase? With the world watching live, she somehow has to find a way to to pull the wool over everybody’s eyes. This caper-in-reverse about an unfortunate, and unfortunately misunderstood, woman would be really sad if it wasn’t presented with a frankness so staggering it knocks the legs out from under you. It’s hard for your heart to break when you’re laughing out loud.

“It’s a fun ride that does what farce is meant to do: enjoyably fill the time.”

Toronto Star

Dundurn World 2012

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Non-Fiction

Lionel Tiger and Michael McGuire God’s Brain

od’s Brain is not about whether God exists or not. It is not an assertion about whether or not religions are good, noble, necessary, a sign of infirmity, or catalogues of grand silliness.

“This is easily the best book on the nature of religion to appear for a long time.”

This book answers the essential questions of existence. What is the purpose of religion? What is its source? Why does 80% of the world’s population have some religious affiliation?

“The book is a well-written, easy to read, unique perspective on religion.”

God’s Brain describes why, how, and what the brain does as part of religious experience and organization. Neurophysiology and neuroanatomy are as necessary to understanding religion as knowing about the leg’s muscles and blood circulation is necessary to train hurdlers.

Robin Fox, University Professor of Social Theory, Rutgers University

Jay R. Feierman, editor, The Biology of Religious Behavior

“Recent, often bitter debates have lacked a scientific take on religion that is not at the same time trying to destroy it. This lively, creative account helps fill that gap. It may even help you with your own trials of faith.” Melvin Konner, author of The Tangled Wing: Biological Constraints

on the Human Spirit

“Tiger and McGuire have concocted an amazing and insightful look—based on sound science— into how the human brain ‘seeks’ religion.”

R. Curtis Ellison, MD, professor of medicine and public health, Boston University School of Medicine Prometheus Books 2010 Wise Book Korea 2011 Lannoo Dutch 2011 Alfa Turkey 2011

www.slopenagency.com

In God’s Brain, the authors consider religion’s role in socialization, its relentless obsession with regulating sex, its conceptions of an after-life, its influence on law, and the similarities between non-human primate and human social groups. They also demonstrate religion’s ability to help the brain adjust to stress and anxiety in lieu of modern-day drugs and therapy. This answer to Dawkins and Hitchens is without judgment but is scientifically and socially judicious. The story is told by a master neuropsychiatrist and an accomplished detective about the mysteries of human behavior. It is the most important book on the subject of religion to appear, for both the religious and non believers alike. Michael McGuire, MD, is the author or editor of 10 books including Darwinian Psychiatry (with A. Troisi), and he is the primary discoverer of seratonin’s crucial role in brain chemistry. He is President of the Biomedical Research Foundation, and Director of the Bradshaw Foundation and the Gruter Institute of Law and Behaviour. Lionel Tiger is the bestselling author of Men in Groups, The Imperial Animal (with Robin Fox) and The Pursuit of Pleasure. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, Harvard Business Review and Brain and Behavioural Science. He is the Charles Darwin Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University. Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Non-Fiction

Lionel Tiger Darwin’s Defeat

How The Pill Changed Everything

Lionel Tiger is the author of 10 books including Men in Groups, The Decline of Males, The Pursuit of Pleasure, and co author of The Imperial Animal (with Robin Fox) and God’s Brain (with Michael McGuire). Born in Montreal, a graduate of McGill, he was recruited from Vancouver’s University of British Columbia to Rutgers where he was the Charles Darwin Professor of Anthropology. He lives in New York City and his articles appear frequently in such leading journals as The Wall St. Journal and The New York Times. His appearances include university panels and TEDx talks. Tiger also has been an anthropoligical consultant to the U.S. Department of Defense on the future of biotechnology. His areas of study include day care, young males, college demographics, the workforce and human alienation from their biological roots. His works have been translated into many languages, such as Korean, Chinese, Dutch, French and Turkish, Japanese, and Spanish. Manuscript available www.slopenagency.com

With his world-changing book On the Origin of the Species published in 1859, Charles Darwin exploded fundamental concepts of God and sex. By revealing two immutable laws of nature –i.e. evolution of species and natural selection, Darwin joined the pantheon of scientists as foundational as Newton and Copernicus. And yet, an unforeseen seismic change occurred. In the 1960s the contraceptive pill and other reproductive technologies spread in the industrialized world, altering core elements of sexual interaction. Lionel Tiger, the Charles Darwin Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Rutgers University, notes: “Sexual selection can no longer function for humans in the manner on which the Darwinian system was predicated. We have to rethink the matter.” Tiger’s first book Men in Groups, published in 1969, was prompted by primate research revealing that relations between adult male primates differed from those with females or children. The book not only introduced male bonding into the language, it inspired female rage. Difference in biology was interpreted as inequality. Darwin’s Defeat abounds with insights on major societal changes. • The Pill works by hormonally simulating pregnancy in women. What is the effect of this on men? Tiger reports its effects on nonhuman primates. • Young men are alienated from the means of reproduction • Young men are increasingly seen as carriers of male original sin. • Women are surpassing men in education –are they studying for two? • Women are surpassing men in work but is a reported wage gap the result of a choice to slow their careers for 5 to 7 years to be with their children? • Birth rates in the industrial world are declining precipitously –47% of women of childbearing years are childless. The ensuing conversation will be lively, informative, and raucous. There is no going back. Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Non-fiction

Edward Shorter Merchants of Desire

How Porn Became Big Business

Edward Shorter who completed his Ph.D at Harvard, is Jason A. Hannah Professor of the History of Medicine Professor of Psychiatry at University of Toronto. His book The Making of the Modern Family (1975), helped launch a new field of study. He also has written on the impact of medical issues on women’s lives in A History of Women’s Bodies (1982). Since the mid 1990s Edward Shorter emerged as an internationally recognized historian of psychiatry. History of Psychiatry (1997), A Historical Dictionary of Psychiatry (2005) and Before Prozac (2009) are landmark publications. His recent book is How Everyone Became Depressed, Oxford University Press, 2013.

In 2005, Edward Shorter, the internationally respected medical and social historian wrote Written in the Flesh: A History of Desire, a groundbreaking work on human sexuality. Documenting attitudes and practices in the western world from pre-history into the 1970s, it is a tour de force. Published by University of Toronto Press, it was short-listed for a major non-fiction literary prize, the Governor General’s Award. At the time, Shorter thought he said everything there was to say about the history of sex. And then… there were new developments. The huge appetite for pornography emerged and turned into a multi-billion dollar business. The acceptance of behaviours from the pornographers’ toolkit were going mainstream as demonstrated by Fifty Shades of Grey or Amy Schumer, et al. Shorter writes: “As I got into the story, it became clear to me that the adult entertainment industry wasn’t just a source. It was part of the story. Internet porn was actually changing people’s tastes.“ Shorter is part scholar, part journalist, part social commentator. The industry is run by savvy men and women who are proud of what they do. Indeed, we in publishing know a large contingent as friends and colleagues—the eBook and print publishers like those at Random House, Amazon, Kobo, Smashwords, HarperCollins, and other merchants of erotica. The book’s table of contents includes: Early Days; From Movie House to Jimmyland; Is Porn Bad? Models; Abuse? Internet; Gonzo; In Front of the Camera, Behind the Camera; Woodsmen; Dominance; Anal; Gay/Lesbian; Toys; Camming and Dating; Black Porn; Transgendered. Readers, even the squeamish, will find Professor Shorter informative, entertaining, refreshingly straight-spoken, and unshockable.

Proposal Available

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Non-fiction

Edward Shorter Shock Therapy

A History of Electroconvulsive Treatment in Mental Illness

T Edward Shorter, Americanborn, who earned his PhD at Harvard is a renowned scholar and author. His plethora of books include the classic work A History of Women’s Bodies (Basic), A History of Psychiatry from the Era of the Asylum to the Age of Prozac (Wiley) The Historical Dictionary of Psychiatry (Oxford University Press), Written In The Flesh: The History of Desire and How Everyone Became Depressed (University of Toronto Press.) He is a professor of history at the University of Toronto. David Healy, who studied in University College Dublin, and the University of Cambridge, England, is currently a Professor of Psychological Medicine in Wales. He is the author of 15 books, including The Psychopharmacologists Volumes 1-3, and Let Them Eat Prozac from New York University Press. His most recent book is the highly acclaimed Pharmageddon (University of Californa Press). He runs the pharmacology safety website rxisk.com.

he electroshock story is one of the great unknown stories of modern medicine. Considered by many to be the penicillin for the severely mentally ill, it fell out favor in the 1960s for curious, cultural reasons. Only recently is it experiencing a comeback. This book is appealing on three levels. It is a lively and evocative social history from the 1930s to today, including recent experiments in Deep Brain Stimulation. It is illuminating on the science of the brain in mental illness. And it is a work of advocacy which will influence the thinking about shock therapy. One of the most interesting aspects in the history of medicine and culture is how and why such an effective treatment fell out of favor when there was nothing substantially better to replace it. Charles H. Kellner, M.D., Chair of the New Jersey Medical School Department of Psychiatry calls it “an important and compelling history of ECT, the life-saving but much maligned treatment. Shorter and Healy have given us a work that is at once scholarly and wonderfully readable”.

Rutgers University Press 2007 University of Toronto Press Can 2007

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Mystery

Morley Torgov Key Witness

T Praise for Morley Torgov’s Hermann Preiss series: “Torgov has just the right feel for this kind of writing, never coy, solid with his history but not allowing the facts to get in the way of a good joke.” Toronto Star

“You don’t have to be a classical music lover to enjoy this one.” Publisher’s Weekly

“Worthy of Hitchcock.”

The Whole Note

“This is a story well told: Setting, character, plot, enriched by the lifestyles and colours of the time. Murder is investigated, clues unearthed, expanded and timed to keep the reader turning the pages. Music and mystery make captivating partners.” Hamilton Spectator

he cast of Morley Torgov’s new mystery is dazzling. There is Franz Liszt, a virtuoso of the piano, and heartthrob of 19th C Europe. There is PT Barnum, the flamboyant American showman. And there is a young Mark Twain, soon to be a celebrated author and humorist. To assuage Liszt’s concerns about security, Barnum engages Dusseldorf detective Hermann Preiss who captivated readers in Torgov’s two previous mysteries set in the world of classical music. To the main characters, add Liszt’s egomaniacal American rival, a couple of avaricious manufacturers of grand pianos who are fighting to have the Maestro endorse their instruments, and two or three beauties on the prowl for opportunities. With riches, fame, and recognition on the line, corruption is inevitable and so is murder.

Morley Torgov is the author of nine novels, including two previous Hermann Preiss mysteries. Murder in A-Major featuring Robert Schumann and The Mastersinger from Minsk featuring Wagner have been translated into French, Greek, and Korean with others pending. His French publisher, Actes Sud, is printing 10,000 copies of Murder in A-Major for a special promotion. He also has written a complete working draft of a fourth Preiss novel, Twilight of A God. Tchaikovsky has journeyed with his secret male lover to Beyrueth to review a new opera by Wagner. When a naked wealthy woman is found murdered in Tchaikovsky’s bed and her fabulous ring is missing, Tchaikovsky is the suspect. Two of Torgov’s books—The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick and A Good Place to Come From—have been adapted for stage, film, and a TV series. His literary prizes include the Leacock Medal for Humour. Although his mysteries are deadly serious, his irrepressible wit is evident.

Manuscript Available

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Morley Torgov Mysteries

Morley Torgov

The Mastersinger

Murder in

From Minsk

A-Major

An Inspector Hermann Preiss Mystery

n the city of Munich, 1868, composer Richard Wagner has finally completed the libretto and score for his new opera “Die Meistersinger von Nuremberg.” After a string of extremely difficult years - Wagner’s “Torgov has just the right reputation and financial feel for this kind of writ- stability depend on the sucing, never coy, solid with cess of his new work. Morley Torgov is an award-winning author of nine novels that have been published internationally. He divides his time between writing and practising law in Toronto.

his history but not allowing the facts to get in the When an anonymous note way of a good joke.” arrives threatening WagToronto Star

ner’s premiere, Inspector Hermann Preiss is called to “You don’t have to be a classical music lover to investigate. With the premiere less than two months enjoy this one.” Publisher’s Weekly away, and an enemy list stretching from one opera “Worthy of Hitchcock.” act to another, discoverThe Whole Note ing the perpetrator before opening night will be Preiss’ Magnum Opus. Join Dusseldorf ’s top detective for another mystery in the world of classical rock stars, where life and death hang on a single note.

Dundurn Canada/US 2012 Actes Sud France 2013

The second installment in the Hermann Preiss Series.

“It’s still easy to see why, in the early days of his long writing career, Toronto’s Morley Torgov won two Leacock medals for humour... This is so even in his first venture into crime genre fiction, which shifts back in time to the 19th-century European world of what has become known as classical music.” Joan Barfoot London Free Press

ake one of the crowning musical geniuses of midnineteenth centry Europe, surround him with enemies, add several scoundrels, including one who ends up murdered under highly mysterious circumstances...and there you have the world of Robert and Clara Schumann in Germany of the 1850s. This is a historical mystery that explores what or who was driving Robert Schumann mad. It takes the reader into the world of mid-nineteenth century music, where classical composers were stars, and their egos were just as monstrous as the rock stars of today.

“This is a story well told: Setting, character, plot, enriched by the lifestyles and colours of the time. Murder is investigated, clues unearthed, expanded and timed to keep the reader turning Inspector Preiss tackles a the pages. Music and mysterious off-key A on the mystery make captivatSchumanns’ piano, but are ing partners.” Hamilton Spectator

all mysteries meant to be solved? Inspector Preiss has the final answer.

Metaixmio Publishing Greece 2009 Sallim Publishing Korea 2009 Actes Sud France 2009 Napoleon RendezVous US/ Canada 2008

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Parenting

Michael Ungar, Ph.D. I Still Love You:

Nine Tips for Parenting Really Difficult Kids

ichael Ungar, who is world-renowned on topics of families and youth in crisis, knows about troubled children. He knows what puts them at risk and he knows what makes them safe and resilient.

Michael Ungar is a Professor of Social Work, and a marriage and family therapist, based in Halifax at Dalhousie University. He is internationally recognized for his work in more than a dozen countries on resilience and at-risk youth. Learn more at: www.michaelungar.com

In this beautiful and helpful book, Michael Ungar takes us into his world each Wednesday when he meets with three families with very troubled children. But here, Michael is not the all-knowing therapist. He, too, had been a troubled teen, growing up in an emotionally neglectful and physically abusive home, and he shares his struggles. In the group, Michael discusses nine strategies for raising problem free and flourishing children. They are: structure, consequences, parent-child connections, lots of peer and adult relationships, a powerful identity, a sense of control, a sense of belonging, spirituality and life purpose, fair and just treatment by others, and safety and support. Hopeful in tone, and using knowledge gathered across cultures, I Still Love you: Nine Tips for Parenting Really Difficult Kids does more than just tell parents what to do. Recounting the stories of three struggling families, Ungar shows that it is never too late to help a child. I Still Love you is not only a guide for parents and a gritty tale of the everyday heroics of parenting challenging kids, but it is also a singular work of literature. Dr. Ungar is also the author of We Generation: Raising Socially Responsible Kids, Too Safe for Their Own Good: How Risk and Responsibility Help Teens, and Playing at Being Bad: The Hidden Resilience of Troubled Teens. He appears regularly on radio and TV and is in demand as a lecturer and keynote speaker at conferences and workshops for parents and professionals. For details see his web site www.michaelungar.com

Dundurn (World) 2015

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Non-Fiction

Michael Ungar Ph.D We Generation Raising Socially Responsible Kids

I “A must read …Michael Ungar’s book is rich in advice and anecdotes showing how we can help kids avoid the trap of ‘me, mine, and more’ and embrace instead ‘us, ours, and enough.’’

Barbara Coloroso

“Each of these eight, action-oriented chapters offers anecdotes, self-evaluation tools, lists of activities and strategies for generating excitement about being part of a wider world... [This book] is timely.”

Publishers Weekly

“In this uplifting book, Ungar reminds parents of the essential work ahead if we hope to raise socially responsible children. Children, Ungar says, “want roots, wings and an audience to appreciate them.”

Montreal Gazette

Da Capo/Perseus US 2009 Allen & Unwin Australia 2009 McClelland & Stewart Canada 2009

www.slopenagency.com

n the age-old lament about “the kids these days,” a disturbing new charge is emerging. It is becoming increasingly evident that we are raising a generation of selfish, self-centered kids with a gigantic sense of entitlement. It is bad for them and bad for society. In We Generation, Michael Ungar reassures parents and educators that they can acquire the skills to raise children to think “we” in “me” thinking times. He shows through stories from his clinical work with families and from research around the world that children want to connect. They want to be touched: physically, emotionally and spiritually. In his warm, compassionate voice, Michael Ungar provides practical suggestions on teaching children responsibility, and fostering respect and altruism. He also provides concrete suggestions on how parents can remain connected to their children at the same time that they want and need to separate. He argues persuasively that forging connections at home is still the best way to protect kids from the dangers of early sexual activity, drug abuse, delinquency and other risky behavior. Michael Ungar is a Professor of Social Work, and a marriage and family therapist, based in Halifax at Dalhousie University. He is internationally recognized for his work in more than a dozen countries on resilience and at-risk youth. Dr. Ungar is also the author of several previous books including: Too Safe for Their Own Good: How Risk and Responsibility Help Teens Thrive (McClelland & Stewart, 2007; Les Editions de L’Homme, 2008; Allen & Unwin, 2008), and Playing at Being Bad: The Hidden Resilience of Troubled Teens (McClelland & Stewart, 2007). He appears regularly on radio and TV and is in demand as a lecturer and keynote speaker at conferences and workshops for parents and professionals.

See his website www.michaelungar.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Rangeley Wallace Stubborn Love “Rangeley Wallace is a hard, fresh wind out of the south, with a voice full of particularity and a born sense of story.” Rangeley Wallace moved from the South to Washington, D.C. where she is an author and a lawyer. She is the author of No Defense (St. Martin’s Press). Learn more at: www.rangeleywallace.com

Praise for No Defense “Wallace avoids any Grishamcome-lately clichés in this interesting novel of southern justice... This page-turner of a novel is refreshing in it’s uncommon perspective, as opposed to the usual legal novel that focuses on lawyers.” Booklist

“Rangeley Wallace has written a taut, compelling Southern drama that is cut from the same cloth as Harper Lee and the early William Faulkner.” Winston Groom, author of Forrest Gump

“A riveting courtroom drama… Another fine story in the Southern literary tradition.”

Library Journal

Manuscript Available

www.slopenagency.com

Anne River Siddons

t seems like a benign case of wedding jitters when Alexa Cunningham’s ambivalence about her forthcoming marriage to the glamorous David Lassiter grips her. But in this beautifully told tale, rich in the cultural texture of the contemporary South, it points to Alexa’s unresolved issues from her past. Four years earlier, Alexa’s happy life script was written. She and her boyfriend Nick and her dearest friend Kat had moved to Carsonville, Alabama. Their plans included marriage to Nick and a position in the family business for Alexa, legal training for Nick, and medical studies for Kat. Then tragedy strikes. When Alexa and Kat are horseback riding, Kat suffers a terrible fall on one of Alexa’s horses. It leaves Kat a paraplegic, and an ensuing lawsuit against Alexa’s family envelops everyone in anger. Relationships are ruptured. Confused, abandoned by her friend, and guilt-ridden, Alexa flees her hometown and Nick, and reestablishes herself as an investment banker in Atlanta where she is swept away by the sophisticated jewellery designer David. Coming back to Carsonville to be with her father, stirs Alexa’s longings for Nick, the family construction business, and the life she expected to have. To her shock, Kat also is back in Carsonville, and once again is close to her family. Ironically, everyone has moved on except Alexa. And she has lost her footing. Can she go back? With compassion, humor and deep understanding, Rangeley Wallace weaves a story of family, friendship and love to engage the heart. Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Rangeley Wallace Things Are Going to Slide

“Rangeley Wallace is a hard, fresh wind out of the south, with a voice full of particularity and a born sense of story.”

Anne River Siddons

“Rangeley Wallace has written a taut, compelling Southern drama that is cut from the same cloth as Harper Lee and the early William Faulkner.” Winston Groom, author of Forrest Gump

“A riveting courtroom drama… Another fine story in the Southern literary tradition”

Library Journal

“

Rangeley Wallace has beautifully rendered the texture of Southern life in this gripping tale of love, betrayal, and the strength of family,” wrote Winston Groom, author of Forrest Gump. “Things Are Going to Slide is a remarkable achievement.” A law professor at a university in south Alabama, heroine Marilee’s life quickly begins to disintegrate when her husband leaves her - pregnant- for a man. A cheating former lover steals the prestigious law chair from under her nose. And, to make matters worse, at the law clinic she runs, an indigent high school girl who she’s known since childhood is accused of murdering her newborn. One reviewer described Things Are Going to Slide as “smart chick lit, mom-lit, and law-lit.” Midwest Book Review called Things Are Going to Slide “a powerful novel of chaos and recovery that will attract any interested in strong stories of professional women.” A romantic, smart page-turner, steeped in the tradition of southern literature, Things Are Going to Slide is “the kind of book that makes you keep reading long after you meant to turn out the light.” If you loved Jonathan Tropper’s This Is Where I Leave You, you’ll love Things Are Going to Slide. Rangeley Wallace moved from the South toWashington, D.C. where she is an author and a lawyer. She also has experience in a legal clinic. She is the author of No Defense (St. Martin’s Press). Learn more at: www.rangeleywallace.com

Click here for a link to the ebook

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Rangeley Wallace I Knew You When

Rangeley Wallace moved from Alabama to Washington, D.C. where she is an author and a lawyer. She is the author of No Defense (St. Martin’s Press). Learn more at: www.rangeleywallace.com

Before Annie can celebrate, her husband John lands his dream job— President of the University of South Alabama—which means moving the family from Washington DC to Carsonville and leaving the life she loves. Annie is devastated. Family comes first, though, and she reluctantly accepts a post as a “spousal hire” at USA’s law school to run a legal clinic in environmental law. The problem is that legal clinics require real legal cases and Annie, embarrassingly, doesn’t have one for the start of term.

“Rangeley Wallace has written a taut, compelling Southern drama that is cut from the same cloth as Harper Lee and the early William Faulkner.” Winston Groom, author of Forrest Gump

“A riveting courtroom drama… Another fine story in the Southern literary tradition.”

Library Journal

Manuscript Available

www.slopenagency.com

Annie Fitzpatrick is committed-- to her husband, to her kids, and to protecting the environment. She teaches environmental law at George Washington University and has been awarded a prestigious grant to stop gas companies from fracking on public lands.

Then, a great case swims into her orbit, requiring a pact with the devil. William Davidson, the great unresolved love of her youth, enlists her and her students to take the case of saving the Muskogee National Forest, which Annie has grown to love. In her college days at Stanford, Davidson, a notorious and charismatic activist, held Annie in his thrall. He betrayed her, but worse, he seduced her to stray from her ethical bedrock. It is a source of enduring shame which she has kept secret from her family and her husband. She and Billy are united once more by their passion against a common cause, even as the shadows and temptations of their history linger. With the clock ticking and the forest at imminent risk, she and Billy and her students begin the court fight of their lives. But as angry protest demonstrations divide the town and the secrets of her past go viral, the situation becomes explosive. I Knew You When is an engrossing exploration of the intensity of first love and the lengths we will go to follow our passions, It will appeal to readers of Kristin Hannah, Randy Susan Meyers and Karen White and represents Rangeley Wallace’s finest work.

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Non- Fiction

Jennifer Welsh Why the West Hasn’t Won CBC Massey Lectures

I Jennifer Welsh was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. She earned her B.A. from the University of Saskatchewan and earned her Masters and Doctorate in International Relations at Oxford where she was a Rhodes Scholar. She is the author, co-author, and editor of an impressive and distinguished list of books, articles and studies.

n 1989, the Berlin Wall was breached, the Soviet Union collapsed, and pundits declared end of the Cold War. Shock and jubilation greeted this surprising reversal of history. Francis Fukuyama famously declared in an essay that it was “The End of History.” But some 25 years after Fukuyama’s bold prediction about transcending the struggles of the past, history has returned in a form few could contemplate. The 21st Century has seen arbitrary executions, attempts to annihilate religious and ethnic minorities, starvation among the besieged, annexation of territory, and movement of masses of refugees seeking a peaceful foothold. Jennifer M. Welsh is Professor and Chair in International Relations at the European University Institute in Florence Italy, and a Senior Research Fellow at Somerville College, University of Oxford. She was previously a Professor in International Relations at the University of Oxford, and co-director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict. In 2013, she was appointed by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to serve for two years as his Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect. Jennifer Welsh applies her scholarship and her on-the-ground experiences in this book which will be accompanied by five lectures in the prestigious Massey Lectures series delivered in major Canadian cities in Fall 2016 and broadcast on radio by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The tentative table of contents may include: The Prophets of Progress on the factors that seeded optimism; The Return of the “Barbarians, ” on the rise of ISIL, and the compromise of basic principles of humanitarian law; The Return of Aggression on the Russian advancement into Ukraine; The Return of Mass Flight on the explosion of refugees and asylum seekers; The Return of Inequality on the cracks in the liberal democratic model and the risk of crumbling from within.

Anansi 2016

www.slopenagency.com

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Non-Fiction

“One of my favorite books of all time. Elegantly written and deeply moving, a book to cherish and reread.”

K. Tsianina Lomawaima Author of They Called it Prairie Light

Basil Johnston

Crazy Dave

The Manitous

Through the wrenching story of his Uncle David, native writer Basil Johnston pays loving tribute to his family, culture and reservation life.

In this masterpiece, Basil Johnston offers a spellbinding collection of the legends and spiritual teachings taken from ancient oral tradition, and recorded here.

David, born with Down Syndrome, aspired to learn and to be part of a world to which he would never belong. Funny and heartbreakingly poignant, David’s story is an unsettling reflection of a society and culture cruelly marginalized.

Minnesota Hist. Society 2002 Key Porter Canada 1999

Told through the stories of warriors, lovers, thieves, and spirits, and filled with the wisdom of an ancient tribe, these tales inform the moral teaching of the Ojibway.

Minnesota Hist. Society 2001 HarperCollins US 1996 Key Porter Canada 1996

Basil Johnston

Honour Earth Mother

Indian School Days

The great Ojibway writer offers young people tales of Mother Earth and her centrality in Native beliefs, values, and institutions.

Basil Johnston was removed as a small boy from the safety and love of his mother and sent to a harsh residential school for Natives, run by Jesuits, in the 1940’s.

This is a book in which adults will find much to enjoy and contemplate.

“No one who opens this book will close it in disappointment. It is a work to further the understanding and enrich the heart.”

Louise Erdrich

U of Nebraska Press 2004 Kegedonce Press Canada 2003

In short, this is the bible of the Ojibway people.

Despite the loneliness, deprivation and abuse endured by the children, this memoir is often warm and amusing as the boys come into maturity and stand up to their masters.

U of Oklahoma Press Key Porter Canada 1988

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Non-Fiction Henry Aubin Rescue of Jerusalem A thrilling military history and stirring political analysis of the ancient world. 2003 Jewish Book Award Editions E & C France 2007 Gold Book Kft. Hungary 2005 Soho Press USA 2002 Doubleday Canada 2002

Lita-Rose Betcherman Court Lady and Country Wife A gripping tale of two noble sisters embroiled in the romance, intrigue and scandal of 17th Century England. HarperCollins Canada2005 HarperCollins USA 2005 Wiley UK 2005

Timothy Brook The Confusions of Pleasure Ming life in all its ebullient complexity by a superb scholar and writer.

U of California Press 1998

Will Kymlicka

Tod Hoffman

Contemporary Political Philosophy

The Spy Within

A discussion of major topics of contemporary political thought including communitarianism and feminism. Oxford University Press 15+ translations

The Spy Within recounts one of the most significant cases in the history of espionage. It offers unique insight into the Chinese intelligence tradecraft and the investigation and prosecution of Larry Chin. Steerforth US 2008

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Non-Fiction William Weintraub Getting Started The adventures of Weintraub and his three friends Mordecai Richler, Brian Moore, and Mavis Gallant as they struggle to become writers.

McClelland & Stewart Canada 2001

Jeffrey Rosenthal

Howard Engel

Struck By Lightning

The Man Who Forgot How to Read

Randomness and probability explained by a warm and funny mathematician.

HarperCollins Canada World Rights 2005 Various international editions

While he slept, Engel experienced a stroke and was afflicted with the rare condition alexia sine agraphia, the inability to read. HarperCollins Can 2007 St.Martinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s US 2008 Rizzoli Italy 2008 Alma Korea 2009

Elliott Leyton

Men of Blood

Sole Survivor

An anthropologist looks at society through the lens of murder, yielding surprising insights.

Explores the world of middleclass children who slaughter their parents and siblings revealing the hidden class structure in American society.

McClelland & Stewart 1995 Reissued 2002

Blake UK Reissue 2001 McClelland & Stewart Canada

Elliott Leyton Hunting Humans Examines modern American society through the eyes of the multiple murderer and serial killer.

Alba Spain 2005 Carroll & Graf USA 2004 McClelland & Stewart Canada

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Non-Fiction Philip Slayton Lawyers Gone Bad A bestseller! True stories of money, sex and skulduggery that derail some lawyers too smart for their own good.

Michael Decter and Francesca Grosso Navigating Canada’s Health Care System An indispensable tool-kit to get the care you want when you need it.

Penguin 2007

Penguin Canada 2007

Dorothy Eber

Alan Mendelson

Encounters on the Passage

Exiles from Nowhere

A riveting narrative of Inuit oral history, which recounts their hitherto unknown tales of the explorers who searched for the Northwest Passage. University of Toronto Press 2008

This history of intellectual thought and cultural codes in 20th century Canada uncovers ‘genteel’ antiSemitism among Canada’s elite.

Robin Brass Studio 2008

Michael Decter

Ken McGoogan

Tales from the Back Room

How the Scots Invented Canada

This memoir of a young man’s experiences in the corridors of power is a reminder of what a pleasure grassroots politics can be for ordinary citizens.

A lively and entertaining narrative about the Scots and how they built a nation in the new world. HarperCollins Canada 2010

Great Plains Publications 2010

Jennifer Welsh

Margaret Wente

At Home in the World

You Can’t Say That in Canada

Examines Canada’s position, present and future, within North America and that of the wider world.

Margaret Wente knows what enrages Canadians. The Globe & Mail’s popular columnist punctures their most cherished hypocrisies.

HarperCollins Canada 2004

HarperCollins Canada 2009

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Non-Fiction

Dave Bagby

Harold Troper

Dance with the Devil

The Rescuer

The heartbreaking true story of the murder of young doctor Andrew Bagby exgirlfriend by Shirley Turner, 12 years his senior, when he tried to end their relationship.

Rights Available

Before his parents Dave and Kate Bagby could gain custody of their grandchild, Shirley murdered Zachary and killed herself.

“An important story that had to be told . . . As this book shows, sometimes the power of one is greater than the ignorance of many.”

Dave Bagby’s riveting memoir is a moving story and an indictiment of the judicial and social welfare systems.

A fast-paced tour-de-force worthy of any spy novel.”

The Globe and Mail

National Post

Lester, Mason and Begg 2007

Kirkus

Steerforth US 2008

The Rescuer is the remarkable narrative fo the heroic and deeply humanitarian actions of one seemingly ordinary woman. Harold Troper is the author of several books including None is Too Many with coauthor Irving Abella.

Tod Hoffman

Howard Engel

The Spy Within

The Man Who Forgot How to Read

Larry Chin was the top Chinese linguist working for the C.I.A. And for 30 years, he was China’s top spy.

“Hoffman possesses a solid command of his material and conveys the secretive nature of espionage agencies with a novelist’s panache.”

After seeing a news report about 12 Syrian Jews blown up in a minefield trying to escape their country, Judy Feld Carr knew she had to help. For almost 30 years she publicly championed the cause of Syrian Jews while secretly negotiating their escape.

The Spy Within recounts one of the most significant cases in the history of espionage - the longest running penetration ever. It offers unique insight into the mysterious realm of Chinese intelligence tradecraft, and reveals untold details about the investigation and the prosecution of Larry Chin.

“His memoir manages to transcend...a self-consciousness that is predicated on unreliable memories....[It avoids] jargon, hyperbole or self-glorification. It finds humour in the grim.”

The Globe and Mail

HarperCollins Can 2007 St.Martin’s US 2008 Rizzoli Italy 2008 Alma Korea 2009

While he slept, the brilliant mystery writer Howard Engel experienced a stroke and was afflicted with the rare condition alexia sine agraphia, the inability to read - a devastating blow for a man devoted to reading. In this absorbing and uplifting memoir, Engel chronicles his rehabilitation, how he slowly began to learn to read again and how he continued to write.

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Fiction

Sheree Fitch

William Weintraub Crazy About Lili

Kiss the Joy as it Flies

Richard Lippman’s life is changed at age 17 when his roguish Uncle Morty takes him to the Gayety Burlesque and introduces him to the dazzling stripper, Lili L’Amour. Douglas Gibson Books McClelland & Stewart Canada 2005 Film option

“Mercy is a great heroine-wise, sexy, extremely funny. This book is a joy ride.”

But tidying up the edges of her life means the past comes rushing back to Awards: Leacock Medal for Humour haunt her and the presFinalist ent keeps throwing up more to do’s. In a week filled with the riot of an Vagrant Press 2008 entire life, nothing turns Other Rights Available out the way she expected. Lisa Moore

Joanna Goodman

You Made Me Love You

Harmony A dark and surprising secret lurks at the heart of this comic novel. Soon, it will surface and profoundly alter Anne Mahroum’s sense of identity.

The three appealing Zarr sisters each face life-altering decisions about work, love, ambition, and family. Estelle dreams of becoming a celebrated film ediMontreal Gazette tor; Erica lacks direction before a fateful meet“...feels, in spirit, like a cross between Four Weddings and ing with a female rabbi a Funeral and Hannah and guides her future; and Jess’s perfect life, set in Her Sisters.” Quill & Quire stone, begins to crack. “Goodman...is a witty, energetic storyteller.”

Penguin Canada 2005 NAL/Penguin US 2006

Panic-stricken by the news that she needs exploratory surgery, 48 year-old Mercy Beth Fanjoy drafts a to do list to put her messy life in order.

“Goodman’s solid writing is permeated with commentary on societal pressures to have it all”

Publishers Weekly

“Goodman writes compassion.”

with

Patti Henry

Penguin Canada 2007 NAL/Penguin USA 2007

Anne, a perfectionist and collage artist, is married to Elie, a Lebanese-born dealer in rare coins. Their infant son, to Anne’s distress, is born with clubfeet. This clouds her fantasy of showing her perfect son to her father -- a man she never knew.

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Non-Fiction

Edward Shorter

Written in the Flesh

How Everyone Became Depressed

An elegant and erudite history of sexual desire in the western world.

Awards: Governor-General’s Award Non-Fiction Short List

Colibri Russia 2007 Unniversity of Toronto Press 2005

Renowned medical historian Edward Shorter demonstrates that desire is hardwired into the brain, expressing itself in remarkably similar ways in men and women, adolescent and adult, and in gays, lesbians, and straights alike. Drawing from a wide array of sources, Shorter explores the widening of Western society’s sexual repertoire.

Oxford University Press 2013

Edward Shorter and David Healy

Edward Shorter Before Prozac

Shock Therapy

An unsettling look at modern psychiatry where drugs that don’t work are used to treat diseases that don’t exist. Edward Shorter reveals how greed, lax regulation, and academic infighting have set the field back.

Electroshock therapy was considered by many to be the penicillin for the severely mentally ill, but it fell out favor in the 1960s for curious, cultural reasons.

Rutgers University Press 2007 University of Toronto Press 2008

This book argues that psychiatry’s love affair with the diagnosis of depression has become a death grip. Depression is a real illness, especially in its melancholic form. But most patients who get the diagnosis of ‘depression’ are also anxious, fatigued, unable to sleep, have all kinds of physical symptoms, and tend to obsess about the whole thing. They do not have a disorder of ‘mood’. It is a travesty to call them all ‘depressed.’ How did this happen? How did everyone become depressed?

This book by two leading authors will be a major contribution to ameliorating the stigma attached to shock therapy. Why this effective treatment fell out of favour is one of the great unknown stories of modern medicine. Oxford University Press 2009

Based in part on unprecedented access to federal archives and on extensive interviewing, Shorter illuminates this dismal landscape in a revealing and provocative account of why psychiatry is losing ground in the struggle to treat depression.

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency 131 Bloor Street West, Suite 711,Toronto, Canada, M5S 1S3 Telephone (416) 964 9598 email: beverley@slopenagency.ca www.slopenagency.com

Client List Tony Aspler Henry Aubin Lita-Rose Betcherman Hugh Brewster Timothy Brook Martyn Burke Bonnie Buxton Pat Capponi Laurie Channer Ann Charney Michael Decter Ron Dembo Linda Silver Dranoff Dorothy Eber Modris Eksteins Howard Engel Michael Enright Terry Fallis Robert Fulford Joanne Foster Joanna Goodman Stacey Gorlicky

Catherine Graham Lyndsay Green Francesca Grosso Don Gutteridge Kate Hilton David Healy Tod Hoffman Blanche Howard David Israelson Mary Jackman Basil Johnston Martin Knelman Eric Koch Jack Kuper Will Kymlicka Elliott Leyton S.F. MacKay Dr. Mailis-Gagnon Michael Marrus Dona Matthews Leon Major Rona Maynard

Representatives

Brazil RIFF Agency Rio De Janeiro

Greece JLM Literary Agency Athens

China Gray Tan Taiwan

Hungary Katai & Bolza Budapest

France Michelle Lapautre Paris Germany Paul & Peter Fritz AG Zurich

Israel Harris/Elon Agency Jerusalem Italy The Italian Agency Milan Poland Ilene Kreshka

Attendance at selected Book Fairs is supported by

Jack McClelland Ken McGoogan Michael McGuire Sally Melville John Miller Angela Misri Shannon Moroney Kim Moritsugu Donna Morrissey Marina Nemat James W. Nichol David Onley Terry Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Reilly David Penhale David Posen Andrea Geddes Poole Bruce Allen Powe David Pratt Nick Pron Tierney Read Peter Rehak Robert Remington

Roberta Rich Pamela Richardson Jeffrey Rosenthal Hilary Scharper Edward Shorter Philip Slayton Joey Slinger Daniel Stoffman Jaron Summers Mike Tanner Mike Tennant Lionel Tiger Morley Torgov Harold Troper Michael Ungar Robert Jan Van Pelt Michael Valpy Rangeley Wallace William Weintraub Jennifer Welsh Margaret Wente Beryl Young Sherri Zickefoose

Japan Tuttle-Mori Tokyo

Scandinavia Licht & Burr Agency Denmark

Korea Eric Yang Agency Seoul

Spain Julio Yanez Barcelona

Netherlands Internationaal Literatuur BV Amsterdam

Turkey Akcali Copyright Istanbul

Russia Alexander Korzhenevski Moscow

United Kingdom David Grossman London

Beverley Slopen Literary Agency