A couple of books coming...

From Publishers Lunch:

Foreign Service officer Judith Heimann's THE AIRMEN AND THE HEADHUNTERS, about a group of American soldiers shot down over Japanese-occupied Borneo during World War II, rescued in the jungle by blowpipe-carrying Dayak tribesmen, who risked torture and death to take the airmen under their protection, eventually helped them return home, and formed their own tribal army that played a pivotal role in liberating one of the Japanese Army's last strongholds, to Andrea Schulz at Harcourt, for publication in spring 2007, in a pre-empt, by Eric Simonoff of Janklow & Nesbit (world).

Hal Vaughan's FDR'S TWELVE APOSTLES: The Vanguard of Gentlemen Spies for the Invasion of North Africa, recounting the secret mission of a dozen Ivy League bluebloods who served in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia and navigated a web of espionage and treachery through the casbahs and souks to pave the way for Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa, to Rob Kirkpatrick at Lyons Press, in a nice deal by Ed Knappman of New England Publishing Associates (world). ed@nepa.com

Journalist Daniel Kalder's LOST COSMONAUT, in which this self-proclaimed anti-tourist travels to countries where no one else wants to go, weaving a narrative full of history, peculiar places, and even stranger people, to Brant Rumble at Scribner, by Emma Parry at Fletcher & Parry.

Professor of marine biology at the University of Liverpool and author (dubbed "Bill Bryson underwater") Trevor Norton's UNDERWATER TO GET OUT OF THE RAIN, an account of a lifetime love affair with the sea, mixing eccentric salty characters, the mythic lore of sea creatures, and humorous misadventures with marine science, to Merloyd Lawrence at Merloyd Lawrence Books/Da Capo, for publication in spring 2006, by Century/Random UK (US).lissa.warren@perseusbooks.com

Young polymathic scientist Adrian Woolfson's IMMORTALITY AND THE ART OF LIVING WELL. about our hunger for immortality and the disastrous consequences of its achievement, drawing on science, philosophy and history to describe humanity's deepest fantasy: that death might somehow be deniable, to Toby Mundy at Atlantic Books, for publication in early 2007, by David Godwin at David Godwin Associates (world).louisebrice@groveatlantic.co.uk
Wrap...