Nice selection of books...and a film....

From Publishers Lunch Weekly:

FICTION/DEBUT:

Winner of the 2006 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for the Best First Book Eurasian Region Donna Daley-Clarke's LAZY EYE, about the disintegrating family life of one of England's first black professional soccer players in the summer of '76, to Karan Mahajan at MacAdam/Cage, for publication in Spring 2007, in a nice deal, by Camilla Hornby at Curtis Brown UK.

Rudolph Delson's MAYNARD & JENNICA, using 35 narrators in all for a portrait of 21st century New York, to Anjali Singh at Houghton Mifflin, for publication in spring 2008, by Jay Mandel at William Morris Agency (NA).

MYSTERY/CRIME:

Sara Ann Freed Memorial Award winner Karen E. Olson's WATERLOGGED, the next Annie Seymour mystery, moving to Kristen Weber at NAL, in a two-book deal, by Jack Scovil at Scovil Chichak Galen Literary Agency (NA).

GENERAL/OTHER:

Adrienne Sharp's second novel THE TRUE MEMOIRS OF LITTLE K., based on the life of Mathilde Kschessinka, mistress of the last Romanov tsar, lover of three grand dukes, and prima ballerina of the legendary Maryinski Theater, to Courtney Hodell at Farrar, Straus, in a pre-empt, for publication in spring 2008, by Sandra Dijkstra at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency (NA).

FILM:

Christopher Moore's NYT bestselling A DIRTY JOB, the story of a mild-mannered Beta Male who becomes a reluctant "soul merchant," responsible for collecting people's souls just before they die, to Chris Columbus (Harry Potter 1&2, Goonies, Rent, Fantastic Four) at 1492 Productions, in a major deal, for high six-figures, by Nicholas Ellison at the Nicholas Ellison.

HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS:

Gilbert King's THE EXECUTION OF WILLIE FRANCIS: Life, Death Row, and the Curse of St. Martinville, Louisiana, the true story of a botched execution in 1946 and a young Cajun lawyer's determined efforts to prevent the state from sending seventeen-year old Francis to the electric chair twice over the span of one week, argued all the way to the Supreme Court, to Chris Greenberg at Basic Civitas, by Farley Chase at the Waxman Literary Agency (NA).

CAESAR'S LEGION author and Roman historian Stephen Dando-Collins's THE PALATIUM MURDERS, reconstructing and solving the most notorious murder case in Roman history, the poisoning of the charismatic imperial heir-apparent Germanicus, to Stephen Power at Wiley, by Richard Curtis of Richard Curtis Associates (world).mailto:.rcurtis@curtisagency.com

Born to Rule author Julia Gelardi's IN TRIUMPH'S WAKE and FROM SPLENDOR TO REVOLUTION, again to Charlie Spicer at St. Martin's, in a very nice deal, by Julie Castiglia at The Castiglia Agency.

Bancroft Prize-winning religious historian Erskine Clarke's untitled book on the Reverend John Leighton Wilson, a southern abolitionist who freed his slaves and traveled back to Liberia with them, beginning his twenty-year odyssey on the African continent where he studied many African tribes and wrote numerous books that would become crucial to the slavery debates raging when he returned to America during the run-up to the Civil War, to Lara Heimert at Basic (world). Isabelle.Bleecker@perseusbooks.com

MEMOIR:

Yale history professor Jennifer Basziile's THE BLACK GIRL NEXT DOOR: Growing Up in the Integration Generation, recounting her turbulent and confounding girlhood growing up as one of the few black children in a white, upper middle class California suburb, to Cherise Davis at Touchstone Fireside, by Bob Levine at Levine Plotkin & Menin (US).

NARRATIVE:

George Szpiro's POINCARE'S CONJECTURE, the story behind the breaking news of Grigori Perelman's historic proof of a conjecture that has challenged mathematicians for over a century (the first of the Clay Institute's million dollar Millenium Prize Problems to be solved), to Stephen Morrow at Dutton, for publication in summer 2007, by Ed Knappmann at New England Publishing Associates (world).

GENERAL/OTHER:

New York Observer editor Tom Scocca's untitled book on Beijing, where he has been traveling for years, about the physical and cultural transformation of the city as it attempts to remake itself for the 2008 Olympics and the "Chinese Century" that will follow, to Sean McDonald at Riverhead, by Larry Weissman at Larry Weissman Literary (world).

UK:

Dawn Annandale's CALL ME MADAM, the sequel to her Sunday Times bestselling memoir Call Me Elizabeth, plus a debut novel, which will call upon all her experiences both good and bad as a high class escort, to Wayne Brookes at Harper Fiction, by Rebecca Winfield at the Rebecca Winfield Literary Agency (UK/Commonwealth).

Wrap...