Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Books both serious and fun...

From Publishers Lunch Weekly:

FICTION/DEBUT:

Sadie Jones's THE OUTCAST, set in 1950s suburban England where heartache, cruelty, and unexpected violence lie beneath the surface of posh upper middle class life, following the troubled adolescent life and loves of a boy who witnesses his young mother's death by drowning, to Terry Karten at Harper, in a nice deal, by Stephanie Cabot at The Gernert Company (US).

MYSTERY:
Author of THE COLLABORATOR OF BETHLEHEM Matt Beynon Rees's A GRAVE IN GAZA, the second in a series featuring Palestinian investigator Omar Yussef, who learns firsthand that "every crime in Gaza is connected to every other crime" as he navigates amongst various corrupt political factions for the release of his kidnapped colleague, to Katie Herman at Soho Press, by Lisa Erbach Vance at the Aaron Priest Literary Agency, on behalf of Deborah Harris at the Deborah Harris Agency (NA). Deborah@thedeborahharrisagency.com

GENERAL/OTHER:

Karen Maitland's A COMPANY OF LIARS, set in England in 1348, as the plague is spreading and a band of misfits are trying to outrun it, including a scar-faced trader in holy relics, a minstrel from Venice, an itinerant painter of church frescoes, a deformed storyteller wanted by the law, a strange albino child, a healer, and a bad-tempered magician traveling with an embalmed mermaid, and THE OWL KILLERS, also set in the middle ages, to Kate Miciak for Dial and Bantam, by Kathleen Anderson at Anderson Literary Management, on behalf of Victoria Hobbs at A.M. Heath (NA).

Maggie O'Farrell's THE VANISHING ACT OF ESME LENNOX, a multi-generational tale of a woman who, after sixty years in a sanitarium, is expelled into a world that forgot her and to a great-niece who never knew she existed, to Jenna Johnson at Harcourt, by Emma Parry at Fletcher & Parry (US).

HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS:

Former National Security Council member and coauthor of America Unbound, Ivo Daalder's and foreign policy scholar Mac Destler's IN THE SHADOW OF THE OVAL OFFICE: The National Security Advisor and the Making of American Foreign Policy, a history of the position that describes how presidents from JFK to George W. Bush have relied on their national security assistants to manage America's engagement overseas, and what the consequences have been for our foreign policy, to Alice Mayhew at Simon & Schuster, by Andrew Stuart at The Stuart Agency (NA).

WSJ reporter Steve Levine's examination of the Alexander Litvinenko affair -- from the polonium poisoning of the former spy in London to the investigation currently underway throughout Europe, including the shadowy underworld of Putin's Russia, to Will Murphy at Random House, by Tom Wallace (world).Former prime minister of Russia and architect of the "shock therapy" economic reforms of the 1990s, Yegor Gaidar's book on the demise of the Soviet Union, from the man who fell ill presenting the Russian edition last month and attributed the illness to poisoning, translated by Antonia Bouis, to Robert Faherty at Brookings Institution Press, for publication in July 2007.

Sarah Skinner Kilborne's THE UNEXPECTED HOUR: How William Skinner Spun America's Gravest Industrial Disaster Into the Comeback of the Century, a descendant of America's "Silk King" recounts how -- after losing everything he'd spent thirty years building in just fifteen minutes (when a reservoir north of Skinnerville, MA burst through its dam and swept the town away) -- he went on to leave a legacy far greater, to George Gibson at Walker, in a nice deal, by Rob McQuilkin at Lippincott Massie McQuilkin (NA).rob@lmqlit.com

RELIGION/SPRITUALITY:

Amish scholars Donald Kraybill, Steven Nolt, and David Weaver-Zercher's AMISH GRACE: How Forgiveness Redeemed a Tragedy, about the recent shooting in a one-room Amish school that killed five students, and exploring the confounding gesture of forgiveness offered to the killer and his family by the local Amish community, to Sheryl Fullerton at Jossey-Bass, by Giles Anderson (World).

SPORTS:

Washington Post writer John Scheinman's BARBARO, the behind-the-scenes story of the undefeated 2006 Triple Crown favorite, who pulled up injured in the opening seconds of the Preakness, and of his unlikely and ongoing recovery -- drawing on access to the principals of the story, to Susan Canavan at Houghton Mifflin, in a very nice deal, by Bridget Wagner at The Sagalyn Agency (world).lori_glazer@hmco.com

Wrap...

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