A selection of interesting books coming....

From Publishers Lunch Weekly:

MYSTERY/CRIME:

Shamus Award Winner Edward Wright's DAMNATION FALLS, in which a disgraced Chicago newspaper columnist agrees to ghostwrite a biography of his childhood friend and former Tennessee governor, but instead finds himself investigating a series of ghastly murders and a town legend from the Civil War in the Tennessee hills, to Daniela Rapp at Minotaur, in a nice deal, by Jonathan Lyons at Lyons Literary, on behalf of Jane Conway-Gordon (NA).

GENERAL/OTHER:

Tony Award-winning playwright whose works include Streamers and Hurlyburly, David Rabe's DINOSAURS ON THE ROOF, about the collision of two lives in a single night that uncovers their entire lives: a brittle old woman who believes she is living her last night before she is delivered up to The Rapture, and the daughter of her deceased friend, whose life is in a tailspin of self-destruction after a recent divorce, and whom the older woman recruits to look after her animals after she is gone, to David Rosenthal at Simon & Schuster, by Deborah Schneider at Gelfman Schneider (NA).

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Kinney's BY HOOK OR BY CROOK, the story of Martha Vineyard's annual fishing derby: a month-long affair which pits neighbor against neighbor, islander against mainlander, and turns the island upside down in the all-consuming quest for the biggest fish, exploring obsession, island culture and history, growing income-inequality and the lure of the sea, to Annik LaFarge at Bloomsbury, in a pre-empt, by Larry Weissman at Larry Weissman Literary (world).

HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS:

Jerry Brotton's TWELVE MAPS THAT MADE THE WORLD, the story of humanity's cultural evolution through twelve pivotal maps -- beginning with the earliest Greek attempts to map the known world and ending with Google Earth -- each exploring a different aspect of culture including God, measurement, nationalism, race, commerce, and democracy, to Hilary Redmon at Viking and Stuart Proffitt at Penguin UK.

NARRATIVE:

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Kinney's BY HOOK OR BY CROOK, the story of Martha Vineyard's annual fishing derby: a month-long affair which pits neighbor against neighbor, islander against mainlander, and turns the island upside down in the all-consuming quest for the biggest fish, exploring obsession, island culture and history, growing income-inequality and the lure of the sea, to Annik LaFarge at Bloomsbury, in a pre-empt, by Larry Weissman at Larry Weissman Literary (world).

UK:

Historian Simon Schama's THE AMERICAN FUTURE: A History, called a thematic history of America, moving within the Random UK group to Will Sulkin at Bodley Head, for six figures, for publication in fall 2009, by Michael Sissons of PFD.

Wrap...