A variety of books....

From Publishers Lunch Weekly:

FICTION/DEBUT:

Scientist, doctor and researcher with over 50 major awards in science and a professor medicine at the Mayo Clinic, Dr. James Levine's debut RIVER OF WORDS, the surprisingly hopeful story of 15-year old girl whose poverty-stricken family sells her into sexual slavery and she lives in a cage on the streets of Mumbai, but uses writing and imagination to transcend her reality, to Cindy Spiegel at Spiegel & Grau, in a pre-empt, by Natanya Wheeler at the Lowenstein-Yost (who found the manuscript the agency slush pile) (world).


Michael Rubens' THE SHERIFF OF YRNAMEER, a humorous novel in which an ordinary guy becomes the unlikely hero of the only known planet in the universe without corporate sponsorship, to Marty Asher at Vintage, by John Silbersack at Trident Media Group.Hollywood producer Neil Russell's first two novels, HAWKS and HAWKS: Crimson, about a Beverly Hills billionaire with a military past and a Rolodex full of the very powerful who goes from a traffic jam on the 405 into an international conspiracy of murder and duplicity -- and suddenly, a lot of people want him dead, to Doug Grad at Harper, by Tris Coburn at Tristram C. Coburn Literary Management (world).

THRILLER:

Executive producer and vice chairman at Spelling Television E. Duke Vincent's THE $TRIP, about the producer of a successful Las Vegas TV show who faces a local gangster plotting to extort money from the show and more trouble on the way, needing to rely on his guile and his charm to escape with his money, his job, and his life, to Colin Dickerman at Bloomsbury, with Ben Adams editing, by Ed Victor at Ed Victor Ltd. (world).

GENERAL/OTHER:

Somerset Maugham Award winner Marcel Theroux's FAR NORTH, a futuristic, speculative novel about the lone survivor of a settlement of American pioneers in Arctic Russia on a stark journey through an unravelling civilization -- depicting a world that is at once remote from contemporary reality and simultaneously a possible consequence of it -- drawing on the author's travels in Northern Siberia for a recent documentary about climate change, to Courtney Hodell at Farrar, Straus, and to Iris Tupholme at Harper Canada, by Elizabeth Sheinkman at Curtis Brown UK.Elizabeth@curtisbrown.co.uk
Translation: Betsy@curtisbrown.co.uk

Writer for The David Letterman Show and author of the novels THE RINGER and TIME WON'T LET ME, Bill Scheft's EVERYTHING HURTS, about a pseudonymous author of a mega-best-selling series of self-help books who needs his own self-help guru when he awakes one morning to find himself in pain which won't go away, thus beginning a sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant journey, to David Rosenthal at Simon & Schuster, by Mary Evans at Mary Evans (world English).

Amanda Gable's THE CONFEDERATE GENERAL RIDES NORTH, following a young girl obsessed with Civil War history and a mother hell-bent on escaping her conventional 1960s southern life as the two embark on a road trip that will take them from Appomattox to Gettysburg to a destination which neither expects, to Samantha Martin at Scribner, in a pre-empt, by Jacques de Spoelberch (world).

BIOGRAPHY:

NBCC award winner for Minor Characters, Joyce Johnson's THE VOICE WAS ALL: Reading Jack Kerouac's Life, a biography that explores his dualities and captures what was essential about him and his writing, focusing on the influence of the insular French Canadian immigrant culture he was born into, on his struggle to find his voice and what it cost him, on the women in his life, both wives and girlfriends, and on the psychological dynamics of the relationship Kerouac had with his mother, which was the dominant one of his life, to Paul Slovak at Viking, for publication in 2011, by Irene Skolnick at the Irene Skolnick Agency (NA).

HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS:

Opinion editor of Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper and contributing editor at Reason magazine Michael Young's THE GHOSTS OF MARTYR'S SQUARE, part memoir, part contemporary history, a look at the liberal experiment that is Lebanon, a state at the heart of the modern-day clash of civilizations and a premier keyhole into the Arab world's contradictions, rivalries, hopes, and brutalities, to Dedi Felman at Simon & Schuster, by Andrew Stuart at The Stuart Agency (world).

LA Times writer Judy Pasternak's YELLOW DIRT, about uranium mining on the Navajo Reservation -- poisoning, cancer, and contamination -- in this taut, rigorously reported Erin-Brockovich story, to Hilary Redmon at Free Press, for publication in August 2010, by Rafe Sagalyn at The Sagalyn Agency (NA).

MEMOIR:

Sunday Times journalist Hala Jabar's memoir THE FLYING CARPET OF BAGHDAD, about her attempts to report on the war from Iraq, to Sarah McGrath at Riverhead, in a pre-empt, by Kevin Conroy Scott at AP Watt.UK rights to Georgina Morley and Richard Milner at Macmillan, also in a pre-empt.

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