Week of February 20, 2017
Knopf Nabs a Biography of Anne Spoerry
Sonny Mehta and Andrew Miller of Knopf secured world rights to In Full Flight: A Story of Africa and Atonement, a biography of Anne Spoerry by John Hemingway, in a deal brokered by Jacques de Spoelberch of J de S Associates. According to the agent, the book tells the story of how Spoerry, known as the Flying Doctor, “saved hundreds of thousands of East Africans until her death in 1999.” The book also goes into Spoerry’s “work as a WWII resistance fighter [and] her capture by the Germans and subsequent imprisonment in the horrific women’s concentration camp Ravensbruck.” Knopf plans to publish In Full Flight in spring 2018.
Debut Author Brings a Noir Sci-Fi Trilogy to Kensington
In a deal arranged by Laurie McLean of Fuse Literary Agency, Kensington’s Liz May purchased print, digital, and audio world English rights to a noir science fiction trilogy by debut author Nick Taylor. According to McLean, Kensington will begin publishing the series—which features the titles Sinthetic, Sindicate, and Sindrome—in January 2018, to kick off the launch of the publisher’s new Rebel Base Books imprint. According to McLean, Sinthetic is a “cross between Blade Runner and I, Robot” that centers on a detective named Jason Campbell who “investigates a string of murders of synthetic women and uncovers a vast conspiracy.”
Sourcebooks Takes Three Books in Thriller Series
Sourcebooks’ Mary Altman acquired world rights (excluding audio) to a new romantic thriller series by Juno Rushdan. The three-book deal was negotiated by Sara Megibow of KT Literary. According to Megibow, the series centers on Maddox Kinkade, a “fixer for a clandestine government agency, known as the Gray Box, tasked with preventing the sale of a deadly bioweapon.” Kinkade’s partner in the mission turns out to be a former lover who she’d assumed was dead—“by her own hand.” Sourcebooks plans to publish the first title in the series, A Long Way to Fall, in summer 2018; both sequels will follow later in 2018.
Waxman Brings Novel of Carpool Drama to Berkley
Berkley executive editor Kate Seaver took North American rights to A Variety of Tremendous Things, the second novel by Abbi Waxman, in a deal brokered by Alexandra Machinist of ICM Partners. According to the publisher, the novel is loosely related to the author’s debut novel, The Garden of Small Beginnings, which Berkley will publish this May, and which has already sold in 13 countries. A Variety of Tremendous Things, said the publisher, “follows a group of families whose main daily connection is that they carpool their children to school together,” and whose relationships become strained by the revelation of an affair. Berkley plans to publish the book as a trade paperback original sometime in 2018.
Europa Picks Up Debut Noir Novel Set in Glasgow
Michael Reynolds, editor-in-chief at Europa, acquired U.S. rights to Bloody January, a debut noir novel by Alan Parks, in a two-book deal negotiated by Andrea Joyce, rights director of Canongate, on behalf of the author and Tom Witcomb of Blake Friedman in the U.K. According to Europa, the novel takes place in the 1970s in Glasgow, “a city that is rife with drug trafficking and organized crime,” and centers on Harry McCoy, a detective. Europa plans to release the novel in March 2018 “as a key title in the press’s major relaunch of its crime list.” Canongate will publish the book in the U.K. in early 2018.
A version of this article appeared in the 02/20/2017 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: Deals
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