Short Takes

Perseus senior editor Marnie Cochran made a six-figure world rights buy of a book called No Horizon Is So Far, by a pair of middle-aged schoolteachers, Ann Bancroft from the U.S. and Liv Arnesen from Norway, who achieved a childhood dream by skiing together all the way across Antarctica; they have told their story with Cheryl Dahle, and the book, bought from agent Laureen Rowland at David Black, will be published next year.... Putnam's Wendy Hubbert bought a new book by journalist Christiana Bird on the history and people of Kurdistan called Land of Insolence; she got world rights, plus first serial and book club, from Neeti Madan at Sterling Lord Literistic.... Agent Ellen Levine sold a first novel by New York Times reporter Christopher Marquis to editor Jane Rosenman as her first fiction buy since arriving at St. Martin's Press; it was a North American rights deal for A Hole in the Heart, described as a comic and touching novel about a woman schoolteacher in trouble in Alaska.... A memoir by Kadi Diallo, mother of the man mistakenly killed by New York police three years ago, was bought for world rights by Anita Diggs at Ballantine's One World imprint, for publication next spring; she bought it from Christy Fletcher at Carlisle & Company.... Another big movie buy of a children's property is New Line's purchase of Philip Pullman's fantasy series His Dark Materials, a volume of which just won Britain's prestigious Whitbread prize. The deal was made by Deborah Forte at Scholastic Entertainment with New Line's Lynn Harris and Ileen Maisel; Forte said she had done the deal, in which many movie companies had been interested, because of the producers' successful Lord of the Rings movie.