Short Takes

A new novel by Norton editor Jill Bialosky has been bought for Harcourt by Andre Bernard, who published her first, House Under Snow. The new one, about a woman looking at her marriage, is tentatively titled The Interior Life of Eleanor Lott and was bought for U.S., Canada and open market from the Wylie agency.... Rick Kot at Viking bought a book called Dancing with Data: Adventures in Probability by Michael and Ellen Kaplan, which examines how professionals, in such fields as insurance, gambling and health, manipulate probabilities to help shape our lives. Eric Simonoff at Janklow & Nesbit made the North American rights sale.... Agent Thomas Colchie made a hefty six-figure hard/soft deal with Mondadori in Spain and Argentine partner Sudamerica for Spanish-language rights in two new novels by Portuguese star Antonio Lobo Antunes, often cited as a possible Nobel winner, plus selected titles from his backlist.... A new book by Pulitzer-winning Abraham Lincoln expert David Herbert Donald was bought by S&S's Alice Mayhew from John Taylor (Ike) Williams at Boston's Kneerim and Williams; it's Lincoln's Men, about the circle of people close to him. It was a world rights deal, for publication in December.... Touchstone Fireside at S&S will have a Christmas story from bestseller thriller author Richard Preston (The Hot Zone) for the coming season (pub date: November). Editor-in-chief Trish Todd bought U.S., Canada, OM, first serial and audio rights in The Boat of Dreams from agent Cynthia Cannell; it's a story Preston wrote (and originally self-published) about a Maine family during the Vietnam War, originally written for a dying friend.... A first novel by screenwriter/playwright Erin Cressida Wilson (Secretary) called Photography Lessons was bought, also at Touchstone, by Doris Cooper. It's about a high school girl involved in erotic games with her photography teacher and was taken for world rights from agent Andrew Blauner.