Pakistani's Epic Bought at Knopf
by John F. Baker -- Publishers Weekly, 9/22/2003
Novelist Nadeem Aslam, born in Pakistan and raised in Britain, had never been to New York and had never even stayed in a hotel before agent Kathleen Anderson at Anderson Grinberg brought him over to meet a number of interested American publishers. In the end it was Sonny Mehta at Knopf who sprang for U.S. rights for his novel called Maps for Lost Lovers, the author's debut in this country. (His first novel, Season of the Rainbirds, caused a stir when it was published in the U.K. 10 years ago, being long-listed for the Booker and other awards and winning a ringing endorsement from Salman Rushdie.) Aslam has been working nonstop on the new book since then, and it has already made sales in the U.K., Sweden, Italy, Germany and Spain; it is an epic novel set largely in a lovingly detailed immigrant community in the north of England. Anderson acted here on behalf of Victoria Hobbs at A.M. Heath in London, and that agency's Sara Fisher sells foreign rights.
