Short Takes

by John F. Baker -- Publishers Weekly, 10/18/2004

A book about the famous mutiny on the Russian battleship Potemkin, which helped launch the Russian revolution and inspired Eisenstein's classic movie, is the next subject for Neal Bascomb, author most recently of The Perfect Mile. Houghton Mifflin's Susan Canavan signed for North American rights with agent Scott Waxman, and Red Mutiny, the first book on the subject in many years, will draw on much new archival material.... Gotham's Bill Shinker bought The Pilot's Daughter, the memoir of a young woman named Zainab Salbi, who was brought up in Hussein's Iraq, eventually fled to the U.S. and there launched a movement to aid women victims of war. The book will be coauthored with journalist Laurie Beckland, and agent Sandy Dijkstra made the sale—as well as several foreign ones.... Harper's Tim Duggan bought a first novel by a young Nigerian-American Harvard grad, Uzodinma Iweala, that began life as his thesis in writing class. It's about a child soldier dragooned into military life during an African civil war, and Duggan bought North American rights from the Wylie Agency, for publication next fall.... Crown's Rachel Klayman got an untitled book on the impact of divorce on children by Elizabeth Marquadt, coauthor with sociologist Norval Glenn of a national study that shows a profound impact on children of even amicable divorces. She preempted North American, first serial and audio from agent Carol Mann.