Short Takes

by John F. Baker -- Publishers Weekly, 3/21/2005

A young Muslim beauty who runs off to Paris and becomes the first supermodel of her religion is the star of Discovering Tanaya,the new novel by Indian author Kavita Daswani, whose debut was For Matrimonial Purposes. Aimee Taub at Putnam bought it for North American rights, on the basis of an outline and sample chapters, from Coast agent Jodie Rhodes, and will probably publish next summer.... Ann Godoff at Penguin Press shelled out seven figures for a new book on the world politics and economics of oil by Pulitzer author Daniel Yergin (The Prize). It will update the earlier book in terms of the growing significance of the West's overdependence on oil in an era of Mideast conflict. Suzanne Gluck at ICM signed the North American deal.... In a further sign of Da Vinci mania, a Spanish novel called The Secret Supperby Javier Sierra was preempted for half a million for North American English rights by Atria's Johanna Castillo from agent Thomas Colchie, acting for Barcelona's Antonia Kerrigan. It's the story of a conflict between the artist and a Dominican inquisitor over alleged heresy in The Last Supper.... A literary thriller set in the Hamptons by award-winning author D. Daniel Judson was bought for SMP by Ben Sevier from Scott Miller at Trident Media Group; it's called The Darkest Placeand stars a college professor involved in a rash of drownings.... A book about the dominance of Clear Channel Communications in the media world, by former Rolling Stone writer Alec Foege, was signed at Faber by Denise Oswald; it was a world rights deal with agent Paul Bresnick.