Viking Wins Hot Brit Novel
by John F. Baker -- Publishers Weekly, 4/4/2005
One of the most talked-about debut novels at the London Book Fair was The Saffron Kitchen by Iran-born Londoner Jasmine Crowther, making several big foreign sales and inspiring a rush of offers from London and New York publishers. In the end it was Viking's Pam Dormanwho prevailed here, with a preemptive offer for U.S. rights to Jennifer Joel at ICM, working for U.K. agent Toby Eady. The latter has also sewn up U.K. rights with Time Warner there. Crowther, an Oxford grad who consults with corporations on culture adjustment, has had to do some adjusting herself, and her novel involves a mother and daughter trying to reconcile their different ways of life in Britain and Iran, with a touching love story along the way.
