Two Wins for Avery

Jeff Galas at Avery won an auction for New York Times and BusinessWeek journalist Andrew Park's memoir Unchurched via agent Faye Bender, who sold world rights. As someone raised without a religious tradition, Park will recount his struggle to find a role, if any, for spirituality and faith in his life. He will integrate his story with reflections on the importance and impact of religion in American society at large. Tentative pub date is fall 2009.

Lucia Watson preempted world rights to Play: What Animals, Neuroscience and Psychology Reveal About the Importance of Play in Our Lives by Stuart Brown, M.D., via Gail Ross and Howard Yoon. Play is based on Brown's 8,000 “play histories” of people from all walks of life—ranging from Nobel Prize winners to serial murderers—as well as his research on the play behavior of animals. It will examine play and its role as a biological imperative for survival and perhaps the most essential factor in determining success and happiness in life. Expected pub date is late 2008 or early 2009.

Harper's Rakesh Satyal won an auction for Vestal McIntyre's Lake Overturn via Mitchell Waters at Curtis Brown, who sold North American rights. McIntyre's first novel follows a wide cast of characters in smalltown Idaho in 1986, including a Mormon mother in an identity crisis, a Mexican immigrant maid in an affair with her white employer, an undiagnosed autistic boy and an ex-junkie surrogate mother. McIntyre is the author of the story collection You Are Not the One, published by Carroll & Graf in 2004. Planned pub date for the novel is spring 2009.

Bantam's Toni Burbank won an auction for Slouching Toward Adulthood: Why Young People Are Taking So Long to Grow Up and What It Means for Society by Richard Settersten and Barbara Ray; Joelle Delbourgo sold world rights. The authors' new map of this stage of life examines public perceptions and media portrayals of young people as slackers, revealing how emerging adults today are grappling with unprecedented and profound social changes; the benefits of delaying adulthood are also discussed. Pub date is 2009.

Crown's Heather Jackson won an auction for the next diet book by Protein Power authors Michael Eades, M.D., and Mary Dan Eades, M.D., via agents Channa Taub and Carol Mann. The 6-Week Cure for the Middle-Aged Middle will provide a plan for eliminating the common midlife bulge. Crown has world rights.

Jane Dystel made a significant new sale on behalf of Joy Bauer with Mary Ellen O'Neill at Collins. The Joy Bauer Weight Loss Plan will respond to all the requests Bauer, the resident nutrition/health correspondent on The Today Show, has received to do a comprehensive weight loss book, and will offer a flexible, inclusive, interactive and easy-to-follow plan. Collins has world rights; no pub date yet.

Because They Hate author Brigitte Gabriel has sold a new political analysis, tentatively titled They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It. Nichole Argyres at St. Martin's acquired world rights in a deal with Speaker's International Inc. through agent Lynne Rabinoff; the paperback of Hate is due out from SMP in January.... Millicent Bennett at Ecco won an auction for U.S. rights to Jonathan Fenby's Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850–2008 via Sarah Hunt Cooke at Penguin UK. Journalist Fenby's history of the burgeoning superpower will explore the nature of political power and its abuse; pub date is July 2008, just before the Beijing Olympics.