Norton Wins New Rosenberg

Bob Weil at Norton beat out six other houses in an auction for Tina Rosenberg's The Social Cure: Cracking the World's Toughest Problems Through the Power of the Group; Gail Ross sold North American rights. The book will look at intractable social problems, both global and domestic, that appear to have no solutions, providing inspirational cases in which peer pressure has been used to change behavior in instances where previously nothing had worked. This is Rosenberg's third book, and the first since 1995's The Haunted Land, which won the Pulitzer and the National Book Award. Pub date is spring 2010.

Leslie Meredith at the Free Press was the winner, world rights, at a two-day auction for University of Chicago psychologist Sian Beilock's first book, Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Success and Failure at Work and Play; Dan O'Connell at the Strothman Agency made the six-figure sale. Beilock, whose research has made her a sought-after media commentator and speaker, will reveal new evidence that turns on its head what we know about body-brain intelligence and performance, specifically what makes us flub and freeze in tests, in the boardroom and on the playing field. The book will also provide practical solutions to prevent choking. Pub date is 2010.

Just before an auction in which at least eight publishers were slated to participate, Amy Hertz preempted world rights to New York Times health columnist and Well blogger Tara Parker-Pope's The Science of Marriage via Lynn Johnston. The book will distill the avalanche of research about what makes relationships work—and not work—into practical, evidence-based advice. Tentative pub date is late 2009/early 2010.

Ben Sevier preempted North American rights to two new novels by Jonathan Tropper via Simon Lipskar. The first of the two, to be published in 2009, deals with fatherhood. Tropper is the author of four previous novels, most recently How to Talk to a Widower, published last year by Delacorte. Plume will publish both new books in paperback following the Dutton hardcover.

Amy Einhorn preempted world English rights to M.T. Mustian's The Gendarme for her imprint at Putnam with a six-figure offer to Scott Mendel. Armenian-American Mustian's debut is described as an epic novel about a 92-year-old Turkish-American man suffering from dementia who suddenly starts having vivid dreams about his role in the Armenian genocide of 1915, the young woman he fell in love with and spared—and how he sets out in secret to beg her forgiveness.

Sarah Knight at Holt preempted an untitled memoir by two-time California Poet Laureate Rhoda Janzen via Michael Bourret at Dystel & Goderich. Janzen tackles love, faith, family and corsets in this recounting of the months she spent recuperating after a bad breakup (her husband left her for a guy named Bob) in her parents' quirky, close-knit Mennonite community. Holt has North American rights; pub date is summer 2009.

Coexecutive producer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Josh Lieb has sold I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President; Jessica Rothenberg at Razorbill won North American rights to two books in an auction conducted by Richard Abate. Lieb's first novel is about a 12-year-old genius who puts his plans for world domination on hold in order to run for class president and please his father.