Debut Novels Gain Momentum

by Matthew Thornton -- Publishers Weekly, 10/16/2008 12:31:00 PM

Dial Press has won North American rights to Tom Rachman’s buzzed-about debut novel, The Imperfectionists. Susan Kamil topped seven other publishers with a significant six-figure offer(agent Susan Golomb had seven bidders total, with two imprints making a house bid) in an auction that kicked off on Tuesday and was remarkably speedy given that some participants, or those bidders’ bosses, are in Frankfurt. Dial’s pub date is likely to be fall 2009 or early 2010. The novel hasn’t sold in other territories yet, though foreign publishers may have been waiting to see how the North American auction played out.

Another first novel that is gaining traction at the fair is Patrick Lane’s Red Dog, Red Dog. The book is currently on submission in the U.S., but agent Dean Cooke reports that there is now a UK offer on the table from a “very prestigious” publisher, and the novel went in a preempt to Signatuur in Holland and at auction to Gallimard in France just before the fair began. Published this month in Canada by McClelland & Stewart, the story of two brothers with a painful past and secrets to keep was long-listed for the Giller Prize and is nominated for the Writer’s Trust Award.