Riverhead Acquires Hamid's New Novel
By Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 5/13/2009 7:56:00 AM
Flexing her editorial muscle in her new job at Riverhead, Becky Saletan has brought one of her big authors, Mohsin Hamid, into the fold at Penguin. Saletan acquired North American (along with audio, first serial, e-book and paperback) rights to Hamid's forthcoming novel, tentatively titled Pureland. Saletan, who edited Hamid's 2007 bestselling and Booker shortlisted The Reluctant Fundamentalist while at Harcourt and his 2001 novel Moth Smoke while at FSG, acquired Pureland from Jay Mandel at William Morris.Pureland, set in Pakistan and the West, is, according to Penguin, about "the unmaking of identity...at a moment of global seismic shift." Penguin UK has also acquired UK rights. No pub date has been set.
