Glusman Nabs Buzzed-About Hitler Book
In a notable acquisition before the London Book Fair (which kicks off on April 15), Norton editor-in-chief John Glusman bought North American rights to David King’s The Trial of Adolf Hitler (mentioned in our London Briefcase story last week). Glusman beat out four other bidders, at auction, closing on the book with agent Suzanne Gluck of William Morris Endeavor. Glusman paid an advance rumored to be over $200,000, though he declined to comment on that figure. In the book, King (The Serial Killer of Nazi Occupied Paris), explores Hitler’s first, and unsuccessful, attempt to seize power in Germany—the infamous Beer Hall Putsch in Munich—after which he was tried for treason. Glusman said that King will show how the ensuing courtroom drama “not only catapulted Hitler onto the national stage, but also transformed… the Nazi party.” The book is currently scheduled for fall 2017.

Doten Buys Repino’s Debut
Soho Press’s Mark Doten took North American rights to Robert Repino’s debut, Morte(e), in a deal brokered by Jennifer Weltz at the Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency. The book, set as Soho’s lead title on its 2014 fall list, is, Weltz said, a “genre busting post-apocalyptic” work with nods to Watership Down, Animal Farm, and Rambo. She explained that the novel is concerned with “a former house-cat turned hero, a vengeful queen ant determined to defeat the human scourge, and a love that transcends the insanity.”

Maden Heads to Putnam
Mike Maden sold world rights to two novels—both part of a new political thriller series—to Nita Taublib at Putnam. Agent David Hale Smith, at Inkwell Management, represented the author. The series, called Drone, will explore, Putnam said, the exploits of a CIA operative and his team, who “battle a conspiracy at home and abroad by deploying the latest and deadliest drone technologies.” The first book in the series is scheduled for fall 2013. Maden, who lives in Texas, has worked as a political consultant specializing in war and the Middle East.

‘Fat Dad’ Rolls to Berkley
Denise Silvestro at Penguin’s Berkley imprint took world English rights to New York Times contributor Dawn Lerman’s My Fat Dad. Lynn Johnston at Lynn Johnston Literary handled the sale for Lerman, a nutrition consultant whose same-titled series ran in the paper of record and chronicled her childhood with an obese father (and successful ad man) weighing, at his heaviest, 450 lbs. Lerman’s dad tried every fad diet around (including a summer spent at the Duke University’s “fat farm”), and Johnston said the author ultimately learned about diet from her grandmother, who “taught her the value of real food and real eating.” Berkley has Fat Dad scheduled for 2015.

Castellucci, Infurnari Go with Dark Horse
YA (and graphic) novelist Cecil Castellucci sold North American rights to a currently untitled Depression-era graphic novel to Dark Horse’s Sierra Hahn. The book, which William Morris Endeavor’s Kirby Kim represented, will be illustrated by Joe Infurnari, and is currently set for a fall 2014 release. The story is set in 1932 and follows, Dark Horse said, two misfits “and a relationship built during a train-hopping journey from the cold heartbreak of their eastern homes toward the sunny promise of California.”

Greaves Closes Double
Author Chuck Greaves closed deals on two works, with two different houses. Anton Mueller at Bloomsbury (who bought Greaves’s 2012 historical novel, Hard Twisted) took world rights to Tom & Charlie (and George & Cokey Flo), set in 1930s gangland New York. Greaves’s agent Antonella Iannarino, at the David Black Agency, said the book is a “multiviewpoint saga” that recounts “the years up to, and including, the notorious 1936 Lucky Luciano vice trial.” Iannarino also sold the third work in Greaves’s L.A. legal mystery series, featuring lawyer Jack MacTaggart, again to Peter Joseph at Thomas Dunne. (Greaves is writing Tom & Charlie as C. Joseph Greaves.)

Shaara Comes to E
Agent Doug Grad, who recently started his own e-book company, Antenna Books, struck a deal with author Michael Shaara's son, Jeff Shaara, to digitally publish his father's entire backlist. (Jeff, an author as well, is the executor of his father's estate.) Currently all of Michael Shaara's book are out of print, and the deal is for four novels and 44 short stories, including a previously unpublished novel called The Rebel In Autumn. Michael Shaara wrote such books as The Killer Angels, which won the Pullitzer in 1975, and For Love of the Game, which was made into the same-titled 1999 film starring Kevin Costner.