DEAL OF THE WEEK

Putnam Wins U.K. Editor’s Debut

For Putnam, Sally Kim won the debut novel by Ore Agbaje-Williams, an editor at the Borough Press imprint of HarperCollins UK, after what the publisher described as a “competitive auction.” Putnam said The Three of Us is “part suburban millennial comedy of manners, part domestic noir,” unfolding over the course of a single day. It traces the effects of a “startling discovery” that rocks a British Nigerian man, his wife, and his wife’s best friend. The Penguin Random House imprint added that the novel explores “questions about cultural expectations, the fine line between compromise and betrayal, and the nature of truth.” Nicola Chang at David Higham Associates handled the North American rights agreement. The Three of Us is set for a 2023 release.

Atria Buys Griffin’s NFL Memoir

Former NFL quarterback Robert Griffin III sold a memoir, Surviving Washington, to Amar Deol at Atria Books. Deol took U.S., Canadian, and open market rights from Susan Canavan of the Waxman Literary Agency. In the book, Atria said, Griffin recounts his experiences as a member of the Washington Football Team, focusing on the playoff game that changed the course of his career—when he was put back into action despite clearly having injured himself. Griffin went from “franchise savior to needing to be saved.” He writes, with NFL reporter Gary Myers, about “the medical mismanagement he suffered, the toxic environment and sexual harassment he witnessed, and the power struggles within—cementing the Washington Football Team’s status as the most dysfunctional organization in professional sports.” Griffin won the Heisman Trophy in 2011 when he played for Baylor University, and was a second-round draft pick by Washington. Atria added that in the book he “plans to hold himself and his former coaches, physicians, and team owner to full account.” Surviving Washington is slated for August 2022.

Holt Is Swayed by Hasan’s ‘Argument’

MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan sold How to Win Every Argument: The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking to Henry Holt. Tim Duggan took North American rights from Pilar Queen and Meredith Miller at United Talent Agency. Holt said the book, set to be published in 2023, “will provide words of wisdom and examples of rhetoric” to “help anyone win any argument.”

Miles Sells Bio of Dueling Abolitionists

National Book Award winner Tiya Miles (All That She Carried) soldHarriet’s Mirror to Molly Turpin at Random House. The book, RH said, is “a dual literary biography of Harriet Jacobs and Harriet Beecher Stowe that examines both the surprising parallels and stark contrasts in their private lives.” Jacobs was an African American writer, and Stowe, a white writer and fellow abolitionist, was one of her contemporaries. The book will also detail the tensions between them “that foreshadowed contemporary conflicts between white and Black feminists,” as well as “the ways in which Jacobs laid the groundwork for Black feminism today.” Tanya McKinnon at McKinnon Literary handled the world rights agreement for Miles.


S&S Nabs Memoir by Surgeon

LaSharah Bunting at Simon & Schuster preempted North American rights to a memoir by Ala Stanford, a pediatric surgeon who founded the Black Doctors Covid-19 Consortium. S&S said that in Take Care of Them Like My Own, Stanford recounts “her experiences from an urban Philadelphia childhood to working in the hallowed halls of the top medical institutions, as well as caring for celebrities and the underserved.” The book will also “offer a road map for fixing health inequities and healing her community, from the inside out.” Stanford was represented by Jennifer Weis at the Ross Yoon Agency.