At the London Book Fair last week, we learned about a number of books, some of which made good sales there to U.K. and other publishers, that will be showing up imminently on American editors' desks. Here is a brief sampling: Jean Naggarwill be auctioning Secrets of the Exodus, by two Moroccan researchers, Roger and Messod Sabbah, who claim to have proved that the biblical exodus of the Israelites from Egypt was in fact a reference to the monotheistic Pharaoh Akhnaten, who was driven into exile with his followers. Their book, published last fall by a small French publisher, sold 50,000 copies in a few months. It has also sold to Japan and had an offer from Holland. John Brockmanis offering a gloomy proposal by Britain's Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees, suggesting that the human race may not last the next century here on earth and should perhaps start looking for a new home elsewhere in space. It's called Our Final Century? The 50/50 Threat to Human Survival, has made sales to Holland and Italy, and received a large U.K. offer. Chandler Crawford, who specializes in foreign sales, has clients of her own in the team of author Brooke Newman and illustrator Lisa Dirkes, who have collaborated on a small book called The Little Tern-an inspirational bird story not unlike the venerable Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Crawford sold this to an imprint of Piper in Germany, where it sold 15,000 copies in three months, then sold it to Simon & Schuster U.K. just before the fair, and has also sewed up Spanish rights. S&S has world English and will be offering it here. Stuart Krichevskywill be sending around a first novel by a bright young Englishman, Gregory Norminton, based on the painting by Hieronymous Bosch called Ship of Fools; it's a collection of tales, Chaucerian in style, woven around the people in the picture. Isabel Dixonat the Blake Friedmann agency in London sold this, as part of a two-book preempt, to Sceptre just before the fair.