Jennifer Hershey at Random House acquired North American rights to Remain, the debut collaboration between romance novelist Nicholas Sparks (pictured l.) and filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan (pictured r.), from Celeste Fine of Park, Fine & Brower. The novel, the publisher said, “is a ghost love story based on an original story,” and Shyamalan will independently write a screenplay based on the book for an upcoming film, with Jake Gyllenhaal set to star. The novel’s publication is set for October, simultaneously with Doubleday Canada.

Adam Levy and Ashley Nelson Levy at Transit picked up North American rights to 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Jon Fosse’s Vaim, translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls, in a four-book deal, from Markus Hoffmann at Regal Hoffmann, on behalf of the Winje Agency. The deal includes Fosse’s Dog Stories, a collection of three novellas with canine protagonists also translated by Searls.Vaim is the first in a triptych set in the fictional Norwegian fishing village of the same name. A first hardcover print run of 20,000 is set for October.

Brant Rumble and Ben Sevier at Grand Central acquired North American rights to Jim Murphy’s bestselling self-published self-help book, Inner Excellence, at auction, in a three-book deal, from Pilar Queen and Peter Steinberg at UTA. E-book and audio editions will publish next week, with a trade paperback set for April. The deal includes a workbook, slated for 2026, and The Best Possible Life, self-published in November and to be reissued by Hachette Nashville in September.

Tara Parsons at HarperVia netted world English rights to Bo Wang’s debut novel,The Chinese Lady, from Natalie Edwards at Trellis. The publisher called the book “an immersive, panoramic, and deeply researched novel about the first Chinese woman brought to the United States, moving from 1820s Canton to P.T. Barnum’s American Museum to gold rush San Francisco.” Publication is set for fall.

2022 PW Star Watch Superstar Ruoxi Chen inked her first deals at Putnam, both at auction, securing North American rights to Samantha Josephs’s debut novel, Carrying, from Dan Milaschewski and Ethan Schlatter at UTA, and world rights to Máire Roche’s Bromantasy, in a two-book deal, from Claire Friedman at InkWell. The former follows “a trans woman concealing her identity even to her own husband who is stricken by a mysterious illness.” The latter is billed as a “joyful, tongue-in-cheek romp starring a protagonist who reads as if David Rose from Schitt’s Creek were in the world of The Princess Bride.” Both titles are slated for summer 2026.

In Brief

  • Jonathan Burnham at Harper bought North American rights to the late Harper Lee’s The Land of Sweet Forever: Stories and Essays from Tonja Carter of the Harper Lee estate, and Michael Dean of Andrew Nurnberg Associates, for publication this October.
  • Kaitlin Olson at Atria acquired North American and audio rights to three new thrillers by Lisa Jewell from Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown. The first book in the deal, still untitled, is slated for summer 2027.
  • Caroline Tew at Saga bought North American rights to Silent Nightmares, a horror anthology drawing on A Christmas Carol, edited by Chuck Palahniuk and Michael Bailey, from Lane Heymont at Tobias Literary. Pub date TBD.
  • Joel Simons at HarperNonFiction in the U.K. secured world all-language rights to the untitled debut of YouTube comedians and cartography enthusiasts Mark Cooper-Jones and Jay Foreman, aka the Map Men, from Anna Carmichael at Abner Stein, for an October release. Peter Joseph at Hanover Square will edit in the U.S.
  • Liv Ryan at Mulholland took North American rights to horror author Luke Smitherd’s I’ll Quit When I’m Dead from Kristin Nelson of the eponymous shingle. Publication is slated for fall.