Iraq Preempts
Just before leaving Free Press to head Collins, Bruce Nichols made a six-figure preempt for The Whisperer's War, a memoir by the senior interrogator for the top-secret Joint Special Operations Command task force that tracked and killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. Referred to only as “Doc Matthew” in Mark Bowden's May Atlantic Monthly cover story, the author will describe the psychologically sophisticated techniques he used in the manhunt, which will be the key to winning the wider war against international jihadists. John Bruning, who recently collaborated on David Bellavia's House to House (Free Press), will coauthor, with Dominick Anfuso to edit. Jim Hornfischer sold world English, and Free Press plans a fall 2008 pub.
Within 24 hours of submission, Rick Horgan at Crown preempted North American rights to The Palace War, in which lead Pentagon reporters David Cloud of the New York Times and Greg Jaffe of the Wall Street Journal will focus on the four generals (John Abizaid, George Casey, Peter Chiarelli, David Petraeus) who have proven most influential in the conduct of the Iraq war. The authors will reveal how the army's winnowing process led to these generals' ascent, and how each man's individual theories about modern warfare are being tested. Gail Ross made this deal for a significant advance; likely pub date is spring 2009.
In the Garden
Jennifer Barth and Jonathan Burnham at Harper recently won a six-way auction for Wade Graham's American Eden: From the Thirteen Colonies to the Present, What Our Gardens Tell Us About Who We Are; agent David Kuhn sold world rights. Graham, a Los Angeles—based landscape architect who has a Ph.D. in American history, will examine America's relationship to issues of class, money, politics, race, religion and democracy over the past three centuries through the way we've shaped our landscape and gardens, and through the ideas and stories of the people who designed, commissioned, constructed and used them. This is Graham's first book; his work has appeared in the New Yorker and Harper's. Likely pub date is late 2009.
Gardner Back to Bantam
New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner has signed for three new books with her longtime publisher, Bantam; Kate Miciak bought North American rights from Meg Ruley at the Jane Rotrosen Agency. The books will be suspense novels, likely to pub annually; in a separate deal, Random House bought audio rights to the same three new books. Bantam will publish Gardner's next novel, Say Goodbye, in July 2008.
Debut Double
Grand Central's Caryn KarmatzRudy bought North American rights to Jasmin Darznik's The Good Daughter with a six-figure offer to Kelly Sonnack at the Dijkstra Agency. The family memoir begins as the author discovers a wedding photograph of her mother with a strange man beside her; the story unravels in 10 cassette tapes her mother sends her, which reveal the hidden history of her family's origins in Iran. Darznik is an Iowa Review finalist for short fiction and a 2006 Zoetrope short fiction contest winner. Random's CHA division will pub simultaneously in the U.K.
Karmatz Rudy also bought North American rights to Giulia Melucci's I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti via Lisa Bankoff at ICM. In the book, Melucci, a former publicist at Atlantic Monthly Press, Viking, Dutton and Scribner who now runs the PR department at Harper's magazine, will describe her own series of ill-fated relationships, served with a side of the Italian recipes she used to cook her way through it all. Pub date is spring 2009.
Grape Story
Rica Allanic at Clarkson Potter has preempted North American rights to Todd Kliman's The Wild Vine: The Improbable Rise and Fall and Rise Again of America's Native Grape via Will Lippincott at Lippincott Massie McQuilkin. Kliman, food and wine editor at Washingtonian magazine, will tell the mysterious story of the Norton grape and the mavericks who have been drawn to it since its creation in 19th-century Virginia. The grape all but vanished during Prohibition, but has been recently resurrected in wine-growing regions throughout the U.S. No pub date yet.
Blumenthal to Nation
Carl Bromley at Nation Books bought world rights to Max Blumenthal's debut, Land of Sin: Inside the Movement That Controls the Republican Party via Anna Stein at Irene Skolnick Agency. The book will focus on the political psychology and underlying culture of the right; Blumenthal, the son of Sidney Blumenthal, writes for the Nation and Salon, and has gained a large online following through his short, satirical films on the conservative movement. Pub date is summer 2008.
Elie Again to FSG
Jonathan Galassi has acquired a new book by FSG editor Paul Elie, whose first book, The Life You Save May Be Your Own, was an NBCC finalist in biography. The new book is about the music of Bach and about how music has entered our lives in new and surprising ways since audio recordings became commonplace 75 years ago. Agent Lydia Wills sold world rights.
