Dessen’s Latest to Viking Children’s
Bestselling YA author Sarah Dessen sold her 12th novel to Ken Wright, v-p and publisher of Viking Children’s Books. Wright took world rights to the book from Writers House agent Leigh Feldman, and Viking editor-at-large Regina Hayes will edit. Saint Anything, set for 2015, is about a girl named Sydney who finds solace in a new love interest while dealing with her older brother’s incarceration. Dessen said the novel touches on some of her favorite themes, including the “joy and complications of family, first love, and how one friend can sometimes change everything.” Dessen’s novels have been translated into more than 25 languages; her books That Summer and Someone Like You served as the basis of the film How to Deal, starring Mandy Moore; and Viking said there are currently nine million copies of Dessen’s books in print.

Booker Nominee Lands at Norton
Neel Mukherjee’s Booker long-listed novel The Lives of Others has been acquired by W.W. Norton. Jill Bialosky bought U.S. rights to the book from Jane Kirby, foreign rights director at Chatto & Windus. Norton described the novel, which is set in Calcutta and focuses on a Bengali family that is unraveling, as “ambitious, rich and compassionate.”

Poet Hall Will ‘Speak’ for Ecco
Poet Louisa Hall sold her sophomore novel, Speak, to Megan Lynch at Ecco. Lynch took North American rights to the book, at auction, from Susanna Lea and Kerry Glencourse at Susanna Lea Associates. The novel, which is scheduled for summer 2015, tackles the creation of artificial intelligence by “interweaving five voices over different continents and time periods.” Hall teaches English literature at the University of Texas at Austin.

Hillary, in Pictures, at HC Children’s
For HarperCollins’s Balzer + Bray imprint, Kristin Daly Rens took world rights to a picture book about Hillary Rodham Clinton by Michelle Markel. The book, which will be a biography of the politician (and likely 2016 presidential candidate), was sold by Anna Olswanger at Olswanger Literary. Markel, a former journalist, has written a number of picture books; her 2013 title, Brave Girl (also published by Balzer + Bray), won the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award.

Kensington Nabs Paranormal Debut
Patricia Esden, who has published a number of short stories and novelettes, sold her full-length debut, Moonhill, to Selena James at Kensington. James took world rights, in a three-book deal, from Pooja Menon at Kimberley Cameron & Associates. The new adult paranormal work follows a 20-year-old antiques dealer who, Menon explained, has a run-in with the “dangerously handsome” groundskeeper of her family’s estate after returning to the place with her father, hoping to save him from what appears to be dementia. Esden has been published in such SF and fantasy magazines/zines as Challenging Destiny and Orson Scott Card’s Traveling Medicine Show. Moonhill is set for spring 2016.

Correction: The original version of this article misspelled Patricia Esden's last name, and mistakenly listed the planned pub date of her novel, Moonhill, as spring 2015.