The Friedrich Literary Agency 2013 Frankfrut Rights Guide

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THE FRIEDRICH AGENCY

RIGHTS LIST: Fall 2013

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COMING SOON from The Friedrich Agency!

THIS IS HOW I’D LOVE YOU
Hazel Woods (Viking, Fall 2014)

In this powerful and beautifully told love story, Hensley Dench finds herself accidentally corresponding with an American soldier who is stationed in France during World War I. Hensley’s father, Sacha, has been fired from his job at The New York Times for protesting the war too loudly, but Sacha is a sympathetic soul who volunteers to be a “pen pal,” supporting and encouraging the soldiers who are in battle. Sacha has been writing to Charles, a young medic who shares his love for chess. When Hensley interrupts their letters with a few whimsical drawings on the envelope, she and Charles begin a correspondence of their own…

“Through the dark nights, I have figured and re-figured my

every move in the chess game I am playing with your father,

but I cannot solve the puzzle of you.”

As their real lives become increasingly fraught on both sides of the Atlantic, Hensley and Charles fall deeply in love on paper, clinging to each other’s words and allowing themselves the freedom to dream that one day they might meet. Heart-wrenching and transporting, THIS IS HOW I’D LOVE YOU is a celebration of language, and the sort of unshakeable love that mere words can build on paper.

“If I thought you would ever find me—that we might ever meet,

 I could never tell you everything…”

The edited manuscript will be available in late October.

THIS IS HOW I'D LOVE YOU is a heart-wrenching novel, one that reminds us some love isn't so easy. Some love must shatter anonymity, survive war, cross oceans, carve its own path. Love like Hensley and Charles isn’t so easy, no, but it’s more than worthwhile.

We all deserve love like Hensley and Charles.

PHENOMENAL:
A Hesitant Adventurer’s Search for Wonder in the Natural World

Leigh Ann Henion (Penguin Press/ Pub date TK)

Penguin Press has World English

For the past two years, we’ve only been able to discuss this sale briefly, but NOW we can finally share PHENOMENAL. As a reminder, Molly Friedrich sold this as a proposal and sample chapter, in a pre-empt to Ann Godoff. 

When The Washington Post sends Leigh Ann Henion to the migration site of the monarch butterflies in central Mexico, she begins to feel her sense of wonder stir. With the birth of her son and burgeoning professional life, however, she puts that sensation to the back of her mind.  

Until, PHENOMENAL: Setting out to rekindle a childlike sense of wonder in her increasingly routine, always-busy life, Leigh Ann experiences a selection of the earth’s most dazzling natural phenomena. We’re lucky to tag along in this uniquely compelling, awe-inspiring memoir. 

In the process of exploring natural phenomena—from the famous Northern Lights to the obscure perpetual lightning storms in South America, Henion meets and befriends a chorus of characters.

They all, in their own ways, remind us that wonder isn't about finding answers. It's about becoming more comfortable with questions.

Through Henion's adventures, the world we take for granted becomes a mysterious and fascinating place. Water speaks through bioluminescence, microscopic organisms that produce living light. Two million wildebeest follow the promise of rain, steadily streaming across the Serengeti. Henion probes the science and mythology that help her understand these chosen phenomena.   

This is the story of how—in an abstract, digital world of over-specialization and iEverything—one woman became the expert witness of her own life, ultimately bringing an adult-size, global sense of wonder home to bear on her own backyard. PHENOMENAL is a transformative narrative that captures, in a wholly original way, the heartbreaking beauty of nature and the always-searching, ever-evolving power of storytelling.

EAT, PRAY, LOVE…MOVE OVER!!

Leigh Ann Henion is a writer and photographer based in Boone, North Carolina. Her essays and articles have been published in The Washington Post, Oxford American, Smithsonian, and The Best American Travel Writing.
THE GIRLS FROM CORONA DEL MAR

Rufi Thorpe (Knopf/ Spring 2014)

Vulkan Izdavastvo (Serbia); Novo Conceito (Brazil); Random House (United Kingdom); Epsilon (Turkey); btb/Random House (Germany)   

 

A fiercely beautiful, bold novel

A dark, honest exploration of friendship

A debut heralding the arrival of a major literary voice

THE GIRLS FROM CORONA DEL MAR is a novel about friendships—how childhood bonds challenged by loss, illness, parenthood, and distance, either break or sustain. Mia and Lorrie Ann are lifelong friends: hard-hearted Mia and untouchably beautiful, kind Lorrie Ann. While Mia struggles with a mother who drinks, a pregnancy at fifteen, and younger brothers she loves but, despite that love, mistreats, Lorrie Ann is luminous. Lorrie Ann is surrounded by her close-knit family, immune to the mistakes that mar her best friend's life, until a sudden loss catapults Lorrie Ann into tragedy. Things fall apart, and then fall apart further—and there is nothing Mia can do to help. As good, kind, brave Lorrie Ann stops being so good, Mia begins to question just who this woman is and what that question means about them both.

“Lorrie Ann was the good one, and I was the bad one. She was beautiful

(shockingly so, like a painting by Vermeer), but I was sexy (at thirteen,

an excess of cherry chapstick was all that was required). We were both

smart, but Lorrie Ann was contemplative where I was wily, she earnest

and I shrewd. Where she was sentimental, I became sarcastic.

Normally, friendships between girls are stowed away in boxes of postcards

and ticket stubs, but whatever was between me and Lorrie Ann was

not so easy to set aside.”

A staggeringly arresting, honest novel of love, motherhood, loyalty, and the myth of the perfect friendship, THE GIRLS FROM CORONA DEL MAR moves us to ask ourselves just how well we know those we love, what we owe our children, and who we are without our friends. 

Reminiscent of John Updike and Lorrie Moore:

Rufi Thorpe is a name you need to remember.

www.RufiThorpe.com

THE FRANGIPANI HOTEL

Violet Kupersmith (Spiegel & Grau/ May 6, 2014)

Inspired by Vietnamese folklore, THE FRANGIPANI HOTEL blends the old world with the new in this haunting, unusual exploration of ghosts, circling one that continues to haunt—the Vietnam War. Violet Kupersmith writes, as she lives, on the crossroads of tradition and modernity; Vietnam and America; realism and fantasy. Violet is the daughter of a Vietnamese refugee who met her American husband while living in a convent in Texas.

Cindy Spiegel bought this collection over-night, in an exclusive six-figure pre-empt, the basis of three stories. Cindy’s the editor who brought us Chang-rae Lee, Junot Díaz, and ZZ Packer—and now Violet Kupersmith, a writer with vibrant, assured prose well beyond her years.

Violet is currently at work on her novel—one that will involve two greedy brothers, cobras poached for their black-market venom, and a runaway girlfriend fraternizing with ghosts…! 

Advance Praise for THE FRANGIPANI HOTEL:

“How exhilarating to discover a young writer with the authority and energy Violet Kupersmith brings to this debut collection. The haunted world of THE FRANGIPANI HOTEL teems with sensuous and exuberant life. Terror and wonder walk hand in hand. There are ghosts in the air (and in the lake), but there’s nothing insubstantial about them. These ghosts are boisterous and malign, driven by powerful passions even they don’t understand. Whether they issue from the war -torn past, the insatiable appetite of nature, or the sinister terrain of the human unconscious is anybody’s guess. One thing is certain; they’re not going away until the reader too is entirely entranced and captivated.”

– Valerie Martin, acclaimed author of Mary Reilly and the forthcoming

The Ghost of the Mary Celeste

“In this impressive debut, Violet Kupersmith displays a remarkable gift for voice and setting. Using history and horror, mystery and imagination, she has created this vivid collection of haunted and haunting stories. Highly recommended.”

– Karen Joy Fowler, NYT bestselling author of The Jane Austen Book Club and We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

 “Kupersmith is more than a powerful writer: she’s already been admitted into the secret circle of Isak Dinesen and Isaak Babel and Sylvia Townsend Warner: She’s a true storyteller.”

– George Dawes Green, founder of The Moth and author of The Juror

“Everyone will talk about how young Violet Kupersmith is, how she writes with a maturity and talent beyond her years. But when reading these stories of ghosts both ancestral and infernal, you’ll become convinced Kupersmith herself is of the spirit world—transcending time, nationality, gender, and place. Rarely does a writer of any age conjure a book so deftly funny and yet so deadly serious. Read it, remember it, and then breathlessly await her next one.”

– Sheri Holman, author of The Dress Lodger and Witches on the Road Tonight

PETER PAN MUST DIE         
John Verdon (Crown/ July 1, 2014)
Roca (Spain); Proa (Catalan); Koridor (Turkey); Grasset (France)

International thriller sensation John Verdon has done it again—his new novel PETER PAN MUST DIE will enrapture, puzzle, and TERRIFY. Fans across the world—26 territories to be exact!—have been waiting, asking John directly on Facebook: What’s next?!      

From the title of the latest John Verdon thriller PETER PAN MUST DIE, you’ll know this time David Gurney isn’t searching for “whodunit” but rather, WHY? Someone has hired an infamous assassin to murder wealthy real estate developer Carl Spalter, at the funeral for his mother, no less! But when Carl’s wife is sentenced to life in prison, rogue cop Jack Hardwick is convinced there was a sloppy investigation. Recently fired for helping Gurney during The Good Shepherd case (LET THE DEVIL SLEEP) Hardwick pleads with Gurney to take a closer look at the Spalter murder. Something is clearly VERY wrong, but for reasons no one suspects…

Once again Gurney is pulled into the dark, dangerous world of organized crime and an even scarier family where sons, daughters, brothers, and wives are prime murder suspects. Against Madeleine’s urging and Gurney’s own fears, Gurney hunts down the serial killer, named for the beloved children’s character Peter Pan. But how can Gurney catch a killer who’s never been seen? One whose very existence is a rumor? And will Gurney himself make it out alive…?

PRAISE for LET THE DEVIL SLEEP:

Radio personality Don Imus made LET THE DEVIL SLEEP his “Book of the Week” and

called it a “Fiendishly puzzling masterpiece”!

“It’s always a pleasure to watch a keen mind absorbed in a difficult puzzle, which is how Dave Gurney distinguishes himself in John Verdon’s tricky whodunits.”

– The New York Times

 “A razor-sharp serial killer thriller…The third Dave Gurney whodunit is a breakneck, knockout ride...The tension is palpable on virtually every page of a story that perfectly balances the protagonist’s complex inner life with an elaborately constructed puzzle.”

– Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

 “A masterful bit of writing that builds to a surprising and satisfying climax. The tension and enigmatic situations created en route to the conclusion make this book a definite nail-biter. John Verdon’s writing skill might well cause him to become known as ‘The Puzzle Master.’”

– New York Journal of Books

"I learned something this week: John Verdon is a hell of a writer. I read LET THE DEVIL SLEEP in two days, which is saying a lot, because it's a BIG book, running 449 pages. It was just damn hard to stop."
            – Evan Lewis, Edgar Award-winning writer and blogger at davycrockettsalmanack.com

JOHN VERDON

Online and in print, creative promotional ideas keep arriving!

Always brainstorming, John’s Spanish publisher Roca filmed an eerie, fascinating video interview at John’s home in upstate New York: http://vimeo.com/70041035.

In his signature wise, well-spoken way John explains his theories on writing thrillers and how his farm’s tranquil landscape inspires his work. Please be in touch if you’d like to use it in your own territory—such easy-to-translate subtitles!

Roca’s also created a graphically-appealing, intriguing, and fun “Book of David Gurney Puzzles”—a real treat for readers to get into the mind of their favorite detective. Word puzzles and riddles only a Gurney-level mind can solve!

Visit www.johnverdon.net for more updates

Join his 5,000 friends and LIKE John on Facebook!

https://www.facebook.com/authorjohnverdon

Foreign Sales to date:

LET THE DEVIL SLEEP (Crown/July 2012)Penguin (England); Roca (Spain); PROA (Catalan); Koridor (Turkey); Grasset (France); Keter (Israel); Brazil (Sextante); Germany (Heyne); Finland (Gumerus); SoftPress (Bulgaria); Dioptra (Greece); De Boekerij (The Netherlands); Baronet (Czech); Forum (Sweden); Gimm-Young (Korea); Piemme (Italy); Porto Lisboa (Portugal); Hr. Ferdinand (Denmark)   

SHUT YOUR EYES TIGHT (Crown/July 2011) Michael Joseph (England); Roca (Spain); De Boekerij (The Netherlands); Heyne (Germany); Grasset (France); Gummerus (Finland); Versal (Norway); PROA (Catalan); Dioptra (Greece); Koridor (Turkey); Keter (Israel); Otwarte (Poland); Hr. Ferdinand (Denmark); Sextante (Brazil); Edizioni Piemme Spa (Italy); Soft Press (Bulgaria); Corpus (Russia); Gimm-Young (Korea); Baronet (Czech); Porto Editora (Portugal); Forum (Sweden)

THINK OF A NUMBER (Crown/ July 2010) Michael Joseph (Major 3-Book Deal/England); Versal (Norway); De Boekerij (The Netherlands); Gummerus (Finland); Roca (Spain); Piemme (Italy); Heyne (Germany); Koridor (Turkey); Grasset (France); Corpus/AST (Russia); Gimm Young (Korea);  Dioptra (Greece); Hr. Ferdinand (Denmark); Soft Press (Bulgaria); Keter (Israel); CITIC Press (China); Porto Lisboa (Portugal); Sextante (Brazil); Commonwealth (Taiwan); NhaNam (Vietnam); PROA (Catalan); Forum (Sweden); Forlagid (Iceland); Otwarte (Poland); Baronet (Czech); Algoritam (Croatia); WeLearn (Thailand)

LISA SCOTTOLINE  

Published in 35 countries • Over 30 million books in print
New York Times Best Seller • Edgar Award Winner
Costco’s “Staff Picks” Promotion  • Chosen for World Book Night

KEEP QUIET (St. Martin’s Press/ April 8, 2014)                                                

A father’s split-second decision spells disaster. Lisa’s darkest, boldest book to date

KEEP QUIET is the gut-wrenching tale of one family’s unraveling, at the hand of lies, blackmail, and guilt.

KEEP QUIET opens with our protagonist, Jake, feeling that he and his teenage son just don’t connect anymore. Jake has started his own business, and work has taken him away from his family for the past few years. His wife suggests that Jake be the one to pick up their son Ryan from the movie theatre. When Ryan gets into the car, it’s the usual silence and one-word answers, until Ryan asks his Dad if he can drive home the rest of the way. Jake drives an Audi, and Ryan thinks it’s the “coolest” car ever, plus it’s only 2 miles back to the house! As soon as they switch places, Ryan opens up to Jake finally, even telling him a bit about one of the girls he likes from school. While they’re both laughing and enjoying the moment of bonding, they hear and feel a huge THUD. Pulling over to see what happened, they find a young woman’s body on the road…and nothing can be done, she’s been killed. Frantically weighing their options Jake makes a snap decision to leave the scene with his son, telling no one. Though his intentions are good, he’s made a huge mistake. The story follows the pair as their lives spiral out of control, and includes a completely unexpected suspense plot, as details are revealed along the way.

Also new from Lisa!
The long-awaited return of the all-female law firm Rosato & Associates!! An underdog story, ACCUSED is for readers who love smart, page-turning legal thrillers and features her beloved cast of strong, relatable women: Bennie Rosato, Mary DiNunzio, Judy Carrier, and Anne Murphy. Mary has just been promoted to partner and is about to take on her most unusual case yet, brought to the firm by a thirteen-year-old, beekeeping genius. Allegra Gardner’s sister was murdered six years ago, and it seemed like an open-and-shut case: the accused, Lonnie Stall, even pleaded guilty. But Allegra believes Lonnie is innocent and has been wrongly imprisoned. Was justice really served all those years ago? 

DON’T GO is a powerful story of unsung heroes—single fathers and military doctors— facing the unthinkable. We find both in Mike Scanlon, an army doctor who is told in the middle of a surgery that his young wife has died back in the US, in what turns out is NO accident…

Over 80,000 hardcover copies sold!!!

“Lisa Scottoline is one of the very best writers at work today. Don’t Go proves it once again. This is a story that is heavily muscled, emotional and relevant. They don’t come any better.” 

– Michael Connelly, bestselling author of The Lincoln Lawyer

PRAISE for DON’T GO!        

“Scottoline is a star.” – TIME

 “The pace is relentless, the twists are jaw-dropping. Scottoline is a powerhouse.”

– David Baldacci, #1 NYT bestselling author of 23 books, sold in 80 countries

 “You could get whiplash just turning a page. Scottoline knows how to keep readers in her grip.”   – The New York Times

“A masterpiece of maternal unease…sharp social commentary with breathless suspense.”                         – Maureen Corrigan for National Public Radio

Lisa Scottoline is the Edgar award-winning and New York Times bestselling writer of over 20 novels, and was recognized for her supreme achievements with the position of President for the Mystery Writers of America in 2011. Several years ago, Lisa put aside her legal suspense series about the Rosato law firm, and went in a different direction with more emotionally resonant suspense stand-alone novels. As a result, her American empire of fans has only grown all the more—and begged her to bring back Bennie Rosato.

Now, with non-fiction column collections, emotional suspense, and Rosato mysteries—Lisa Scottoline will be on bookstore shelves consistently throughout the year. Recent television options for her backlist books (DEVIL’S CORNER and WHY MY THIRD HUSBAND WILL BE A DOG) along with brand-new interest in KEEP QUIET only continue to cement Lisa’s position as a true superstar of emotional suspense.

Visit www.scottoline.com for more updates!

Follow @LisaScottoline & Friend: https://www.facebook.com/LisaScottoline

THE GHOST OF THE MARY CELESTE
Valerie Martin (Doubleday/ Nan A. Talese, January 28, 2014)
Weidenfeld & Nicolson (UK); Albin Michel (France)

A captivating, atmospheric return to historical fiction

Valerie Martin has spent a lifetime writing books of different genres, stretching herself around the world. Her two most blazingly successful achievements remain novels clearly set in history: MARY REILLY, first published in 1990, enjoyed no fewer than 25 foreign sales. Years later, in 2003, the distinctly American novel, PROPERTY, garnered a more modest ten foreign sales but won The Orange Prize in lovely compensation. The last couple of books that Valerie has written have been largely contemporary and considered “American.”

Until now: the arrival of THE GHOST OF THE MARY CELESTE, to be published by Nan Talese. Like David Mitchell's CLOUD ATLAS, Valerie's latest novel is brilliant, muscular, confounding, maddening, compelling on every page. Like the best and most recent of Hilary Mantel, Valerie writes with a fetching, beguiling voice, as modern and sturdy as anything celebrated in recent prize-winning literature…

A ghost ship appears in the mist.

To the struggling author Arthur Conan Doyle, it is an inspiration.

To Violet Petra, the gifted American psychic, it is a cruel reminder.

To the death-obsessed Victorian public, it is a fascinating distraction.

In salons and on rough seas, at séances and in the imagination of a genius, these responses converge in unexpected ways as the mystery of the ghost ship deepens. Intricate, atmospheric, and endlessly intriguing, The Ghost of the Mary Celeste is a spellbinding exploration of love, nature, and the fictions that pass as truth.

PRAISE for THE CONFESSIONS OF EDWARD DAY:

“A triumph…Martin writes with amplitude, precision, grace, and wit…. It’s a bravura performance.”             – Margaret Atwood for The New York Review of Books 

“I do think Valerie Martin is one of the best novelists we have. There is always more in every book than meets the eye. The Confessions of Edward Day—highly recommended!”

            – Jane Smiley in an exclusive Amazon guest review

“Martin (Mary Reilly; Property) adroitly plays with the boundary between reality and performance in her fluidly written new novel… The tension and constantly shifting exchange of power between the two men as they battle for Madeleine's attentions and struggle with their careers propels the plot until the love triangle comes to a dramatic head.” 

            – Publishers Weekly

Please visit http://valeriemartinonline.com for more news!

WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY BESIDE OURSELVES
Karen Joy Fowler (Marian Wood Books, Putnam/ May 30, 2013)
Serpent’s Tail (United Kingdom); Goldmann (Germany); Kinneret (Israel); Albatros (Czech)

Karen Joy Fowler’s latest novel is dazzling and provocative, wickedly funny yet emotionally devastating. The author of THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB returns in her sixth and most accomplished book yet, proving what a magus she is. With her amazing sleights of hand and skewering, pitch-perfect punch lines, Karen Joy Fowler brings us a family of loving but fallible people whose well-intentioned actions have devastating consequences.

Our narrator is Rosemary Cooke. As a child, she never stopped talking; as a young woman, she has wrapped herself in silence: the silence of intentional forgetting, of protective cover. Something happened, something so awful she has buried it in the recesses of her mind. It changed Rosemary forever—and it destroyed her family.

Indie Next Pick

ELLE Magazine’s Reader’s Prize for July 2013

    Front Page of The New York Times Book Review:

“A novel so readably juicy and surreptitiously smart, it deserves all the attention it can get… [T]his is a story of Everyfamily in which loss engraves relationships, truth is a soulful stalker and coming-of-age

means facing down the mirror, recognizing the shape-shifting notion of self.”

            – Barbara Kingsolver

More Praise for WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY BESIDE OURSELVES:

“Read this goddamn book.”             – Gawker

“Fowler's novel is superb….Fowler's smart and exquisitely sad novel provokes us to think about a lot of aspects of our relationship to animals that most of us would rather ignore.”

            – Maureen Corrigan, National Public Radio’s “Fresh Air”

“A strong, unsettling novel . . . Fowler explores the depths of human emotions and delivers a tragic love story that captures our hearts.”                 

            – Library Journal (starred review!)

“[A]n unsettling, emotionally complex story that plumbs the mystery of our strange relationship with the animal kingdom – relatives included.”

            – Ron Charles, The Washington Post

“At times poignant, at times hilarious…Fowler creates a fantastical tale of raw, animalistic love.”

             – O Magazine

“Fowler’s great accomplishment is not just that she takes the standard story of a family and makes it larger, but that the new space she’s created demands exploration.”  

            – Publishers Weekly

Even MORE Praise for Karen Joy Fowler:

“Piquant humor, refulgent language, a canny plot rooted in real-life experiences, an irresistible narrator, threshing insights, and tender emotions–Fowler has outdone herself in this deeply inquisitive, cage-rattling novel.”            – Booklist (starred review!)

“Rosemary Cooke, the novel’s narrator, had part of her early childhood given over to a science experiment. The remarkable details…never overpower Ms. Fowler’s subtle and universal story of parental intentions, sibling bonds and nagging regrets.”

            – New York Times

“In a novel that blends fiction and science, Fowler takes on what it means to be a family, the nature of memory and grief, and where the dividing line between the human and humanity lies.” 

            – The Christian Science Monitor, chosen as 10 Best Books of June

“Fowler knows how to make her story funny and sad and disturbing and revelatory by erecting a space in which her reader is allowed to feel all of that for herself.”

            – Salon

“Rosemary’s voice is achingly memorable…This brave, bold, shattering novel reminds us what it means to be human, in the best and worst sense.”

– The Miami Herald

“We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves is Fowler at her best, mixing cerebral and emotional appeal together in an utterly captivating manner.”

            – The Seattle Times 

“Fowler has given us the gift of a splendid novel….Layered with a huge moral compass and enormous humanity, this portrait of a family one-fifth simian will, nevertheless, touch and delight every human.”

            – Mameve Medwed, The Boston Globe

“Rosemary’s voice–vulnerable, angry, shockingly honest–is so compelling and the cast of characters, including Fern, irresistible. A fantastic novel.”

            – Kirkus (starred review)

“In the end the book doesn't just break your heart; it takes your heart and won't give it back."

            – Dan Chaon, author of Await Your Reply and Stay Awake
 

“Karen Joy Fowler has written the book she's always had in her to write…Does the love survive the damage? Will human beings survive the damage they do to the world they love so much? This is a strong, deep, sweet novel.”

            – Ursula K. Le Guin, author of Lavinia, The Unreal and the Real, and the Earthsea Cycle
  
“It’s been years since I’ve felt so passionate about a book. When I finished at 3 a.m., I wept, then I woke up the next morning, reread the ending, and cried all over again.” 

            – Ruth Ozeki, author of A Tale for the Time Being and My Year of Meats
  
“This novel is deliciously jaunty in tone and disturbing in material. Karen Joy Fowler tells the story of how one animal–the animal of man–can simultaneously destroy and expand our notion of what is possible.”

– Alice Sebold, New York Times-bestselling author of The Lovely Bones and The Almost Moon

FORTY ACRES

Dwayne A. Smith (Atria/ July 2014)

Droemer (Germany) Coming soon…manuscript not yet available

Lightning-fast, controversial, and immensely thought-provoking,

FORTY ACRES cannot be forgotten.

In this debut novel, a young attorney named Martin Grey has just won the biggest case of his life against superstar lawyer Damon Darrell. Instead of holding a grudge, Damon welcomes Martin into a small inner circle of powerful black men, and Martin jumps at the chance to secure some bigger clients for his budding career. When the small group finally invites him to join their “bonding trip” and leave town for the weekend, Martin decides to embrace the opportunity, despite his wife’s suspicions and misgivings. What follows is a horrific spiral into isolation, history, and vengeance—and Martin finds himself fighting for his life.

Like THE FIRM, Smith’s story invites you into a seemingly safe,
habitable world and then tosses that world upside down.

Like THE HUNGER GAMES, this novel raises the discomfort level and haunts your sleep.

Like early Michael Crichton and VERY early James Patterson,
it’s high adventure at breakneck speed.

We all know controversy is commercial. FORTY ACRES is that and so much more—it unearths a terrifying darkness, and forces readers to challenge history, oppression, and integrity head-on. What a wild, suspenseful ride. You won’t forget this book.

LESLEY M.M. BLUME
Books for Children (Knopf)

New to The Friedrich Agency and unseen abroad:

Lesley M. M. Blume’s children’s books are a fount of

“Brilliant, unusual writing.”– The Chicago Tribune

THE WONDROUS JOURNALS OF WENDELL WELLINGTON WIGGINS

(Knopf, August 7, 2012)

The journals of Dr. Wendell Wellington Wiggins might just be the most extraordinary contribution to the study of the earth's past since the discovery of the Rosetta Stone. In the incredible pages of these thought-to-be-lost diaries, Dr. Wiggins—whom we now must consider the greatest paleozoologist of all time—has divulged the secrets of the truly ancient animal world: A world before human beings; a world before dinosaurs; a world that, until now, existed well beyond the outer reaches of human imagination. From deadly Amazonian Whispering Vines (Vitus Sussurus) to curious creatures called Brittle Bones (Futilis Ossis) to a mysterious pet named Gibear (Chiroptera Vicugna Pacosis), the discoveries of Dr. Wiggins will forever change the way we think about the world before us. 

“Blume is a writer to watch.”  – Publishers Weekly

MODERN FAIRIES, DWARVES, GOBLINS, AND OTHER NASTIES
(Knopf, January 1, 2010)

Elegantly written and beautifully illustrated, Modern Fairies is half guidebook and half short story collection. Modern Fairies is for children who love the earnest advice included in the Dangerous Book for Boys/Girls titles and the wicked fun of Roald Dahl. The illustrations are incredibly original and yet also instantly classic.

TENNYSON

(Knopf, August 25, 2009)

A Book Sense Children’s Pick • Kirkus Top Pick for Reading Groups

On the banks of the Mississippi River, Tennyson Fontaine and her sister, Hattie, play endless games of hide-and-seek and make up fantastical stories about the latest adventures of their wild dog, Jos. But when their mother doesn’t come home and their father sets off to find her, the sisters are whisked away to Aigredoux, the once-grand plantation of their ancestors, now in ruin. 

Caught in a strange web of time, dreams, and history, Tennyson comes up with a plan to shine light on Aigredoux’s past and bring her mother home. But like so many plans, Tennyson’s has unexpected consequences… 

Reviewers compare Lesley M.M. Blume to
Flannery O’Connor, Eudora Welty, and Truman Capote!

Also by Lesley M. M. Blume:

In 2010, Chronicle Books released to great acclaim Let’s Bring Back, Ms. Blume’s cultural encyclopedia celebrating hundreds of forgotten-yet-delightful objects, pastimes, fashions, delectables, and personalities from bygone eras. Following the massive success of this initial volume, Chronicle has since released topic-specific new editions of Let’s Bring Back—including Let’s Bring Back: The Cocktail Edition (Fall 2012) and Let’s Bring Back: The Lost Language Edition (Spring 2013), as well as a line of ancillary products. Also now available is a line of Let’s Bring Back-inspired jewelry, created by renowned design house Lulu Frost.

No one expected the comparable Schott’s Almanac to take off, but it ran in Britain for six editions and in the U.S. and Germany for three editions each!! Like Schott’s Almanac, Let’s Bring Back can be edited for a foreign audience if desired.

Blume longs to bring back sealing wax, fainting couches, top hats, and elbow-length gloves. With the astounding success of The Great Gatsby film and a world-wide fascination with all things vintage, there couldn’t be a better time to send Blume’s stylish, alluring brand abroad!

Praise!
 “Blume’s history of cocktails and bars will have you laughing out loud as you mix.”                     – Good Housekeeping

“Let’s Bring Back: The Cocktail Edition is such good reading—it’s a mix of cocktail lore, recipes, anecdotes, and quotations—that even a teetotaler would enjoy it.”
            – The Paris Review

The Friedrich Agency controls rights to the Let’s Bring Back series, except for UK/ANZ.

Lest you forget, we eagerly await the wicked approach Lesley’s taking to Ernest Hemingway’s THE SUN ALSO RISES. Material available Spring 2015.

ALL THINGS TRULY WICKED

Lesley M. M. Blume (Eamon Dolan Books, HMH/ Spring 2016) 

Perhaps the world’s first “biography of a novel,” ALL THINGS TRULY WICKED tells the truly wicked tale behind Ernest Hemingway’s THE SUN ALSO RISES. With an incredibly stylish yet scholarly approach, Lesley Blume will unearth the truth behind Hemingway’s explosive, timeless novel, including the real-life versions of its incendiary characters.

Lesley M. M. Blume is an author, journalist, and cultural observer based in New York City. A regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal and Vanity Fair, Blume’s work has appeared in many prestigious publications, including Vogue, Slate, and The Daily Beast. She is a contributing editor at Departures magazine and was a founding contributing editor for The Huffington Post. 

Visit Lesley Blume’s website for more news:
http://lesleymmblume.com/

BOOKS FOR WHICH THE PUBLISHER CONTROLS RIGHTS

A TALE FOR THE TIME BEING

Ruth Ozeki (Viking/ March 12, 2013)

Am Oved (Israel); Text (Australia/NZ); Belfond (France); Casa da Palavra (Brazil); Canongate (UK); Ambos/Anthos (The Netherlands); Ponte (Italy); Klidarithmos (Greece); Planeta (Spain); Penguin (Canada); Fischer Verlag (Germany); Albatros (Czech); Polirom (Romania); Mehta (India); PT Gradien Mediatama (Indonesia); Parodi (Turkey); AST (Russia); Foskal (Poland); Xiron (China); Hayakwa (Japan); Earnest (Thai)  Please direct inquiries to Canongate (UK).

We are honored to congratulate Ruth Ozeki

as a nominee on the Man Booker Prize Shortlist

From the award-winning filmmaker and novelist, Ruth Ozeki, comes a novel that will forever change the way we relate to the fiction in our lives. In A TALE FOR THE TIME BEING, an author named Ruth finds the diary of a suicidal Japanese teenager, which washes up on the shore of Ruth’s Canadian island as part of the first wave of Tsunami debris. Fascinated by the teenager’s voice and story, Ruth embarks on a literary journey that soon transcends her understanding of the line between fiction and reality. A truly international story, this novel instantly converts each of its readers into a member of its passionate army of advocates.

British Independent Booksellers Award • New York Times Best Seller

Indie Best Seller • ALA Booklist’s High-Demand Hot List

Watch Ruth’s gorgeous, moving book trailer: http://www.ruthozeki.com

“An extraordinary novel about a courageous young woman, riven by loneliness, by time, and (ultimately) by tsunami. Nao is an inspired narrator and her quest to tell her great grandmother’s story, to connect with her past and with the larger world is both aching and true. Ozeki is one of my favorite novelists and here she is at her absolute best—bewitching, intelligent, hilarious, and heartbreaking, often on the same page.”
            – Junot Díaz, New York Times bestselling author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar

            Wao and This is How You Lose Her

W IS FOR WASTED
Sue Grafton (Marian Wood/Putnam, September 10, 2013)
W: Macmillan (United Kingdom); Tusquets (Spain); Tiden Norsk (Norway)

#1 on the New York Times Best Seller List: Hardcover, e-Book, &Combined!

#1 on the Indie Best Seller list • #1 Download on Audible

#1 on Barnes & Noble’s Weekly Best Books

The first was a local PI of suspect reputation. He’d been gunned down near the beach at Santa Teresa. It looked like a robbery gone bad. The other was on the beach six weeks later. He’d been sleeping rough. Probably homeless. No identification. A slip of paper with Millhone’s name and number was in his pants pocket. The coroner asked her to come to the morgue to see if she could ID him. Two seemingly unrelated deaths, one a murder, the other apparently of natural causes.

As Kinsey digs deeper into the mystery of the two “John Doe,” some very strange linkages begin to emerge. And before long at least one aspect is solved as Kinsey literally finds the key to his identity. In this multilayered tale, the surfaces seem clear, but the underpinnings are full of betrayals, misunderstandings, and outright murderous fraud. And Kinsey, through no fault of her own, is thoroughly compromised.

WHO ASKED YOU?
Terry McMillan (Viking/ September 17, 2013)

In fifteen voices—some defiant and strong, others heart-breaking—New York Times bestselling author Terry McMillan deftly weaves her tale of a black Los Angeles family. Bickering sisters Betty Jean, Arlene, and Venetia watch their kids face drugs, custody-battles, prison time, and painful secrets in this well-crafted story of acceptance, forgiveness, and hope.

“Her new book is rich in narrative tension, nuanced humor and moral heft absent from many a work of modern "literary fiction.” – Los Angeles Times

Featured interviews on CBS and NPR

15-City Author Tour for Who Asked You?

Over 11 Million Books in Print!!!

THE BURGESS BOYS

Elizabeth Strout (Random House/ March 26, 2013)

Luchterhand/RH (Germany); Fazi (Italy); Hayakawa (Japan); El Aleph (Spain); Ediciones 1984 (Catalan); S&S (UK, Australia, New Zealand); Eksmo (Russia); Korea (Munhakdongne); Hunan (China, Simplified); Pegasus (Turkey); General Press (Hungary); Ciela Norma AD (Bulgaria)       

Debuted at #3 on New York Times Best Seller List

# 1 on the Indie List • # 16 on the USA Today List
# 6 on the Barnes and Noble Best Seller List •Spiegel Best Seller in Germany

Indie Next Pick • Amazon Best Book of the Month • Powell’s Favorite

A stunning new work of fiction from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Olive Kitteridge, Strout’s newest novel effortlessly tackles larger themes of race and class, seamlessly interwoven with inimitable portrayals of rich family relationships. Meet the Burgess brothers: Jim and Bob, both New York City lawyers. But there the similarities end. Jim, the golden boy and firstborn of the family, and Bob, his kind and quieter younger brother, will find both their lives irrevocably altered when they are called back to their hometown in Maine by their sister Susan, after a thoughtless prank committed by Susan’s son—Jim and Bob’s 19-year-old nephew Zach—rocks their small community and unleashes a national scandal. As the novel unfolds, layers of family history are peeled away to reveal the heartbreaking deception and loss that has informed both the brothers’ personal and professional lives for decades.

Elizabeth Strout is the author of Amy & Isabelle, Abide With Me, and Olive Kitteridge. Olive, in addition to winning the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, was also the recipient of the Premio Bancarella in Italy, and the 2010 Bookseller’s Prize (El Premi Llibreter), given by the Guild of Booksellers in Barcelona.  www.elizabethstrout.com

Foreign for OLIVE KITTERIDGE: General Egyptian (Arabic- Egypt only), 1984 (Catalan), Thinkingdom (China S), Profil (Croatia), Jota (Czech), Batzer & Co. (Denmark); Atlas (The Netherlands), Archipoche (France), Luchterhand/ RH (Germany), Agyra (Greece), Opus (Israel), General Press (Hungary), Yayasan Andi (Indonesia), Fazi (Italy), Hayakawa (Japan), Munhakdongne (Korea), Nasza Ksiegarnia (Poland), Bertrand (Portuguese -Brazil), Casa das Letras (Portugal), Litera (Romania), Azbooka (Russia), Profil (Serbia), El Aleph (Spain), Amarin (Thailand), Pegasus (Turkey), S&S (UK/BC), Tre (Vietnam)              

A STAR FOR MRS. BLAKE

April Smith (Vintage, Anchor/ January 2014)

An emotionally charged, brilliantly realized novel set in the 1930s about five American women—Gold Star Mothers—who travel to France to visit the graves of their World War I soldier sons: A pilgrimage that will change their lives in unforeseeable and indelible ways.

Five vastly different women meet for the first time just before their journey begins: Katie, an Irish maid from Dorchester, Massachusetts; Minnie, wife of an immigrant Russian Jewish chicken farmer; Bobbie, a wealthy Boston socialite; Wilhelmina, a former tennis star in precarious mental health; and Cora Blake, a single mother and librarian from coastal Maine.

In Paris, Cora meets a journalist whose drug habit helps him hide from his own wartime fate—facial wounds so grievous he's forced to wear a metal mask. Cora cannot foresee how this man will alter her own life. When the women finally reach the battlegrounds and cemetery of Verdun, shocking events—a death, a scandal, and a secret revealed—will guarantee their lives forever intertwined. This is a timeless story set against a footnote of history: Little known before, but now unforgettable.

“April Smith has written a beautiful and unforgettable novel about five Gold Star Mothers whose stories are both personal and universal. Writing A Star for Mrs. Blake must have been a labor of love and it shows on every page. Everyone who has served or is serving in the military, and also their families and friends, should read this book.”
            – Nelson DeMille, New York Times bestselling author of The Quest

FIN AND LADY

Cathleen Schine (FSG/ July 2, 2013)

Mondadori (Italy); Constable (UK)

A Barnes & Noble Recommends Selection

 July 2013 Indie Next List

It’s 1964. Eleven-year-old Fin and his glamorous, worldly, older half sister, Lady, have just been orphaned. Lady, whom Fin hasn’t seen in six years, is now his legal guardian and his only hope. That means Fin is uprooted from a small dairy farm in rural Connecticut to Greenwich Village, smack in the middle of the swinging ‘60s. He soon learns that Lady—giddy, careless, urgent, and obsessed with being free—is as much his responsibility as he is hers. Fin and Lady lead their lives against the background of the ‘60s, the civil rights movement, and the Vietnam War—Lady pursued by ardent, dogged suitors, Fin determined to protect his impulsive sister both from them and from herself.

By a writer The New York Times has praised as “sparkling, crisp, clever, deft, hilarious, and deeply affecting,” FIN AND LADY is a love story: the story of a brother and sister who must form their own unconventional family in increasingly unconventional times.

ALPHA WOMAN MEETS HER MATCH

Dr. Sonya Rhodes and Susan Schneider (William Morrow/ May 2014)

Goldmann (Germany); Charron Editeur (France and Canada) 

For all the professional women who bought LEAN IN, APLHA WOMAN MEETS HER MATCH is a liberating, straight-talking guide to dating that reassures successful modern women they can find the right guy and get married without having to change or settle…and then tells them how to do it. Deeply researched by a top relationship therapist and unrelentingly positive and smart, ALPHA WOMAN MEETS HER MATCH is a must-have for today’s successful single women.

CATS AT SEA (Algonquin/ October 2013)

Valerie and Lisa Martin

A swashbuckling story of two very different cat brothers and their adventures at sea!

Cecil and Anton are as different as port and starboard. Cecil, stocky and black with white patches, thirsts for seafaring adventure as he roams the docks of his harborside home, taking day trips on fishing boats. Slim, gray Anton prefers listening to the sailors’ shanties at the town saloon. But one day when Anton goes to port, he’s taken to be a ratter on a ship bound for the high seas. Knowing little of the wide open ocean that lies beyond the harbor, Cecil boards another ship in hopes of finding Anton. But what begins as a rescue mission turns into a pair of high-seas adventures. Anton takes on a fierce rat, outwits hungry birds, and forges a forbidden friendship, while Cecil meets dolphins and whales and finds himself in a pirate raid. On an ocean as vast as the one Anton and Cecil have discovered, will they ever see home—or each other—again? Valerie Martin and Lisa Martin present a colorful cast of characters, rich historical detail, and lyrical storytelling that will delight fans of such classic animal adventures as The Wind in the Willows, Stuart Little, and Poppy.

VITRO

Jessica Khoury (Penguin/January 2014)

ORIGIN (Penguin/September 2012) Sales: Arena (Germany); Clavis (Netherlands); Grupo Anaya (Spain); Wydawnictwo (Poland); Exlibris (Bulgaria); Novo Conceito (Brazil); Egmont (Czech)

On a remote island in the Pacific, Corpus scientists have taken test tube embryos and given them life. These beings—the Vitros—have knowledge and abilities most humans can only dream of. But they also have one major flaw…Sophie Crue is determined to get to Skin Island and find her mother, a scientist who left Sophie behind years ago. She enlists hunky charter pilot Jim Julien to take her there. But once on the island, Sophie and Jim encounter more than they bargained for, including a charming, brilliant Vitro named Nicholas and an innocent, newly awoken one named Lux. In a race for their lives, Sophie and Jim are about to discover what happens when science stretches too far…

OF TRITON 

Anna Banks (Macmillan Children’s / May 2013)

Hardie Grant Egmont (Australia)

Emma has just learned her mother is a long-lost Poseidon princess, and now struggles with an identity crisis: As a Half-Breed, she's a freak in the human world and an abomination in the Syrena realm. Syrena law states all Half-Breeds should be put to death.

As if that's not bad enough, her mother's reappearance in the Syrena world turns the two kingdoms—Poseidon and Triton—against one another. Which leaves Emma with a decision to make: Should she comply with Galen's request to keep herself safe and just hope for the best? Or should she risk it all and reveal herself—and her Gift—to save a people she's never known?

With her signature wit and humor, Banks gives us another wave of Emma and Galen’s romance.

Don’t miss the trilogy’s conclusion with OF NEPTUNE in May 2014!

OF POSEIDON

Anna Banks (Macmillan Children’s / May 2012)

Novo Conceito (Brazil); Hardie Grant Egmont (Australia); Bertelsmann (Germany)