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Deal of the Week

Holt Signs NYT’s Gettleman
New York Times correspondent and Pulitzer Prize winner Jeffrey Gettleman’s The Mission, a chronicle of the life and death of American missionary John Chau, was picked up by Holt’s Paul Golob in a six-figure deal for North American rights. Todd Shuster and Justin Bouckaert of Aevitas Creative Management represented the author. Gettleman’s reporting detailed the story of the obsessive quest that drove Chau to a remote island in the Indian Ocean, where he hoped to convert the indigenous people to Christianity but was killed. Comparing the book to John Krakauer’s Into the Wild and David Grann’s The Lost City of Z, Golob said he was taken with the immediacy of Gettleman’s prose, which he said “jumps off the page” to reveal “how far a driven and obsessed person is willing to go in the service of their dream.” The book, which is due out in 2021, is part of Holt’s publishing partnership with the New York Times.

Harper Pays Up for a Debut
Erin Wicks, editor at HarperCollins, was obsessed enough with Micah Nemerever’s These Violent Deaths, which she described as a “propulsive and gripping debut” set in Pittsburgh in the 1970s, to buy it for six figures at auction. Nemerever, who studied art history and queer theory at the University of Connecticut and wrote his MA thesis on gender anxiety in the art of the Weimar Republic, spins a tale about, per the publisher, two college students, each with his own troubled past, falling into an escalating obsession with each other that ultimately leads to an act of unspeakable violence. Caroline Eisemann at Francis Goldin Lit sold the North American rights.

Paul Rudnick Plays with Berkley
Berkley v-p and editorial director Cindy Hwang acquired, in an exclusive submission, playwright and screenwriter Paul Rudnick’s contemporary gay romance Playing the Palace for publication in trade paperback in 2021. Hwang, a longtime fan of Rudnick’s writing, calls the opportunity to publish “his wit, humor and pathos” a “dream come true.” Among Rudnick’s film and stage credits are Addams Family Values, Regrets Only, and Sister Act. The novel, the publisher said, features an openly gay prince of England falling for an American man. David Kuhn at Aevitas Creative Management brokered the deal for world and audio rights. The book adds to Berkley’s commitment to what it called “redefining romantic comedy” that sprung up last year with two debuts: Jasmine Guillory’s The Wedding Date and Helen Hoang’s The Kiss Quotient, which both featured multicultural romances.

Garbes Grabs Six Figures
In a six-figure deal, Julie Will at HarperWave snatched up world rights for Everybody, Every Body, Angela Garbes’s follow-up to last year’s attention-getting Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy. In Everybody, the publisher says, Garbes blends reporting, research, memoir, and cultural criticism to explore the physical reality of life in a female body and show how that reality impacts experiences with food, travel, music, health, wellness, sexuality, and cultural identity, as well as parenting and motherhood. Monika Woods at Curtis Brown represented the author.

Children's Deals Roundup
We’ve got a big new crop of children’s and YA deals, including a picture book illustrated by Stonewall Award winner Jessica Love, a middle grade debut from Morris Award finalist Akemi Dawn Bowman, a debut YA novel by Dana Alison Levy, and many more!

Ecco Savors Victoria James’s ‘Wine’
Daniel Halpern, Ecco’s president and publisher, preempted wine wunderkind Victoria James’s Wine Girl. The agent described James’s memoir as “Educated meets Sweetbitter” and said it is about “a young woman breaking free from an abusive and traumatic childhood and into the glamorous but notoriously toxic restaurant industry.” James, who became a sommelier at the tender age of 21, is beverage director and a partner at Cote, a Michelin-starred restaurant in New York City. She is also the author of Drink Pink: A Celebration of Rosé. Allison Hunter at Janklow & Nesbit negotiated the deal for North American rights.

Putnam Buys KJ Dell’Antonia’s ‘Chicken’
In a preempt, Putnam executive editor Margo Lipschultz scooped up The Chicken Sisters, the debut novel from How to Be a Happier Parent author KJ Dell’Antonia, who was a reporter for the New York Times and editor of its MotherLode blog. Lipschultz described the book as “a warmhearted story” about the long-standing rivalry between two Kansas fried-chicken dynasties and a reality TV competition that forces a new generation of sisters to face old secrets and new dreams. Caryn Karmatz Rudy at DeFiore and Company brokered the deal for world rights.

Behind the Deal

In a three-way auction, Chelsea Hutchens won world rights (excluding Canada) to Warrior Butterflies, the debut novel by Ava Homa, which both the author and her agent, Chris Kepner, believe to be the first novel by a Kurdish woman available in English. “Kurdish literature is rarely translated, leaving the Kurds, a voiceless nation, too busy staying alive to create literary pieces in foreign languages,” Homa explained. She grew up in a Kurdish village in Iran and later emigrated to Canada, where she wrote the book in English. The novel was inspired by the life of Farzad Kamangar, a Kurdish teacher, poet, journalist, and human rights activist who was prosecuted on charges of moharebeh (enmity against God). Homa’s story begins in 1963 when a seven-year-old boy witnesses a brutal massacre of hundreds of Kurds. The story picks up a generation later with Leila, the daughter of that boy, now a broken man. Leila dreams of going to university, but that privilege is reserved for her brother. She is trapped at home, helping her mother. Eventually, she escapes with her brother, but his increasing activism puts them both at risk.

International

• John Irving’s new publisher in the U.K. is Scribner, an imprint of S&S UK. Ian Chapman, CEO and publisher, signed a three-book deal for U.K. and Commonwealth rights with Dean Cooke of CookeMermaid. Darkness as a Bride, Irving’s 15th novel, will be the first book published under the new agreement and is due out in 2020.
• Bret Easton Ellis’s first foray into nonfiction, White (an “incendiary polemic about this young century’s failings, e-driven and otherwise,” as Knopf describes it), is making its way around the world. Daisy Meyrick at Curtis Brown UK, on behalf of Amanda Urban at ICM Partners, has closed deals with Darkside Books (Brazil), Robert Laffont (France), Kiepenheuer & Witsch (Germany), Brainfood Media (Greece), Einaudi (Italy), Ambo Anthos (Netherlands), Etiuda (Poland), and Elsinore (Portugal).

Page to Screen

Alexander Weinstein’s story, Saying Goodbye to Yang, from his 2016 debut collection, Children of the New World (Picador) is being adapted by A24 for screen. The film, After Yang, stars Colin Farrell and follows a father and daughter as they try to save the life of their robotic family member.

Deal of the Week

Iranian Writer Answers the Call
In January 2017, only three months after Jessica Craig hung her agency’s shingle, she signed on to the Open Call for Muslim Writers initiative launched by American agents in response to the Trump administration’s ban on refugees and immigrants from Muslim countries. Amir Ahmadi Arian responded to Craig, who said that “Amir’s was the only manuscript that I read entirely in one sitting.” Last week, in her first deal of the year, Craig reported the sale of Arian’s first book in English, Then the Fish Swallowed Him, a novel about Iran’s infamous Evin prison. Described by Craig as a “1984 for the 21st century and a stark warning about the psychological impact of totalitarianism,” it will pub in winter 2020. Executive editor Juan Milà signed the deal for world English rights for Harper’s new, still-unnamed imprint for international publishing. French rights have also been sold in a preempt to Jean Mattern of Editions Grasset & Fasquelle.

Little, Brown Buys Madonna Bio
Asya Muchnick at Little, Brown laid down six figures for a biography of Madonna from Mary Gabriel, the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist and author of Ninth Street Women. Madonna Risen: A Feminist Tale takes an in-depth look at the star through a contemporary lens. Gabriel reveals Madonna to be not just a pop icon but an artist and cultural figure who has played an important role in shaping modern feminism and challenging racial and anti-LGBTQ bigotry, according to the publisher. Brettne Bloom at the Book Group negotiated the deal for world rights.

PEN CEO Pens Primer for Dey Street
Suzanne Nossel, the CEO of PEN America, who is at the forefront of the current debates surrounding free speech, sold Uncensored, to Alessandra Bastagli at Dey Street. The book, which the publisher calls “an urgent and necessary primer,” will center on 12 principles for navigating free speech today. Nossel argues for the value of breaking through echo chambers while acknowledging the need to check one’s assumptions. Larry Weissman brokered the world English rights deal for his eponymous agency.

Beacon Takes Follow-up from DiAngelo
Following the success of Robin DiAngelo’s critically acclaimed, bestselling, and controversial White Fragility—a phrase the author coined in a 2011 academic article— Rachel Marks at Beacon scooped up world English rights to her follow-up, Niceness Is Not Courageous: How White Progressives Uphold Racism. Planned for publication in late 2020 or spring 2021, the book, the agent said, will examine the role white progressives play in maintaining racial inequality and describes how they might align their actions with their professed values. Lauren Abramo at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret represented the author.

Children's Deals Roundup
We’ve got news of a few dozen new children’s and YA deals, including a YA novel by Serendipity screenwriter Marc Klein, a story based on the world of the TV show Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, an original board book by Robie H. Harris, and many more!

Korean Hit Goes to Harper
Barbara Zither, who has an eponymous shingle, discovered Won-pyung Sohn’s Almond just before Christmas and immediately sold rights in eight countries. Now she has closed a preempt world English rights deal with Tara Parsons, associate publisher for Harper’s forthcoming international imprint. It’s moving fast: just before press time, Zitwer sold rights in Mainland China. The coming-of-age novel, translated into English by Sandy Joosun Lee, has sold more than 200,000 copies and received numerous literary awards in South Korea, where it was published in 2016 by Changbi. The book follows an emotionless teenage boy who meets a hotheaded troublemaker and learns from their unlikely friendship to connect with humanity. Zitwer described it as “The Emissary crossed with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.”

Diversion Gets the Inside Scoop on Fox
In a preempt, Keith Wallman, Diversion Books’ editor-in-chief, acquired world English rights to Foxocracy: Inside the Network’s Playbook of Tribal Warfare, by former Fox News host, contributor, and guest anchor Tobin Smith. The book, Wallman said, “addresses the tactics of today’s cable news media and their incredibly harmful effects on our democracy,” and it promises to bring “incendiary proof, from an insider and on-air talent, of audience-psychology and production tactics that are now even being used by Fox News rivals such as MSNBC and CNN.” According to Wallman, Smith argues that “for too long, the media has only reacted to the extreme right-wing bias of Fox News as a now-obvious GOP propaganda operation.” In the book, Smith makes the case that great damage has been done to the country by this new “social-media-intensified form of psychological warfare.” Steve Ross negotiated the deal for his eponymous agency.

Behind the Deal

Rosemary Stimola, of Stimola Literary Studio, may have made the most unlikely deal of the week. She sold world rights to Simon Boughton at Norton Young Readers for a middle grade biography about an under-the-radar artist by a first-time author.

In It’s My Whole Life, Susan Wider tells the story of Charlotte Salomon, a German Jewish refugee in Nice, France, during WWII. After being released from a French concentration camp and before being deported to Auschwitz, where she was murdered, Salomon created a masterwork of nearly 1,000 paintings, titled Life? Or Theater?, which has often been compared to Anne Frank’s diary for its depiction of life under the Nazi regime. Life? Or Theater? has been shown in numerous museums and is the subject of an opera and a ballet, but there has been “absolutely nothing for young readers,” Wider said. “The art alone is amazing. A bright gouache palette of primary colors along with words, musical notes, and a sickly yellow used to depict the Nazis make Salomon’s story of Nazi repression and everything she went through accessible to younger readers.”

Wider points out that the issues the artist explores—which include suicide, infidelity, and physical abuse—are subjects that young people often grapple with. “Art is a place for young people to turn to find inspiration and solace,” she said. The book is scheduled for winter 2021.

International

• A behind-the-scenes book about the hit play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts 1 and 2 will be published by Little, Brown in the U.K. on September 17 and will be released in collaboration with Scholastic in the U.S. The Blair Partnership secured the rights to the book, titled Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: The Journey and assembled by Harry Potter Theatrical Productions and writer Jody Revenson. [The Bookseller]

Page to Screen

• In the first deal that simultaneously includes rights acquisitions for Amazon Publishing and Amazon Studios that simultaneously includes rights acquisitions for Amazon Publishing and Amazon Studios, the two Amazon divisions took world book, audiobook, and all global media rights to The Fairer Sex, a collection of portraits of contemporary women by Michelle Miller. 3 Arts’ Richard Abate and Tom Lassaly, who will produce the project, brokered the deal. [Deadline]

Liz Hartman will be writing the Deals column while regular columnist Rachel Deahl is on maternity leave. To submit deals for the column, email deals@publishersweekly.com. 

Deal of the Week

Couric’s ‘Unexpected’ to LB
Katie Couric has sold a memoir. Judy Clain at Little, Brown took North American rights to Unexpected from William Morris Endeavor’s Suzanne Gluck. The book, LB said, will be Couric’s “own story, in her own words, her way.” Unexpected, slated for spring 2021, will chronicle the longtime TV journalist’s 40-year career as well as her personal life, touching on everything from her battle with bulimia, to the death of her husband at 42, to the passing of her older sister, Emily, who was a favorite to become governor of Virginia. The publisher added that Couric will also address “her occasionally crippling, lifelong feelings of insecurity and the challenge so many women in power face: balancing being strong with the nagging need to be liked.”

Scholastic Gets ‘Down’ with Stiefvater
In a high-six-figure deal, David Levithan at Scholastic bought world rights to Maggie Stiefvater’s Call Down the Hawk. The first book in a new series titled the Dreamer Trilogy, it was sold in an exclusive submission by Laura Rennert at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency; she said the novel follows “a young man who can manifest objects from his dreams.” He then finds that he is not the only one with this powerful gift. Rennert added that the book is “a unique blend of magic and mystery.” Stiefvater is the author, among other titles, of the bestselling Raven Cycle; Scholastic said that series has sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide.

Klein’s ‘Fire’ Kindles at S&S
For a rumored high-six-figure sum, Simon & Schuster’s Jonathan Karp bought U.S. rights to Naomi Klein’s On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal. S&S said the book captures the “urgency of the climate crisis, as well as the fiery energy of a rising political movement demanding a transformational Green New Deal.” Anthony Arnove at the Roam Agency brokered the deal with Karp. Rights to the book in the author’s native Canada were acquired by Knopf Canada, while the book was nabbed by Allen Lane in the U.K.

Putnam Explores Barry’s ‘Providence’
Max Barry (Jennifer Government) sold a high-concept novel titled Providence to Mark Tavani at Putnam. The two-book, world rights deal was brokered by Luke Janklow at Janklow & Nesbit. Putnam said the title, set in the near future, follows “four astronauts sent to space to confront a planetary threat... only to find their mission undermines everything they knew of reality.” The publisher compared the novel, slated for spring 2020, to work by authors such as Orson Scott Card, Sylvain Neuvel, and Ernest Cline.

Children's Deals Roundup
New children’s and YA deals this week include a novel by Ruta Sepetys (l.), bestselling author of Between Shades of Gray; a YA series launch from Sandhya Menon (When Dimple Met Rishi); and two picture books from Jessica Love, Stonewall-Award winning author-illustrator of Julián Is a Mermaid.

Holland’s New Series to B’bury
Bloomsbury’s Cindy Loh preempted world English rights in a two-book deal, for a rumored high six-figures, to Sara Holland’s YA fantasy series Havenfall. Holland (Everless) was represented by Stephen Barbara at Inkwell Management (working on behalf of Glasstown Entertainment); he described the series as “a lush, gothic fantasy.” It follows a girl who summers at her uncle’s once grand Rocky Mountain inn, Havenfall, which has “long served as neutral territory linking magical realms.” When a murder occurs at the inn, the heroine “must confront dark truths about herself and her family.” Bloomsbury USA and UK are both slated to publish book one in March 2020.

Crist Takes Chuckles to WaterBrook
Comedian John Crist sold a currently untitled book, his debut, to Random House’s WaterBrook imprint. Tina Constable and Andrew Stoddard nabbed world rights to the book, slated for spring 2020, from the United Talent Agency. Crist, a stand-up performer, has, according to Waterbrook, “one billion views of his comedy videos” and over three million followers on social media. The book, the publisher went on, “will offer a delightful dose of Crist’s signature wit as he explores themes from his upbringing, millennial foibles, and the bothersome trappings of modern life.”

Holt Preempts Solomon's 'V.'
Serena Jones at Holt preempted North American rights, for a rumored high six-figures, to Anna Solomon’s The Book of V. The publisher described the novel, which Julie Barer at The Book Group sold, as “a kaleidoscopic feminist” tale that follows three women in three different time periods: the biblical Esther in ancient Persia; a senator’s wife in Washington, D.C., circa the 1970s; and a Brooklyn mother in 2016. Their stories, Holt went on, “overlap and ultimately converge in powerful and unexpected ways.” Solomon is a Pushcart Prize winner who’s written two previous novels: The Little Bird (Riverhead, 2011) and Leaving Lucy Pear (Viking, 2016). Book of V. is slated for 2020.

International

• Penguin Canada’s Hamish Hamilton imprint acquired Billy-Ray Belcourt’s essay collection A History of My Brief Body. Belcourt, winner of Canada’s 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize, was represented by the Transatlantic Agency, which said the book is “a meditation on grief, joy, love, and sex at the intersection of indigeneity and queerness.”

• After a six-publisher auction, Faber won the debut novel by Financial Times journalist Rebecca Watson, Little Scratch. The debut novel, acquired in the U.S. by Doubleday, is about, per Faber, a nameless woman “living in a lowercase world of demarcated fridge shelves and office politics; clock-watching and WhatsApp notifications.” [The Bookseller]

Page to Screen

• The first title in Jenn Lyons’s A Chorus of Dragons series, Ruin of Kings (Tor, Feb.), has been optioned for series development by Annapurna Television. The epic fantasy series is, per the publisher, “about a long-lost royal whose fate is tied to the future of an empire.” [Deadline]

• Women in Sunlight (Crown, Apr. 2018), by Under the Tuscan Sun author Frances Mayes, has been optioned by Water End Productions for feature adaptation. The novel follows three women who meet at a retirement community in the South and wind up heading to Europe and renting a villa in Italy. [Deadline]

Do you have rights news to share? Please submit your deals to deals@publishersweekly.com.

Deal of the Week

Gladwell’s ‘Strangers’ to LB
In a North American rights acquisition, Little, Brown nabbed Malcolm Gladwell’s next book, Talking to Strangers. Tina Bennett at William Morris Endeavor sold the book, which is slated for September, to Asya Muchnick. Talking to Strangers is Gladwell’s first book since his 2013 bestseller David and Goliath and is, LB said, “a classically Gladwell-ian intellectual adventure” in which he examines why there is “something very wrong with the tools and strategies we use to make sense of people we don’t know.” Calling the title a “gripping guidebook for troubled times,” LB added that it shows how our inability to meaningfully talk to strangers is “inviting conflict and misunderstanding in ways that have a profound effect on our lives and our world.”

Guillory Re-ups with Berkley
Jasmine Guillory, whose 2018 sophomore novel The Proposal was recently named the February pick of Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club, closed a four-book deal with Berkley. Cindy Hwang took world English rights to the titles from Holly Root at Root Literary. Guillory, Berkley noted, has been at the forefront of a new wave of interest in romance novels; she was also mentioned in a 2018 PW article about a renewed interest in the genre from indie booksellers. The first book under this deal is set for 2020.

Hachette Picks Up Gordon’s ‘Conversations’
Ed Gordon, a journalist and host of the BET show Weekly, sold Conversations in Black: On Power, Politics, and Leadership to Krishan Trotman at Hachette Books. Regina Brooks at Serendipity Literary Agency brokered the world rights agreement. The book, which is based on conversations with notable African-Americans such as politician Maxine Waters and actress Kerry Washington, will, according to Hachette, “explore and debate the tactics used to secure black America’s rightful place in the ‘home of the brave’ ” and serve as “a blueprint for navigating race in a new American landscape.”

Firestone Gets “Coded” at Putnam
After a six-figure preempt, Putnam’s Stephanie Pitts acquired Carrie Firestone’s debut middle grade novel, Dress Coded. The title, which Sara Crowe at Pippin sold in a two-book, world English rights agreement, follows an eighth grader who launches her own podcast to challenge her school’s dress code. The show, Putnam explained, “sparks a rebellion,” and the heroine must deal with that while also juggling “changing friendships and her older brother’s vaping addiction.”

Children's Deals Roundup
Lots of children’s and YA deals have just been signed, including books by NBA and Printz Award winner Elizabeth Acevedo (l.), Olympic medalist and social justice activist Ibtihaj Muhammad, Caldecott Honor artist Marla Frazee, and many more!

Canadian Social Media Star Strikes U.S. Deal
Humble the Poet closed a rumored six-figure, two-book deal with HarperOne. Humble, whom his new publisher called a “rapper, poet, and social media influencer,” is already a bestseller in his native Canada, where he self-published Unlearn: 101 Simple Truths for a Better Life. (After self-publishing Unlearn, Indigo acquired Canadian rights.) In the deal, HarperOne took world rights, excluding English-language print in Canada, to Unlearn, and world rights, excluding English-language in Canada, to a new book titled Things No One Else Can Teach Us. The U.S. edition of Unlearn is slated for April 9, while Things is set for fall 2019. Unlearn, the publisher said, “provides counterintuitive advice for shedding the things that hold us back.” Things, meanwhile, “offers lessons for finding the silver linings in our hardest times.” Anna Paustenbach preempted the books from Marc Gerald and Jaime Chu at Europa Content.

Boynton Closes Double at Workman
Sandra Boynton (Hippos Go Berserk) struck a two-book world rights agreement with Workman Publishing. A songwriter, author, humorist, and illustrator, Boynton has written more than 60 books for children and has been publishing with Workman for over 30 years. In that time, Workman said, she has sold more than 70 million copies. Book one in this deal, Dinosnores, is about, per the publisher, “a group of very noisy dinosaurs who snore throughout the night.” The title is set for fall 2019. Workman’s Daniel Reynolds brokered the agreement directly with Boynton.

Lubin’s ‘Moms’ Heads to HC
In a rumored six-figure deal, Wall Street Journal editor Joann Lublin sold Power Moms to Hollis Heimbouch at HarperCollins. Heimbouch took world rights from Karen Gantz, who has an eponymous shingle. Gantz, who noted that for the first time in our country’s history “a significant number of mothers have reached upper management,” said the book “compares the first generation of trailblazer executive mothers with young power moms today.”

International

• Laura Cumming, an art critic at the Observer, sold a memoir called On Chapel Sands, about the childhood disappearance of her mother, to U.K. publisher Chatto & Windus. The imprint, part of Penguin UK, called the book, which is subtitled My Mother and Other Missing Persons, “astonishing.” In the States, Nan Graham at Scribner took U.S. rights. [The Bookseller]

• Viking in the U.K. has nabbed U.K. and Commonwealth rights to a translation of French author Philippe Besson’s award-winning novel Lie With Me (published in France by Editions Julliard). Actress Molly Ringwald is doing the translation. Scribner, which is publishing the book in the U.S. in April, brokered the agreement with Viking. [The Bookseller]

Page to Screen

• Fox 2000 has optioned Angie Thomas’s On the Come Up. The author’s sophomore novel was published last week by HarperCollins’s Balzer + Bray imprint. The deal sees the continuation of a relationship between Thomas and Fox 2000, as the studio also released the 2018 film adaptation of her debut bestseller, The Hate U Give. [Deadline]

• Netflix has ordered an eight-episode series based on Karin Slaughter’s 2018 bestselling thriller Pieces of Her (Morrow). The series is set to be executive produced by a trio of women: Lesli Linka Glatter, Charlotte Stoudt, and Bruna Papandrea, who produced Mad Men, Homeland, and Big Little Lies, respectively. [Deadline]

Do you have rights news to share? Please submit your deals to deals@publishersweekly.com.

Deal of the Week

NYT’s Baghdad Embed Lets ‘Falcons’ Fly
In a rumored six-figure acquisition, Alessandra Bastagli at Dey Street preempted North American rights to Margaret Coker’s The Falcons. Coker is the former New York Times Baghdad bureau chief, and the book, Dey Street said, is “the untold story of an elite Iraqi spy cell named the Suquor [Falcons], made up of an unlikely group of ordinary Iraqi men”—including two brothers recruited as spies by the CIA. The publisher elaborated that the book will “offer a new perspective on the vital role that Iraqi citizens played in turning the tide against the Islamic State’s reign of terror.” Adam Eaglin at the Cheney Agency brokered the U.S. deal. In the U.K., the book was preempted by Viking UK.

U.K. Journo Brings ‘Father’ to Forge
For Macmillan’s Forge imprint, Diana Gill nabbed North American rights, at auction, to Louise Callaghan’s Father of Lions in a rumored six-figure deal. The nonfiction work was sold by Lisa Gallagher at Defiore and Company on behalf of Mulcahy Associates in the U.K.; she said the book “puts a human face on war in the wake of tyranny.” Callaghan is the Middle East correspondent for the Sunday Times and the book, Gallagher elaborated, focuses on the Mosul zoo. As the animals at the zoo begin to starve when Iraqi forces invade the city, a group of locals, led by a man named Abe Laith, goes hungry “to keep the animals alive, risking their lives to run through ISIS-occupied neighborhoods, begging and picking through trash cans for leftovers.” The title is slated for September 2019.

Minotaur Gets More Orphan X
Gregg Hurwitz signed with Minotaur, for seven figures, to pen the next three titles in his bestselling Orphan X series, in a deal that covers the sixth, seventh, and eighth books in the line. The multibook deal was brokered by Keith Kahla and Lisa Erbach Vance at the Aaron Priest Literary Agency. The series, launched in 2016, follows Evan Smoak, who was taken from his family as a boy and trained to be a government assassin. It was optioned last year by the production company Makeready (which is behind the Snapchat series Class of Lies), and Minotaur said there are plans in place to adapt it into a TV series in partnership with Justin Lin’s production company Perfect Story Entertainment. Book four in the series, Out of the Dark: The Return of Orphan X, was released by Minotaur last week.

Berkley Picks Up Marrs’s ‘Passengers’
British author John Marrs sold a thriller titled The Passengers to Rebecca Brewer at Berkley. The deal, for U.S. rights, dovetails with news that Marrs’s previous novel, The One (Hanover Square, Feb.), is being adapted into a series for Netflix. The Passengers, Berkley said, takes place in a near future where self-driving cars are commonplace. It follows “the occupants of eight hacked cars—victims of a well-orchestrated plot—whose ordeal is streamed live as the hackers demand the public decide who lives and who dies.” The book is slated for a September 2019 publication. Brewer brokered the deal with Rae Shirvington at U.K. publisher Ebury.

Children's Deals Roundup
Check out our roundup of children’s and YA deals this week, including news about forthcoming books by Laurie Boyle Crompton, Amy Dominy and more.

LB Buys NYU MFA’s ‘Procedures’
Little, Brown’s Ben George took North American rights, at auction, to Jennifer Hofmann’s The Standardization of Demoralization Procedures. The debut novel, set for 2020, was sold by Chris Clemans at Janklow & Nesbit. He said the book takes place during “one of the last and most fateful days in the history of East Germany” and follows “a Stasi officer in the twilight of his career as the disappearance of a young waitress unwinds the secret of a long-ago betrayal.” The Austrian-American author lives in Berlin and has an MFA from New York University.

Algonquin Nabs Timberlake’s ‘Skunk’
Newbery Honor author Amy Timberlake sold, at auction, the first three books in a middle grade series titled Skunk & Badger to Algonquin. Elise Howard took world English rights to the series from Steven Malk at Writers House, who represented Timberlake and the series’ illustrator, Caldecott Medalist Jon Klassen. Algonquin said the series follows “an odd-couple friendship between joyful and easygoing Skunk and analytical and set-in-his-ways Badger, who hilariously and heartwarmingly change each other’s lives forever.” Book one in the series is scheduled for fall 2020.

Preston Thrillers to Delacorte
Bestseller Natasha Preston (The Lost) closed a three-book, world rights agreement for a trio of standalone YA novels with Delacorte Press. Wendy Loggia struck the agreement with Jon Elek at United Agents. The publisher said the novels, all psychological thrillers, will be books that “deliver what Natasha’s legions of fans want” and “keep readers up at night.”

International

• Clinical psychologist Philippa East sold a debut novel titled Little White Lies, in a world English rights deal, to the HarperCollins UK imprint HQ. The publisher called the novel “poignant, heart-breaking and utterly gripping.” [The Bookseller]

Page to Screen

• Kim Liggett’s novel The Grace Year (Wednesday, fall 2019) has been optioned by Universal Pictures with Elizabeth Banks attached to direct. PW reported that the novel, a YA speculative thriller, was nabbed in a six-figure preempt in 2016. It’s set, PW’s coverage noted, in a world in which teen girls are banished to the woods where they must survive the wilderness—and themselves—before being allowed to return to society as purified women. [Deadline]

• HBO Europe will produce an original miniseries titled Beartown based on Fredrik Backman’s bestselling novel of the same name. The series is set to be five one-hour episodes and is being produced by Filmlance International. [Variety]

• Sarah Pinborough’s Behind Her Eyes (Flatiron) is being adapted into a limited series for Netflix, with U.K.-based production company Left Bank Pictures (which produced The Crown) partnering on the project with Sony Pictures Television. [Variety]

Do you have rights news to share? Please submit your deals to deals@publishersweekly.com.