RIGHTS GUIDE 2020 MELVILLE HOUSE PUBLISHING Brooklyn, NY • London, UK
Rights Guide Fall, 2020
Contact us at [email protected]
Find a list of our subagents at www.mhpbooks.com/rights FRONT LIST
NON-FICTION 3 Until the World Shatters 4 Midnight's Borders 5 Twilight in Hazard 6 Trout Water 7 Pedro's Theory
FICTION 9 Northern Heist 10 Leonard and Hungry Paul 11 Night in Tehran 12 The Fugitivities 13 The Care of Strangers 14 Useless Miracle 15 U UP? 16 The Revisionaries 17 The Ancient Hours
THE LAST INTERVIEW 19 Frida Kahlo 20 Toni Morisson 21 Ruth Bader Ginsburg
BACK LIST
24 NON-FICTION 32 FICTION
FRONT LIST NON-FICTION UNTIL THE WORLD SHATTERS Truth, Lies, and the Looting of Myanmar
DANIEL COMBS This first in-depth piece of reportage about the largest natural resource heist in Asia reveals Myanmar's world of secret-keepers and truth-tellers
In Myanmar, where civil war, repressive between the insurgent army his family government, and the $40 billion a year supports and the business and military jade industry have shaped life for decades, leaders his career depends on. His attempt everyone is fighting for their own version of to get rich quickly leads him to Myanmar's the truth. Until the World Shatters takes us biggest, worst kept secret: the connection deep into a world in which journalists seek between the jade industry and the longest to overcome censorship and intimidation, running war in the world. ethnic minorities wage guerilla war against Until the World Shatters weaves Phoe a government they claim refuses to grant Wa and Bum Tsit's stories to reveal a larger basic human rights; devout Buddhists portrait of Myanmar's history, politics, and launch violent anti-Muslim campaigns; people in a time and place where public and artists try to build their own havens of trust has disappeared. free expression. In the bustling city of Yangon we meet Phoe Wa, a young photojournalist pursu- ing his dream at a time when the govern- ment is jailing reporters and nationalist voices are on the rise. In Myanmar's far north, we meet Bum Tsit who is caught
DANIEL COMBS is an award-winning author and international security professional who has spent the past six years studying Myanmar's ethnic conflicts. In addition to Myanmar, Daniel has lived in and reported from Ethiopia, the Congo, Vietnam, and Israel. He is the former editor of the Asia Pacific Affairs Journal, and his writing and commentary have ap- peared on NPR, The Diplomat, and Asia Times, among others. Daniel is a graduate from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. In a past life, he was a chef and restaurant reviewer.
On Sale March 2021 | HC | Rights Available: World, Translation, Audio
3 MIDNIGHT'S BORDERS A People's History of Modern India SUCHITRA VIJAYAN
The first true people's history of modern India, told through a five-year, 9,000 mile-journey along its many contested borders
Sharing borders with six countries and of colonialism and the stain of extreme spanning a geography that extends from violence and corruption. The result is the Pakistan to Myanmar, India is the world's ground-level portrait of modern India largest democracy and second most pop- we've been missing. ulous country. Yet most of us don't under- stand it, or the violent history still playing Including more than 25 stunning out there. In fact, India as we know it didn't photographs documenting Vijayan's travels. exist until the map of the subcontinent was redrawn in the middle of the 20th century— the powerful repercussions of which are still being felt across South Asia. To tell the story of political borders in the subcontinent, Suchitra Vijayan spent seven years travelling India's 9,000-mile land border. Now, in this stunning work of narrative reportage, she shares what she learned on that groundbreaking journey. With profound empathy and a novelistic eye for detail, Vijayan shows us the forgot- ten people and places in the borderlands and brings us face to face with the legacy
SUCHITRA VIJAYAN was born and raised in India, studied law at the University of Leeds in England, and now lives in New York. Her essays have appeared in The Hindu, Foreign Policy, GQ, Boston Review, and Huffington Post Magazine. She has embedded in Afghanistan to conduct research on counterinsurgency practices, worked for the United Nations war crimes tribunals in Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and co-founded the Resettlement Legal Aid Project in Cairo. In the fall of 2017, Vijayan founded The Polis Project.
On Sale February 2021 | HC | Rights Available: World excl. Indian Subcontinent, Translation, Audio
4 TWILIGHT IN HAZARD An Appalachian Reckoning ALAN MAIMON
Reporter and Pulitzer Prize finalist searches for the soul of America in the stories and lives of the people in Eastern Kentucky
"Most people who live in Louisville have never been to Eastern Kentucky and have no idea what's happening there. We would want you to cover the area like a foreign cor- respondent would." That's what Alan Mai- mon's editor at the the Louisville Courier- Through the stories he covered then, and Journal told him in a job interview in the follows up on today, Maimon—now forever early days of the 21st century. linked to the region having married into a When Maimon took the job and arrived coal mining family—offers a broader view in Hazard, Kentucky as the Journal's re- of the region than we've had in recent por- gional bureau chief, he realized that he was trayals. With the bureau he ran now shut- reporting on a much bigger story than the tered, he offers a unique perspective in an county's otherness. It was a region in the age when media outlets have cut back or grip of ecological devastation, a man-made eliminated coverage of the most distressed prescription pill epidemic, and where the regions of the country. aftermath of September 11th was taking an outsize toll. He witnessed first hand the enchroaching structural forces that would keep the region in poverty for decades to follow, even as many of those forces remain unacknowledged today.
ALAN MAIMON is an award-winning journalist and author. As a reporter with the Louisville Courier-Journal, he was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in Public Service for a series about Kentucky's justice system. He started his professional writing career as a news assistant and reporter in the Berlin bureau of The New York Times. He attended Brown University and is a former Fulbright scholar. He lives in Princeton, NJ.
On Sale March 2021 | HC | Rights Available: World, Translation, Audio
5 TROUT WATER A Year on the Au Sable JOSH GREENBERG
An elegiac memoir on the spiritual side of fly-fishing on America's greatest trout stream
At the beginning of trout fishing season, Josh Greenberg—proprietor of a fishing tackle store on America's most famous trout-fishing stream, the Au Sable River—is struggling to cope with the slow death of a close friend. Over the course of the fishing season, he'll revisit that relationship and its importance to him as he takes solace, and maybe something more, from fishing.
JOSH GREENBERG is manager of the famous Gates Au Sable Lodge, and writes a popu- lar, on-line fishing report that draws as many as 40,000 hits a month. He has contributed to several magazines, including Fly, Rod & Reel and Fly Fisherman. He is the author of Rivers of Sand: Fly Fishing Michigan and the Great Lakes Region.
On Sale March 2021 | HC | Rights Available: World, Translation, Audio
6 PEDRO'S THEORY Reimagining the Promised Land MARCOS GONSALEZ
There are many Pedros living in many Americas . . .
One Pedro goes to a school where they take away his language. Another disappears in the desert, leaving behind only a backpack. A cousin Pedro comes to visit, awakening feelings that others are afraid to make plain. “An impressive amalgam of autobiography, A rumored Pedro goes missing so complete- family portraiture, political diagnosis, ly it's as if he were never there. cultural history, literary criticism, In Pedro's Theory Marcos Gonsalez ex- and novelistic aria . . . a stunning debut plores the lives of these many Pedros, real by a powerful writer.” and imagined. Several are the author him- —Wayne Koestenbaum self, while others are strangers, lovers, ar- chetypes, and the men he might have been “An insightful and brilliant dismantling in other circumstances. All are journeying of the traditional American Dream. to some sort of Promised Land, or hoping This book is a beautiful fusion of lived to discover an America of their own. experience and cultural criticism. Gonsalez With sparkling prose and cutting in- belongs on the same shelf as Claudia sights, this brilliant literary debut closes the Rankine and Maggie Nelson.” gap between who the world sees in us and —Michele Filgate who we see in ourselves. Deeply personal yet inspiringly political, it also brings to life “Pedro's Theory is . . . an exploration of not those selves that never get the chance to be only what it means to be brown, Indigenous, seen at all. queer and mad, but what it means to be a human in a world that values not who you are, but what you can sacrifice with a smile.” —Alicia Elliott, author of A Mind Spread Out on the Ground
MARCOS GONSALEZ is an essayist and professor of literature. His work has appeared in Literary Hub, Inside Higher Education, Plough-shares, Catapult, The New Inquiry, and elsewhere. He lives in New York City.
On Sale January 2021 | HC | Rights Available: World, Translation, Audio
7 FICTION
8 NORTHERN HEIST RICHARD O'RAWE
A fast-paced, suspenseful thriller based on one of the biggest bank-robberies in history, and what happens when its bold perpetrators have to face off against the Provos of the IRA, who want a cut
When James 'Ructions' O'Hare put together a crack team to rob the National Bank in Belfast, even he didn't realize he was about “Gripping . . . A hugely impressive and to carry off one of the biggest bank heists in skillfully crafted debut novel . . . Its British and Irish history. dialogue is sharp and venomous . . . And he'll be damned if the Provos are O’Rawe’s confidence as a storyteller takes getting a slice of it. off as the heist begins, dropping you in In Richard O'Rawe's stunning debut all kinds of damned places.” novel, as audacious and well executed as —The Irish Times Ructions' plan to rob the National Bank itself, a new voice in Irish fiction has been “A real page-turner with a polish unusual in unleashed that will shock, surprise and a debut.” —The Belfast Telegraph thrill as he takes you on a white-knuckle ride through Belfast's criminal underbelly. “A cunningly plotted thriller.” Enter the deadly world of tiger kidnappings, —The Independent (Ireland) kangaroo courts, money laundering, drug deals and double-crosses. “A rollicking, colourful account.” Northern Heist is a roller-coaster bank —The Guardian robbery thriller with twists and turns from beginning to end.
RICHARD O'RAWE is a former IRA operative and author of the bestselling memoir, Blanketmen: An Untold Story of the H-Block Hunger Strike, as well as Afterlives: The Hunger Strike, and In the Name of the Son: The Gerry Conlon Story.
On Sale April 2021 | HC | Rights Available: World, Translation, Audio
9 LEONARD AND HUNGRY PAUL RÓNÁN HESSION
A disarming novel that asks a simple question: Can gentle people change the world?
British Book Awards 2020 Debut Book of the Year Finalist
Irish Book Awards 2019 Newcomer of the Year Finalist “A charming, warm-hearted celebration of In this charming and truly unique debut, all that is treasurable about everyday life.” popular Irish musician Rónán Hession tells —The Guardian the story of two single, thirty-something men who still live with their parents and “Charming without being twee, this funny, who are . . . nice. They take care of their par- warm book will bring you sunshine.” ents and play board games together. They —The Irish Times like to read. They take satisfaction from their work. They are resolutely kind. And “This quietly brilliant book is as funny as it they realize that none of this is consid- is wise, as tender as it is ground-breaking. ered . . . normal. Rónán Hession mines for gold in the Leonard and Hungry Paul is the story modest lives and ordinary friendships that of two friends struggling to protect their might appear unpromising to another understanding of what’s meaningful in life. writer, and my goodness, he finds it. It is It is about the uncelebrated people of this also a happy book—and we need those.” world — the gentle, the meek, the humble. —Diane Setterfield, author of And as they struggle to persevere, the book The Thirteenth Tale asks a surprisingly enthralling question: Is it really them against the world, or are they “God, what a voice Rónán has. It is on to something? spectacular and already feels like a cult classic. I was absolutely hooked.” —Donal Ryan, The Spinning Heart
RÓNÁN HESSION is an Irish writer, musician, and social worker based in Dublin. As Mumblin' Deaf Ro, he has released three albums of songs, and his most recent album, Dic- tionary Crimes, was nominated for the Choice Music Prize for album of the year. Leonard and Hungry Paul is his first novel.
On Sale May 2021 | PB | Rights Available: World, Translation
10 NIGHT IN TEHRAN PHILIP KAPLAN
Based on historic events, and still rel- evant today headlines—a taut, Year of Living Dangerously-style thriller set in Tehran in the days leading up to the Iranian Revolution
In the style of Alan Furst, this suspenseful thriller—based on real events—places an idealistic American diplomat in a turbulent Tehran in the days leading up to the Iranian Revolution. Backed by the CIA, and trailed “This taut and fast-paced novel has by a beautiful and engaging French journal- a particularly compelling feature: ist he suspects is a spy, David Weiseman's Philip Kaplan, after a career in the mission is to ease the Shah of Iran out of State Department, brings to his power and find the best alternative between book a sharp political and international the military, religious extremists, and the sophistication—rare in thrillers, political ruling class—many of whom are abundant in Night in Tehran.” simultaneously trying to kill him. —Alan Furst, author of A Hero of France
“Throw away the CIA analysis of Iran and instead pick up Ambassador Phil Kaplan's brilliant novel, which illuminates the intricacies of diplomacy, espionage, and high-stakes politics in the most dangerous country in the world with clarity and drive.” —Admiral James Stavridis, author of Sailing True North: Ten Admirals and the Voyage of Character
PHILIP KAPLAN had a 27-year career as a diplomat in the US Foreign Service. Now re- tired from the State Department, Kaplan is currently a lawyer practicing public and private international law. He lives in Washington, DC. This is his first novel.
On Sale November 2020 | HC | 256 pages | Rights Available: World, Translation, Audio
11 THE FUGITIVITIES JESSE MCCARTHY
From a new voice in American fiction comes the story of a young black man coming to terms with his own race
Jonah Winters has it all. An Ivy Leaguer born to expatriate parents, he is never in want for money and calls both New York City and Paris his home. Aware that his for- tunes are rare for a black man like himself, he attempts to give back by teaching En- glish at a New York City public school only “A gorgeous, virtuosic novel! In exquisite, often ecstatic, prose, McCarthy gives us a to be profoundly disillusioned by his apa- portrait of the artist as a young black man—or thetic students. When a friend offers Jonah rather, as a set of young black men, brothers a chance to escape down to South America, and friends and rivals. This is blackness as it he accepts, ready to leave the struggling Af- collides with class and love. Blackness rican-American community to solve their in its uneasy relationship to Europe and the own problems. But before he can make a Americas. Blackness in all of its inner intricacy, clean break, a chance encounter with a for- tension, and beauty. Blackness shattered mer globetrotting basketball coach alters from the inside, each facet spinning, in his journey from one of self-discovery to McCarthy's own words, in "a hypnotic one of maturation. dance like shards in a kaleidoscope.” In his exciting and singular debut, Mc- —Namwali Serpell, author of The Old Drift Carthy confronts difficult questions of race, “The debut novel from McCarthy, identity and class with daring, and breath- Harvard professor and author of essays taking storytelling. destined to be taught in classrooms for years to come (among them “Notes on Trap”), The Fugitivitiestakes place in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Brazil, with Parisian interludes. The novel explores the collision of a teacher in crisis with a basketball coach yearning for a lost love, carrying the former on a journey that will change everything.” —Lydia Kiesling, The Millions
JESSE MCCARTHY has written for several publications including The New York Times, n+1, and the New Republic. He is a contributing editor at The Point and is an associate pro- fessor of English, African American, and African History at Harvard.
On Sale June 2021 | PB | Rights Available: World, Translation
12 THE CARE OF STRANGERS ELLEN MICHAELSON
Winner of the 2019 Miami Book Fair/de Groot Prize
The Care of Strangers is a moving story about friendship set in a gritty Brooklyn hospital, where a young woman learns to take charge of her life by taking care of others
Working as an orderly in a gritty Brooklyn “Michaelson’s success in arranging this public hospital, Sima is often reminded by unlikely friendship and the understated her superiors that she's the least important emotional journeys of her main characters, person there. An immigrant who, with her depicting the reality of hospital life, mother, escaped vicious anti-Semitism in and portraying patients make for a very Poland, she spends her shifts transporting engaging read.” —Booklist patients, observing the doctors and resi- dents . . . and quietly nurturing her aspira- “[T]he novel has heart. It’s a[n] . . . tions to become a doctor herself by going to affecting glimpse into the evolution night school. Now just one credit short of of friendship between women graduating, she finds herself faltering in the facing difficult odds.” face of pressure from her mother not to over- —Publishers Weekly reach, and to settle for the life she has now. Everything changes when Sima encoun- “The book is incredibly touching in ters Mindy Kahn, an intern doctor strug- all senses of the word—in fact, it is about gling through her residency. Sensing a fel- touching—about the way we handle and low outsider in need of support, Sima bonds care for one another. . . . The portrait overall with Mindy over their patients, and learns is quite moving. . . . A lovely novella.” the power of truly letting yourself care for —Justin Torres, author of another person, helping to give her the We the Animals courage to face her past, and take control of her future.
ELLEN MICHAELSON is a physician in Portland, Oregon, and an MFA graduate from Pacific University. Her work has appeared in Portland Monthly, Women in Solitude (SUNY Press), and Literature in Medicine. This is her first book.
On Sale November 2020 | PB | Rights available: World, Translation, Audio
13 USELESS MIRACLE BARRY SCHECHTER
A smart, hilarious comedy in which a college professor attains mankind’s oldest dream: the ability to fly . . . Sort of . . .
George Entmen just turned forty, and he can’t complain. As the James Lydecker Chair of Hermeneutics in the English de- partment at Northwestern, he is honored in his field, beloved by friends and family, and ready to drift quietly into tenured middle Praise for Barry Schechter’s age. But then he discovers that he can fly. The Blindfold Test Sure, he can fly very, very slowly; he needs to have his hands thrust out in front “Reading Blindfold Test is a new and of him like Superman; and he only flies radical pleasure. Barry Schechter regards three or four inches above the ground. In the dirty tricks with which life undoes his fact, as he has to be prone to do it, he is, in protagonist—the nightmare neighbors flight, further from the sky than ever. and prodigious happenings—with a kind But why does this nonetheless amazing of glee.” phenomenon drive so many people into —Lore Segal, author of a rage? Why do he and his family find Shakespeare's Kitchen themselves dodging livid magicians, ex- ploitative friends, scheming billionairesses, “The Blindfold Test is a beautiful and thirteen-year-old boys who are sure they terrifying pleasure, a metaphysically witty saw the wire, and, perhaps worst of all, angry novel rich with melancholy joie de vivre.” hermeneuticians? —Matthew Sharpe, author of George’s friend Harvey tells him that, The Sleeping Father beneath all the chaos, his gift has to have a meaning. But to find it, Harvey says, George “Part-comedy, part-thriller . . . The Blindfold needs to understand one thing: “You’re not Test is blanketed with paranoia, quite flying, you’re being flown.” Kafkaesque . . .” —NewcityLit
BARRY SCHECTER is the author of the novel The Blindfold Test. His short fiction, po- etry, and criticism have appeared in the Paris Review, the Chicago Tribune, and the Chicago Review. He’s a lifelong resident of Chicago.
On Sale Jan 2021 | PB | 336 pages | Rights Available: World, Translation, Film/TV
14 14 U UP? CATIE DISABATO
In the follow up to her smart debut, The Ghost Network, Catie Disabato creates a vivid portrait of a young woman investigating her best friend's disappearance while navigating codependent friendships, toxic exes, and witchy rituals
Eve has a carefully curated online life, works occasionally, and texts constantly with her best friend, Ezra. Basically, she is Praise for Catie Disabato's an archetypal L.A. millennial. She has also TheGhost Network been carrying on a year-long conversation with her deceased friend Miggy over text. “A smart and thorny debut novel . . . Truly But when Ezra goes missing on the anni- contemporary . . . The Ghost Network versary weekend of Miggy's death, Eve feels presents the maze of modern culture with like her world is shattering. all its dead ends and truncations, but Over a frantic weekend Eve investigates reveals treasure to those who walk the path." Ezra's disappearance, scouring social me- —New York Times Book Review dia for clues, while drowning her anger and anxiety in drinks, drugs, and spiri- “A nerve-jangling mash-up of tual cleansing. Eve starts to spiral as her conspiracy theories and ingeniously friends try to convince her that she's over- plotted existential mystery." reacting, and ghosts--both real and meta- —O, the Oprah Magazine, The Season's Best phorical--continue to haunt her. When she uncovers clues to a life Ezra kept hidden, “Ambitious, digressive and occasionally Eve starts to question how much she really overstuffed, The Ghost Network is a knows about her best friend...and herself. rewarding read — in other words, it's a In U UP? Catie Disabato holds a mirror rabbit hole well worth falling down." to the ways the phantom selves we create —Chicago Tribune online permeate our emotional lives and hide our worst traits from everyone, includ- “[An] engaging debut novel." ing ourselves. —San Francisco Chronicle
CATIE DISABATO's first novel,The Ghost Network, was deemed “a smart and thorny debut” that “reveals treasures” to readers, according to The New York Times. Disabato has written essays and criticism for outlets including the LAist, Buzzfeed, and LA Weekly. She lives in Los Angeles.
On Sale February 2021 | PB | Rights Available: World, Translation, Audio
15 THE REVISIONARIES A.R. MOXON
“A modern-day classic . . . equally audacious and brilliant.“ —Ron Charles, Washington Post
All is not boding well for Father Julius. . . A street preacher decked out in denim robes and running shoes, Julius is a source of inspiration for a community that knows nothing of his scandalous origins. But when a nearby mental hospital releas- “I was baffled, dazzled, angered and awed . . . es its patients to run amok in his neighbor- I adored it . . . a modern day classic . . . hood, his trusted if bedraggled flock turns equally audacious and brilliant . . . Moxon expectantly to Julius to find out what’s go- is a literary demon." ing on. Amid the descending chaos, Julius —Ron Charles, Washington Post encounters a hospital escapee who babbles prophecies of doom, and the growing palpa- “A spectacular invention . . . [Moxon is] a ble sense of impending danger intensifies . . . wildly gifted inventor . . . Engrossing . . . ” as does the feeling that everyone may be rely- —The New York Times ing on a street preacher just a little too much. Still, Julius decides he must confront "I'm almost irritated by how much the forces that threaten his congregation— I enjoyed it . . . It is, by turns and often at including the peculiar followers of a reli- once, surreal, absurd, horrifying, earnest gious cult, the mysterious men and women and satirical . . . written with a dressed all in red seen fleetingly amid the playful elegance . . . I'm astonished by how bedlam, and an enigmatic smoking figure compulsively readable it is." —NPR who seems to know what’s going to happen just before it does. The Revisionaries is a wildly imagina- “It’s a good thing The Revisionaries is tive, masterfully rendered, and suspense- so funny. It will prevent whatever ful tale that conjures the bold outlandish civilization that finds it thousands of years stylishness of Thomas Pynchon, Margaret from now forming a creepy new Atwood, and Alan Moore—while being un- religion around it.” —Patton Oswalt like anything that’s come before.
A.R. MOXON is a writer who runs the popular twitter handle @JuliusGoat. He lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This is his first novel.
On Sale December 2020 | PB | Rights Available: World, Translation
16 THE ANCIENT HOURS MICHAEL BIBLE
Michael Bible's tragic and sublime third novel tells the story of a massacre in a small Southern town and expands into a heartbreaking meditation on guilt, trauma, and redemption
Harmony, North Carolina is a typical town—full of saints and sinners you can’t tell apart… “Vivid . . . well-written . . . Highlights in Its history echoes with lynchings and bracing clarity one town’s reckoning with shootings; mob violence and vigilante jus- a monstrous act.” —Publishers Weekly tice. But those are just whispers of a past lost to time. The summer of 2000 was dif- “Nobody else is on Michael Bible’s planet. ferent. Iggy in the Baptist church. Gasoline He distills all the pain and joy of our and a match. Twenty-five people dead. This, lives into the most evocative music, the Harmony couldn’t forget. purest medicine. He’s one of our Told in a kaleidoscope of timelines and greatest living artists. The Ancient Hours voices, Michael Bible examines every di- is brilliant.” mension of a tragic but all-too-American —Bud Smith, author of Work story in The Ancient Hours. The victims, witnesses, perpetrators, and condemned “In The Ancient Hours Michael Bible comingle and evolve as the passage of time brilliantly maps the innate pain works its way through their lives. What of a Carolina town over time. Through emerges is a fable of the American South in an assemblage of complex characters— the highest tradition: soaring, tragic, and anarchists and outlaws, fractured families, eternally striving for redemption. and lonely librarians, Bible creates a harrowed history that interrogates our present moment. This slim masterpiece might be the book you’ve been waiting for.” —Ryan Ridge, author of New Bad News
MICHAEL BIBLE is originally from North Carolina. His work has appeared in the Oxford American, The Paris Review Daily, Al-Jazeera America, ESPN Magazine, and New York Ty- rant Magazine. He is a former bookseller at Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi, and lives in New York.
On Sale December 2020 | PB | Rights Available: World, Translation, Audio
17 THE LAST INTERVIEW
18 “Her entire legal career, her time on the Supreme Court, really pushed open a new set possibilities for women all over the country and all over the world. She was an icon. A great role model to me.” —Michelle Obama
“She will remain the standard of courage and intellect and kindness and heart that all of us should strive for.” —Gloria Steinem
“No one ever expected me to go to “With the exception of Thurgood law school. I was supposed to be Marshall, no Supreme Court a high school teacher, or how else justice did more to realize the could I earn a living?” Constitution's promise of 'equal protection of the law' than Ruth —Ruth Bader Ginsburg Bader Ginsburt.” —David Cole, National Legal From her start in Depression-era New Director, ACLU York, to her final days at the pinnacle of the American legal system, Ruth Bader Gins- burg defiend convention, blazing a trail that helped bring greater equality to women, and to all Americans. In this first collection of in-depth interviews—including her last, as well as one of her first—Ginsburg details her rise from a Brooklyn public school to becoming the second woman on the Unit- ed States Supreme Court, and her non-stop fight for gender equality along the way. Be- sides telling the story behind many of her famous court battles, she also talks open- ly about motherhood and her partnership with her beloved husband, her Jewishness, her surprising friendship with her legal po- lar opposite Justice Antonin Scalia, her pas- sion for opera, and, in one of the collection's most charming interviews, offers advice to high school students wondering about the law. It is, in the end, both an engrossing On Sale December 2020 | PB look into a fascinating life, and an inspiring Rights available: Write to us at tribute to an American icon. [email protected] for more details
19 “Frida is unique in the history of art, ready to tear open her own breast and heart to arrive at the biological truth and express how this feels to her.” —Diego Rivera
“The art of Frida Kahlo is like a ribbon about a bomb.” —Andre Breton
“Neither Derain, nor I, nor you, are capable of painting a head like those of Frida Kahlo.” “The only thing I know is —Pablo Picasso (to Diego Rivera) that I paint because I need to, and I paint always whatever passes “What a God [Kahlo] was. And is.” through my head, without any —Jerry Saltz other consideration.” —Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo has been celebrated as a pro- to-feminist, a misunderstood genius, and a leftist hero, but during her lifetime she was better known—at first, at least—for being Diego Rivera's wife. Still, as shown in this wide-ranging collection of interviews, which includes her first and last, she was of course not only a shockingly ground-break- ing, personal, and prolific artist in her own right, but a savvy cultivator of her own public image. In discussions with critics, other artists, and journalists from through- out her career, we see her emerge from the background of a Rivera interview to a wom- an who confidently declares that she herself is her only influence. With an introduction by foremost Kahlo biographer Hayden Her- rera, this is a unprecedented look at the real woman behind “Fridamania,” in her own words.
On Sale July 2020 | PB Rights available: Write to us at [email protected] for more details
20 “Her writing was a beautiful, meaningful challenge to our conscience and our moral imagination.” —Barack Obama
“She was our conscience. Our seer. Our truth-teller. She was a magician with language, who understood the Power of words. She used them to roil us, to wake us, to educate us and help us grapple with our deepest wounds and try to comprehend them.” —Oprah Winfrey “Knowledge is what’s important, you know? Not the erasure, but “Morrison’s characters live with me the the confrontation of it.” way that biblical figures were always —Toni Morrison in the back of my grandmother’s mind when she needed to make a point.” —Tayari Jones In this wide-ranging collection of thought-provoking interviews—including “She wrote about what was difficult and her first and last—Toni Morrison (whom what was necessary and in doing so she President Barrack Obama called a “nation- unearthed for a generation of people a al treasure”) details not only her writing life, kind of redemption, a kind of relief.” but also her other careers as a teacher, and — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie as a publisher, as well as the gripping story of her family. In fact, Morrison reveals here “Toni Morrison was a giant of her that her Nobel Prize-winning novels, such times and ours . . .” as Beloved and Song of Solomon, were born —Margaret Atwood out of her family’s stories—such as those of her great-grandmother, born a slave, or her father, escaping the lynch mobs of the South. With an introduction by renowned poet Nikki Giovanni, here Morrison weaves yet another fascinating and inspir- ing narrative—that of herself.
On Sale July 2020 | PB Rights available: Write to us at [email protected] for more details
21 BACK LIST NON-FICTION Praise For How To Do Nothing
“A complex, smart, and ambitious book that at first reads like a self-help manual, then blossoms into a wide-ranging political manifesto.” —Jonah Engel Bromwich, The New York Times Book Review
“How to Do Nothing is genuinely instructive, elaborating a practical philosophy to help us slow down and temporarily sidestep the forces HOW TO DO aligned against both our mental health and long-term human survival.” NOTHING —Akiva Gottlieb, Los Angeles Times
Resisting the Attention Economy “The book is clearly the work of a JENNY ODELL socially conscious artist and writer who considers careful attention to the
rich variety of the world an antidote to A New York Times Bestseller the addictive products and platforms that technology provides.” One of President Barack Obama's —Nicholas Cannariato, Favorite Books of 2019 The Washington Post
Named One of the “The sentiment behind How to Do Nothing Best Books of the Year by is one of defiance.” Time • The New Yorker —Casey Schwart, The New York Times NPR • GQ • Elle • Vulture • Fortune Boing Boing • The Irish Times “An erudite and thoughtful narrative about the importance of interiority and The New York Public Library taking time to pay close attention to Porchlight's Personal Development & the spaces around us." Human Behavior Book of the Year —Annie Vainshtein, San Francisco Chronicle
Rights Sold: German (C.H. Beck), “An eloquent argument against the Spanish (Ariel/Planeta), Italian (Hoepli), Dutch (Ten Have), Traditional Chinese cult of efficiency, and I felt both consoled (Ecotrend), Japanese (Hayakawa), Russian and invigorated by it." (EXEM), Polish (Kobiece), Turkish (Inka) —Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times Book Review Paperback Available Late 2020 256 pages Rights Available: World, Translation, Film/TV
24 ANTIFA WHY I AM NOT The Anti-Fascist Handbook A FEMINIST MARK BRAY A Feminist Manifesto JESSA CRISPIN A detailed survey of anti-fascism from its or- igins to the present day, based on interviews with anti-fascists from around the world A searing rejection of contemporary fem- inism, and a bracing, fiercely intelligent “Focused and persuasive . . . Bray’s book manifesto for revolution is many things: the first English-language transnational history of antifa, a how-to “The point of Why I Am Not a Feminist for would-be activists, and a record of isn’t really that Crispin is not a feminist; advice from anti-Fascist organizers it’s that she has no interest in being a past and present.” —The New Yorker part of a club that has opened its doors and lost sight of its politics . . . “Incisive.” —The New York Times Crispin’s argument is bracing, and a rare counterbalance; where feminism is “Insurgent activist movements need concerned, broad acceptability is almost spokesmen, intellectuals and apologists, always framed as an unquestioned good.” and for the moment Mark Bray is —The New Yorker filling in as all three.” —Carlos Lozada, The Washington Post On sale now | TR | 176 pages Rights available: World, All Languages Rights sold: Chinese Traditional (Howdo), On sale now | TR | 288 pages German (Suhrkamp), Italian (SUR), Korean Rights available: World, All Languages (Bookinthegap), Romanian (Curtea Veche), Rights sold: Spanish (Capitan Swing), Slovak (Inaque), Slovenian (Zalozba French (Lux Editeur), Greek (Colleagues), Krtina), Spanish (Los Libros del Lince), Turkish (Edebi Seyler), Brazil (Autonomia Swedish (Bokforlaget Diadalos), Turkish Literaria) (Zeplin)
25 DEAD BLONDES THE INVISIBLE AND BAD MOTHERS KILLER Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the The Rising Global Threat Fear of Female Power of Air Pollution—and How We SADY DOYLE Can Fight Back GARY FULLER A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2019 An urgent examination of one of the biggest With a wicked blend of humor, horror, and global crises facing us today, air pollution, razor-sharp insight, Sady Doyle argues that looking at the rise of the problem, how we the monsters of our myths and movies em- understand it, and what needs to change body patriarchal fear of women, illustrate the violence with which men enforce tradition- “This compelling book is a must-read ally feminine roles, and speak to the primal for all.” —The Guardian threat of a woman who takes back her power “Fuller wears his learning lightly in The “Smart, funny, and fearless.” Invisible Killer, looks to history for context —The Boston Globe and shows how foul air has perplexed “This book is brilliant as it is frightening. A and angered societies for centuries . . . must read for all fans of horror.” —Tor.com he tells a straight-up horror story, leavened with impressive detail.” —Literary Review “A deep dive into misogyny in popular culture . . . Unflinching, hard-charging feminist criticism.” —Kirkus, starred review
On sale now | TR | 352 pages On sale now | HC | 320 pages Rights available: World, All Languages Rights available: World, All Languages Rights sold: Italian (Tlon) Spanish (Horror Rights sold: China, Simplified Characters Vacui) (Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press)
26 STRANGE STARS HOW WE WIN David Bowie, Pop Music, and the A Guide to Nonviolent Direct Decade Sci-Fi Exploded Action Campaigning JASON HELLER GEORGE LAKEY
Strange Stars brings to life an era of un- A lifetime of activist experience informs paralleled and unearthly creativity—in this playbook for building and conducting magazines, novels, films, records, and con- nonviolent direct action campaigns certs—to point out that the nerds have been winning all along “Hard-won advice for community “Full of cosmic wisdom that will open organizers . . . Clear, encouraging, and your mind to alien melodies . . . a totally potentially empowering.” indispensable guide.” —Kirkus Reviews —Charlie Jane Anders, author of All The Birds in the Sky “Lakey doesn’t make it sound easy, but he employs a reasoned, seasoned “There’s never been anything like Strange perspective to clearly convey principles Stars before . . . Brilliant.” of organization that have proved their —Rob Sheffield, author of On Bowie value to activists worldwide.” —Publisher’s Weekly “Fans of popular music and SF alike will thoroughly enjoy this journey through the center of the 1970s.” —Library Journal
On sale now | TR | 272 pages Rights available: World, All Languages, On sale now | TR | 240 pages Audio, Performance Rights available: World, All Languages
27 VIKING ECONOMICS BECOMING How the Scandinavians Got It LEONARDO Right-and How We Can, Too An Exploded View of the Life GEORGE LAKEY of Leonardo da Vinci MIKE LANKFORD This timely guide explores the inner-work- ings of the Nordic economics that boast the world’s happiest, most productive workers, In a book unlike anything ever written and explains how, if we can enact some of about the Renaissance genius, Mike Lank- the changes the Scandinavians fought for ford explodes every cliché about Da Vinci surprisingly recently, we, too, can embrace and then reconstructs him based on a rich equality in our economic policy trove of available evidence—bringing to life for the modern reader the man who has “Viking Economics shows us there’s no been studied by scholars for centuries, yet reason we couldn’t be making far has remained as mysterious as ever more progress across a wide range of “With immediacy and grace, Becoming problems. George Lakey is great at Leonardo starts on a high note and explaining why.” gets better to the very end.” —Bill McKibben, environmentalist —The Wall Street Journal and author, founder of 350.org “Fun and enlightening . . . Lankford’s unconventional approach provides for a deeper appreciation of a genius.” —Publishers Weekly
On sale now | TR | 320 pages On sale now | TR | 304 pages | Rights Rights available: World, All Languages available: World, All Languages | Rights sold: Hebrew (Beketa Tov), Rights sold: Turkish (Nemesis Kitap), Vietnamese (Tre Publishing), Chinese Polish (Marginesy), Chinese Simplified Traditional (Heliopolis) (JIC Bookstore)
28 CHALK CULTURE AS The Art and Erasure of WEAPON Cy Twombly The Art of Influence in JOSHUA RIVKIN Everyday Life NATO THOMPSON LONGLISTED FOR THE 2019
PEN/BOGRAD WELD AWARD FOR BIOGRAPHY One of the country’s leading activist cura- tors explores how corporations and govern- MARFIELD PRIZE FINALIST ments have used art and culture to mystify and manipulate us The first book to explore the life and work of painter Cy Twombly, one of the most im- “Explores the ways in which the tools of portant and influential artists of the twen- culture are deployed to do everything from tieth century sell iPhones to wage war . . . Culture as Weapon provides a compelling manual for “Impeccably researched, lavishly determining how the manipulation begins.” and lovingly written, insightful and —Los Angeles Times discerning.” “Energetic, briskly paced, and well- —Kirkus Reviews, starred review researched . . . [Thompson] voids cliché and succeeds in raising awareness of “An extraordinarily involving, gorgeously the cultural forces that shape brand written chronicle of art, controversy, preferences and political allegiance.” fame, and the perils of biography.” —Publishers Weekly —Booklist, starred review
On sale now | TR | 288 pages On sale now | HC | 496 pages Rights available: World, All Languages Rights Available: World, All Languages Rights sold: Korean (FlatB), Traditional Rights sold: Germany (Piet Meyer) Chinese (Marco Polo Press)
29 THE CONSEQUENTIAL LIVING IN A WORLD FRONTIER THAT CAN'T BE FIXED Challenging the Reimagining Counterculture Privatization of Space Today PETER WARD CURTIS WHITE
An in-depth work of reportage that docu- An inspiring case for practicing civil dis- ments the new era of privatized space ex- obedience as a way of life, and a clear vision ploration and exploitation. Journalist Peter for a better world—full of play, caring, and Ward sheds a light on a whole industry be- human connection yond headline-grabbing rocket billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk “White’s provocative title poses a challenge. He’s saying political reformism offers “Carefully researched . . . Ward’s book modest remedies, at best, to mitigate the provides a detailed history of how control catastrophe upon us. And he says it with of space changed from a taxpayer-funded a range of insights—from Wordsworth contest of national pride between Cold to Adorno by way of Agnes Varda. Curtis War superpowers to an emerging market writes with assurance of his sources, but fought over by CEOs, corporations, and far removed from a pedantic style.” lobbyists.” —Lincoln Michel, InsideHook —Bernard Marszalek, CounterPunch “White has the courage, rare in our time, to “A lucid, bright, and essential work of associate the right and the good explicitly reporting, analysis, and genuine care. Peter with the beautiful.” Ward has given us a new way to think —Mark Greif, author of about private endeavors in space. Superb.” Against Everything —Rivka Galchen, author of Little Labors On sale now | HC | 160 pages Rights available: World, All Languages, On sale now | HC | 224 pages Audio Rights Available: World, All Languages Rights sold: Spanish (Editions La Llave)
30 FICTION
31 JULIET THE TALENTED THE MANIAC RIBKINS JULIET ESCORIA LADEE HUBBARD
An explosive portrayal of teenage life from WINNER OF THE RONA JAFFE the perspective of The Bad Friend, Juliet FOUNDATION WRITER’S AWARD the Maniac is a bold, stylish breakout book WINNER OF THE WILLIAM FAULKNER from an author already crackling on the in- WILLIAM WISDOM PRIZE die scene HURSTON/WRIGHT LEGACY AWARD NOMINEE “For fans of Ottessa Moshfegh, Juliet the Fuelled by Ladee Hubbard’s marvelously Maniac is a worthy new entry in that original imagination, The Talented Ribkins pantheon of deconstruction . . . Dazzling.” is a big-hearted debut novel about race, —New York Times Book Review class, politics, and the unique gifts that, while they may cause some problems from “To read Juliet the Maniac is to time to time, bind a family together confront our shared faith in the flawed logic of life’s meaning, and by so doing, “Original and wildly inventive . . . in a class become worthier of our humanity… a gift by itself.“ —Toni Morrison to any reader who has ever lost control, “[A] rip-roaring adventure.“ sighted a horizon and began moving —Entertainment Weekly toward it.” —The Washington Post “[A] Dazzling first novel.”—Essence Magazine
On sale now | TR | 336 pages Rights available: World, All Languages On sale now | TR | 304 pages Rights sold: Italy (Pidgin Edizioni), Rights available: World, All Languages Spanish (Horror Vacui), Turkish (Konu Rights sold: French (Belfond), Brazilian Kitap) Portuguese (Boto Cor de Rosa)
32 NIETZSCHE AND THE REVISIONARIES THE BURBS A.R. MOXON LARS IYER A wildly imaginative, masterfully rendered, and suspenseful tale of one man trying to A work of blistering, dark hilarity, a young differentiate between reality and fantasy in Nietzsche experiences life in a metal band order to find the source of his faith and the tribulations of finals season in a modern secondary school “I was baffled, dazzled, angered and awed . . . I adored it . . . a modern- “Nietzsche and the Burbs is an anthem day classic . . . equally audacious and for young misfits and a hilarious, brilliant . . . Moxon is a literary demon.” triumphant book about friendship.” —Ron Charles, Washington Post —Michael Schaub, NPR “A spectacular invention . . . [Moxon is] a “This is a near-perfect evocation of wildly gifted inventor . . . Engrossing.” childhood's elegiac end.” —The New York Times —Michael M. Grynbaum, New York Times
Lars Iyer’s previous books have been translated into: French (Nude in Your Hot Tub, Facing the Abyss, Editions Allia) Turkish (Wittgenstein Jr, The Spurious Trilogy, Kolektif Kitap) Italian (Spurious, Casa Editrice) Spanish (The Spurious Trilogy, Palido Fuego) Croatia (Spurious, Edicije Bozicevic) On Sale Now | TR | 352 pages Rights Available: World, All Languages, Audio Rights Sold: Italian (Nera Pozzi), On sale now | HC | 608 pages Turkish (Kolektif Kitap) Rights Available: World, All Languages
33 WHO’S WHO WHEN WAYS TO HIDE EVERYONE IS IN WINTER SOMEONE ELSE SARAH ST. VINCENT C.D. ROSE 2019 RECIPIENT OF THE PINCKLEY
PRIZE FOR CRIME FICTION A hilariously charming novel about a heart- broken man trying to redeem himself by After surviving a life-altering accident at championing forgotten books twenty-two, Kathleen recuperates by re- treating to a remote campground lodge in “Rose’s invented canon is delightful; and a state park, where she works flipping burg- this ingenious, uproarious novel deserves ers for deer hunters and hikers—happy, she to sit on any bibliophile’s shelf.” insists, to be left alone —Times Literary Supplement “[An] atmospheric suspense novel . . . Pick “A riotous, triumphant rattlebag of a up now.” —O, The Oprah Magazine novel. C.D. Rose has created an intricate exploration of literary intrigue, suspense “The author’s background as a human and levity—lose yourself in this book at rights attorney and advocate for victims of once, and savour every moment.” domestic violence serves her well as —Eley Williams, author of she makes subtle connections between Attrib. & Other Stories socio-economic powerlessness and male rage . . . Sensitive prose conveys both compassion and outrage in this On Sale Now | PB | 256 pages impressive debut.” Rights Available: World, Translation, Audio —Kirkus Reviews, starred review Rights Sold: French (Seuil) Rights also available to C.D. Rose’s THE BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF On sale now | HC | 240 pages LITERARY FAILURE (French sold to Seuil, Rights Available: World, All Languages German to Transit) Rights Sold: French (Editions Delcourt)
34 DEATH AND LACKING OTHER HOLIDAYS CHARACTER MARCI VOGEL CURTIS WHITE
WINNER OF THE MIAMI BOOK FAIR/DE In a time with the crisis du jour, White asks GROOT PRIZE FOR BEST NOVELLA us to remember what it’s like to laugh—to
be a little silly even—in order to reclaim A year in the life of a young woman coming what used to be fundamental to us: the to terms with the death of her beloved step- strength to create our own worlds. father, while attempting to find love in Los Angeles, California. We are introduced to her “A comic, absurd delight . . . White is a friends and family, as she struggles to launch postmodern master, and in this wild satire herself out into the world, to take the risks he transforms the banal into magic.” of love—the one constancy in all the change. —Publishers Weekly “Death and Other Holidays brilliantly balances humor and anger, sorrow and “Endlessly inventive and endlessly beauty. Vogel’s subjects may be grief and imitative . . . [Lacking Character] bills death, but her writing reflects life as we itself equally as a bomb tossed into live it, life with its many intricate, the bunker of literary convention; an unnoticed balances.” —NPR algorithm endlessly replicating the capitalist apocalypse; a picaresque through “Hypnotic and elegant . . . It’s a stunning which White’s mad characters tilt at meditation on loss, love, and our real giants disguised as miniature-golf powerlessness in the face of time—for windmills.” —Kirkus better or worse, life carries on.” —Buzzfeed
On sale now | HC | 144 pages Rights Available: World, All Languages On sale now | TR | 208 pages Rights Sold: French (Editions DO) Rights available: World, All Languages
35 FOREIGN AGENTS
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