GROVE PRESS ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS BLACK CAT THE MYSTERIOUS PRESS SPRING 2020 AVAILABLE NOW WINNER OF THE 2019 BOOKER PRIZE “A must-read about modern Britain and womanhood . Her style is passionate, razor-sharp, brimming with energy and humor.”—Booker Prize judges Girl, Woman, Other A Novel Bernardine Evaristo MARKETING “A breathtaking symphony of black women’s voices, a clear-eyed survey of con- Winner of the 2019 Booker Prize and temporary challenges that’s nevertheless wonderfully life-affirming . Together, shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize all these women present a cross-section of Britain that feels godlike in its scope Instant bestseller in the UK and insight.” —Ron Charles, Washington Post Evaristo was profiled in the New York Times ernardine Evaristo is the winner of the 2019 Booker Prize and the first author tour black woman to receive this highest literary honor in the English lan- guage. Girl, Woman, Other is a magnificent portrayal of the intersections national media campaign including television, B of identity and a moving and hopeful story of an interconnected group of radio, and print interviews black British women that paints a vivid portrait of the state of contemporary national review coverage Britain and looks back to the legacy of Britain’s colonial history in Africa and library marketing including PLA and ALA the Caribbean. online advertising, including Literary Hub, Girl, Woman, Other is populated by an unforgettable cast of characters who Goodreads, and Facebook range widely, from a lesbian playwright to a jaded schoolteacher to a nonbi- reading group guide available online nary social media influencer. Evaristo brings us into the most intimate also available as a Blackstone audiobook moments of these women’s lives, producing a patchwork portrait of society and celebrating what connects us to our neighbors, even in times when we are Anglo-Nigerian writer BERNARDINE EVARISTO encouraged to be split apart. Sparklingly witty and filled with emotion, cen- is the celebrated author of tering voices we often see othered, and written in an innovative fast-moving eight books, and the winner of form, this is a polyphonic and richly textured social novel by a masterful Brit- the 2019 Booker Prize. ish writer who has finally been lauded at the level she has long deserved. Her writing is characterized by “Magnificent . There is room for everyone to find a home in this extraordinary © JENNIE SCOTT experimentation, subversion, novel. Beautiful and necessary.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) and challenging the myths of various Afro-diasporic histories and identities, and her books range in genre “A stunning powerhouse of vibrant characters and heartbreaks.” from poetry to short story to drama to criticism. She —Publishers Weekly (starred review) lives in London. bevaristo.com $17.00 (Canada: $22.99) All other rights: Aitken Special Hardcover Edition 5.5 x 8.25, 464 pp. Alexander Associates, Ltd. $27.00 (Canada: $35.50) @bernardineevari Fiction (FIC044000) (London, tel.: +44 207 373 8672) 978-0-8021-5770-6 978-0-8021-5698-3 Carton quantity: 24 U.S. and Canadian rights: eISBN: 978-0-8021-5699-0 Export: USCOxE Grove Press U.S. and Canadian rights: Black Cat Residence: London, England Carton quantity: 12 ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS Hardcovers APRIL The story of a pivotal moment in modern world history, when Arabs established a representative democracy— and how the West crushed it How the West Stole Democracy from the Arabs The Arab Congress of 1920 and the Destruction of a Unique Liberal-Islamic Alliance Elizabeth F. Thompson MARKETING hen Europe’s Great War engulfed the Ottoman Empire, Arab The events covered in How the West Stole nationalists rose in revolt against their Turkish rulers and allied Democracy from the Arabs underlie the W with the British on the promise of an independent Arab state. In turmoil of the last century in the Middle October 1918, the Arabs' military leader, Prince Faisal, victoriously entered East, and they have never been fully, Damascus and proclaimed a constitutional government in an independent accurately told Greater Syria. Thompson utilizes many primary sources, Faisal won American support for self-determination at the Paris Peace translated for the first time into English, Conference, but other Entente powers plotted to protect their colonial inter- to render a compelling and groundbreaking ests. Under threat of European occupation, the Syrian-Arab Congress declared version of this narrative, long dominated independence on March 8, 1920, and crowned Faisal king of a “civil represen- by the voices of the victors tative monarchy.” Sheikh Rashid Rida, the most prominent Islamic thinker of galleys/e-galleys available the day, became Congress president and supervised the drafting of a constitu- east coast author tour tion that established the world’s first Arab democracy and guaranteed equal major review coverage rights for all citizens, including non-Muslims. NPR and talk radio campaign But France and Britain refused to recognize the Damascus government op-eds at publication and instead imposed a system of mandates on the pretext that Arabs were not academic marketing yet ready for self-government. In July 1920, the French invaded and crushed also available as a Tantor audiobook the Syrian state. The fragile coalition of secular modernizers and Islamic reformers that had established democracy was destroyed, with profound con- sequences that reverberate still. Using previously untapped primary sources, including contemporary newspaper accounts, reports of the Syrian-Arab Congress, and letters and dia- ries from participants, How the West Stole Democracy from the Arabs is a ground-breaking account of an extraordinary, brief moment of unity and hope—and of its destruction. $30.00 (Canada: $38.99) Rights sold: Grove Press UK 6 x 9, 496 pp. All other rights: Inkwell Management History (HIS026000) (New York, tel.: 212-922-3500) 978-0-8021-4820-9 Carton quantity: 12 eISBN: 978-0-8021-4821-6 Export: USCO World English rights: Atlantic Monthly Press Residence: Washington, DC 2 Excerpt On March 8, 1920, the Syrian Congress issued a Declaration of Independence in the name of the largely Arabic-speaking peoples living in Greater Syria, comprising today’s states of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, and Israel. During World War I, the Syrian Arabs joined the Allies in fighting against the Ottoman military dictatorship. At war’s end, they embraced “Dr. [Woodrow] Wilson’s lofty principles of freedom for great and small nations alike, their independence based on equal rights, and the renunciation of the politics of conquest and colonialism.” The Congress had already begun drafting a consti- tution for a democratic, parliamentary monarchy. Just months after their Declaration of Independence, Syrians were stripped of both their sovereignty and their democracy. In direct contravention of the League covenant and Wilson’s Four- teen Points, France and Britain forcibly occupied Greater Syria, partitioning it between them into the states of Lebanon, Syria, © DAN ADDISON-UVA Palestine, and Jordan. They justified the use of force through ELIZABETH F. THOMPSON is a leading historian of the the League of Nations itself, by declaring the occupations tem- modern Middle East and Mohamed S. Farsi Chair of Islamic Peace porary “mandates,” periods of tutelage for peoples not ready to at American University’s School of International Service. She is the rule themselves. In the end, the Powers at the Paris Peace Con- author of two previous books, Colonial Citizens: Republican Rights, ference treated their Arab allies worse than their German en- Paternal Privilege and Gender in French Syria and Lebanon, winner emies, imposing terms suffered only by peoples who had been of two national book prizes, and Justice Interrupted: The Struggle for colonized before the war. Constitutional Government in the Middle East. PRAISE FOR HOW THE WEST STOLE DEMOCRACY FROM THE ARABS “How the West Stole Democracy from the Arabs should be required reading for policymakers and pundits who promote the lie that Arabs require western invasions to impose democracy. It proves that the West, far from promoting democracy in the Middle East, strangled it at birth. This excellent and enlightening book ranks with Margaret Macmillan’s award-winning Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World as a ground-breaking work of both thorough scholarship and fine writing.” —Charles Glass, former ABC News Chief Middle East Correspondent and author of Tribes with Flags: A Journey Curtailed and They Fought Alone: The True Story of the Starr Brothers, British Secret Agents in Nazi-Occupied France “There are historical periods that seem full of possibilities for those who experience them; only in retrospect—when those possibilities have been foreclosed—do outcomes seem clear and inevitable. Harnessing meticulous research to careful analysis; moving among international diplomacy, personal interactions, and local politics, Thompson expertly argues that after World War I, the fate of Ottoman Arab lands was not merely contested but that radically different outcomes for independence, constitutional government, and liberal arrangements were very live possibilities, far more so than is generally remembered.”—Nathan J. Brown, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University 3 APRIL From internationally acclaimed crime writer Deon Meyer, a new thriller featuring investigative superstars Benny Griessel and Vaughn Cupido The Last Hunt A Benny Griessel Novel Deon Meyer MARKETING “Meyer grabs you by the throat and never lets you go.” —Wilbur Smith, bestselling author of Courtney’s War The Last Hunt has already become a bestseller in France, Germany, and Holland hen a cold case dossier lands on Captain Benny Griessel’s desk, he Meyer has avid fans across the crime and his partner, Vaughn Cupido, fellow member of the Hawks elite community, including Michael Connelly, Wpolice unit in South Africa, reluctantly set to work reviewing the Stephen King, Tess Gerritsen, Thomas evidence of the disappearance—and possible murder—of ex-cop Johnson Perry, and Wilbur Smith Johnson on the world’s most luxurious train line.