The marketplace made the right predictions on the two highest-profile National Book Awards, as the fiction prize went to the book that has sold the best, both overall and (overwhelmingly) in the four weeks since the nominations were announced: Colum McCann’s LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN (Random House). Nonfiction also saw the book that has by far sold the best win, with the award going to T. J. Stiles’ THE FIRST TYCOON: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (Alfred A. Knopf). Conflict issues raised online by Janice Harayda and echoed by the NYT over nominee David Small’s relationship having illustrated […]
Awards
Awards
The lead-in to tonight’s National Book Awards has been awfully quiet, hasn’t it? Yesterday novelist M.G. Vassanji won Canada’s Governor General’s award for his memoir A PLACE WITHIN, as Kate Pullinger was the surprise winner of the fiction prize for THE MISTRESS OF NOTHING. The Man Asian Literary prize went to bestselling author in China Su Tong’s political fable THE BOAT TO REDEMPTION. The award goes to a work not yet published English, and is designed to bring “exciting new Asian authors to the attention of the world literary community.” The Guardian says Howard Goldblatt–who also translated the 2007 winner, […]
How the NBA Nominees Have Fared
With the National Book Award winners due to be announced on Wednesday evening, we took a look at what the marketplace has had to say so far about the fiction nominees. Unfortunately, the NBA nominations traditionally do not have a lot of impact on the marketplace. In both total sales to date as well as sales since the nominations were announced, Colum McCann’s LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN is the clear stand-out. With just under 2,400 copies sold in the last three full weeks as recorded by Nielsen BookScan, he has outsold the rest of the field combined (the other […]
Awards
Journalist Linden MacIntyre was the surprise winner of Canada’s Giller Prize last night for his novel THE BISHOP’S MAN–the second in a planned trilogy–about corruption in the Catholic Church. Random House Canada controls world rights, and as best we could determine this morning US rights have not been sold yet (though that will likely change soon). Ron Eckel is still handling rights through Random House Canada (in advance of their announced rights sales outsourcing deal). MacIntyre’s primary agents are Don Sedgwick and Shaun Bradley at Transatlantic Literary Agency. The Asian American Literary Award in fiction has gone to Jhumpa Lahiri […]
Stephen King Tops December Indie Next List
Under the Dome: A Novel by Stephen King(Scribner, $35, 9781439148501) Wishin’ and Hopin’: A Christmas Story by Wally Lamb(Harper, $19.99, 9780061941009) A Good Fall: Stories by Ha Jin(Pantheon, $24.95, 9780307378682) Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America by Barbara Ehrenreich(Metropolitan Books, $23, 9780805087499) Crush It! Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk(HarperStudio, $19.99, 9780061914171) The Gift: A Novel by Cecelia Ahern(Harper, $19.99, 9780061706264) Wherever I Lie Is Your Bed: Two Lines World Writing in Translation by Margaret Jull Costa and Marily Hacker(Center for the Art of Translation, $14.95 paper, […]
NYT Picks 10 Best Children's Books
Running in this Sunday’s New York Times Book Review, the list comprises: * Only a Witch Can Fly, by Alison McGhee, illustrated by Taeeun Yoo (Feiwel & Friends);* Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11, written and illustrated by Brian Floca (Richard Jackson/Atheneum);* The Odd Egg, written and illustrated by Emily Gravett (Simon & Schuster);* A Penguin Story, written and illustrated by Antoinette Portis (HarperCollins);* The Lion & the Mouse, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney (Little, Brown);* The Snow Day, written and illustrated by Komako Sakai (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic);* Tales from Outer Suburbia, written and illustrated by Shaun Tan (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic);* […]