In the announcement, editor Jason Kaufman says: “Dan’s new novel is largely set in Washington, D.C., though it’s a Washington few will recognize. As we would expect, he pulls back the veil– revealing an unseen world of mysticism, secret societies, and hidden locations, with a stunning twist that long predates America.” (The UK version is on the left; the US version on the right.)
New Releases/Forthcoming
Montreal Publisher Has Well-Timed Jackson Bio
Montreal’s Transit Media is releasing a Michael Jackson biography by Ian Helperin on Tuesday that was already in the works. Previously titled (at various times) Michael Jackson: Return from Exile and Michael Jackson Unmasked: Peter Pan or Pervert, they are now going with Michael Jackson: The Last Days. CanWest News Service says that Helperin has added “about 50 pages” during “a frantic rewrite.” In the wake of Jackson’s death, retailers nationwide have reported huge demand for the pop star’s albums and related material. Amazon says that 60 percent of all CD orders on Thursday were for Jackson-related albums, according to […]
That Book that Governor Mark Sanford Might Have Been Writing
Early on during South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford’s disappearance his office assured reporters he was off working on a book. At a news conference Wednesday Sanford admitted to an extramarital affair (the cause of his leaving the country) and said he would resign his post as head of the Republican Governors Association. The NYT notes “the governor had been considered a rising star among conservatives, but this bizarre turn of events has changed his prospects, at least for the time being. At the end of the news conference, a reporter asked whether he would resign from his post as governor. […]
Four Veterans, Two New Ventures
In a voyage abundant in metaphors (and blessed with sunshine) publishing veterans John Oakes and Colin Robinson literally launched their new venture OR Books on a old fireboat from a pier eight blocks south of the Javits center on Sunday afternoon. The boat chugged leisurely around the south end of Manhattan, past the Statue of Liberty and right past the giant Queen Mary 2 in Red Hook. From a megaphone on the top deck they hailed their “politically progressive and culturally adventurous” content paired with a “revolutionary approach to business.” In other words, they aim to sell non-returnable only and […]
Little, Brown Fills In Missing Pieces of THE LINK
The publisher has announced details about their closely-guarded book set for release on May 20, THE LINK, written by biologist Colin Tudge. It focuses on what they call “the astonishing new discovery that could change everything”–a previously-secret, perfectly fossilized early primate, “older than the previously most famous primate fossil, Lucy, by an astonishing forty-four million years,” held in a vault “deep within the heart of one of the world’s leading natural history museums.” Called Ida, they say this fossil “rewrites what we’ve assumed about the earliest primate origins” and the book offers “exclusive access to the ï¬rst scientists to study […]
Secret Tapes of Late Chinese Premier Drive New Book
There’s a lot of international press for Simon & Schuster’s May release, PRISONER OF STATE: The Secret Journal of Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang. As the subtitle promises, the book draws on previously-secret and little-known tapes recorded by the late Ziyang during the 1989 Tiananmen uprising (and crackdown) and smuggled out of China. The Times of London says, “So sensitive is this document, the first memoir ever to be made public by such a senior Chinese party official, that even its existence had been kept a closely guarded secret. Speculation had been rife during his nearly 16 years of house arrest […]