Among the latest reports:

Author of THE GERMAN GIRL and THE DAUGHTER’S TALE, Armando Lucas Correa‘s THE SILENCE IN HER EYES, about a motion-blind young woman who becomes entangled in an act of violence connected to a new tenant in her NYC apartment building; and two untitled works of historical fiction, to Atria, in a major deal.

Author of The Nine-Chambered Heart Janice Pariat’s EVERYTHING THE LIGHT TOUCHES, a multi-layered novel seen through the eyes of various travelers: a young Indian woman who journeys to the Northeast of her country; an Edwardian science student at Cambridge; a botanist and taxonomist; and a scientist, to Harper Via.

Author of the NYT bestseller ONLY PLANE IN THE SKY Garrett Graff’s UFO: THE (REAL) SECRET HISTORY OF THE US GOVERNMENT’S HUNT FOR ALIEN LIFE, a narrative history and exploration of the military’s decades-long quest to understand what—if anything—lies beyond earth, to Avid Reader Press.

Briefs

Diversity
Penguin Random House published their 2020 Social Impact Report, evaluating their "social impact commitment areas" of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion; Environment & Sustainability; and Free Expression & Joy of Reading. CEO Markus Dohle acknowledges in the introduction, "In some areas, we have a long way to go. Change is overdue when it comes to building a publishing industry that’s truly diverse and equitable—from the authors we publish to the employees we hire. We cannot erase the past, but we can—and will—do everything within our power to help build a more equitable and just world through the power of books and reading, and our own internal practices."

Among efforts for 2021 are "finalizing and sharing our author audit, which was conducted to establish
a baseline for our mandate to publish more books by creators of color, and establishing an
action plan anchored by concrete, data-informed goals to diversify our content moving forward."

Claim-Counterclaim
In the latest Foundry filings, Yfat Reiss Gendell responded to Peter McGuigan's effort to dismiss her counterclaims for defamation, tortious interference and more with a more concise statement of her allegations. In answer to McGuigan's challenge, Gendell cites -- with accompanying documents -- at least eight alleged "false assertions," further asserting that McGuigan made the statements "with actual malice, with ill will and spite, and without good faith."

Controversies
Elin Hilderbrand's new novel Golden Girls, published on Tuesday by Little, Brown, was criticized online for a reference to Anne Frank that some people are calling antisemitic. The line in question concerns a character, Vivi, who plans to stay in the attic of a friend's Nantucket house. "You’re suggesting I hide here all summer?" Vivi asks. "Like…like Anne Frank?"

Multiple Instagram users complained about the line, including PoursandPages, who called it, "The horrifically antisemitic 'joke' that was made in this book...." Hilderbrand responded by saying, "If you read my novel SUMMER OF ’69, you know that I absolutely REVERE the story of Anne Frank. The line was not a throwaway quip. It was an expression of angst from someone who felt marginalized socioeconomically. But nonetheless if I offended you and/or anyone else, I owe you a huge apology."

International: UK Publishes PRH-S&S Merger Review, PRH-Waterstones Terms Dispute, Bonnier Modifies Strawberry Stake

The UK's Competition & Markets Authority has now published the full text of their decision in not challenging Penguin Random House's pending acquisition of Simon & Schuster. The answer is as we indicated from the start: S&S UK, with sales of only about £40 million, is just too small to make a meaningful difference.

There is some nuance in how the CMA approached the decision that could interest people trying to anticipate how the Department of Justice will view the deal. The CMA writes that market share "estimates included in the parties' internal documents for the United States" show PRH with 20 to 30 percent market share, and S&S with 5 to 10 percent share. (That comes from an S&S document; they say it's "generally consistent" with a PRH board document.)

In the UK, PRH overindexes in fiction -- with a share of 30 to 40 percent -- which was among the CMA's areas of consideration. They also "considered the number of bestsellers published by different
publishers as one way to measure publishers’ relative competitive strength." In their view, "Bestsellers are also a way to measure publishers’ competitive strength in acquiring publishing rights from authors, as the rights to bestselling titles often involve well-known authors and celebrities that command significant advances." The CMA adds, "In this context, one competitor submitted that the Merger would allow the Parties to leverage their position in the United States into the UK because rights to English language titles are increasingly acquired on a global basis."
Document

Also in the UK, over the past month The Bookseller has been covering tension between Penguin Random House UK and Waterstones. The publisher has imposed a credit limit on the retailer since the fourth quarter of 2020, and the retailer has been avoiding picking PRH titles for promotional programs and high-visibility displays. A Waterstones' spokesperson confirmed, "We are operating under a credit limit with PRH."

The situation has broken into the regular UK media now that it means Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle's June 8 children's book THE BENCH may be less visible in Waterstones (absurdly deemed a "crushing blow"). The Telegraph reports, "It is understood that bosses at the chain issued orders stipulating that only a minimal number of PRH titles should remain visible for customers in stores, and this could have an adverse effect on sales for upcoming titles such as The Bench." A Waterstones spokeswoman said: "We are not boycotting PRH titles but we are doing our utmost to ensure that availability for customers remains good despite the lower overall levels of stock. We do this generally by giving their titles less prominent positioning within our bookshops."

Separately, following objections by Norway's competition authority to Bonnier Books' planned acquisition of 70 percent of Strawberry Publishing's imprints in Norway, "the parties have chosen to change the ownership distribution so that Bonnier Books now becomes a minority owner" of 45 percent instead.

Newman's Falling Tops July Indie Next List

The ABA named Falling by T. J. Newman as its Indie Next No. 1 pick for July. Also on the list are Carolyn Ferrell's Dear Miss Metropolitan, Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray's The Personal Librarian, and Miranda Cowley Heller's The Paper Palace, all excerpted and available for download in our Buzz Books 2021: Spring/Summer. The rest of the picks:

A Psalm for the Wild-Built, by Becky Chambers
Fox and I: An Uncommon Friendship, by Catherine Raven
Seek You, by Kristen Radtke
Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead, by Emily Austin
The Woman They Could Not Silence, by Kate Moore
Nowhere Girl, by Cheryl Diamond
The Final Girl Support Group, by Grady Hendrix
Such a Quiet Place, by Megan Miranda
The Therapist, by B.A. Paris
The Startup Wife, by Tahmima Anam
The Sweetness of Water, by Nathan Harris
Songs in Ursa Major, by Emma Brodie
Filthy Animals, by Brandon Taylor
The World Gives Way, by Marissa Levien
The Forest of Vanishing Stars, by Kristen Harmel
Dream Girl, by Laura Lippman
Island Queen, by Vanessa Riley
The Natural Mother of the Child, by Krys Malcolm Belc
The Way She Feels, by Courtney Cook
The Tangleroot Palace, by Marjorie Liu
No Hiding in Boise, by Kim Hooper

As usual, the Publishers Lunch Automat is full of links (and condensations) of many other stories of interest from all over, including: