It’s a long story but here’s the gist: Author Scott Campbell’s book was adapted for film by Oscar-winning German director Caroline Link and debuted at the Toronto Film Festival as “Im Winter ein Jahr” (A Year Ago in Winter)” but the manuscript–finished in 2004–never found a publisher. The Boston Globe says “when the film, which is still seeking American distribution, was over, the audience enthusiastically applauded.” Campbell “wrote it after a friend of his, a painter, told him about his experience doing a portrait for a family whose son had died suddenly. They wanted him to put the surviving daughter […]
Roth TV
Philip Roth rarely appears before cameras or in stores to promote his work but on Tuesday when INDIGNATION is published, “fifty bookstores will show a live, closed-circuit interview between Roth and novelist and essayist Benjamin Taylor. Some are using larger venues, including the Chicago Public Library and Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA,” USA Today report. Houghton has a pdf of stores posted here.
Muted Prospects for Bestseller in Translation
“No. 1 French bestseller” does not necessarily guarantee a novel sales, or even publication, in English-speaking parts of the world, as the Guardian notes: “Fiction in translation is not an easy sell to us Brits, and French fiction is perhaps the hardest sell of all.” The subject is small UK press Gallic Books’ release of Muriel Barbery’s THE ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG. (It’s published by Europa Editions in the US.) “Barbery’s novel, which takes as its unprepossessing subject an ugly, plump concierge and a 12-year-old girl who plans to commit suicide on her 13th birthday, has spent 102 weeks on […]
People
Words without Borders has appointed Joshua Mandelbaum as managing director. He has been ad director at Poets & Writers Magazine since 2004. Rohan Kamicheril, a WWB volunteer since 2006, has been appointed editor. He continues to work full time in the sales department at Penguin. Tim Sullivan has joined Basic Books as executive editor, focusing on economics, business, politics, and sociology. He spent six months at Portfolio (where his acquisitions included Mike Huckabee’s memoir Do The Right Thing) after working at the Princeton University Press from 2000 to 2008. Taunton Press has promoted Allison Hollett to the newly created position […]
Spears Book Is the Embargo to Break
You didn’t see it on most of the fall preview round-ups, but the press has ample space for anything Spears and the AP has gotten a copy of Lynne Spears’ book THROUGH THE STORM well in advance of the September 16 laydown: Spears presents herself as a loving, selfless (she gave up her job as a school teacher for her daughter’s sake) but increasingly powerless parent. After the jolting, but pleasant surprise of Britney Spears’ debut smash, … Baby One More Time, Lynne Spears says she felt she was losing control when a 1999 Rolling Stone magazine story featured a […]
National Book Foundation Honors Kingston and Rosset
At this year’s National Book Awards ceremonies on November 19, the National Book Foundation will give its Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters to Maxine Hong Kingston “in recognition of her outstanding achievements as a writer of fiction, memoir, and nonfiction.” Publisher Barney Rosset will receive the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. Executive director Harold Augenbraum says in the announcement, “This year’s distinguished honorees broke new ground in American literary publishing. Kingston exposed the great story of American immigration to a new, rich blend of fiction, memory, folk-tale and political idea. Rosset opened a […]