TCAI News Update Jun 28 2016 - The Cooke Agency International

The Cooke Agency International News Update
June 28th, 2016
THE
PARCEL
SOLD
IN
FRANCE
AND
ITALY
We are delighted to inform you that World French and Italian rights to Anosh Irani’s first
novel in six years, THE PARCEL, have sold to Phillipe Rey in France and Piemme in Italy.
Here, an excerpt from the Italian acquiring editor's impassioned response to the novel:
“Anosh managed to tell a story that is brutal and atrocious while infusing it with hope,
redemption, and ultimately beauty. . . I can still feel the surprise of finding beauty when
you least expect there would be any. . . a great story and great writing, thankfully, still
have the same old, great power.” —Giulia de Biase, Piemme
And praise for Anosh's novel The Cripple and His Talismans, from a Canadian literary giant:
KNOPF CANADA
"A highly imaginative novel, full of humour, poetry, and insights, written in a beautiful,
spare style." —Yann Martel, New York Times bestselling author of Life of Pi
Rights Held: World, excl. Canada English (Knopf Canada); World French (Phillipe Rey); Italian (Piemme)
GERMAN RIGHTS SOLD AT THREE-WAY AUCTION, IN A PRE-EMPT
Madeline Ashby’s COMPANY TOWN, the much-anticipated dystopian mystery from an
up-and-coming science fiction writer, continues to impress readers, including Margaret
Atwood—who tweeted her endorsement (below)—and new German publishing house
Arctis, who recently won a two-way auction, in a pre-empt, to make COMPANY TOWN
one of their lead titles.
Here's what critics are saying:
TOR
“The world is an updated version of Raymond Chandler’s, with gray morals and broken characters, and Hwa’s internal
monologue has just the right balance of introspection and wit . . . [a] very solid page-turner.” ―Publishers Weekly
“The skill with which Ashby introduces her various SF elements is worthy of the best Heinlein . . . . Company Town never
falters in its pacing. It’s a terrific ride.” —Locus
“[K]eeps you thinking about what it means to be human in a posthuman world—even as it
also keeps you entertained with action, serial killers, and crazy plot twists.” —i09
“Company Town is a locked-room murder mystery at sea, in a setting that’s got trenchant things to say about class and
gender, and about the way that our technological ambitions reflect both of them. Hwa ranks with science fiction’s great
badasses” —boing boing
“What really makes the novel succeed as a thriller is that protagonist, the tough-as-nails martial arts expert Hwa . . . Ashby
deftly introduces an escalating series of solid hard science-fiction ideas, ranging from global warming to cyborgs, spaceships
and even possible multiple timelines” —Chicago Tribune
Rights Held: World, excl. World English (Tor); German (Arctis)
STILL MINE continues to dominate the Canadian bestseller list, a fixture there since its March
publication, and remains a retailer favourite with Walmart picking it up as August's Read of the Month:
READ OF THE MONTH, WALMART (AUGUST 2016)
SELECTED, AIRLINES FICTION PICK (APRIL 2016)
BUYER’S PICK, COSTCO (MARCH/APRIL 2016)
BOOK OF THE MONTH, AMAZON.CA (MARCH 2016)
HOT 100 BOOK, CHAPTERS/INDIGO (MARCH 2016)
FEATURED, CHATELAINE’S POCKET BOOK CLUB GUIDE (MARCH 2016)
READERS’ PICK, SHOPPERS DRUG MART (MARCH 2016)
“ T H R I L L I N G . ”— A . S . A H A R R I S O N
A NOVEL
AMY STUART
S&S CANADA
Meanwhile stateside, with Touchstone's US edition scheduled to release mid-August, STILL MINE has
received a stellar Publishers Weekly review:
“[D]ark and deliciously disturbing debut . . . Stuart’s perceptive look at addiction, abuse, and
obsession will resonate with fans of psychological thrillers.” —Publishers Weekly
Rights Held: World, excl. North America English (Simon & Schuster Canada); US (Touchstone)
Rights Held: World, excl. Dutch (Luitingh-Sijthoff), North America English (TOR), UK & Commonwealth (Hodder & Stoughton),
Portuguese Brazil (DarkSide), Simplified Chinese (Yongzheng Books), World French (Bragelonne), Polish (Zysk i S-ka),
Serbian (Vulkan lzdavastvo), Turkish (Nemesis), Ukrainian (Krajina Mriy)
TOUCHSTONE
TOR US
Rights Held: World, excl. Canada (McClelland & Stewart)
Having just pubbed a couple weeks ago, Amy Jones' WE'RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER got an impressive Avia National Post's fantastic National Reading Society program, whereby booklovers across the country
collectively read and review a book a week. It is also a Canadian librararians' top pick for June and
has been collecting stellar reviews and blurbs, such as:
MCCLELLAND &
STEWART
“T]he author has not only written a fantastic first novel, but one that is wholly
enriched by her expertise with the shorter form. . . . Jones has created a novel of great
psychological insight and a kind of sharp-edged tenderness that revels not in family
dysfunction, but in its ‘beautiful, crazy chaos.’” —Quill & Quire, starred review
Doug Saunders' ARRIVAL CITY, a non-fiction investigation into urbanization and, more specifically, the
tendency for immigrants to settle on the fringes of urban centers, has been adapted—not into a film,
or a play, but a . . . building.
For the 2016 Venice Biennale of Architecture, Germany modeled their pavilion after Saunders'
vision of the ideal city, in which immigrants are not only welcome but well-integrated. Each room in
the pavilion is devoted to one of ARRIVAL CITY'S eight theses; there is online access to a database
documenting more than 400 refugee-housing projects currently under way in Germany; its walls are
stencilled with excerpts from the book; and holes were jackhammered into the walls to transform
the austere facade into an informal, improvised place, a teeming marketplace not just of people, but
also of ideas.
KNOPF CANADA
Rights Held: World, excl. Canada English (Knopf Canada); ANZ (Allen & Unwin); Simplified Chinese (Hangzhou Matrixbook); Dutch (De Bezige Bij);
Canada French (Boreal); World French, excl. Canada (Editions du Seuil); German (Verlagsgruppe Random House GmbH);
Brazil Portuguese (DVS Editora); World Spanish (Random House Grupo Editorial); UK & Commonwealth excl. Canada (William Heinemann);
US (Pantheon/Knopf)
Marta Zaraska's investigation into our widespread addiction to meat, MEATHOOKED,
continues to create waves throughout the media—both in the English-speaking world
and internationally.
This past weekend Vox.com ran a story titled "Our bodies don’t need meat. So why
can’t we give it up?" drawing on Zaraska's book for answers. Meanwhile, Het Laatste
Nieuws in Belgium also ran a story in relation to the book and Deutche Welle, a big
German news company, plans to publish an interview with the author soon.
World, excl. Canada English (Basic Books); Japanese (Intershift); Polish (Czama Owca)
BASIC BOOKS
Zoey Leigh Peterson's US publisher, Scribner, has recently provided a very strong, though not final,
jacket cover and summary:
After nine years together, Kathryn and Chris have the sort of relationship most would envy. They speak
in the shorthand they have invented, complete one another’s sentences, and help each other through
every daily and existential dilemma. When Chris tells Kathryn about his feelings for Emily, a vivacious
young woman he sees often at the Laundromat, Kathryn encourages him to pursue this other woman—certain that her bond with Chris is strong enough to weather a little side dalliance.
As Kathryn and Chris stumble into polyamory, Next Year, For Sure tracks the tumultuous, revelatory,
and often very funny year that follows. When Chris’s romance with Emily grows beyond what anyone SCRIBNER
anticipated, both Chris and Kathryn are invited into Emily’s communal home, where Kathryn will
discover new romantic possibilities of her own. In the confusions, passions, and upheavals of their new lives, both Kathryn
and Chris will be forced to reconsider their past and what they thought they knew about love.
Offering a luminous portrait of a relationship from two perspectives, Peterson has written an empathic, beautiful, and
tremendously honest novel about a great love pushed to the edge. Deeply poignant and hugely entertaining, Next Year,
For Sure shows us what lies at the mysterious heart of relationships, and what true openness and transformation require.
Rights Held: World, excl. Canada English (Doubleday Canada); US (Scribner)
Lynne Kutsukake’s debut, one of our LBF 2016 Hotlist titles, has been named an Editor’s Choice in
the New York Times' New York Book Review!
And, unsuprisingly, it continues to receive high praise from readers and critics:
“Lynne Kutsukake, a third-generation Japanese-Canadian and first-time novelist, conjures the voices
of this agonized time with graceful simplicity. . . . The story is satisfying but secondary to the mood:
the quiet ache of loss.” —New York Times
“In Lynne Kutsukake’s dazzling debut, The Translation of Love, readers follow the intertwining stories
RANDOM HOUSE
of several characters, each more unforgettable than the last, in post–World War II Japan, a country
CANADA
still buried in the wreckage of violence and war. At once an intriguing mystery about a missing girl, and
a coming-of-age tale of another girl desperate to find her, The Translation of Love tells a commanding story about identity,
redemption, and healing that’s not to be missed.” —Bustle
“[M]any scenes pack an emotional punch and are enhanced by the author’s clarity and restraint. . . . The Translation of
Love offers rich insights into an underreported period in history” —The Globe and Mail
Rights Held: World, excl. Canada English (Knopf Canada); UK (Transworld); US (Doubleday); Canada English Audio (Blackstone Audio)
Tel: 647-788-4010
Email: [email protected]
The Cooke Agency International
320 Front Street West, Suite 1105
Toronto, ON, M5V 3B6
Canada
Twitter: @cookeintl &
@thecookeagency
Please contact Paige Sisley with any questions, or if you’re interested in more information.