Deals

Masha Hamilton’s 31 HOURS, counting the hours preceding a terrorist attack in the New York City subway from the perspectives of characters who are connected to the looming tragedy including a Saudi graduate student, a highly idealistic, American student whom the student has recruited, the American’s girlfriend, and his divorced parents who are brought back together in their search for their missing son, to Fred Ramey at Unbridled Books, by Marly Rusoff of Marly Rusoff & Associates (NA).

Foreign rights to Elif Shafak’s THE BASTARD OF ISTANBUL, to Europa in Hungary, to Bota in Albania and to Tyto Alba in Lithuania, by Michael Radulescu of Marly Rusoff & Associates.

Japanese rights to Jacqueline Novogratz’s THE BLUE SWEATER, to Eiji Press by Junzo Sawa of The English Agency, on behalf of Michael Radulescu of Marly Rusoff & Associates.

Foreign rights to Ron Rash’s SERENA, to Hongwenguan in China, by Gray Tan of Grayhawk Agency, and to Woongjin Think Big in Korea, by Danny Hong of Danny Hong Agency, on behalf of Michael Radulescu of Marly Rusoff & Associates.

Spanish rights to Vanitha Sankaran’s WATERMARK, to Ediciones B by Michael Radulescu of Marly Rusoff & Associates.

Bulgarian rights to Pat Conroy’s THE PRINCE OF TIDES, to Locus Publishing, by Michael Radulescu at Marly Rusoff & Associates.

DEAL OF THE DAY — Robin Oliveira’s MY NAME IS MARY SUTTER, set in the mid-19th century, following the aspirations and difficulties of a brilliant, somewhat odd, yet remarkable young midwife from Albany, New York whose lofty hope of becoming a surgeon far exceeds what her family, physicians, and medical schools of her time are willing to accept, and she travels to Washington, DC to work in the Civil War hospitals, only to find the challenges formidable and the pull of home unavoidable, to Kathryn Court at Viking Penguin, in a significant deal, in a pre-empt, by Marly Rusoff of Marly Rusoff & Associates (NA).

DEAL OF THE DAY– NYT Berlin bureau chief Nicholas Kulish and reporter Souad Mekhennet’s book based on their recent front page NYT story on notorious Nazi war criminal Aribert Heim, known as Dr. Death, who eluded investigators and might never have been found but for the discovery of a battered briefcase containing documents that help chart Heim’s path from his sadistic acts at the Mauthausen concentration camp to his post-war years and eventual flight to Egypt, where he converted to Islam, then later died in penurious anonymity, still one step ahead of Nazi hunters, to Phyllis Grann at Doubleday, in a major deal, by Marly Rusoff at Marly Rusoff & Associates (for Kulish) and Kirby Kim at Endeavor (for Mekhennet) (world English). Translation/film: Endeavor

Elif Shafak’s SWEET BLASPHEMY tells the parallel stories of a middle aged book editor who is assigned a manuscript by a modern Sufi that takes her back to the tumultuous 13th Century where she discovers the revered Islamic Scholar Rumi’s life surprisingly bears similarities to her own and as Rumi’s life is changed forever when he meets the infamous wandering dervish Shams of Tabriz, the editor meets the author of the manuscript and her life is never again the same to Paul Slovak at Viking, in a good deal, by Marly Rusoff at Marly Rusoff & Associates, Inc. (NA)

Roland Merullo’s THE CARDINAL OF GENOA a tale of love, suspense, and spiritual longing that involves a Catholic single mother who may be a modern saint but who is perhaps too eccentric to be canonized to Chuck Adams at Algonquin in a very nice deal by Marly Rusoff at Marly Rusoff & Associates, Inc. (NA)