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foreign rights
London Book Fair 2019
www.thegernertco.com
fiction
Karen Cleveland, KEEP YOU CLOSE
From NYT bestselling author Karen Cleveland
comes a new thriller about an FBI agent fighting
to clear her son’s name
Suspense
Publisher: Ballantine (US) / Transworld (UK) – May 28, 2019
Editor: Kara Cesare / Sarah Adams
Agent: David Gernert
Material: 2nd pass pages
Karen’s debut Need To Know was pre-empted by Ballantine for seven-figures with
film rights to Universal (with Charlize Theron attached) • 31 foreign deals • Top 10 UK bestseller and hit
bestseller lists in Spain, Germany and France
Stephanie Maddox works her dream job policing power and exposing corruption within the FBI. Getting
here has taken her nearly two decades of hard work, laser-focus, and personal sacrifices—the most
important, she fears, being a close relationship with her teenage son, Zachary. A single parent, Steph’s
missed a lot of school events, birthdays, and vacations with her boy—but the truth is, she would move
heaven and earth for him, including protecting him from an explosive secret in her past. It just never
occurred to her that Zachary would keep secrets of his own. One day while straightening her son’s
room, Steph is shaken to discover a loaded gun hidden in his closet. Then comes a knock at her front
door—a colleague on the domestic terrorism squad, who utters three devastating words: “It’s about
Zachary.” Packed with shocking twists and intense family drama, Keep You Close is an electrifying
exploration of the shattering consequences of the love that binds—and sometimes blinds—a mother
and her child.
Karen Cleveland is a former CIA analyst and the New York Times bestselling author of Need to Know. She
has master's degrees from Trinity College Dublin and Harvard University. Cleveland lives in northern
Virginia with her husband and children.
• Option publishers: Columna (Catalan), Hr. Ferdinand (Denmark), Obsidian (Bulgaria), Vulkan (Serbia), Agave
Konyvek (Hungary), Foksal (Poland), Modan (Israel), Ranok (Ukraine), Albatros (Czech), Albatros (Slovak), Sharp
Point (Taiwan), Profil (Croatia), Ucila (Slovenia), RAO (Romania), Eesti Raamat (Estonia), Kontinents (Latvia), Ars
Lamina (Macedonia), Dar Al Muna (Arabic)
• Sold to: Transworld (UK & BC), BTB (Germany), DeA Planeta Libri (Italy), Planeta (World Spanish), Laffont
(France), Bruna (Netherlands), Norstedts (Sweden), Gyldendal Norsk (Norway), Gummerus (Finland), Planeta
(Portugal), Planeta (Brazil), China South Booky (China), Epsilon (Turkey), Hayakawa (Japan)
www.thegernertco.com 2
Juliet Grames, THE SEVEN OR EIGHT
DEATHS OF STELLA FORTUNA
A warm-hearted epic novel that lays bare the costs
of migration and the iron fist of the patriarchy—but
also of the love and devotion that can sustain a
family through its generations.
Upmarket women’s fiction
Publisher: Ecco (US) / Hodder (UK&BC) – May 7, 2019
Editor: Megan Lynch
Agent: Sarah Burnes
Material: 2nd pass pages
Sold in a major deal in the US to Ecco at auction • Harper Lead Read Pick for Summer 2019 •
Auctions in the UK, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland and Russia
• “This quintessential American immigrant story feels important right now, and I highly recommend it.” —
Lisa See, author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
• “Juliet Grames has written a magnificent debut, creating a deeply felt, richly imagined world nbased upon
her family history. The dark beauty of Calabria and the promise of America sets the stage for Stella’s
volatile life.... Moody, original and profound.” —Adriana Trigiani, bestselling author of Tony’s Wife
• “Reading The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna is like listening to the rollicking stories of your Italian
grandmother— full of memorable characters and speckled with fascinating bits of history. This is a
fantastic and timely family story.” —Jessica Shattuck, bestselling author of The Women in the Castle
Mariastella Fortuna, known as Stella, was born into rural poverty in a Calabrian village in the early 20th
century. After being abandoned by their father, Stella grew up with her beloved mother Assunta, her
brothers Giuseppe and Luigi and her sister Tina. Tough, vivacious, and fiercely loyal, the sisters were
inseparable. Beginning with the time she was burned by frying oil, Assunta became convinced that her
eldest daughter was cursed, but after Stella woke up from 'The Accident', an eighth brush with death, it
was Tina who she refused to speak to. Now the sisters have not spoken in thirty years. Determined to
solve the mystery of this falling out, it's up to the family historian to connect the inexplicable dots in
Stella's dramatic story, and to suggest, redemption of the battle-scarred and misunderstood woman
who has lived her life with a fire inside her which could not be put out.
Juliet Grames is Associate Publisher at Soho Press, where she also acquires and edits the critically
acclaimed Soho Crime imprint. She has written for Words Without Borders and Anderbro, which
published her story “Monologue,” winner of the Glass Woman Prize, runner-up for the OpenCity Trophy,
and the South Million Writers Notable Story.
• Sold to: Hodder (UK & BC), Droemer (Germany), Luitingh-Sijthoff (Netherlands), Eksmo (Russia),
HarperCollins (Italy), Otwarte (Poland), Alianza de Novelas (World Spanish), Alma Littera (Lithuania),
Presses de la Cité (France)
www.thegernertco.com 3
Linda Holmes, EVVIE DRAKE STARTS OVER
A heartfelt debut about an unlikely
relationship between a young woman
who’s lost her husband and a
professional athlete who’s lost his game.
Women’s fiction
Publisher: Ballantine (US) - 25 June 2019 | Hodder (UK & BC) - 27 June 2019
Editor: Sara Weiss
Agent: Sarah Burnes
Materials: Final pages
Sold in a major deal to Ballantine • UK rights sold to Hodder
• “Charming, hopeful, and gently romantic… Evvie Drake is great company.”—Rainbow Rowell, #1 New
York Times bestselling author of Eleanor & Park
• “A quirky, sweet, and splendid story of a woman coming into her own… an absolute delight.”
—Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
• “Deeply moving while simultaneously hilarious, Evvie Drake Starts Over is what happens when great
writing, complex and charming characters, and a not-quite-what-you-expect ending collide.”—Karen
White, New York Times bestselling author of Dreams of Falling
In a sleepy seaside town in Maine, recently widowed Eveleth “Evvie” Drake rarely leaves her large,
painfully empty house nearly a year after her husband’s death in a car crash. Everyone in town, even her
best friend Andy, thinks grief keeps her locked inside, and Evvie doesn’t correct them. Meanwhile, in
New York City, Dean Tenney, former Major League pitcher and Andy’s childhood best friend, is wrestling
with what miserable athletes living out their worst nightmares call the “yips”: he can’t throw straight
anymore, and, even worse, he can’t figure out why. As the media storm heats up, an invitation from
Andy to stay in Maine seems like the perfect chance to hit the reset button on his future.
A joyful, witty, and hope-filled debut, Evvie Drake Starts Over will have you cheering for the two most
unlikely comebacks of the year—and will leave you wanting more from Linda Holmes.
Linda Holmes is a pop culture correspondent for National Public Radio and the host of the podcast Pop
Culture Happy Hour, which has also held sold-out live shows in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, and
elsewhere. Evvie Drake Starts Over is her first novel.
• Sold to: Hodder (UK & BC)
www.thegernertco.com 4
Ann Leckie, THE RAVEN TOWER
The first fantasy novel from the acclaimed NYT bestselling author
of the Imperial Radch trilogy and PROVENANCE and the only
author to win the Hugo, Nebula, Arthur C. Clarke and Locus
Awards in a single year.
Fantasy
Publisher: Orbit – February 26, 2019
Editor: Priyanka Krishnan
Agent: Seth Fishman
Materials: Finished books
More than 500,000 copies sold worldwide of Ann Leckie’s novels •
24 publishers of the Imperial Radch trilogy
• “[The Raven Tower] is absolutely wonderful…utterly brilliant.” -- The New York Times
• “Leckie’s tale takes on a mythic, metafictional quality...and the story’s elements weave into a stunning
conclusion. This impressive piece of craftsmanship cements Leckie’s place as a powerful voice in both SF
and fantasy."-- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
• "I've been reading fantasy my whole life. After all these years, it's a delight to read something so different,
so wonderful and strange." -- Patrick Rothfuss
• "A powerhouse epic of humans and gods at war, deeply imagined and profoundly thrilling. There are
echoes of Shakespeare and Le Guin in The Raven Tower but its strange dark brilliance could only have
come from Ann Leckie." -- Lev Grossman
For centuries, the kingdom of Iraden has been protected by the god known as the Raven. He watches
over his territory from atop a tower in the powerful port of Vastai. His will is enacted through the
Raven's Lease, a human ruler chosen by the god himself. His magic is sustained via the blood sacrifice
that every Lease must offer. And under the Raven's watch, the city flourishes—but the power of the
Raven is weakening. A usurper has claimed the throne. The kingdom borders are tested by invaders who
long for the prosperity that Vastai boasts. And they have made their own alliances with other gods.
Into this unrest arrives the warrior Eolo--aide to Mawat, the true Lease. And in seeking to help Mawat
reclaim his city, Eolo discovers that the Raven's Tower’s foundations conceal a dark history that has
been waiting to reveal itself...and to set in motion a chain of events that could destroy Iraden forever.
Ann Leckie is a New York Times bestseller and winner of the Hugo, Nebula, Arthur C. Clarke, Locus Award
and the British Science Fiction Award. Her novels include the Imperial Radch trilogy – Ancillary Justice,
Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy – as well as the standalone novel Provenance. www.annleckie.com
• Option publishers: Orbit (UK & BC), Heyne (Germany), Mondadori (Italy), Editions J'ai Lu (France), Ithaki Yayinlari
(Turkey), Tokyo Sogensha (Japan), Muza (Poland), Ediciones B (Spain), Luitingh Sijthoff (Netherlands), SiAl
(Israel), Gabo (Hungary), Fantastika (Russia), Albatros Media (Czech), Editora Aleph (Brazil), Varrak (Estonia), Art Grup
(Romania), BARD (Bulgaria), Books in Batumi (Georgia), Mahtoota5229 (Arabic), Design Comma (Korea), WeLearn
(Thailand), Aiolos (Greece), Znanje (Croatia)
• Sold to: Shanghai Dook (China)
www.thegernertco.com 5
Liz Moore, LONG BRIGHT RIVER
Both a gripping suspense novel and an unflinching,
emotional story about sisters and the formidable
ties between place, history, family, and fate.
Upmarket fiction
Publisher: Riverhead (US) – January 7, 2020 / Hutchinson (UK) – January 2020
Editor: Sarah McGrath
Agent: Seth Fishman
Material: 1st pass pages
NA rights sold to Riverhead in 13-way auction resulting in a seven-figure deal •
Film deal with producers Amy Pascal (The Post) and Neal Moritz (Fast and Furious) •
Moore won the 2014 Rome Prize in Literature
• “A superlative book. This is not just a gripping mystery but a thoughtful, powerful novel by a writer who
displays enormous compassion for her characters. Long Bright River is an outstanding crime novel,
bringing to mind the best of Dennis Lehane or David Simon.”– Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times-
bestselling author of The Girl on the Train
• “A riveting crime novel and a character-rich study of a city and its battered heart. Not to be missed.”–
Megan Abbott, author of You Will Know Me
In a Philadelphia neighborhood rocked by the opioid crisis, two once-inseparable sisters find themselves
at odds. One, Kacey, lives on the streets in the vise of addiction. The other, Mickey, walks those same
blocks on her police beat. They don’t speak anymore, but Mickey never stops worrying about her
sibling. Then Kacey disappears, suddenly, at the same time that a mysterious string of murders begins in
Mickey’s district, and Mickey becomes dangerously obsessed with finding the culprit—and her sister—
before it’s too late.
Alternating its present-day mystery with the story of the sisters' childhood and adolescence, Long Bright
River is at once heart-pounding and heart-wrenching: a gripping suspense novel that is also a moving
story of sisters, addiction, and the formidable ties that persist between place, family, and fate.
Liz Moore's short fiction and creative nonfiction have appeared in venues such as Tin House, The New
York Times, and Narrative Magazine. She is the winner of the 2014 Rome Prize in Literature and is the
author of Heft and The Unseen World, both recipients of high acclaim.
• Sold to: Hutchinson (UK & BC), C.H. Beck (Germany), NN Editore (Italy), Buchet-Chastel (France),
Hayakawa (Japan), Eksmo (Russia)
www.thegernertco.com 6
Téa Obreht, INLAND
The New York Times bestselling and Orange Prize-winning
author of The Tiger's Wife returns with a stunning tale of
perseverance that follows an epic journey across an
unforgettable landscape of magic and myth.
Literary Fiction
Publisher: Random House US / Weidenfeld & Nicolson UK – August 13, 2019
Editor: Andrea Walker
Agent: Seth Fishman
Material: 2nd pass pages
Praise for The Tiger’s Wife:
“Brilliant” —Sunday Times; “Astonishing” —New York Times; “Prodigious” —Guardian;
“Formidable” —Financial Times; “Extraordinary” —Vogue
Lead Fiction for Random House and Weidenfeld & Nicolson
A man searching for a home he can’t find; a woman bound to a home she can’t leave… In the lawless,
drought-ridden lands of the Arizona Territory in 1893, two extraordinary lives collide. Nora is an
unflinching frontierswoman awaiting the return of the men in her life---her husband, a newspaperman,
who has gone in search of water for the parched household, and her elder sons who have vanished after
an explosive argument. Nora is biding her time with her youngest son, who is convinced that a
mysterious beast is stalking the land around their home, and her husband's seventeen-year-old cousin,
who communes with spirits. Lurie is a former outlaw and a man haunted by ghosts. He sees lost souls
who want something from him, and he finds reprieve from their longing in an unexpected relationship
that inspires a momentous expedition across the West. The way in which Nora and Lurie's stories
intertwine is the surprise and suspense of this brilliant novel.
Mythical, lyrical, and sweeping in scope, Inland is grounded in true but little-known history. Obreht’s
writing dazzles the reader as she subverts and reimagines the myths of the American West, making
them entirely--and unforgettably--her own.
Téa Obreht is the author of The Tiger's Wife, winner of the Orange Prize and a finalist for the National
Book Award. She was born in Belgrade, in the former Yugoslavia, in 1985 and has lived in the United
States since the age of twelve. She currently lives in New York City and teaches at Hunter College.
• Sold to: Weidenfeld & Nicolson (UK & BC), Rowohlt (Germany), Signatuur (The Netherlands), Rizzoli (Italy),
Calmann Levy (France), WSOY (Finland), Laguna (Serbia)
www.thegernertco.com 7
Stewart O’Nan, HENRY, HIMSELF
A stand-alone prequel to the beloved novel EMILY, ALONE, a
member of the greatest generation looks back on the loves and
losses of his past and comes to treasure the present anew in this
poignant and thoughtful novel from a modern master storyteller
Literary fiction
Publisher: Viking – April 9, 2019
Editor: Paul Slovak
Agent: David Gernert
Materials: Advance Readers Copies
Praise for Emily, Alone:
• "O'Nan's best novel yet . . . It's heartbreaking stuff—I will confess I found myself sobbing at certain, often
unexpected points . . . and yet the novel's brilliance lies just as much with O'Nan's innate comic timing."—
The New York Times Book Review
• "Emily is as authentic a character as any who ever walked the pages of a novel . . . filled with joy and rue .
. . an ordinary life made, by its quiet rendering, extraordinary."—The Boston Globe
• “Bracingly unsentimental, ruefully humorous.…[an] unsparingly candid novel about the emotional and
physical travails of old age.” —Publishers Weekly starred review
Soldier, son, lover, husband, breadwinner, churchgoer, Henry Maxwell has spent his whole life trying to
live with honor. A native Pittsburgher and engineer, he's always believed in logic, sacrifice, and hard
work. Now, seventy-five and retired, he feels the world has passed him by. It's 1998, the American
century is ending, and nothing is simple anymore. His children are distant, their unhappiness a mystery.
Only his wife Emily and dog Rufus stand by him. Once so confident, as Henry's strength and memory
desert him, he weighs his dreams against his regrets and is left with questions he can't answer: Is he a
good man? Has he done right by the people he loves? And with time running out, what, realistically, can
he hope for? Like Emily, Alone, Henry, Himself is a wry, warmhearted portrait of an American original
who believes he's reached a dead end only to discover life is full of surprises.
Stewart O'Nan is the author of sixteen previous novels, including City of Secrets; West of Sunset; The
Odds; Emily, Alone; Songs for the Missing; Wish You Were Here; A Prayer for the Dying; and Snow
Angels. His novel Last Night at the Lobster was a national bestseller and a finalist for the Los Angeles
Times Book Prize. He was born, raised, and lives in Pittsburgh.
• Sold to: Allen & Unwin (UK & BC), Rowohlt (Germany)
www.thegernertco.com 8
Chris Pavone, THE PARIS DIVERSION
A non-stop thriller featuring Kate Moore – the unforgettable
heroine of the Edgar Award-winning novel The Expats.
Thriller
Publisher: Crown US / Faber UK – May 7, 2019
Editor: Kara Cesare
Agent: David Gernert
Materials: Advanced Readers Copies
• "Chris Pavone's The Paris Diversion is the best espionage novel I've read this year. Smart, sophisticated
and suspenseful, this is Pavone's finest novel to date -- and that's saying something." — Harlan Coben,
#1 New York Times bestselling author of Fool Me Once
• "I tore through The Paris Diversion, completely caught up in the thrilling story of one remarkable day in
Paris. With its twisting, high-stakes plot, all-too-human characters, and unrelenting tension, I couldn’t
read it fast enough! I absolutely loved it—highly recommended!"— Shari Lapena, New York
Times bestselling author of The Couple Next Door
• "Thriller writing at its absolute best. With echoes of Graham Greene and John le Carré, Pavone’s novel
accomplishes that rare feat of being both a nonstop adventure ride and a smart, stylish and compelling
meditation on family, courage, responsibilities, and the relationships we create, for good and bad,
throughout our lives.” — Jeffery Deaver, New York Times bestselling author of The Cutting Edge
• “Sleek, cunning and breakneck, The Paris Diversion sweeps you into its frenetic rhythms from its first
pages. With a sprawling cast of characters, with its scissoring plot twists, and especially with Kate—as rich
and complicated a hero as you could hope for—it keeps you returning for more and more. A
knockout.” —Megan Abbott, author of Give Me Your Hand and You Will Know Me
• “My head is still swimming after reading The Paris Diversion. Chris Pavone has constructed the perfect
page-turner for our fraught times, a white-knuckle ride of international proportions where nothing is ever
what it seems.” —Olen Steinhauer, New York Times bestselling author of The Middle Man
• “Since he exploded onto the scene with The Expats, Chris Pavone has quickly become one of the elite
must-read can’t-miss thriller writers working today. Grab The Paris Diversion and hold on for the
ride.” — CJ Box, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Disappeared
American expat, mother and CIA operative Kate Moore is back in a high-stakes thriller in which she
discovers that a massive terror attack unfolding across Paris is not what it seems. Even more terrifying,
it involves her own family…
Chris Pavone is author of three national-bestselling thrillers: The Expats, which won both the Edgar and
Anthony awards for best first novel and was translated into 20 languages; The NYT bestselling The
Accident; and most recently The Travelers, an IndieNext bestseller that's being developed for film.
• Sold to: Faber & Faber (UK & BC), Penguin Verlag (Germany)
www.thegernertco.com 9
Lila Savage, SAY SAY SAY
A beautiful, bracingly honest debut novel about the triangle
formed between a young woman and the couple whose life
she enters one transformative year: a story about love and
compassion, the fluidity of desire, and the myriad ways of
devotion.
Literary fiction
Publisher: Knopf (US) – July 9, 2019 / Serpent’s Tail (UK) – July 2019
Editor: Robin Desser
Agent: Chris Parris-Lamb
Material: 3rd pass pages
NA rights pre-empted by Robin Desser of Knopf for six figures • UK rights to Serpent’s Tail at
auction • Lila Savage is a Wallace Stegner fellow and a graduate of the
Iowa Writers’ Workshop
Ella is nearing thirty, and not yet living the life she imagined. Her artistic ambitions as a student in
Minnesota have given way to an unintended career in caregiving. One spring, Bryn--a retired carpenter--
hires her to help him care for Jill, his wife of many years. A car accident caused a brain injury that has
left Jill verbally diminished; she moves about the house like a ghost of her former self, often able to
utter, like an incantation, only the words that comprise this novel's title. As Ella is drawn ever deeper
into the couple's household, her presence unwanted but wholly necessary, she is profoundly moved by
the tenderness Bryn shows toward the wife he still fiercely loves. Ella is startled by the yearning this
awakens in her, one that complicates her feelings for her girlfriend, Alix, and causes her to look at
relationships of all kinds--between partners, between employer and employee, and above all between
men and women--in new ways.
Tightly woven, humane and insightful, tracing the most intimate reaches of a young woman's heart and
mind, Say Say Say is a riveting story about what it means to love, in a world where time is always
running out.
Lila Savage is originally from Minneapolis. Prior to writing fiction, she spent nearly a decade working as a
caregiver. Her work has appeared in The Threepenny Review. She is the recipient of a Wallace Stegner
fellowship and graduated from the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 2018. She lives in San Francisco.
• Sold to: Serpent’s Tail (UK & BC)
www.thegernertco.com 10Sloan Tanen, THERE’S A WORD FOR THAT
A hilarious and moving chronicle of a wildly flawed family
that comes together—in rehab, of all places—even as each
member is on the verge of falling apart
Upmarket women’s fiction
Publisher: Little, Brown – April 2, 2019
Editor: Asya Muchnick
Agent: Sarah Burnes
Materials: Final pass pages
• "Engrossing, hilarious, and tender, this novel tells the story of how a family breaks apart and comes
together despite years of mistakes and mishaps. I couldn't put it down."―Gretchen Rubin, #1 New
York Times bestselling author of The Happiness Project
• "This high-stakes, hilarious novel is many things at once: a tongue-in-cheek tale of warning, a
celebration of privacy in our all-access world, and a heart-warming story about two families in search
of salvation… I laughed loudly, and often."―Lucy Tan, author of What We Were Promised
• "A big juicy beach read full of family dysfunction and Southern California sunshine, There's a Word
for That joyously knits together the most frayed characters into a story you won't want to put down,
even after the last page.” ―Amy Scheibe, author of A Fireproof Home for the Bride
Introducing the Kesslers: Marty, a retired LA film producer whose self-worth has been eroded by age and a
late-in-life passion for opioids; his daughter Janine, former child star suffering the aftereffects of a life in the
public eye; and granddaughter Hailey, the "less-than" twin sister, whose inferiority complex takes a most
unexpected turn. Nearly six thousand miles away, in London, celebrated author Bunny Small, Marty's long-
forgotten first wife, has her own problems: a "preposterous" case of writer's block, a monstrous drinking
habit, and a son who has fled halfway around the world to escape her. When Marty's pill-popping gets out of
hand and Bunny's boozing reaches crisis proportions, a perfect storm of dysfunction brings them all together
at Directions, Malibu's most exclusive and absurd rehab center. But for all their failings, the members of this
estranged--and strange--family love each other. Rich with warmth, humor, and insight, There's A Word For
That is a comic ode to surviving the people closest to us, navigating the perils of success, and taking one last
look in the rearview mirror before mapping out the road ahead.
Sloane Tanen is the author of nine illustrated and YA books, including the bestseller Bitter With Baggage
Seeks Same: The Life and Time of Some Chickens and Hatched: The Big Push from Pregnancy to Motherhood.
This is her first adult novel. Tanen graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and holds Masters degrees from
both NYU and Columbia University. She lives in the Bay Area with her husband, the writer Gary Taubes, and
their two sons.
www.thegernertco.com 11non-fiction
Binyamin Appelbaum, THE ECONOMIST’S HOUR:
How the False Prophets of Free Markets
Undermined Democracy
An original history of ideas, and an unforgettable portrait of
power, New York Times editorial writer Binyamin Appelbaum
tells the story of the people who fueled four decades of
economic revolution
Political science
Publisher: Little Brown, September 3, 2019
Editor: Vanessa Mobley
Agent: Chris Parris-Lamb
Material: Awaiting manuscript
Acquired at auction in the US and UK with pre-empts elsewhere
Before the 1960s, professional economists played little role in politics.
As Binyamin Appelbaum shows in this masterful work of history, as the post-World War II boom began
to sputter, economists rose in influence and power. Over the past half-century, they have moved to
center stage, running the US Federal Reserve and Treasury, overseeing federal regulation, advising
presidents to cut taxes and to restrain government spending. Between the mid-1950s and the mid-
1970s, the number of economists on the federal payroll roughly tripled. Their fundamental belief? That
government should stop trying to manage the economy. Their guiding principle? That unfettered
markets are the only way to deliver steady growth, and to ensure that all share in the benefits.
The result? Those economists, and their ideas, have reshaped the modern world, curbing government,
unleashing corporations and clearing the way for globalization. But the Economists' Hour failed to
deliver prosperity for all and the relentless focus on efficiency threatens the future of liberal democracy.
Binyamin Appelbaum writes about economics and business for the editorial page of The New York
Times. From 2010 to 2019, he was a Washington correspondent for the Times, covering economic policy
in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis. He previously worked for The Charlotte Observer, where his
reporting on subprime lending won a George Polk Award and was a finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize.
• Sold to: Picador (UK & BC); S. Fischer (Germany), Sextante (Brazil), Thomas Rap (The Netherlands), Bookie
Publishing (Korea)
www.thegernertco.com 12Christopher Cox, THE DEADLINE EFFECT:
What High-Pressure Workplaces Can Teach Us
About Working Like It’s the Last Minute—
Before the Last Minute
A highly readable and surprising work about how we should
use deadlines to thrive in the workplace and become more
creative and productive, in the vein of The Power of Habit.
Social Psychology
Publisher: Avid Press / S&S future
Editor: Ben Loehnen
Agent: Chris Parris-Lamb
Material: Proposal
North American rights to Avid Press/S&S at auction in a six-figure deal
In the social sciences, “the deadline effect” has a pejorative connotation: it describes the tendency of
people to wait until the last minute to get something done, with outcomes that tend to be worse than
they might have been had work begun earlier. After spending 15 years as a magazine editor holding his
own authors to deadlines, and being held to them by his bosses in turn, Chris Cox came to realize that it
doesn’t have to be that way: deadlines can make us more focused, productive, and creative, if their
power is harnessed correctly. They’re a game we can play—and win.
Chris will observe an array of different workplaces facing high-stakes deadlines of their own. He’ll
embed with a new production at The Public Theater getting ready for opening night; a Best Buy on the
eve of Black Friday; with farmers preparing for the annual Easter Lily harvest; and a ski resort
determined to open on Thanksgiving Day—with insights from the academic literature on deadlines
sprinkled throughout. The key to reclaiming the power of the deadline effect, it turns out, is to build in
ways to get ourselves working like it’s the last minute—before the last minute.
With nearly twenty years of experience at the country’s most prominent magazines, Christopher Cox is a
former editor of Harper’s, executive editor of GQ, and senior editor of The Paris Review. Work that he
has edited has won the Pulitzer Prize, the PEN Literary Award for Journalism, multiple National
Magazine Awards, and has been included in several Best American collections. His own writing has
appeared in GQ, Harper’s, The Paris Review, Vogue, Slate, The Oxford American, and Bookforum. Cox is
a graduate of Harvard, with a master’s in history from Cambridge. A native of Atlanta, he now lives in
Brooklyn with his wife and two daughters.
www.thegernertco.com 13David Epstein, RANGE:
Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
What’s the most effective path to success in any domain?
It’s not what you think.
Psychology/business/sports
Publisher: Riverhead US / Macmillan UK – May 28, 2019
Editor: Courtney Young
Agent: Chris Parris-Lamb
Material: 3rd pass pages
• "I want to give Range to any kid who is being forced to take violin lessons—but really wants to learn the
drums; to any programmer who secretly dreams of becoming a psychologist; to everyone who wants
st
humans to thrive in an age of robots. Range is full of surprises and hope, a 21 century survival guide." –
Amanda Ripley
• "Brilliant, timely, and utterly impossible to put down. If you care about improving skill, innovation, and
performance, you need to read this book." –Daniel Coyle
Acquired in major deals - lead title for Riverhead and Macmillan UK
Plenty of experts argue that anyone who wants to develop a skill, play an instrument, or lead their field
should start early, focus intensely, and rack up as many hours of deliberate practice as possible. But if
you take a closer look at the world’s top performers, from professional athletes to Nobel laureates,
you’ll find that early specialization is the exception, not the rule. David Epstein, author of the New York
Times bestseller The Sports Gene, studied the world’s most successful athletes, artists, musicians,
inventors, forecasters and scientists. He discovered that in most fields–especially those that are complex
and unpredictable–generalists, not specialists, are primed to excel. Generalists often find their path late,
and they juggle many interests rather than focusing on one. They’re also more creative, more agile, and
able to make connections their more specialized peers can’t spy from deep in their hyperfocused
trenches. Provocative, rigorous, and engrossing, Range explains how to maintain the benefits of
breadth, diverse experience, interdisciplinary thinking, and delayed concentration in a world that
increasingly incentivizes, even demands, hyperspecialization.
David Epstein is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Sports Gene. He has a master's degree
in environmental science and has worked as an investigative reporter for ProPublica and a senior writer
for Sports Illustrated. He lives in Washington, DC.
• Sold to: Macmillan (UK & British Commonwealth), Gingko (China), Editora Globo (Brazil), Open
Books (Korea), Urano (Spain)
www.thegernertco.com 14Jon Gertner, THE ICE AT THE END OF THE WORLD:
An Epic Journey Into Greenland’s Buried Past and
Our Perilous Future
A riveting account of the explorers and scientists racing to
understand the rapidly melting ice sheet in Greenland, a
dramatic harbinger of climate change – urgent reporting in the
tradition of Elizabeth Kolbert, Hampton Sides, and David Grann
Science / history / adventure
Publisher: Random House – June 11, 2019
Editor: Andy Ward
Agent: Sarah Burnes
Material: Galleys
• “The Greenland ice sheet is one of the most forbidding, spectacular, and, in the age of climate change,
significant places on earth. Jon Gertner takes readers to spots few journalists or even explorers have
visited. The result is a gripping and important book.”—Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize–winning author
of The Sixth Extinction
• “Penetrating and engrossing . . . A captivating, essential book to add to the necessarily burgeoning
literature on global warming.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Greenland: a remote, mysterious, ice-covered rock with a population of just 56,000, has evolved from
one of the earth's last physical frontiers to the earth's largest scientific laboratory. Why do we care so
much about it? Because locked within that vast and frozen "white desert"--the nickname early explorers
gave it--are some of the most profound secrets of our planet: clues about where we've been, and where
we might be headed. Now, as the Arctic climate warms, and as Greenland's ice begins to melt at an
accelerating rate, the island is evolving into something else entirely: an economic and climatological hub
on which the future course of the world may turn.
Jon Gertner reconstructs in vivid, thrilling detail the heroic efforts of the scientists and explorers who
have visited Greenland over the past 150 years--first on skis, then on sleds, and now, with planes and
satellites, utilizing every technological tool available to uncover the secrets in the ice before it's too late.
This is a story full of epic adventures, populated by a colorful cast of scientists racing to get a handle on
what will become of the ice sheets, and ultimately, what will become of the world.
Jon Gertner is a journalist and historian whose stories on science, technology, and nature have appeared
in a host of national magazines. Since 2003 he has worked mainly as a feature writer for The New York
Times Magazine. His first book, The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation,
was a New York Times bestseller. A frequent lecturer on technology and science history, Gertner lives
with his family in Maplewood, New Jersey.
• Previous publishers: CITIC (China), Bungeishunju (Japan), Sallim Publishing Co. (Korea), Moda Ofset
(Turkey)
• Sold to: Icon Books (UK & BC)
www.thegernertco.com 15Scott Kupor, SECRETS OF SAND HILL ROAD:
Venture Capital and How to Get It
A comprehensive, step-by-step guide for entrepreneurs on
how to secure venture capital funding and build successful
start-ups from the managing partner at Andreessen
Horowitz.
Business / technology
Publisher: Portfolio – June 4, 2019
Editor: Kaushik Viswanath
Agent: Chris Parris-Lamb
Material: 1st pass pages
Sold in a major deal, at auction, to Portfolio • Foreign deals in UK and China
What are venture capitalists saying about your startup behind closed doors? And what can you do to
influence that conversation?
If Silicon Valley is the greatest wealth-generating machine in the world, Sand Hill Road is its humming
engine. That's where you'll find the biggest names in venture capital, including famed VC firm
Andreessen Horowitz, where lawyer-turned-entrepreneur-turned-VC Scott Kupor serves as managing
partner. Whether you're trying to get a new company off the ground or scale an existing business to the
next level, you need to understand how VCs think. In Secrets of Sand Hill Road, Kupor explains exactly
how VCs decide where and how much to invest, and how entrepreneurs can get the best possible deal
and make the most of their relationships with VCs. Kupor explains, for instance:
* Why most VCs typically invest in only one startup in a given business category.
* Why the skill you need most when raising venture capital is the ability to tell a compelling story.
* How to handle a "down round," when startups have to raise funds at a lower valuation.
* What to do when VCs get too entangled in the day-to-day operations of the business.
* Why you need to build relationships with potential acquirers long before you decide to sell.
Filled with Kupor's firsthand experiences, insider advice, and practical takeaways, Secrets of Sand Hill
Road is the guide every entrepreneur needs to turn their startup into the next unicorn.
Scott Kupor is the managing partner of Andreessen Horowitz. He has overseen the firm's rapid growth to
one hundred fifty employees and more than $7 billion in assets under management. He is also a
cofounder and codirector of the Stanford Venture Capital Director's College and teaches venture capital
and corporate governance courses at Stanford Law School.
• Sold to: W.H. Allen (UK & British Commonwealth), Beijing Xiron (China)
www.thegernertco.com 16Randall Munroe, HOW TO:
Absurd Scientific Advice for Common
Real-World Problems
The world's most entertaining and useless self-
help guide, from the brilliant mind behind the
wildly popular webcomic xkcd and the #1 NYT
bestsellers What If? and Thing Explainer.
Popular Science
Publisher: Riverhead (US) / John Murray (UK) – September 3, 2019
Editor: Courtney Young
Agent: Seth Fishman
Material: Awaiting manuscript
The first title in a major new 3-book deal with Riverhead •
HOW TO will be a super lead title in the US, UK, Germany and elsewhere •
Randall Munroe’s books have sold millions of copies worldwide
For any task you might want to do, there's a right way, a wrong way, and a way so monumentally bad
that no one would ever try it. How To is a guide to the third kind of approach. It's full of highly
impractical advice for everything from landing a plane to digging a hole.
Bestselling author and cartoonist Randall Munroe explains how to predict the weather by analyzing the
pixels of your Facebook photos. He teaches you how to tell if you're a baby boomer or a 90's kid by
measuring the radioactivity of your teeth. He offers tips for taking a selfie with a telescope, crossing a
river by boiling it, and getting to your appointments on time by destroying the Moon. And if you want to
get rid of the book once you're done with it, he walks you through your options for proper disposal,
including dissolving it in the ocean, converting it to a vapor, using tectonic plates to subduct it into the
Earth's mantle, or launching it into the Sun.
By exploring the most complicated ways to do simple tasks, Munroe doesn't just make things difficult for
himself and his readers. As he did so brilliantly in What If?, Munroe invites us to explore the most
absurd reaches of the possible. Full of clever infographics and amusing illustrations, How To is a
delightfully mind-bending way to better understand the science and technology underlying the things
we do every day.
Randall Munroe is the author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers What If? and Thing Explainer, and
the popular webcomic xkcd. A former NASA roboticist, he now draws comics on the internet full time.
• Sold to: John Murray (UK&BC), Penguin Verlag (Germany), Spectrum (The Netherlands), Volante
(Sweden), United Sky (China), Commonwealth (Taiwan), Sigongsa (Korea), and Czarna Owca (Poland)
www.thegernertco.com 17Julia Watkins, SIMPLY LIVING WELL
For readers of Zero Waste Home and The Life-Changing
Magic of Tidying Up comes a comprehensive guide to
simple, zero-waste living
Lifestyle
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – Spring 2020
Editor: Stephanie Fletcher
Agent: Julia Eagleton
Material: Proposal
The first zero waste book to provide both tangible step-by-step guidelines and
comprehensive, easy recipes (that your grandmother would have given you) for every day
Julia eats, breathes, and sleeps zero waste. From her time in Guinea working for Peace Corps, to striving
to bring up her own children in a chemical free and low waste environment—a simple healthy home—
Julia shares the basics to transform what have become normal environmentally and bodily harmful
habits. After starting her own Instagram account "Simply Living Well" in 2017, sharing recipes and
methods inspired by both wisdom rooted in traditional cultures and her own grandparents, she was
flooded with requests for her tips and methods, her account growing by 500+ followers per day. SIMPLY
LIVING WELL is a comprehensive list of her recipes for both home and bodily health, alongside accessible
daily advice to make this change, complete with her own inviting aesthetic.
SIMPLY LIVING WELL is about re-educating, returning to the old ways, and reducing our footprint for the
generations to come, for every parent, millennial, or anyone else who cares about the health of the
planet we live on.
Julia Watkins is a creative and conservation specialist who runs the fast-growing Instagram account
known as Simply.Living.Well that grew 100,000 followers in its first year and chronicles Julia's experience
living simply, slowly, and naturally while striving for zero-waste. She also manages a small non-profit
called Lookfar Conservation that helps foundations, non-profits, local communities, and social
entrepreneurs conserve and restore biodiverse land in Africa and Latin America. She writes about
sustainability and zero-waste for magazines, including a recent piece on sustainable crafting for kids for
House of Huckleberry and zero-waste, plant-based recipes for Plants are Magic.
• Sold to: Fontaine (The Netherlands), Mosaik Verlag (Germany)
www.thegernertco.com 18Jamil Zaki, THE WAR FOR KINDNESS:
Building Empathy in a Fractured World
A Stanford psychologist offers a bold new understanding of
empathy, and shows how we can expand our circle of care,
even in these divisive times
Psychology
Publisher: Crown – June 4, 2019
Editor: Amanda Cook
Agent: Seth Fishman
Material: Final pages
• “In this landmark book, Jamil Zaki gives us a revolutionary perspective on empathy: Empathy can be
developed, and, when it is, people, relationships, organizations, and cultures are changed. Scientific,
gripping, groundbreaking, and hopeful.” —Carol Dweck, Stanford University, author of Mindset
• “In a time when it seems empathy is a lost cause and compassion is a dying art, it may not be too late to
revive the better angels of our nature. Jamil Zaki is one of the brightest lights in psychology, and in this
gripping book he shows that kindness is not a sign of weakness but a source of strength.” —Adam Grant,
author of Option B (with Sheryl Sandberg)
Empathy is in short supply. Isolation and tribalism are rampant. We struggle to understand people who
aren’t just like us, but find it easy to hate them. Studies show that we are less caring than we were even
thirty years ago. In 2006, Barack Obama said that the United States is suffering from an “empathy
deficit.” Since then, things only seem to have gotten worse. It doesn’t have to be this way. In this
groundbreaking book, Jamil Zaki argues that empathy is not a fixed trait—something we’re born with or
not—but rather a skill that we can all strengthen through effort.
Drawing on both classic and cutting-edge research, including experiments from his own lab, Zaki shows
how we can harness this new mindset to overcome toxic cultural divisions. He also tells the stories of
people who are living these principles—fighting for kindness in the most difficult of circumstances. We
meet a former neo-Nazi who is now helping extract people from hate groups, ex-prisoners discussing
novels with the judge who sentenced them, Washington police officers changing their culture to
decrease violence among their ranks, and NICU nurses fine-tuning their empathy so that they don’t
succumb to burnout. Written with clarity and passion, The War for Kindness is an inspiring call to action.
Jamil Zaki is a professor of psychology at Stanford University and the director of the Stanford Social
Neuroscience Lab. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, The New
Yorker, and The Atlantic.
• Sold to: Little, Brown (UK & BC), Cheers (China), Prunsoop (Korea)
www.thegernertco.com 19more opportunities in…
literary fiction
Garth Risk Hallberg, CITY ON FIRE
Publisher: Knopf, October 2015 Agent: Chris Parris-Lamb
International Bestseller in France, Germany, Denmark, Greece & Italy •
New York Times Bestseller • 18 foreign sales •
Dramatic rights optioned by Scott Rudin in a six-figure pre-empt
• “A novel of head-snapping ambition and heart-stopping power.” —Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
• “A remarkably assured, multivalent tale…At times the novel feels like a meta-fictional tribute to America’s
finest doorstop manufacturers, circa 1970 to the present: Price (street-wise cops), Wolfe (top-tier wealth),
Franzen (busted families), Wallace (the seductions of drugs and pop culture), and DeLillo (the unseen
forces behind everything).” — Kirkus (starred review)
• “The kind of exuberant, zeitgeisty New York novel, like Bonfire of the Vanities or The Goldfinch, that you’ll
either love, hate, or pretend to have read.” —Vogue
• “A soaring debut. … [a] magisterial epic.” —Vanity Fair
• “Garth Risk Hallberg has written the kind of debut novel that only comes around once every 20 years or
so—one that everyone who’s read it roots for.” —Elle magazine
• “Dickensian, massively entertaining, as close to a great American novel as this century has produced.” —
Stephen King
Garth Risk Hallberg was born in Louisiana and grew up in North Carolina. His writing has appeared
in Prairie Schooner, The New York Times, Best New American Voices 2008, and, most frequently, The
Millions; a novella, A Field Guide to the North American Family, was published in 2007. He lives in
New York with his wife and children.
• Sold to: Jonathan Cape (UK & BC), S. Fischer Verlag (Germany), Mondadori (Italy), Feux Croises (France),
Literatura Random House (World Spanish), Atlas Contact (Netherlands), Lindhardt & Ringhof (Denmark),
Cappelen Damm (Norway), Companhia das Letras (Brazil), Modan (Israel), Dom Quixote (Portugal), Kedros
(Greece), Nakladatelstvi Prah (Czech Republic), Brombergs Bokforlag (Sweden), Europa Kiado (Hungary),
Pegasus Yayinlari (Turkey), Znak (Poland), United Sky (China)
www.thegernertco.com 20ASYMMETRIE
LISA HALLIDAY
asymmetrie
LISA HALLIDAY
ROMAN
Lisa Halliday, ASYMMETRY
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, February 2018 Agent: Chris Parris-Lamb
UK & BC rights to Granta at auction • 2017 Whiting Award winner
• Chosen by The Observer as a “new face of fiction for 2018” • Major NYT author profile
starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Booklist • Der Spiegel bestseller •
Chosen as one of Vulture’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century
• “Halliday’s prose is so strange and startlingly smart that its mere existence seems like commentary on the
state of fiction... Halliday has written, somehow all at once, a transgressive roman à clef, a novel of ideas
and a politically engaged work of metafiction.” —The New York Times Book Review
• "Exquisite...The moment “Asymmetry” reaches its perfect ending, it’s all the reader can do to return to
the beginning in awe, to discover how Halliday upturned the story again and again." —Washington Post
• “A brilliant and complex examination of power dynamics in love and war.” —Wall Street Journal
Told in three distinct and uniquely compelling sections, Asymmetry explores the imbalances that spark
and sustain many of our most dramatic human relations: inequities in age, power, talent, wealth, fame,
geography, and justice. “Folly,” tells the story of Alice, a young American editor, and her relationship
with the famous and much older writer Ezra Blazer. By contrast, “Madness” is narrated by Amar, an
Iraqi-American man who, on his way to visit his brother in Kurdistan, is detained by immigration officers
and spends the last weekend of 2008 in a holding room in Heathrow. These two seemingly disparate
stories gain resonance as their perspectives interact and overlap, with yet new implications for their
relationship revealed in an unexpected coda. A stunning debut from a rising literary star, Asymmetry is
truly original work that poses arresting questions about the very nature of fiction itself.
Lisa Halliday has worked as a freelance editor and translator in Milan, where she lives with her husband.
Her short story 'Stump Louie' appeared in The Paris Review in 2005, and she received a Whiting Award
for Fiction in 2017. Asymmetry is her first novel.
• Sold to: Granta (UK & BC), Gallimard (France), Atlas-Contact (Netherlands), Hanser (Germany), Feltrinelli
(Italy), Alfaguara (Spain), Politikens Forlag (Denmark), Domingo (Turkey), Norstedts (Sweden), Literackie
(Poland), Relógio d’Agua (Portugal), Curtea Veche (Romania), The Commercial Press (Taiwan), Strik
Publishing (Serbia), Hyundae (Korea), Vukovic and Runjic (Croatia), Beijing Imaginist (China), Achuzat Bayit
(Israel)
www.thegernertco.com 21Chad Harbach, THE ART OF FIELDING
Publisher: Little, Brown, September 2011 Agent: Chris Parris-Lamb
** INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER **
After weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List, more than 500,000 US copies sold •
Amazon’s #1 pick of 2011 • UK and Dutch bestseller • Chosen for 30 Best Of lists • Television
rights under development with SundanceTV and Todd Field (In the Bedroom) producing
• "A magical, melancholy story about friendship and coming of age that marks the debut of an immensely
talented writer." —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
• “The Novel of the Year” — GQ
• Rave reviews in The New York Times, Booklist, NPR, The Chicago Tribune, Vogue, The New Yorker, The
Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph and many more.
• Quotes from Jonathan Franzen, John Irving, Jay McInerney, Benjamin Kunkel, Tea Obreht and more.
At Westish College, baseball star Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big league stardom.
But when a routine throw goes disastrously off course, the fates of five people are upended.
Written with boundless intelligence and filled with the tenderness of youth, this is an
unforgettable debut.
Chad Harbach grew up in Wisconsin and was educated at Harvard and the University of
Virginia. He is a cofounder and coeditor of n+1.
• Sold to: Fourth Estate (UK & BC), De Bezige Bij (the Netherlands), Hayakawa (Japan), Dumont
(Germany), Rizzoli (Italy), Lattes (France), Salamandra (World Spanish), Columna Edicions
(Catalan), Sigongsa (Korean), Civilização Editora (Portugal), Intrinseca (Brazil), Norstedts
(Sweden), Cartaphilus (Hungary), Gyldendal (Norway), Mozaik (Croatia), China Times (Taiwan),
Politikens (Denmark), Otava (Finland), Mladinska Knjiga Zalozba (Slovene), Kinneret (Israel)
www.thegernertco.com 22Téa Obreht, THE TIGER’S WIFE
Publisher: Random House, March 2011 Agent: Seth Fishman
International Bestseller
More than 1.5 million copies in print
The youngest of New Yorker’s Top 20 Under 40 • A National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 •
One of Waterstones’ 11 best debut novels of 2011 • Cover of the New York Times Book Review •
#1 Indie Bestseller • New York Times Hardcover & Paperback Bestseller • 2011 Orange Prize Winner
Set in present day in a Balkan country ravaged by years of conflict, Natalia, a young doctor, receives
word of her beloved grandfather’s death under strange circumstances. As she searches for the truth
behind his death, she stumbles across the extraordinary story of the tiger’s wife. An involving mystery,
an emotionally riveting family story, and a wondrous evocation of an unfamiliar world, THE TIGER’S
WIFE is a brilliant novel.
Téa Obreht was born in Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia in 1985 and has lived in the United States
since the age of twelve. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker and The Atlantic, and is
forthcoming in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Nonrequired Reading.
• Sold to: Weidenfeld & Nicholson (UK&BC), RHM (Spanish), Kinneret (Israel), Presença (Portugal)
Signatuur (the Netherlands), Leya (Brazil), Hyundae Munhak (Korea), Rowohlt (Germany), Rizzoli
(Italy), Bonniers (Sweden), Calmann Levy (France), Gyldendal (Denmark), Angle (Catalan),
Schibsted (Norway), Siren (Turkey), Algoritam (Croatia), Yilin (China), China Times (Taiwan),
Eksmo (Russia), WSOY (Finland), Cartaphilus (Hungary), Laguna (Serbia), Pergament (Bulgaria),
Patakis (Greece), Arab Scientific Publishers (Arabic – World), Argo (Czech Republic), Forlagid
(Iceland), Baltos Lankos (Lithuania), Drzewo Babel (Poland), Erein (Basque), Mladinska (Slovene),
RAO (Romania), Buybook (Bosnia), Matica (Macedonia), Shinchosha (Japan), Fortuna (Slovak),
Morava (Albania)
www.thegernertco.com 23Alice McDermott, THE NINTH HOUR
Publisher: FSG, September 2017 Agent: Sarah Burnes
One of Publishers Weekly Top 10 Literary Fiction Picks for Fall 2017 • Starred reviews from
Booklist, Kirkus and Publishers Weekly • Film rights sold to Scott Rudin Productions
• “Like Alice Munro, McDermott is profoundly observant and mischievously witty, a sensitive and
consummate illuminator of the realization of the self, the ravages of illness and loss, and the radiance of
generosity." ―Donna Seaman, Booklist, starred review
• “Everything that her readers, the National Book Award committee, and the Pulitzer Prize judges love
about McDermottt’s stories of Irish-Catholic American life is back.” ―Kirkus Reviews, starred review
• “National Book Award winner McDermott (Someone) delivers an immense, brilliant novel about the limits
of faith, the power of sacrifice, and the cost of forgiveness.” ―Publishers Weekly, starred review
• “National Book Award winner McDermott is simply one of the finest living Catholic writers. A
generational novel sure to appeal to longtime McDermott fans, and to bring in new readers as well.”
―The Millions’ Most Anticipated: The Great Second Half 2017 Book Preview
On a dim winter afternoon, a young Irish immigrant opens the gas taps in his Brooklyn tenement. He is
determined to prove—to the subway bosses who have recently fired him, to his badgering pregnant wife—
“that the hours of his life belong to himself alone.” In the aftermath of the fire that follows, Sister St. Savior,
an aging nun and Little Sister of the Sick Poor, appears, unbidden, to direct the way forward for his widow
and his unborn child. In Catholic Brooklyn in the early part of the twentieth century, decorum, superstition,
and shame collude to erase the man’s brief existence, and yet his suicide, although never spoken of,
reverberates through many lives—testing the limits and the demands of love and sacrifice, of forgiveness and
forgetfulness, even through multiple generations.
Alice McDermott is the author of six previous novels, including After This; Child of My Heart; Charming Billy,
winner of the 1998 National Book Award; At Weddings and Wakes; That Night; and Someone. That Night, At
Weddings and Wakes, and After This were all finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. She is the Richard A. Macksey
Professor of the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University.
• Sold to: Bloomsbury (UK & BC), La Table Ronde (France), Libros del Asteroide (Spain), Editorial Minuscula
(Catalan), Stile Libero (Italy), Zhejiang Literature & Art (China), EKSMO (Russia)
www.thegernertco.com 24You can also read
