In this issue


Illustrator Jim Field discusses his new, bilingual children’s title: see pp34–35


Blumhouse bags screen deal for Black Widows


Screen option


Blumhouse Productions has optioned film and TV rights to Catherine


Quinn’s Black Widows (Orion, 2020) for a “significant five- figure” sum. Intellectual Property Group’s Joel Gotler, working with Lucy Fawcett at Sheil Land, struck the deal. The contempo- rary thriller was snapped up by Orion in July in a “significant six- figure” deal after a seven-way auction, negotiated by Sheil Land’s Piers Blofeld.


W&N beats six bidders to land on Savage Shores W&N has triumphed in a seven- way auction for On Savage Shores, Aztec historian Caroline Dodds Pennock’s untold story of the Native Americans who discovered Europe. Editorial director Maddy Price bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Will Francis at Janklow & Nesbit, and will publish in 2022. US rights were sold to Pantheon. Price said: “On Savage Shores is fascinating, and vital given the urgent need to understand how migration has shaped us.”


FBF’s buzziest book wings its way to William Collins A behavioural ecologist’s book on why humans should learn to love wasps has been snapped up by William Collins publish- ing director Arabella Pike. UK and Commonwealth rights for Seirian Sumner’s Endless Forms were signed from Will Francis at Janklow & Nesbit. The book aims to replace bees as the “sweetheart of the insect world” with wasps, which Sumner says are “older and cleverer than the bee, and just as essential for the survival of our environment”.


Seaweed is on the menu for Greystone and Profile Greystone Books and Profile Books are to publish Seaweed by artist Miek Zwamborn. Matthes & Seitz Berlin sold world English rights to Greystone, from whom Profile signed UK, Commonwealth and European rights. The deal was struck with- out an agent. Greystone and Profile will publish the book—“a wonderfully illustrated text that delves into seaweed’s science and cultural history”—simul- taneously in English-language markets next year.


Shafak novel one of a trio picked up by Netflix


screen rework


Small


Netflix has announced three new literary adaptations, including one based on Elif Shafak’s The Fort Rules


KELLY LUEGENBIEHL SAYS NETFLIX SEES PUBLISHERS AS PARTNERS, NOT COMPETITORS


of Love (Penguin), as its vice-president for international originals, Kelly Luegenbiehl, said the company wants to partner with publishers, not compete against them. Luegenbiehl said the streaming giant had just signed a deal to adapt Shafak’s book in a Turkish-language series, alongside series based on Anxious People by Swedish author Fredrik Backman and Daniel Kehlmann’s German-language Tyll. Speaking at yester- day’s C.e.o. Talk, she explained what the company looks for in a story: “As we’re look- ing at things that are more serialised, you have to want to welcome those characters back into your home, episode aſter episode. Something that can make a story unique and distinctive is


Safran Foer’s memoir to illuminate family’s Holocaust history


HarperCollins imprint HQ will publish a “heartwrenching” post-Holocaust memoir from the mother of Jonathan Safran Foer, the story of which was the basis for his bestselling 2002 novel, Everything is Illuminated. HQ executive publisher Lisa Milton


acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Gordon Wise at Curtis Brown, on behalf of Rafe Sagalyn at ICM Partners, to Esther Safran Foer’s I Want You to Know We’re Still Here, with a simultaneous UK and US release slated for April 2020. Crown bought the US rights, with the title sold at auction in seven languages, including French, Spanish, German, Italian, Dutch and Hebrew.


TheBookseller.com Esther Safran Foer and her


husband arrived in the US in 1949, the only members of their respective families to survive the Holocaust, but their experiences were rarely spoken about. The memoir chronicles a shocking discovery: that her father had a previous wife and a daughter, both of whom were killed in the Holocaust. Safran Foer embarks on a trip to Ukraine, armed with only a black-and-white photograph and a hand-drawn map, to find out more about her half-sister and the family who risked their lives to hide her father during the war. Milton said: “Esther has written


a heartwrenching memoir that will be read for generations to come. She captures the true meaning of family and connection.” Safran Foer added: “Facing up to one’s history requires bravery, as well as luck and persis- tence. There are stories too important to be kept in a personal curiosity box.”


the specificit of those characters.” Netflix is looking across all genres, she said, having had success with YA, sci-fi and romance series, among others. “As long as people are curious and excited to watch, we’re going to keep experimenting with new genres,” she told the audience. Asked if the company was in competition


with publishers for audiences, she said: “We look at publishers and editors as partners because we are not able to be on the ground in every country, reading every book, so we really look to people to tell us: ‘Here are ideas and stories that are really capturing audiences’ and people’s imaginations’.” She added: “It doesn’t necessarily have to be on top of the bestseller lists—that’s not what’s going to make it a great idea.” Reporting Mark Chandler


Penguin Press has snapped up the latest book from George Monbiot in a “major deal”. Senior commis- sioning editor Chloe Currens bought world rights to Swallow This from agent Antony Harwood. The book will be published


GEORGE MONBIOT WRITES A REGULAR COLUMN FOR THE GUARDIAN


Penguin picks up Monbiot’s manifesto for sustainable foods


by Allen Lane in the UK. US and Canadian rights were also bought by Penguin. Publication is slated for 2021. In the title, Monbiot will highlight farming and fishing as the “biggest causes of ecological collapse”, with the “food industry, more than all other factors put together, destroying the living world”. He argues that “in its place must come a new global food system, encompassing microbial protein, alternative organic horticulture, and wilder fields and forests around the world.” Currens said: “I’m thrilled that all of George’s skills as an envi- ronmental campaigner, an inves- tigative journalist, a Guardian columnist and a self-confessed troublemaker will come to the fore in Swallow This.”


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