FICTION

Tess Callahan

APRIL AND OLIVER

Grand Central (editor Deb Futter), June 2009; paperback June 2010

Sold to: Windmill (UK); Frassinelli/Sperling (Italy), Cargo/Bezige Bij (The Netherlands)

APRIL AND OLIVER is a beautiful and stirring first novel about two inseparable childhood friends whose existences again collide after the sudden death of April’s younger brother. Both by now have lives of their own – Oliver, a law student newly engaged, has completely abandoned the promise of his youth as a piano prodigy, something that his fiancée knows nothing about; and April, a bartender, leads a reckless life, especially when it comes to men. But when Oliver tries to tend to April in her grief, the foundation of Oliver’s life is less stable than it seemed, and April perhaps has a more solid core than she shows the world. Their connection proves to be the force that helps each of them find their way.

Tess Callahan’s fiction has appeared in publications such as Agni, Cottonwood, The Stylus Anthology, and New York Newsday, and was nominated for a Pushcart. She has an MFA in Fiction from Bennington College, and has attended Breadloaf, Squaw Valley and the Ragdale Foundation.

“The urgency of Callahan's narrative and its volatile juxtapositions—innocent passion and dark sexuality; duty and desire; first love and ruined love—make it impossible not to care deeply for these characters and their thwarted yearning and their heart-wrenching stories.”

—Bob Shacochis, author of Easy in the Islands and Swimming in the Volcano

“Grappling fates are the DNA of suspense, and Tess Callahan braids loss, longing, romance and violence into a tense, gratifying narrative. The characters in April and Oliver feel inexorable—either destined or doomed to be together. The need to discover which—and how—keeps the reader turning pages.”

—Sven Birkerts, author of Art of Time in Memoir and Reading Life

“Callahan spins a dark, gritty tale of love, yearning, and choices while presenting engaging characters and substantial action that packs more than a few punches. Wise beyond words...”

—Library Journal

“In the delicious tradition of Jane Austen … a moving story and an impressive debut”

—The Boston Globe

Charlie Carillo

ONE HIT WONDER

Kensington Publishing (editor Gary Goldstein), Fall 2010

UK rights with Kensington, all other rights controlled by Anne Edelstein Literary Agency

Option: Pendo (Germany)

Mickey DeFalco left his childhood home in a blaze of glory when he became a pop-star with a single hit—a ballad he wrote while still in high school about his first love. Twenty years later, he's desperate, broke, and moving back in with his parents.  Lynn, the woman he still loves all these years later, is back too. In this sweet and uproarious novel, Mickey sees ahead of him a second chance, if only he can roll with all the craziness life throws his way. And if he can, he could finally have everything he missed out on the first time around: success, family, and, most of all, true love.

Charlie Carillo is the author of Raising Jake (Kensington, 2009), My Ride With Gus (Pocket, 1996), and the young adult novel Shepherd Avenue (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1986; an ALA best book of the year) and his have both by optioned several times for film. Throughout the 1980’s Carillo wrote for the New York Post, where he also had a personal column. For the next decade he worked for Inside Edition, where he continues to freelance today. Carillo also writes for a number of magazines from his current home in London.

Ana Castillo

THE GUARDIANS

Random House (editor Millicent Bennett/Kate Medina), July 2007, paperback September 2008

Set in the stark and beautiful desert landscape of the U.S.-Mexican border, THE GUARDIANS tells the story of the smart, sensuous and fiercely independent Tía Regina. She quietly ekes out a living for herself and her nephew, Gabo, until his father goes missing and they get swept up into a struggle with ruthless ‘coyotes’ who smuggle the desperate across the border, and the ‘migra,’ the US officials out to arrest the immigrants. Rich with strong characters, this novel is a remarkable testament to enduring faith, family bonds, cultural pride, and the human experience.

Ana Castillo is the author of the novels Peel My Love Like an Onion (a Los Angeles Times Book Review Best Book of the Year), So Far from God (a New York Times Notable Book), Sapogonia, and The Mixquihuala Letters (winner of the American Book Award), short-story collection Loverboys, book of essays Massacre of the Dreamers, and poetry collections My Father was a Toltec and I Ask the Impossible, in addition to eight other books of poetry, plays and other writing. Castillo has received the Carl Sandburg Prize and a Southwestern Booksellers Award. She is currently at work on her next novel, DIVINA, set in Mexico City during the feast days of the Virgen de Guadalupe. She plans to deliver the manuscript within the year.

“A wonderful and moving book that is both intimate and epic in its narrative”

—Oscar Hijuelos, author of The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love

“Ana Castillo is a fearless storyteller. … This brave, unflinching novel shows the tragic consequences that come from not facing what is happening in our communities to those without true guardians to protect them.”

—Julia Alvarez, author of Saving the World

“Unforgettable and timely, Castillo’s literary magic will charm you once again.”

—Cristina García, author of A Handbook to Luck

All of Ana Castillo’s backlist is now newly available for translation through Anne Edelstein Literary Agency, including The Mixquihuala Letters (winner of the American Book Award), Peel My Love Like an Onion (a Los Angeles Times Book Review Best Book of the Year), So Far from God (a New York Times Notable Book), Sapogonia, and Loverboys.

Rachel Simon

THE STORY OF BEAUTIFUL GIRL

Grand Central (editor Deb Futter) Spring 2011

Ms. due May 2010

This is the story of Lynnie, a beautiful young white woman with a developmental disability that involves her ability to speak, and Homan, an African American deaf man who can only communicate through a self-made sign language. The book opens in the late 1960s when Lynnie and Homan have just escaped from a dismal institution—The Pennsylvania State School for Incurable and Feebleminded—and seek shelter in the home of a widow, who opens her door to them. When the authorities arrive, Homan slips into the night, and Lynnie is caught and brought back to The School. What the authorities don't know is that Lynnie has secretly given birth to a baby, and that it has been left in the hands of the unwitting widow. The novel follows the three lives desperate to connect, yet kept apart by seemingly insurmountable obstacles. The voices of Lynnie and Homan open up human perspectives that are rarely heard, as this beautifully written novel goes straight to the heart.

Rachel Simon’s sensitive treatment of disability should resonate with readers of her best-selling memoir, RIDING THE BUS WITH MY SISTER (Houghton, 2002; paperback Plume, 2003; Hallmark Hall of Fame movie starring Rosie O’Donnell and Andie MacDowell, 2005). Simon is also the author of the memoir THE HOUSE ON TEACHERS LANE (formerly BUILDING A HOME WITH MY HUSBAND, Dutton, 2009, Plume, 2010), THE WRITER’S SURVIVAL GUIDE (Story Press, 1997), a novel entitled THE MAGIC TOUCH (Viking, 1994), and a story collection—LITTLE NIGHTMARES, LITTLE DREAMS (Houghton, 1990). She is also a teacher, speaker, and vocal advocate of tolerance and the understanding of mental retardation.

NON-FICTION

Arjia Rinpoche

SURVIVING THE DRAGON: A Tibetan Lama’s Account of 40 Years of Chinese Rule

Introduction by His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Rodale (editor Karen Rinaldi), March 2010

In this remarkable historical document, Arjia Rinpoche tells the story of his life as a Tibetan lama under Chinese rule and his escape from Tibet to the United States ten years ago at age 48. Chosen as the reincarnation of Arjia Rinpoche at age two, he was sent life at Kumbum Monastery, one of the most important monasteries in Tibet. In 1950 when Mao came into power, the eight-year-old Arjia found himself stranded in the monastery when all of the monks and attendees were sent to prison. He learned to operate under the different Chinese regimes, surviving as the government proceeded to whittle away at religious freedom of the Tibetans, and to dampen individual spirit and belief. He was very close to the Panchen Lama, with whom he shared the same tutor, and like the Panchen Lama lived with many obligations to Central Party in Beijing as the second highest religious leader remaining in Tibet. Rinpoche was with 10th Panchen Lama when he died under dubious circumstances, and he was present for the rigged selection of the ‘counterfeit’ 11th Panchen Lama. When the Chinese government requested that he be the tutor of the new reincarnate youth, Rinpoche saw no choice but to flee, and so began his harrowing flight from Tibet in 1998, when he found political asylum in the US.

Arjia Rinpoche today directs the Tibetan and Mongolian Cultural Center in Bloomington, Indiana (originally founded by the Dalai Lama’s eldest brother). He appears regularly on TV and radio, including Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, and lectures widely.

“This is the real story: A heroic account of the oppression of Tibet that needs to be told. In Surviving The Dragon, the world can hear the suffering and injustice that burden the Tibetan people and the heartfelt response of a truly wise lama. Maybe this will help us to act. I hope so.”

—Jack Kornfield, author of The Wise Heart and After The Ecstasy, The Laundry

“Surviving the Dragon is much more than an autobiography. It is a fascinating history, told by an insider, of China’s occupation, domination, and destruction of Tibetan culture. For anyone interested in the story behind the inner workings of China-controlled Tibet, this is a must-read told by a deeply religious leader.”

—Mikel Dunham, author of Buddha’s Warriors and Samye

“A deeply moving, vivid account that only a person who lived through these terrible events in Tibet could write. Free from polarized thinking and language, Arjia Rinpoche’s intimately told, candid portrayal of life in an occupied land poignantly depicts one of the most massive brutalizations in human history. This stunning book exposes the consequences of a regime without compassion, revealing how ungrounded, misguided plans have disastrous impact on peoples and cultures. I was often moved to tears.”

—Professor Jeffrey Hopkins, emeritus professor of Tibetan Studies, University of Virginia

Stephen Batchelor

CONFESSION OF A BUDDHIST ATHEIST

Spiegel & Grau (editor Cindy Spiegel), March 2010

Galleys available

Sold to: Heyne (Germany); Pensamento-Cultrix (Brazil)

In Confession of an Buddhist Atheist, Stephen Batchelor moves away from the agnostic questioning of his earlier classic, Buddhism Without Beliefs, to look at the value Buddhism can have in a secular world. Batchelor’s inspiration comes from his recent translation and study of the Pali Canon, the first recorded document of the Buddha’s life, and his examination of his own personal journey through Buddhism – from a questioning (ex)monk to interpreter and critic of Buddhist thought. The crux of this book is the understanding that the Buddha was a man who looked at human life in a radically new way, an unequivocally secular view that has nothing to do with the piety or religiosity that has come to be part of the definition of modern Buddhism. This is an eloquent book for a contemporary audience grappling with the meaning of spirituality and religion in today’s world.

Stephen Batchelor is a former monk in the Tibetan and Zen traditions and the author of the national bestseller, BUDDHISM WITHOUT BELIEFS, and many other books. He lectures and conducts meditation retreats worldwide, and is a contributing editor for Tricycle. He lives in France.

“The human thirst for the transcendent, the numinous - even the ecstatic - is too universal and too important to be entrusted to the cultish and the archaic and the superstitious. In this honest and serious book of self-examination and critical scrutiny, Stephen Batchelor adds the universe of Buddhism to the many fields in which received truth and blind faith are now giving way to ethical and scientific humanism, in which lies our only real hope.”

—Christopher Hitchens, author of GOD IS NOT GREAT

Tara Brach

TRUE REFUGE: The Presence that Heals and Frees Our Heart

Bantam Books (editor Beth Rashbaum), 2011

Ms. due 2010

Options: Droemer Knaur (Germany); Kosmos (Holland); Oak Tree Publishing (China; Simplified Characters); Bright Discovery (China; Complex Characters); Basam Books (Finland)

A natural book to follow her award-winning Radical Acceptance, Tara Brach speaks to her ever-widening audience of TRUE REFUGE. ‘True refuge’ is not to be found outside or down the road, but can be within. Through a step by step process known as RAIN (Recognize, Allow, Investigate/become Intimate, Natural loving awareness), she teaches how awakening presence can heal and address our basic needs for safety and love. The book is steeped in stories from Tara’s practice as well as her own life, along with guided meditations and timeless wisdom teachings. Readers will learn to bring a practice of meditative presence to the everyday realities of living and dying.

Tara Brach has been a mental health professional for over 25 years and currently practices in Washington, DC. A Buddhist lay priest and popular teacher of Buddhist mindfulness, she is the founder and guiding teacher of the Insight Meditation Community, where her weekly meditation classes are attended regularly by more than 120 students. She teaches throughout the country, and is currently focusing her workshops on the ‘True Refuge’ techniques.

Sophy Burnham

UNTITLED ON INTUITION

Tarcher Books (editor Sara Carder), 2011

Ms. due May 2010

Sophy Burnham, of the phenomenal bestseller A Book of Angels, now ventures into the way the uncanny appears in our lives— auras, guardians, ghosts, psychic acuity, and other ways of ‘knowing.’ Through her keen sense of storytelling that has won her millions of readers worldwide, she inspires her audience to tap into the natural intuition that resides in all of us.

Sophy Burnham is the author of twelve books of fiction and nonfiction, including the bestselling A Book of Angels, For Writers Only, The Ecstatic Journey, The Path of Prayer, and the novel The Treasure of Montsegur.

John Carlin

INVICTUS: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation, previously published as PLAYING THE ENEMY

Penguin Press (editor Eamon Dolan), August 2008, paperback August 2009, movie-tie in December 2009

Sold to: Grove/Atlantic (UK); Herder (Germany); Kosmos (Holland); Sperling (Italy); Seix Barral (Spain); Sextante (Brazil); Ariane Edition (France); Presença (Portugal); La Campana (Catalán); NHK (Japan); Paschalidis Publications (Greece); Kristeligt Dagblads (Denmark); Produkcijska hiša RED (Slovenia);Planeta (Latin America, Spanish language); Yuan-Liou (Chinese, complex characters); Muza (Poland); Law Press (Chinese, simplified characters); Woongjin (Korea); Historie & Kultur (Norway); Recorded Books (audio)

Now a major motion picture directed by Clint Eastwood; starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon (Golden Globe and Academy Award nominees); Warner Bros/Revelations Entertainment production

A New York Times bestseller and #1 bestseller in South Africa

This is the highly dramatic story of the moment of reconciliation between blacks and whites, a moment that the world would have considered impossible before it happened. In solving apartheid, ‘the crime against humanity,’ Mandela managed to ignite the kernel of human spirit that resides within each person, even when steeped in centuries of hatred. This symbolic moment happened in 1995 when the all-white Afrikaner rugby team, at Mandela’s instruction, for the first time sang the new black national anthem in its original Xhosa language and from there miraculously and against all odds won the World Cup. But the real story is the backdrop and personal histories of the politicians, prison mates, rugby players that led up to this historic juncture. With Nelson Mandela’s blessing, and volumes of original tapes and interviews, this is the story that John Carlin tells in PLAYING THE ENEMY.

John Carlin is an award-winning El País reporter and award-winning contributor to the Observer, Sunday Times and London Independent, he lived in South Africa as a foreign correspondent from 1989 to 1995, crucial years in South Africa’s dramatic history, during which time he became intimate with Mandela, the political milieu and the human stories attached to it. He wrote the documentary ‘The Long Walk of Nelson Mandela’ for PBS’s Frontline (also aired on Channel 4 BBC and worldwide) and was nominated for an Emmy. His book HEROICA TIERRA CRUEL (Seix Barral, 2004) is a collection of his articles on South Africa and Rwanda published in Spanish. His book WHITE ANGELS (Bloomsbury UK, 2004) was a finalist for the 2004 William Hill Award.

“This wonderful book describes Mandela’s methodical, improbable and brilliant campaign to reconcile resentful blacks and fearful whites ... If PLAYING THE ENEMY were not so well written, it would deserve a place among the management tomes and self-help books that dominate business best-seller lists—a guide to leadership that plays to people’s better angels.”

—Bill Keller, New York Times Book Review

“This is ... a wonderfully crafted and beautifully written work of modern political history. Carlin ... covers the apartheid era with a vivid pen and provides an authentic sense of how tantalizingly close South Africa came to civil war.”

—The London Times

James Goodman

ABRAHAM KILLED ISAAC

Pantheon Books (editor Dan Frank) 2011

Ms. due 2010

The sacrifice of Isaac has been told throughout the world throughout history, a story as manifold as it is powerful. Through its many versions, Goodman shows how the creation of history is an arbitrary business yet revealing of the cultural context that shapes it. Stories are passed down within a community, affected by world events, and at the same time treated as true. This is a timely and provocative view of history and myth.

James Goodman is a professor at Rutgers University where he teaches narrative history. He is also the author of BLACKOUT (FSG, 2003) and STORIES OF SCOTTSBORO (Pantheon, 1994), a Pulitzer Prize Finalist.

Kay Larson

WHERE THE HEART BEATS: John Cage, Zen Buddhism, and the Inner Life of Artists

Penguin Press (editor Ann Godoff), 2010

Ms. due 2010

Where the Heart Beats promises to be a groundbreaking history of intellectual currents of the postmodernist cultural movement, and an illuminating view of Cage and his influence of modern art. For several decades an art critic, columnist, and editor, Kay Larson left her position at New York Magazine in 1994 to enter Zen practice at a monastery in upstate New York. There she became captured by the work of Cage. As her grasp and fascination with him grew, so too did her understanding of the pivotal influence of the Zen teachings of Suzuki on his life in the 1950’s and how Cage absorbed and, in turn, unleashed this perspective on the coterie of abstract expressionists and critics, including Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Leo Castelli, and Harold Rosenberg, among others. Hence the celebration of silence, non-doing and non-intention became the root of the groundbreaking acknowledgement of the art of process rather than product.

Steeped in cultural references from the Dadaists and Italian surrealists to the Beats, and historic influences of Schoenberg and Duchamp, Larson artfully takes us on the journey of Cage’s evolution, through his collaboration with Merce Cunningham, and beyond -- exploring his inspirational role in shaping the cultural era of postmodernism.

Nathan Schneider

IF REASON RULED THE WORLD

University of California Press (editor Reed Malcolm) 2011

Ms. due December 2010

This is a thoughtful and timely intellectual, historical, and theological journey through centuries of believers (and unbelievers) from the Greeks to C.S. Lewis, Thomas Aquinas to current activists on the blogosphere. Amidst all of the controversy surrounding New Atheism and the conflicts between faith and reason, Nathan Schneider puts the debate into its rich, original context. His sure-handed explanations of the historical moments in which the creator of each proof lived and his love for the elegance of their ideas illuminate both the people and their arguments, bringing them to life in their time, and—through his own personal discovery of thinkers throughout the ages—our own.

Nathan Schneider has written on the intersection of religion and culture for publications including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Boston Globe, The Nation and the website where he serves as senior editor, Killing the Buddha. He has an M.A. in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a B.A. in the same field from Brown University.

James Shapiro

CONTESTED WILL: Who Wrote Shakespeare?

Simon & Schuster (editor Bob Bender), April 2010

Galleys available

Sold to: Faber (UK)

Options: Siruela (Spain); Planeta (Brazil)

Indiebound Notable Book

James Shapiro (winner of Samuel Johnson Prize for A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: 1599) embarks on a search to answer the question he is most asked by lecture audiences far and wide – ‘Who wrote the plays?’ While academics may roll their eyes at this constant question, it’s unmistakably a matter of great and ongoing interest that includes interrogators as widespread as Sigmund Freud, Mark Twain, Charlie Chaplin and Malcolm X. As important as the answers that Shapiro finds is the history of the inquiry itself, which began in the mid-19^th century and reveals much about the contemporary concerns and the historical notion of authorship. In England, Shapiro tells us, the debate has to do with class—how could a glover’s son possibly have written what Shakespeare was said to have written?—while in American circles there is a thread of conspiracy theory.

James Shapiro is Professor of English at Columbia University, where he teaches Shakespeare. His previous book, A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: 1599 (HarperCollins, 2005), received international acclaim, including the Samuel Johnson Prize. Shapiro is also the author of OBERAMMERGAU: THE TROUBLING STORY OF THE WORLD’S MOST FAMOUS PASSION PLAY (Pantheon, 2000), SHAKESPEARE AND THE JEWS (Columbia, 1996) and RIVAL PLAYWRIGHTS: MARLOW, SHAKESPEARE, JONSON (Columbia, 1991). He reviews regularly for The New York Times Book Review and other publications. He has been a visiting scholar at the New Globe Theatre in London, has advised on Shakespeare for the Public Theater in New York City, and taught the faculty seminar in Shakespeare at the Folger Library, where he delivered the ‘birthday lecture.’

“Shapiro … achieves another major success in the field of Shakespeare research by exploring why the Bard's authorship of his works has been so much challenged.”

—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

James Shapiro

THE YEAR OF LEAR: SHAKESPEARE IN 1606

Simon & Schuster (editor Bob Bender), 2014

Ms. due Fall 2013

A natural book in the tradition of the award-winning and critically acclaimed A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: 1599 comes the book that revolves around the year 1606, the year Shapiro views as Shakespeare’s most fruitful year as a mature playwright. This year that takes in King Lear, Macbeth and Anthony and Cleopatra, is also the year of the Plague and the Gunpowder Plot. It’s also a time of Shakespeare’s on reflection on his old age and his art.

Russell Shorto

DESCARTES’ BONES: A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason

Doubleday (editor Bill Thomas), October 2008, paperback September 2009

Sold to: Mouria (Holland); Longanesi (Italy); La Campana (Catalán); Objetiva (Brazil); Duomo (Spain); Shanghai Joint Co. (Chinese, simplified characters); Editions Telemaque (France)

From the author of the bestselling THE ISLAND AT THE CENTER OF THE WORLD, this is a fresh take on Descartes’ legacy—a narrative history of modern thought as seen through the history of Descartes’ remains, body and soul—with a deep relevance for our contemporary world. Descartes’ bones have been entangled with some of the major forces that define the modern era: the rise of democracy, the evolution of the sciences, the struggle between science and religion. In tracking them, Russell Shorto follows a forgotten road through history. The exotic fact that sets Shorto’s elegant story in motion is that after Descartes’s death, and with the blessing of the Catholic Church, his body was dismembered. DESCARTES’ BONES tells the story of the man who, more than any other individual was responsible for bringing into being the force that shaped the modern world, his scientific “method”. In doing so, Descartes split modern consciousness between faith and reason. Tracing the journey of these much sought after bones, Russell Shorto brings us the tale of the genesis of our ‘modern’ and ‘post-modern’ world, and in doing so, sheds remarkable light on where we are today.

Russell Shorto writes regularly for The New York Times Magazine, as well as for GQ, The New Yorker, and many other publications. He is also the author of GOSPEL TRUTH: The New Image of Jesus Emerging from Science and History and Why it Matters (Riverhead, 1997) and SAINTS AND MADMEN: Psychiatry Opens Its Doors to Religion (Holt, 1999). Currently, he is the director of the John Adams Institute in Amsterdam.

“With the fascinating DESCARTES’ BONES, Russell Shorto has produced another compelling intellectual detective story, one that illuminates the present as much as the dusty past.”

—Jeffrey Toobin, author of The Nine

“This is a beguiling book about the architecture of the way we live now. As Russell Shorto points out, Descartes is claimed by both the ferociously secular and the ferociously religious, but the truth is more complicated.”

—Jon Meacham, author of Franklin and Winston and American Gospel

Rachel Simon

THE HOUSE ON TEACHER’S LANE: A Memoir of Home, Healing and Love’s Hardest Questions (previously published as BUILDING A HOME WITH MY HUSBAND)

Dutton (editor Erika Imranyi), April 2009, paperback April 2010

Sold to: Hong-Ik (Korea)

Options: Bompiani (Italy); Hodder Headline (Australia); Hayakawa (Japan); Forum (Sweden); Fembooks (Chinese, Complex characters); Nation Books (Thailand)

Author of the major bestseller Riding the Bus with My Sister, Rachel Simon’s new book begins as she and her architect husband begin to renovate their house on Teacher’s Lane. Rachel braces herself for the ups and downs that often accompany such projects, but as the old walls fall and new paint appears she is not prepared for the transformative journey of the heart she undertakes as well. With compassion and humor, Rachel looks at the healing power of forgiveness, the struggle to find meaning and purpose, the compatibility of imperfection and happiness, and the ways that lost relationships—with friends, parents, siblings, a spouse, and even the self—can rekindle life. Fans of Riding the Bus with My Sister and new readers alike will be drawn to Simon’s masterful storytelling and life-affirming tale. Her story will resonate with anyone who’s experienced the most universal human emotion—love, in its many forms—and wrestled with its hardest questions.

In addition to her previous memoir RIDING THE BUS WITH MY SISTER (Houghton, 2002; paperback Plume, 2003; TV movie distributed by Hallmark, 2005), Simon has written THE WRITER’S SURVIVAL GUIDE (Story Press, 1997), a novel entitled THE MAGIC TOUCH (Viking, 1994), and a story collection—LITTLE NIGHTMARES, LITTLE DREAMS (Houghton, 1990). She is also a teacher, speaker, and vocal advocate of tolerance and the understanding of mental retardation.

“Simon poignantly documents the next phase in her life [following] Riding the Bus with My Sister (2002), in which the home becomes a metaphor for the soul. ... An unsentimental, poetic appraisal of life’s big questions.” —Kirkus Review

ADDITIONAL TITLES, RIGHTS CONTROLLED BY PUBLISHERS

FICTION

Elizabeth Subercaseaux

AN ALMOST PERFECT AFFAIR

Translated by Marina Harss

Other Press (editor Judith Gurewich), Fall 2010

Translation due February 2010

Sold to: Pendo (Germany)

Options: Mouria (Holland); Suma de Letras/Alfaguara (Spain); Flammarion (France); Notte Tempo (Italy); Livraria Civilizaçao (Portugal)

Subercaseaux, author of A WEEK IN OCTOBER, an international success and winner of the prestigious LiBeraturpreis 2009, will next publish an unconventional “thriller.” The beautiful and independent Amalia is found, murdered, and three narrators struggle in turn with their understanding of this tragedy: her lover, an upstanding Chilean Supreme Court justice, coming to grips with the position he’s put himself into; her oldest childhood friend, suspicious of the secret lover Amalia would tell little about, but who she thinks she recognizes in the judge; and a married journalist, and father of two, who saw the judge fleeing the scene of the crime, but who would have to publicly reveal his own affair with a man to bring this crucial piece of evidence to light. The drama of this elegantly-told story comes not from the crime itself, but from the effect that the knowledge of it has on the lives of the living.

Elizabeth Subercaseaux was born in Chile. She worked as a journalist for a socialist magazine during the Franco Regime in Spain and, upon returning to Chile after Franco’s death, became deeply involved in the resistance against Pinochet. She wrote a biography of the dictator based on her interview with him, the only one he granted before he was ousted from power. Her other non-fiction includes Michelle, a biography of the first South American woman to be elected President, and the bestselling, humorous feminist manifesto, Ten Things a Chilean Woman Should Not Do. She has also written eight novels. Subercaseaux lives in Pennsylvania.

Praise for A WEEK IN OCTOBER:

“An intelligent novel of great suspense in which love, death, fiction, and reality all intersect in the telling of its story.”

—Isabel Allende, author of The House of the Spirits and Inés of My Soul

NON-FICTION

His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, Ph.D.

BECOMING ENLIGHTENED

Atria Books, (editor Peter Borland), January 2009

Sold to: One Spirit (Book Club), Rider (UK), Librairie Plon (France), De Boekerij (The Netherlands), Tanapaev (Estonia),Kibea (Bulgaria) , Metaekdotiki (Greece)

Options: Verlag Herder (Germany), Klan Kitap (Turkey), Zvaignze ABC (Latvia), Ediouro Publicacoes (Brazil), Thorndike (Large Print), Mondadori (Italy),RH Mondadori (Spain), Aschehoug Dansk Forlag (Denmark), Commonwealth Magazine (Chinese Complex characters)

In BECOMING ENLIGHTENED, His Holiness the Dalai Lama powerfully explores the foundation of Buddhism, laying out an accessible and practical approached to age-old questions: how can we live free from suffering? And how can we achieve lasting happiness and peace? Drawing from traditional Buddhist meditative practices, penetrating examples from today’s troubled planet, and personal anecdotes and intimate accounts of his experiences as a life-long student, thinker, political leader, and Nobel Peace Laureate, BECOMING ENLIGHTENED presents step-by-step exercises designed to expand the reader’s capacity for spiritual growth, along with clear milestones to mark the reader’s progress toward achieving an exalted state—within themselves and within the larger world. With His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s loving and direct teaching style, this remarkable and empowering book can give seekers of all faiths the wisdom, support, guidance, and inspiration they need to become successful and fulfilled in their spiritual lives.

His Holiness the 14^th Dalai Lama is the world’s foremost Buddhist leader. He is the author of numerous books, including HOW TO PRACTICE: The Way to a Meaningful Life, and ADVICE ON DYING: And Living a Better Life (paperback title: MIND OF CLEAR LIGHT), HOW TO SEE YOURSELF AS YOU REALLY ARE, and HOW TO EXPAND LOVE: Widening the Circle of Loving Relationships, all edited by Jeffrey Hopkins and published by Atria Books.

Jeffrey Hopkins was The Dalai Lama’s Chief Interpreter for a decade, traveling with him widely and collaborating with him on several books. Hopkins is emeritus professor of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Virginia and the author of more than 40 books.

Marian Faux

A WILD CIVILITY: A Social History of Democratic Manners

Random House (editor Susanna Porter), 2010

Ms. due December 2009

American manners—or the lack of them—have long been the subject of jokes. But even as she revels in the occasionally outlandish result of egalitarian social structure meeting traditional notions of etiquette, Marian Faux explores how the code of manners was deliberately constructed along with the new nation, and how class relations, the role of money rather than pedigree, and the changing role of women in society all contribute to Americans’ particular brand of etiquette.

Marian Faux is the co-author of THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY’S STUDENT’S DESK REFERENCE (1993), NYPL AMERICAN HISTORY DESK REFERENCE (1998), and EXECUTIVE ETIQUETTE (St. Martins, 1994). She is the author of ROE V. WADE (Macmillan, 1988), CRUSADERS: Voices from the Abortion Front (Birch Lane, 1990) and CHILDLESS BY CHOICE (Anchor, 1983).

Norberto Fuentes

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FIDEL CASTRO (LA AUTOBIOGRAFÍA DE FIDEL CASTRO)

Translated by Anna Kushner

W.W. Norton (editor Tom Mayer), December 2010

World English rights with Norton, all other rights handled by Silvia Bastos Literary Agency

Published by Destino (Spain); Sold to C.H. Beck (Germany), Patakis (Greece); Casa das Letras (Portugal)

Novelist, short story writer, journalist, and former confidante of Fidel Castro, only Norberto could have written this ‘autobiography’ of his subject. Fuentes draws on his decade-long friendship with the Cuban president to imagine himself in Castro’s position, giving an intimate history of Castro the man, Castro the leader, and how the two personas have shaped each other. His book—a real biography, invented autobiography—stretches genres to striking literary and historical effect.

Fuentes fought alongside the Cuban Internationalists and later served as Castro’s delegate, traveling internationally with Col. De LaGuardia. But after the Ochoa-De LaGuardia drug trafficking case broke, Fuentes was prohibited from leaving Cuba and was put under police surveillance until, with the aid of allies in the intelligentsia, he was able to exile himself to Miami, where he currently resides. His story collection Condenados de Condenado is considered to be a premier literary work of dissent in Cuba. His celebrated biography Hemingway in Cuba was published in 1985 with a forward by Gabriel García Marquez. Other works include: Nos impusieron la violencia (1986), El ultimo santuario (Siglo XXI, 1992), and Dulces guerreros cubanos (Seix Barral, 1999).

“Norberto Fuentes has given us a new Fidel: colloquial, arrogant, dramatic, comic, and cosmically egocentric. … His voice rings with authenticity, for Fuentes had privileged access to the Comandante and was close to his advisors, generals, and spies for many years.”

—William Kennedy

“Fascinating… Mr. Fuentes’s conjurings of Mr. Castro’s rise to power and his group’s triumphs over daunting, sometimes ridiculous odds have the hard, burnished glow of authenticity.”

—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

Olivia Ames Hoblitzelle

THE BIRD THAT SINGS IN THE NIGHT

Forward by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Tarcher (editor Sara Carder), 2010

Ms. available

When Olivia Hoblitzelle’s husband, Hob, was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s, they drew from their years of Buddhist practice and open honesty to live through Hob’s decline with intentionality and love. Olivia captures her husband’s witty voice and poignant acceptance of his own cognitive loss in this inspirational and instructional memoir about living with and caring for someone with Alzheimer’s.

Olivia Ames Hoblitzelle is a writer, therapist and teacher who has come to specialize in the integration of meditation, yoga and cognitive therapy with traditional Western medicine. She has lead workshops and developed training programs at a number of organizations, including the Mind/Body Medical Institute and Harvard Medical School.

“A heart-felt, wise, honest and tender book. Enormously helpful both to those facing Alzheimer’s and their loved ones.”

—Jack Kornfield, author of After the Ecstasy, the Laundry

“An eloquent and honest account of a long slow ordeal: because this life trial is experienced and shared by two brave, likeable, and loving people, it transcends pain and loss and becomes an inspiration.”

—Peter Matthiessen, author of The Snow Leopard

Liel Leibovitz and Matthew Miller

FORTUNATE SONS: How 120 Chinese Boys Came to America, Went to College, and Modernized an Ancient Empire

W.W. Norton (editor Amy Cherry), 2011

Ms. due 2010

Leibovitz and Miller tell the remarkable story of the Chinese Educational Mission, which sent 120 boys to the US in 1872 to be educated in its most prominent universities in an effort to expose a new generation to the ways of the west. The mission was aborted nine years later when Chinese politics dictated the prompt return of the boys before many had completed their educations. But within this single decade, they were able to absorb enough to radically affect their homeland in the years following their return. Graduates of the Mission played fundamental roles in China’s development, becoming leaders in areas as diverse as transportation, telecommunications, the navy, and government. The histories of the ‘boys’ of the Mission will be brought to life as seen through a wealth of original documents -- over 300 letters, 150 photos and numerous volumes of journals, newspaper articles and official reports are among the resources that the authors will utilize.

Liel Leibovitz (author of ALIYA: Three Generations of American-Jewish Immigration to Israel, St. Martins, 2006) and Matthew Miller, met at the Columbia School of Journalism and previously collaborated on LILI MARLENE: The Soldiers’ Song of World War II (W.W. Norton, 2008).

Liel Leibovitz and Todd Gitlin

THE CHOSEN PEOPLES: America, Israel, and the Ordeals of Divine Election

Simon & Schuster (editor Roger Labrie), September 2010

Foreign rights handled by Trident Media Group

Ms. due January 2010

Divine Election—the belief that for some reason God chose one specific nation above all others—has played a powerful role throughout history. However, only two countries, America and Israel, have crafted this idea into a powerful and enduring national force. It was largely in the name of this idea that the pilgrims landed on the shores of New England and the Zionists in Palestine. Current events in both countries—including contentious ideological expeditions both abroad and at home—extend from the subterranean force shaping these two countries: chosenness.

Weaving together history, theology, politics and analysis, “The Chosen People” retells the dramatic story of two nations bound together by a wild and sacred idea, takes unorthodox perspectives on some of our time’s most searing conflicts, and offers an unexpected conclusion: only by understanding chosenness, wrestling with its meaning and taking on its responsibilities can both nations thrive.

Liel Leibovitz is at work on the forthcoming FORTUNATE SONS. Todd Gitlin, a professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia University, is the author of twelve books, most recently The Bulldozer and the Big Tent: Blind Republicans, Lame Democrats, and the Recovery of American Ideals (Wiley, 2007).