Jonathan Franzen's 'book of the century' pulped over print error
Author told the audience at London's Southbank Centre that the printers had opened and copied the wrong computer file


Rowenna Davis The Guardian, Friday 1 October 2010

Jonathan Franzen's new book was released earlier this week by HarperCollins. Photograph: Chris Buck for the Guardian


It had been heralded as the novel of the century so far, but thousands of copies of Jonathan Franzen's Freedom face being pulped due to a printing error.
Speaking in London last night, the author said the British printers had mistakenly published an old draft of his text, and he urged fans not to read the novel until the correct version is released on Monday.

Franzen told the audience at a reading of the book at London's Southbank Centre that the printers had opened and copied the wrong computer file, rather than one containing the final proof.

The book was released in the UK earlier this week by HarperCollins; it is not yet known how many copies will have to be pulped. Franzen told the audience that all copies would be exchanged or refunded, including postage and packaging. He did not say whether copies printed in the US – originally published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in August – were affected.

Franzen won international acclaim for his 2001 novel The Corrections.

Freedom received glowing reviews in the US: "brilliant", "a masterpiece", "an indelible portrait of our times" were among the plaudits heaped upon it. It also earned Franzen a spot on the cover of Time magazine – the first novelist in the past 10 years. Franzen got further publicity when Oprah Winfrey selected the novel for her book club, despite his criticism of her selections as "schmaltzy".

Last night his US agent was unavailable for comment.