SALMAN RUSHDIE MEMOIR

RANDOM HOUSE WORLDWIDE ACQUIRES MULTI-LANGUAGE PUBLISHING RIGHTS TO 2012 SALMAN RUSHDIE MEMOIR

(October 22, 2010)—In one of the most far-reaching multi-national and multi-language book-publishing deals by one publisher for a single title, Random House has acquired rights to publish a memoir by Salman Rushdie in each of its territories across the world.
Markus Dohle, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Random House worldwide, announced the acquisition of hardcover, paperback, audio, and e-book rights for English- German- and Spanish-language editions of the work-in-progress from Andrew Wylie, President of The Wylie Agency, the author’s agent. Mr. Rushdie expects to complete his manuscript by the end of next year for publication by Random House in 2012.

Mr. Dohle brought together the publishing and editorial leadership from each of the company’s international divisions for this acquisition, which is unprecedented in scope for the world’s largest trade book publisher. Random House is planning a simultaneous publication of the memoir in each of its territories in physical, digital and audio formats. “This extraordinary work merits an extraordinary publishing effort on our part,” said Mr. Dohle. “It offers Random House, on behalf of one of the world’s great writers, the opportunity to harness our tremendous international creative and logistic capabilities, which will support the focused, customized publishing campaigns each of our publishers will execute locally.”

Random House will publish the memoir in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and South Africa, in English; Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, in German; and Spain, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, and Uruguay, in Spanish. The Random House and Knopf Canada imprints are the respective U.S. and Canadian publishers. In the U.K., the book will be published by the Random House U.K. imprint Jonathan Cape; in Germany, by the Verlagsgruppe Random House imprint C. Bertelsmann; and in Spain and Latin America, by Random House Mondadori’s Literatura Mondadori.

Salman Rushdie is one of the world’s most revered and honoured writers. His memoir will be an evocation of his public and personal life: his outsider’s experience at British public school and Cambridge; his evolution as a writer; his relationships as a husband and a father; and his years in hiding following the fatwah issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini after the publication of The Satanic Verses in 1988. Mr. Rushdie currently is working on the film version of his classic novel Midnight’s Children, which won the Booker Prize in 1981.

Dan Franklin, Publishing Director of Jonathan Cape, said, “I am thrilled that Cape will be publishing Salman’s new book. This brave, generous, honest and totally compelling memoir will be a cultural event like no other, as important politically as it will be to the history of literature.”

Mr. Rushdie observed, “I’m absolutely delighted that Random House, my longtime publisher, has agreed to publish my memoir in the English-language world, as well as in Spanish, and for the first time in German. I couldn’t wish for a better home for my work. I have waited a long time to write this memoir, until I felt I was ready to do it. I'm ready now."

Mr. Rushdie’s latest work of fiction, Luka and the Fire of Life, has just been published by Jonathan Cape, and will be published by the Random House imprint in the U.S. on November 16.

And a report in The Independent.