Picador wins eve-of-Fair auction for Miniaturist while Virago acquires new Naomi Wolf

•  

 

15.04.13 | Charlotte Williams - The Bookseller 

 

Picador has seen off competition from 11 other publishers to win a fiercely contested six-figure, pre-fair auction, acquiring UK and Commonwealth rights in historical fiction début The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton.

Editorial director Francesca Main signed the deal with Juliet Mushens at The Agency Group, after the contest went to best bids, and the title will be a super-lead launch for Picador in July 2014.
The book has caused a stir worldwide just ahead of the fair, with US rights acquired in a similarly fierce six-figure auction by Lee Boudreaux at HarperCollins imprint Ecco.

Meanwhile, HC Canada bought Canadian rights, with Intrinseca pre-empting in Brazil, Salamandra pre-empting in Spain, and auctions currently taking place in Germany, Italy, France, Portugal, Serbia and Holland, with offers in Turkey and Norway, and more deals expected during LBF.

Set in 17th-century Amsterdam during the Dutch Golden Age, The Miniaturist tells the story of 18-year-old Nella, newly married to wealthy merchant Johannes. Though distant, he sends her an exact miniature replica of their home as a wedding gift. Unnerving in its precise attention to detail, Nella begins to fear for every member of the household as escalating real-life dramas are mirrored in miniature form.
Burton was born in south London in 1982, and has worked as an actress. She was one of the inaugural students on the Curtis Brown Creative Writing course.

Virago acquires new Naomi Wolf

15.04.13 | Charlotte Williams

 

Virago has acquired the new book by Naomi Wolf, author of The Beauty Myth and Vagina, about the creation of the law against obscenity and its impact on society.
Publisher Lennie Goodings bought UK and Commonwealth rights in the title, Outrages, from agent John Brockman and will publish in 2016.

The book, with the subtitle "How Gay Men, Bad Girls, Smut and Perversion were Invented", is about the introduction of the law against of obscenity in 1857 and how it proved to be a turning point in society, meaning dissent and morality; deviancy and normalcy; unprintable and unsayable, all became lawful definitions. It includes the story of a generation of writers and artists, including Walt Whitman and Dante Rossetti, whose work was thrown into jeopardy.