Kathy Pories at Algonquin bought North American rights, at auction, to A Happy Death by National Book Critics Circle Award and Kirkus Prize finalist Dina Nayeri (pictured l.) from Michael Taeckens, in his first deal as an agent at Massie McQuilkin & Altman. The novel, per the agency, “follows a messy, horny, middle-aged woman who flees New York City for Edinburgh, and depicts the tender and often hilarious humiliations of desire, aging, and the need for purpose and community.” Publication is planned for early 2027.
Vicki Lame at Saturday won North American rights, at auction, to bookstagrammer Tina Mars’s debut novel, This Wretched Alchemy, the first in a duology, from Thao Le at Sandra Dijkstra Literary, for a fall 2026 release. Elizabeth Vaziri at Magpie preempted U.K. and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Anna Carmichael at Abner Stein. The adult dark romantasy, per the publisher, “follows a young woman thrust into a deadly competition in order to save her family, who ultimately falls for the villain she was sent to kill.”
Caitlin McKenna at Random House took North American rights to The Flower Bearer, by poet Rachel Eliza Griffiths, from Jin Auh at the Wylie Agency, for publication in January. The memoir, per the publisher, “traces two transformational relationships in Griffiths’s life—with her best friend, Kamilah Aisha Moon, and her husband, Salman Rushdie—and recounts Moon’s sudden, tragic death on the day of her wedding to Rushdie, and how eleven months later, just as she was beginning to pick up the pieces, a brutal attack nearly claimed Rushdie’s life.”
Harriet LeFavour at Bloomsbury netted North American rights to Trust Me, by Guggenheim fellow and 2025 Emmy Award–winning
documentarian Matt Wolf, from Bill Clegg at the Clegg Agency. The book, the publisher said, is “an exploration of the ‘second story’ behind every documentary: the unique, strange, often fraught relationship between a filmmaker and their subject, drawing from both documentary history and the author’s own experiences to capture the profound questions of trust, access, and power posed throughout the filmmaking process.” Publication is planned for winter 2029.
George Witte at St. Martin’s secured North American English rights to a novel by National Jewish Book Award winner Ronald H. Balson, tentatively titled Book XI, from Mark Gottlieb at Trident Media Group. The agency called it “a sweeping, heart-stopping novel about moral conviction, found family, and love and leadership that follows two people who gamble everything to shepherd 3,000 souls aboard a train to freedom.” Publication is set for next fall.
In Brief
Anh Schluep at Montlake acquired world English rights to Colleen Hoover’s “twisty thriller” Woman Down from Jane Dystel at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret, for publication in January.
Suzanne Herz at Doubleday took U.S. rights to John Grisham’s Shaken: The Rush to Execute an Innocent Man, about the Robert Roberson murder trial, from David Gernert at the Gernert Company.
Peter Joseph at Crown preempted world rights to Sara St. Antoine’s adult debut, Elizabeth Loring Slept Here, on the life of the author’s ancestor, “either the American Revolution’s most infamous loyalist harlot or its cleverest spy and patriot,” from Lucy Cleland at Frances Goldin, for a spring 2027 release.
Diana Baroni at Harper Wave netted U.S., Canadian, non-exclusive rights to Vivian Tu’s Well Endowed, a guide to strategic spending, from Alyssa Ruben at WME, for a February release.
Tara Singh Carlson and Molly Donovan at Putnam secured world rights to Rebecca McKee’s debut novel, Mr. Mendlebee’s Pandimensional Literary Repository (and Yarn), “set in a seaside town at a magical store that reveals itself only to customers who need it most,“ from Elizabeth Pratt at Trellis, for release next fall.
A version of this article appeared in the 09/15/2025 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: Deals