at Folio Literary Management. Tokyo, Flatiron said, is about
American teen Izumi Tanaka who, while going through a
ho-hum senior year in her Northern California town, dis-
covers that she is Japanese royalty. Dubbing the novel “The
Princess Diaries meets Crazy Rich Asians,” Flatiron said it
follows a young woman who “finds herself caught between
worlds, and between versions of herself—back home, she
was never ‘American’ enough, and in Japan, she must prove
she’s ‘Japanese’ enough.” At press time, rights to the novel
had sold in “significant” deals, per Flatiron, in Brazil, Finland,
Germany, Israel, and Italy.■ Dorman Accepts Rose’s
‘Kindness’
After a preempt for a sum rumored to
be in the high-six-figure range, Pamela
Dorman bought North American rights
to the debut novel A Kindness.
Dorman, acquiring for her eponymous
imprint at Penguin Random House,
brokered the agreement with Helen
Heller at the Helen Heller Agency. The
novel, which wound up in Heller’s hands after the agent
responded to an unsolicited pitch, is about an accusation
of date rape that unmoors a New England family. Heller said
the book explores “elements of mystery, tragedy, doubt,
and justice.” The author is a lawyer based in Maine who is
writing under the pseudonym Regan Rose.■ Morrow Buys a Tale of
Apple’s Ive
Tripp Mickle, a technology reporter at
the Wall Street Journal, sold a book
about the legacy of Apple’s chief design
officer, Jonathan Paul “Jony” Ive.
Mauro DiPreta at William Morrow
acquired world rights to the currently
untitled book, for mid-six figures, from
Daniel Greenberg at Levine Green-
berg Rostan. Morrow explained that
Ive, an industrial designer known as Steve Jobs’s “spiritual
partner,” is credited with developing the aesthetics behind
some of Apple’s most iconic products. He is also tethered
to the various challenges Apple faced in the wake of Jobs’s
death, when new CEO Tim Cook “sought to transform the
company from a hardware colossus into a services and
entertainment contender.” Ive announced his impending
departure from Apple earlier this year.RoseMickleDEAL OF THE WEEK
DEALS
By Rachel Deahl■ Holt Kids Pays Seven Figures for Debut
YA debut The Firekeeper’s Daughter sold for a sum
rumored to be in the seven figure range, after a 12-bidder
auction. Author Angeline Boulley, an enrolled member of
the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, was repre-
sented by Faye Bender at the Book Group, who sold North
American rights in a two-book deal, to Tiffany Liao at Henry
Holt Books for Young Readers. Liao
described the novel as an “indigenous
Veronica Mars”; in it, the teenage
heroine, who is of mixed heritage
and lives near her local reservation,
witnesses a murder, changing the
course of her life. The crime, as
Bender explained in her pitch letter,
forces her to “choose between saving
those she loves, helping the FBI, and
protecting the tribal community.”■ Ruhl’s ‘Smile’ Goes to
S&S for Seven Figures
At Simon & Schuster, Marysue Rucci
paid a rumored seven figures for a
memoir by Pulitzer-nominated play-
wright Sarah Ruhl (The Clean House)
titled Smile. William Morris Endeavor’s
Dorian Karchmar sold North Amer-
ican rights to the book, which chroni-
cles the author’s contraction of Bell’s
palsy and the aftermath of living with
the condition (which causes paralysis on one side of the face).
Comparing the title to memoirs such as Maggie Nelson’s The
Argonauts, S&S said the book is “an illness narrative” that
also explores “the nature of femininity and smiling.”■ Jean’s ‘Tokyo’ Draws
Seven Figures
Flatiron Books’ Sarah Barley pre-
empted Emiko Jean’s YA novel Tokyo
Ever After for seven figures, avoiding
a potential 10-house auction with the
bid. The North American rights
agreement, for the novel and a
planned sequel, was brokered by
Joelle Hobeika, Sara Shandler and
Josh Bank at Alloy Entertainment on behalf of Erin Harris©^ TONYCH
ARUVASTRABoulleyRuhlJean12 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ OCTOBER 14, 2019