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WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 9Author Lands Netflix Series
The work earned a nomination for Italy’s prestigious Strega Prize earlier this year.
It did not make the finalist list but has remained popular.
When the Netflix news broke last month, Distefano’s books had no English
translations. That should change soon. “After the Netflix announcement, I’ve
received great expression of interest,” Canali said. “So I’m following these up.”
(At press time, no U.S. publisher had signed Distefano.)
Zero is part of Netflix’s ongoing strategy to invest in foreign-language proper-
ties that can resonate with global audiences. In a January letter to shareholders,
the streaming company celebrated the global performance of Baby, a show
produced by Rome-based Fabula Pictures, which will also produce the forthcoming
project with Distefano. Netflix noted that 10 million households streamed Baby
in the first four weeks of its release in 2018.
During an interview with PW earlier this year, Kelly Luegenbiehl, v-p of creative
for international originals at Netflix, referenced, without mentioning the novelist
by name, that the streaming service’s (then-unfinalized) deal with Distefano
exemplified this global push. “In the past, the prevailing wisdom would have been
to have everyone speak English in order to make it a more global show,” Luegenbiehl
said. But the executive found that “authentic” foreign-language properties can
resonate with “universal audiences.”
“When I was a little boy, there was much curiosity and ignorance,” Distefano
said. “I was the only black boy, and the frequent questions were: Why are you this
color? Are you made of chocolate?”
Through his self-published and traditionally published work, Distefano said
that he hopes to empower the children of immigrants in Italy. “I show second-
generation children that we are not only how ‘they’ see us, and that they can do
more.” —Jason BoogReaders
Against Youth
Homelessness
Author M.G.
Hennessey, author of
a new middle grade
novel about a group
of foster care kids,
The Echo Park
Castaways (Harper-
Collins), spoke with
teens at the Los
Angeles Public
Library, Robertson
branch, last month, and was joined by YA branch librarian Dan Nishimoto
(holding the LAPL sign). Some of the teens currently work with the Home-
Light Family Living Center on a project related to youth homelessness.AdvertisementXXXXXXXXThe Word of Life Christian Church
in Chadwicks, N.Y., seemed a little
odd, but the upstate town and then the
entire country were shocked by the
2015 beating death of 19-year-old Lucas
Leonard by the congregation, including
his own parents. In her excellent debut,
journalist Ashline details what led to the
murder, the church’s fanatical founder,
his strange death, and the succession
of his daughter, who infl icted bizarre
emotional and verbal abuse on her
congregation. One method of control
was through threatening action for any
sexual misconduct, which spiraled into
allegations of child abuse against Leonard
and his 17-year-old brother, Chris. When
locked in the church and confronted by
the pastor, the pastor’s family, and the
boys’ parents, they were beaten and
whipped until they “confessed” to their
sins. Even then, the abuse went on for
hours, until Lucas was left for dead.
Ashline then follows the trials of nine
members of the cult and details the
mounds of evidence against them. Most
were defi ant, though after one defendant
received a lengthy prison sentence, the
rest agreed to pleas for shorter jail time.
In the end, only Lucas’s father seems to
realize the how and why of the tragedy
and accepts his own guilt in a jailhouse
letter written to the author. Meticulously
researched, this is a gripping account,
but it’s not for the faint-hearted. Agent:
Lane Heymont, Tobias Literary Agency/
Seymour Agency Partners. (Aug.)
—Publishers Weekly
July 15, 2019
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