DEAL OF THE WEEK
DEALS
By Rachel Deahl■ Alvarez Reemerges at Algonquin
After almost 15 years without a new book, Julia Alvarez sold North American
rights to a novel titled Afterlife to her longtime publisher, Algonquin Books.
Alvarez is the author of bestsellers including How the
Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (1991) and In the Time of
Butterflies (1994); the latter, per Algonquin (which pub-
lished both novels), has sold more than one million copies.
Algonquin’s Amy Gash brokered the agreement with Stuart
Bernstein at Stuart Bernstein Representation for Artists.
Scheduled for April 2020, Afterlife, the publisher said, is
“a luminous look inside the mind of a literature professor,
an immigrant trying to rediscover who she is after the
sudden death of her husband.”■ Berman’s ‘Men’ Land at Audible
In an audio-only deal, Jessica Almon Galland at Audible
acquired Alice Berman’s I Eat Men Like Air for the company’s
Originals program. Stephen Barbara at Inkwell Manage-
ment, who represented Berman, said the story follows
seven 20-somethings gathered in New Hampshire for the
impending nuptials of two of their friends. Barbara elabo-
rated that the work, which is told in “dual timelines” in
the months leading up to the wedding, “is a riveting look
at the unraveling of a friend group punctured by violence,
and a chilling look at the rage that festers when it’s kept
secret.” Audible will release the audiobook on September- Berman, whose novel Lost Boys and Technicolor Girls
is in development at cable TV channel Freeform (but has
not yet sold to a publisher), won the Gibson Peacock Award
for creative nonfiction from her alma mater, University of
Pennsylvania.
■ Mansbach’s ‘Brother’ to One World
Chris Jackson at One World nabbed world rights to Adam
Mansbach’s I Had a Brother Once, which the Penguin
Random House imprint described as an “epic poem” about the suicide of the
author’s brother. Mansbach, author of the 2008 novel The End of the Jews
(Random/Spiegel & Grau) and the million-copy-selling 2011 children’s book spoof
Go the F**k to Sleep (Akashic), was represented by Richard Abate at 3Arts;
Abate sold the book in an exclusive submission. One World, elaborating on
Brother, called it “an insightful meditation on the mysteries of grief, loss, mortality,
and the inner lives of the people we love the most.”■ Zweig’s Branding Book to Sounds True
Diane Ventimiglia at Sounds True won a four-house auction for world rights to
Jessica Zweig’s Be: A No Bullsh*t Guide to Increasing Your Self Worth and Net©^ BILL^EIC
HN
ER©^
MATTHEW^ KAPLANAlvarezBermanMansbach10 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ AUGUST 5, 2019
News
D
ufour Editions will cease its dis-
tribution operations on October
1 and transfer its existing distri-
bution business to the Casemate
Group. Returns will be accepted until
December 31. Dufour Editions will
continue to publish under its own
imprint, with global distribution to be
handled by Casemate. The new agree-
ment with Dufour makes Casemate
the largest distributor of Celtic books in
North America, and the company said
it is adding a digital marketing posi-
tion to accommodate its new clients.
To date, 15 publishers have trans-
ferred from Dufour to Casemate. The
publishers join Casemate’s present
Irish, Scottish, and Welsh distribution
clients. All the new publishers will be
in the Casemate group of clients cover-
ing history, fiction, religion, current
events, poetry, humor, travel, children’s
books, and cookbooks.
Dufour, which is based in Chester
Springs, Pa., will cease to take orders
for the affected lists on October 1, at
which point stock will transfer to Books
International, Casemate’s warehouse
partner in Dulles, Va.
“Based on Casemate’s philosophy,
their hands-on level of service including
marketing and publicity for their pub-
lishing clients, as well as recommenda-
tions from existing long-term clients,
and their reputation with customers,
we felt that Casemate was the right
choice for Dufour and our clients,” said
Christopher May, managing director of
Dufour Editions, in a statement. “There
is a like-mindedness that made me feel
comfortable and assured that this was
the right decision for us.”—John MaherDufour’s
Distribution
To Casemate