MOVIE DEALS
INTERNATIONAL
DEALS● The just-released thriller by
Michele Campbell, A Stranger on
the Beach (St. Martin’s), has been
optioned by Anonymous Content.
The publisher said that the produc-
tion/management firm “outbid
multiple players in a competitive
situation.” PW, in its review, called
the novel an “engrossing, if flawed,
thriller.”
● Lisa Taddeo’s Three Women
(released by Avid Reader earlier
this month) has been optioned by
Showtime after a bidding war. The
nonfiction book, which follows
three women and their desires
and relationships, will be adapted
and executive produced by
Taddeo.● Egypt-based Al Arabi Publishing
bought Arabic world rights to two
novels by Basque author Harakaitz
Cano. Twist (2011) and Blade of
Light (2004) were acquired in the
deal, which was brokered by
Spain-based SalmaiaLit. (Twist
was published in the U.S. in 2018
by Archipelago Books; Blade of
Light is available in the U.S. from
University of Nebraska Press.)
● The Finnish novel My Friend
Natalia by Laura Lindstedt has
been acquired in Holland by De
Bezige Bij. The deal follows a
number of international sales
for the title, with deals having
closed in (among other territories)
Hungary, Italy, and Sweden. The
Elina Ahlbäck Literary Agency
handles foreign rights.©^ J
AMI
E^ S
MED
Deals
not yet have a firm release date. After preemptively declining a potential White
House invitation during the World Cup, Rapinoe became a target of President
Trump on Twitter. The attention prompted her to espouse some of the issues she
has championed throughout her career, such as gay rights and equal pay for
women athletes. To that end, the adult book, Penguin said,
will be “a perfect vehicle for an honest, thoughtful, unapolo-
getic, idealistic discussion of women, social justice, role
models, gay issues, nationalism, and even a little soccer.”
Ann Godoff at Penguin Press struck the agreement with
Dan Levy at Wasserman. The children’s title will be pub-
lished by Razorbill.■ Mah’s ‘NYT’ Travel Piece Becomes a
Jackie O. Novel
William Morrow’s Kate Nintzel acquired North American
rights to Ann Mah’s Jacqueline in Paris. The novel is
expanded from “A Year in Paris That Transformed Jacqueline
Kennedy Onassis,” an article by the author that ran in the
Travel section of the New York Times on June 23. The piece
focuses on 1949, when a 20-year-old Jacqueline Bouvier
was simply “a college student boarding a ship to spend her
junior year abroad.” The new novel by the author of The Lost
Vintage will, Morrow said, be a “coming-of-age story” about
a city that “would offer Jackie inspiration and intellectual
refuge for the rest of her life.” Mah was represented by
Deborah Schneider at Gelfman Schneider/ICM Partners.■ HarperTeen Hears Medema’s ‘Truth’
After a four-house auction, Jessica MacLeish at HarperTeen
won world English rights to Dante Medema’s debut novel,
The Truth Project. The YA work, acquired for six figures, is
set for summer 2020. Louise Fury at the Bent Agency
represented Medema and said Truth follows the rupture that
occurs after an Alaska high schooler discovers, via a gene-
alogy project, that her biological father is not the man who
raised her. Fury said that the “coming-of-age romance tackles the popular trend
of DNA testing and eternal questions about family.” The author, who lives in Alaska
and is on the board of the Alaska Writers Guild, wrote the book, Fury noted, “in
a combined epistolary and verse format.”■ Ballantine Nabs Buzzy U.K. Romance
Following a string of international sales, including a six-figure preempt in
Germany, Hilary Rubin Teeman at Ballantine preempted Eva Carter’s How to
Save a Life. The contemporary romance by the British author, who was repre-
sented by Hellie Ogden at Janklow & Nesbit UK, is about, Ballantine said, “an
aspiring doctor, her long-besotted best friend, and a local soccer player whose
life she saves by performing CPR when he goes into cardiac arrest at a party.”
Teeman took North American rights in a two-book deal.RapinoeMahMedemaWWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 9