Saturday, February 11, 2012

Book Radar: Lemony Snicket, George Saunders, Michael Chabon



Book Radar rounds up some of the latest publishing deals which have caught my eye, gathered from reports at Publishers Marketplace, Galley Cat, office water-coolers and other places where hands are shaken and promises are made.  As with anything in the fickle publishing industry, dates and titles are subject to change.


In the most happy unfortunate news I've heard in a long time, Galley Cat reports that Lemony Snicket will return to bookstores this October.  Mr. Snicket (aka Daniel Handler) makes his morose way back to the page in a four-book series from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers called All the Wrong Questions which will kick off with Who Could That Be at This Hour?  Best news of all?  Graphic novelist Seth will illustrate the “authorized autobiographical account” of Snicket’s childhood.  While I'll miss Brett Helquist's exquisite renderings of the world of A Series of Unfortunate Events, if anyone had to replace him, my first choice would be Seth.  Here’s more from the Little, Brown release: “Drawing on events that took place during a period of his youth spent in a fading town, far from anyone he knew or trusted, Snicket chronicles his experiences as an apprentice in an organization nobody knows about. While there, he began to ask a series of questions—wrong questions that should not have been on his mind. Who Could That Be at This Hour? is Snicket’s account of the first wrong question.”


Publishers Marketplace reports that George Saunders' Tenth of December, his first story collection in six years, is set for publication by Random House in Fall 2012.  Happy, happy news for fans of CivilWarLand in Bad Decline!


By now, news of Michael Chabon's next novel is as omnipresent as one of his wife's Twitter rants.  But in case you hadn't heard, Telegraph Avenue will be making its appearance sometime this Fall, courtesy of Harper Perennial.  The Huffington Post has a few details and several links to other stories.  It's been described, at various times, as being " a contemporary adult novel set in and around the San Francisco Bay Area," "a 'naturalistic' novel about two families in Berkeley," and a story set in "the shifting restless polycultural territory manifesting in the joint between Oakland and Berkeley."  Whatever the label slapped on the book, I've got one of my own: "PROMISINGLY FANTASTIC."

2 comments:

  1. These certainly look promising. The new Lemony Snickett series should be good with Seth as artist! All in all, there's a lot to look forward to in the publishing industry this year!
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  2. So excited about the Saunders book!

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