Fobbit's going global!

Something I haven't talked about here at the blog is the fact that Fobbit is about to leave the shores of America and head over to Great Britain.  I'm pleased to announce that Harvill Secker will release Fobbit (in hardcover!) in the UK on April 4.  Harvill Secker is an imprint of Vintage Books (which is itself a division of Random House) and, in its various incarnations over the years, has published George Orwell, Günter Grass, J.M. Coetzee, José Saramago, Haruki Murakami,  Richard Ford, Peter Matthiessen, and Raymond Carver.  Heady company, indeed!

I'm especially fond of the UK cover with its sly humor (the "I [heart] Powerpoint" button) and its direct homage to M*A*S*H. Thank you, Harvill Secker, for putting my book in such a beautiful package!

Earlier this week, the Guardian was kind enough to mention Fobbit in a podcast about books to watch for in 2013.  Click here to hear that podcast (Fobbit gets its mention around the 7:00 mark).

And speaking of the UK....British audiobook rights to Fobbit recently sold to AudioGo.  No word on whether or not they'll record a new version or use the one from Tantor Audio (of which AudioFile advised: "Don’t listen to this novel while driving.  Abrams’s laugh-out-loud satire of the war in Iraq will have you putting your life and license in jeopardy.  David Drummond’s voicing is superb, down to the lousy faux-British accent adopted by one of the American officers.")

I'm also pleased to announce that Italian publisher Bompiani has made an offer to buy rights to Fobbit.  What's especially cool is that Bompiani previously published Catch-22 (translated by Remo Ceserani).  In Italy, Joseph Heller's novel was called Comma 22.

I'm very keen to see how the rest of the world receives Staff Sergeant Chance Gooding, Captain Abe Shrinkle and Lieutenant Colonel Eustace Harkleroad.  This should be a fun year!