Book Radar: Ron Rash, Geraldine Brooks, Rick Moody, Mark Lawrence

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.


1.  From Publishers Lunch comes the announcement of this sale:

Ron Rash's untitled novel, about two brothers who share responsibility for a murder, and a collection of poetry, to Megan Lynch at Ecco.

If it weren't for the Oxford comma, I might have thought this was a single work about two killers who also write poetry. But I assume this is a two-fer deal, which means we'll get a novel and another poetry book from one of my favorite contemporary authors. Here's hoping this new collection follows in the footsteps of his earlier release, Waking, which I particularly enjoyed.

2.  This next novel coming from Geraldine Brooks (author of People of the Book and March) really has me intrigued: Horse, about a famous racehorse and a missing masterpiece, moving from match races in the antebellum South to the salons and paint-spattered studios of the 1950s New York art world at the dawn of abstract expressionism, set as the Civil War ignites, threatening both a beloved horse and an irreplaceable painting. It's forthcoming from Viking....in 2020. In the meantime, Brooks fans can anticipate this Fall's release: The Secret Chord, a novel about Biblical King David's life. Cue "Hallelujah."

3.  Here's another book to put on your long-range radar: Rick Moody's The Long Accomplishment, a new memoir on marriage and love. It will be a month-by-month account of the first year of his second marriage, to artist Laurel Nakadate,  and will be published in 2017.

4.  Finally, of possible interest for those of you who are fans of Nuns With Guns literature comes Red Sister by Mark Lawrence, author of Prince of Thorns. This new one is billed as an "epic fantasy trilogy about a girl of unique abilities who is taken away by an abbess to join an order of fighting nuns" and is scheduled for publication in Spring 2017.