Publishers Weekly - March 7, 2016

Number 10

ISSN 0000-0019

March 7,

2016

20 Books in Spanish

We talk with Raquel Roque, who returned to Cuba recently as part of a U.S. publishing mission to the Havana International Book Fair.

Roque runs a wholesale and distribution company in Miami, which began as a bookstore in Havana started by her father. Plus, we survey new children’s and YA books from Cuban writers.

30 Fast-Growing Indie Presses

The independent publishers that made our fast-growing list this year are a mix of veterans and newcomers.

36 Elizabeth Brundage

The author tells us about All Things Cease to Appear, her fourth novel. The book is about a man living in upstate New York in 1979

who is suspected of killing his wife.

NEWS

7 B&N’s Next Act

Cutting Nook, revamping bn.com, and opening concept stores are priorities for the retailer for fiscal 2017.

8 Hachette, Ingram Split Perseus’s Businesses

Perseus signed binding agreements last week to sell its publishing business to Hachette and its distribution arm to Ingram.

8 The Weekly Scorecard

Unit sales of print books rose 5% in the week ended February 28, compared to the similar week last year.

13 Checking In with New Booksellers

In the past three years, 58 independent bookstores have come under new ownership; we checked in with six to see how they’re faring.

Everybody’s Fool

Richard Russo. Knopf, $27.95 (496p) ISBN 978-0-307-27064-1

When Doug Raymer, chief of police of the forlornly depressed town of North Bath, Maine, falls into an open grave during a funeral service, it is only the first of many farcical and grisly incidents in Russo’s shaggy dog story of revenge and redemption. Among the comical set pieces that propel the narrative are a poisonous snakebite, a falling brick wall, and a stigmatalike hand injury. North Bath, as readers of Nobody’s Fool will remember, is the home of Sully Sullivan, the hero of the previous book and also a character here. Self-conscious, self-deprecating, and convinced he’s everybody’s fool, Raymer is obsessed with finding the man his late wife was about to run off with when she fell down the stairs and died. He’s convinced that the garage door opener he found in her car will lead him to her lover’s home. Meanwhile, he pursues an old feud with Sully; engages in repartee with his clever assistant and her twin brother; and tries to arrest a sociopath whose preferred means of communication are his fists. The remaining circle of ne’er-do-wells, ex-cons, daily drunks, deadbeats, and thieves behave badly enough to keep readers chuckling. The give-and-take of rude but funny dialogue is Russo’s trademark, as is his empathy for down-and-outers on the verge of financial calamity.

He takes a few false steps, such as giving Raymer a little voice in his head named Dougie, but clever plot twists end the novel on lighthearted note. 250,000-copy announced first printing.