Archives par étiquette : The Friedrich Agency

SALT WATER BLOOD de Manuia Heinrich

Inspired by the impact of France’s nuclear tests on the people of Mā‘ohi Nui, SALT WATER BLOOD is a YA thriller set on an alternate Polynesian island for fans of Angeline Boulley’s Firekeeper’s Daughter and Disney’s Moana.

SALT WATER BLOOD
by Manuia Heinrich
Simon & Schuster, 2026
(via The Friedrich Agency)

Eighteen-year-old Moe hears the sea’s prophetic thoughts. Correction: Moe doesn’t just hear them—the sea makes Moe feel them. This is how Moe learned years ago that her father would drown and her mother would abandon her and her younger brother, Tao. So, when the sea warns that Tao will follow their father’s fate, Moe is determined to secure them a way off the island. All those plans fall a part when Tao’s girlfriend is then found dead and Tao is blamed.

As incriminating evidence piles up, Moe will do all she can to protect the only family she has left, even if it means swallowing her pride and teaming up with her archenemy Temanea. Even if it means relying on the sea and its prophecies—because her dreaded gift might be the only way to stop the killer.

Manuia Heinrich holds a PhD in Pacific Studies and is the co-founder of APIpit and Pacific Islanders in Publishing. She is a We Need Diverse Books mentee, and was selected for the Write Mentor and New Zealand Society of Authors program. She currently lives in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

HONEY IN THE WOUND de Jiyoung Han

Spanning ninety years as one Korean family’s lives are upended under Japanese imperialism, HONEY IN THE WOUND is a powerful and sweeping debut novel for fans of How Much of These Hills is Gold and Homegoing.

HONEY IN THE WOUND
by Jiyoung Han
Avid Reader Press, April 2026
(via The Friedrich Agency)

A daughter disappears and returns as a tiger. A mother’s voice compels those who hear it to speak only the truth. A granddaughter can see the dreams of others, revealing their deepest-held memories and desires.

Young-Ja struggles to survive after her family is killed by Japanese soldiers. The gift that once brought her comfort and joy—the ability to infuse her cooking with her feelings: love, peace, delight—transforms into something more complex as she encounters the ravages of colonialism and can’t keep the tang of her sorrow from seeping into her confections. When her talent is noticed by a Korean resistance fighter, she’s taken to Manchuria where she becomes enmeshed in a network of spies at a teahouse favored by Japanese officials.

Jiyoung Han is a Korean American woman who only learned as an adult about her grandparents’ experience under Japanese rule. She’s since committed to studying this history, in part for her BA at UChicago and Master’s at Harvard. Her debut novel is an attempt to bring this history to life for more readers and to make amends for the ignorance /of her youth.

NYPMH de Sofia Montrone

NYMPH pairs Call Me by Your Name with the precise, elevated prose of Elena Ferrante. Sofia Montrone’s debut revels in the exuberant highs and awkward lows of girlhood, set to the backdrop of rural Lombardy.

NYPMH
by Sofia Montrone
Avid Reader Press, publication date TBD
(via The Friedrich Agency)

Leo spends her mornings tidying the rooms of her Nonna Tina’s timeworn Italian agriturismo, carefully accumulating the curious leftbehind detritus from guests—a pearl earring, a lock of hair. At night, she gathers the stories that flow from her father’s lips—liquor-spun tales of Odysseus and the Trojans in secret battle. When an accident rips the gentle membrane of Leo’s childhood, she is left vulnerable to the pains and pleasures of growing up.

Years later, in a sultry summer not unlike the many that came before, the agriturismo is the only thing that remains the same. Nonna Tina has grown older, Leo’s brother Max is intractable and mercurial, and the curiosity Leo so loved to feed as a child has turned into something more confusing. When she meets Dolores, an American girl, she can’t help but gather all the experiences first love promises, while shedding parts of the past she no longer fits into.

Sofia Montrone is as an adjunct assistant professor in Columbia’s Undergraduate Writing Program, served as Editor-in-Chief of The Columbia Review and the Director of Columbia Artist/Teachers.

NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED de Yu-Mei Balasingamchow

Structured as a handful of confessional-style podcast episodes that are by turns suspenseful, outrageous, heart-breaking and poignant, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow’s NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED is that rare novel where an unmistakably literary voice keeps you on the very edge of your seat.

NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED
by Yu-Mei Balasingamchow
Tiny Reparations Books/PRH, publication date TBD
(via The Friedrich Agency)

Ophir isn’t her real name, but she likes it fine for now, and if she’s going to get through this story—the real story of her last 12 years on the run—she’s going to do it on her own terms. This is what our narrator promises as she sets out to broadcast (with the help of a mysterious friend, from an undisclosed location) her tumultuous life as a fugitive, forever estranged from her home and family in Singapore, where it all began. Entrancing her listeners with a tale that transports us from Thailand to Tokyo, and from London to America’s Midwest, it is Ophir’s loneliness and longing for connection that eventually jeopardizes her hard-won freedom. 

Like R.F. Kuang’s YELLOWFACE and Susie Yang’s WHITE IVY, NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED is a stylish, fast-paced story that tests the limits of our ability to empathize with a morally dubious narrator, while also interrogating the idea of a performed self, and what makes an authentic voice. And like Angie Cruz’s HOW NOT TO DROWN IN A GLASS OF WATER, this is a confession that recounts and reframes the complicated paths we take to build a life and a home. Ultimately, it’s an immigrant story… but not the one you expect. 

Yu-Mei Balasingamchow was born and raised in Singapore but now lives in Boston, where she teaches writing workshops (Grub Street) and was for several years a bookseller at Papercuts JP. NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED was written with the support of the Elizabeth George Foundation, and Yu-Mei has previously attended Sewanee (on scholarship), Tin House, and Bread Loaf to workshop her short fiction. Her short stories have won prizes (the Mississippi Review Fiction prize) and special mentions (The Pushcart Prize, Sewanee Review fiction prize, and the Commonwealth Prize in the UK). She received her MFA from Boston University, and this is her debut novel.

THE WEDDING PEOPLE d’Alison Espach bientôt adapté au cinéma

La société de production TriStar Pictures a remporté aux enchères les droits d’adaptation du prochain roman d’Alison Espach, THE WEDDING PEOPLE.

A la réalisation, le duo formé par Will Speck et Josh Gordon (Hit Monkey, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, Blades of Glory, The Switch, Office Christmas Party) adaptera le scénario écrit par Nicole Holofcener (nominée aux Oscars pour le scénario du film Les Faussaires de Manhattan). Les sociétés Speck + Gordon Inc. et Concordia Studio produiront le film en partenariat avec TriStar. (Lire l’article de Deadline)

Dans le roman, Phoebe, à la suite d’une rencontre fortuite dans un ascenseur, se lie d’amitié avec une future mariée et se retrouve invitée à son mariage, ce qui change à jamais le cours de la vie des deux femmes. Le roman sera publié en juillet 2024 par Henry Holt & Co. aux États-Unis.

Les droits de langue française sont toujours disponibles.