Archives par étiquette : The Gernert Company

OPTIONAL PRACTICAL TRAINING de Shubha Sunder

A novel in varied conversations, this sharp, nuanced debut follows a young Bangalorean woman as she begins life after college in post-9/11 America, seeking to define a place for herself amid the daily, often unwitting attempts of those who would define it for her.

OPTIONAL PRACTICAL TRAINING
by Shubha Sunder
Graywolf Press, Winter 2025
(via The Gernert Company)

It’s 2006 in Cambridge, Mass., and Pavitra wants a room with a view, a place where she will feel free and able to write the novel she began during her last year at a small college in the leafy suburbs of Philadelphia. She has taken a job as a physics teacher at a wealthy private school and lives with the elderly mother of a local landlord whose rented apartments are just beyond her reach. The conversations with the people she encounters over the course of the next year, while she is in Optional Practical Training status (a visa category for international students who want to stay an additional twelve months after graduation), stir her awareness of assumptions—about who belongs and who does not—and categories both racial and cultural that barely registered in her earlier life, though now she finds them everywhere, including in herself.
Among the people who shape Pavitra’s days are students who, along with their parents, expect to be spoon-fed and promised success; a college roommate now in law school, as welcoming and unaware as ever; a young Indian cousin who shows up in the middle of winter in slippery shoes; her landlord, bombastic and understanding in equal measure, not at all what he seems. Pavitra rarely speaks about herself, but we readers see and feel, through her interactions with others, the formation of her identity as a young woman, immigrant, teacher, and writer.
Building on Indian traditions of oral storytelling and in dialogue with novels like Rachel Cusk’s Outline and Anna Burns’s Milkman, OPTIONAL PRACTICAL TRAINING expands the discussion of how America frames collective and individual identity, enriching our awareness of the kinds of space we leave for one another as we move through our lives. A trenchant meditation on the dream of “home” – its pull and its distortions – OPTIONAL PRACTICAL TRAINING carries us into internal worlds hitherto unseen, marking a singular voice in American fiction.

Shubha Sunder’s first book, Boomtown Girl, a collection of short stories set in her hometown of Bangalore, India, won the St. Lawrence Book Award and is forthcoming in April 2023 from Black Lawrence Press. Stories from this collection have appeared in The Common, Narrative Magazine, Slice, and other journals, and were shortlisted for The Best American Short Stories. Awards in support of her work include a Massachusetts Cultural Council grant, a City of Boston Artist Fellowship, and scholarships from the Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers’ Conferences as well as the Corporation of Yaddo. She lives in Boston with her family.

THE NIGHT GUEST de Hildur Knútsdóttir

An eerie and ensnaring speculative novel by an acclaimed Icelandic author.

THE NIGHT GUEST
by Hildur Knútsdóttir
Translated into English by Mary Robinette Kowal
Tor, January 2024
(via The Gernert Company)

Iðunn is in yet another doctor’s office. She knows her constant fatigue is a sign that something’s not right, but practitioners dismiss her symptoms and blood tests haven’t revealed any cause.
When she talks to friends and family about it, the refrain is the same — have you tried eating better? exercising more? establishing a nighttime routine? She tries to follow their advice, buying everything from vitamins to sleeping pills to a step-counting watch. Nothing helps.
Until one night Iðunn falls asleep with the watch on, and wakes up to find she’s walked over 40,000 steps in the night . . .
What is happening when she’s asleep? Why is she waking up with increasingly disturbing injuries? And why won’t anyone believe her?

“THE NIGHT GUEST is evocative and powerfully restrained. At times chilling, at others harrowingly familiar, THE NIGHT GUEST is a fascinating examination of femininity, agency, and self, and a genuinely heart-pounding read.”—Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six

Hildur Knútsdóttir was born in Reykjavík, Iceland. She has lived in Spain, Germany, and Taiwan and studied literature and creative writing at The University of Iceland. She writes fiction both for adults and teenagers, as well as short fiction, plays, and screenplays. Hildur is known for her evocative fantastical fiction and spine-chilling horror. She lives in Reykjavík with her husband, their two daughters, and a puppy called Uggi.

IMPOSTER SYNDROME AND OTHER CONFESSIONS OF ALEJANDRA KIM de Patricia Park

The award-winning author of Re Jane makes her young adult debut in a funny, poignant, and powerful novel about a multicultural teen struggling to fit into her whitewashed school, her diverse Queens neighborhood, and even her own home as her family reels from the loss of her father.

IMPOSTER SYNDROME AND OTHER CONFESSIONS OF ALEJANDRA KIM
by Patricia Park
Crown Books for Young Readers, February 2023
(via The Gernert Company)

Alejandra Kim doesn’t feel like she belongs anywhere. At her wealthy Manhattan high school, her súper Spanish name and súper Korean face do not compute to her mostly white « woke » classmates and teachers. In her Jackson Heights neighborhood, she’s not Latinx enough. Even at home, Ale feels unwelcome. And things at home have only gotten worse since Papi’s body was discovered on the subway tracks.
Ale wants nothing more than to escape the city for the wide-open spaces of the prestigious Wyder University. But when a microaggression at school thrusts Ale into the spotlight—and into a discussion she didn’t ask for—Ale must discover what is means to carve out a space for yourself to belong.
Patricia Park’s coming-of-age novel about a multicultural teen caught between worlds, and the future she is building for herself, is an incisive, laugh-out-loud, provocative read.

“…A dazzling YA debut…that is deep, real and scathingly funny.” —Gayle Forman, New York Times best-selling author of If I Stay.

“…brimming with insights while being un-put-downable and just plain fun. Simply brilliant!” —David Yoon, New York Times best-selling author of Frankly In Love

“Park’s work paints an educational but entertaining portrait of what it is like to be a person of color in today’s world…. [A] fantastic read.” —School Library Journal, starred review

“[An] entertaining, well-paced story…. Ale is a thoroughly appealing protagonist.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Alejandra’s powerful story will leave readers with much to think about.” —The Horn Book

“This humor-infused tale poignantly captures one teenager’s experience learning to stand up for what she believes in.” —Publishers Weekly

Patricia Park is an assistant professor of creative writing at American University, a Fulbright Scholar in Creative Arts, a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, and the author of the acclaimed adult novel Re Jane. The Korean American reimagining of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre was named an Editors’ Choice by the New York Times Book Review; a Best Book of 2015 by the American Library Association; an O, The Oprah Magazine pick; and an NPR « Fresh Air » pick, among other honors. Her writing has also appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Guardian, Salon, and others. Patricia lives in Brooklyn, NY.

THIS BIRD HAS FLOWN de la musicienne Susanna Hoffs bientôt adapté au cinéma

Universal Pictures a fait l’acquisition des droits d’adaptation de la comédie romantique THIS BIRD HAS FLOWN, écrite par Susanna Hoffs. Les productrices Liza Chasin et Bruna Papandrea (Anatomy of a Scandal) travailleront ensemble sur le projet.

Pionnière dans le monde très masculin du rock, Susanna Hoffs est surtout connue comme cofondatrice du groupe The Bangles, qu’elle a formé en 1981 avec Debbi et Vicki Peterson. Elles ont sorti une série de singles qui ont rencontré un grand succès, notamment « Manic Monday », « Walk Like an Egyptian », « Hazy Shade of Winter » et « Eternal Flame ».

« Je suis passionnée de fiction, de cinéma et de musique depuis toujours, et j’ai réalisé un de mes rêves en écrivant ce livre », a déclaré Susanna Hoffs. « Pendant que j’écrivais THIS BIRD HAS FLOWN, la bande originale se remplissait de chansons ; je visualisais l’action et l’enchaînement des dialogues comme si j’étais en train de regarder un film dans ma tête. Le fait de pouvoir adapter le livre à l’écran est la cerise sur le gâteau de cette joyeuse expérience. » Susanna Hoffs a d’ailleurs concocté une playlist Spotify des chansons qui lui trottaient dans la tête pendant l’écriture du roman. (Lire l’article de Deadline pour plus d’informations.)

Les droits de langue française sont toujours disponibles.
Vous pouvez retrouver la présentation complète du roman ici.

 

 

THIS BIRD HAS FLOWN de Susanna Hoffs

A delightfully funny and romantic debut novel from Susanna Hoffs, celebrated performer and co-founder of The Bangles, that is « part British romcom, part Jane Eyre, and one hundred percent enjoyable » (Tom Perrotta)..

THIS BIRD HAS FLOWN
by Susanna Hoffs
Little, Brown, Spring 2023
(via The Gernert Company)

Music. Fate. Redemption. Love. Jane Start is thirty-three, broke, and recently single. Ten years prior, she had a hit song—written by world-famous superstar Jonesy—but Jane hasn’t had a breakout since. Now she’s living out of four garbage bags at her parents’ house, reduced to performing to Karaoke tracks in Las Vegas. Rock bottom.
But when her longtime manager Pippa sends Jane to London to regroup, she’s seated next to an intriguing stranger on the flight—the other Tom Hardy, an elegantly handsome Oxford professor of literature. Jane is instantly smitten by Tom, and soon, truly inspired. But it’s not Jane’s past alone that haunts her second chance at stardom, and at love. Is Tom all that he seems? And can Jane emerge from the shadow of Jonesy’s earlier hit, and into the light of her own?
In turns deeply sexy, riotously funny, and utterly joyful, THIS BIRD HAS FLOWN explores love, passion, and the ghosts of our past, and offers a glimpse inside the music business that could only come from beloved songwriter Susanna Hoffs.

« In this sexy, page-turning treat, Susanna Hoffs writes as engagingly as she sings.” —Helen Fielding, author of the bestselling sensation Bridget Jones’s Diary
“A little bit romance, a little bit rock-and-roll—this isn’t just a book, it’s a love song, and it should come as no surprise that Susanna Hoffs has crafted the perfect one to put on your playlist.” ―Christina Lauren, New York Times bestselling author of The Unhoneymooners
“A tender, funny, love story wrapped in a guitar-jamming rock-and-roll cloak. I haven’t had this much fun reading a book in a long, long time. » ―Jessica Anya Blau, author of Mary Jane

Boasting one of pop’s most beloved voices, Susanna Hoffs graduated from U.C. Berkeley with a degree in Art. In 1981 she co-founded The Bangles, with whom she recorded and released a string of chart-topping singles including “Manic Monday” (written by Prince), “Walk Like an Egyptian,” “Hazy Shade of Winter,” and “Eternal Flame” (co-written by Susanna), before embarking on a critically acclaimed solo career. She also wrote, recorded music for, and appeared in the Austin Powers movies, and played herself on Season 1 of “The Gilmore Girls.” This Bird Has Flown is her first novel. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, filmmaker Jay Roach.