Archives par étiquette : David Black Literary Agency

OUR GREATEST WORK de Sam & Joe Eichner

A first-of-its-kind novel about identical twins barreling toward an epic showdown at their ten-year high school reunion—cowritten by identical twins.

OUR GREATEST WORK
by Sam & Joe Eichner
Akashic Books, November 2026
(via David Black Literary)

OUR GREATEST WORK opens with a panic attack, a celebrity cameo, and an antique gun: Joe, an actor, is traveling from Paris to Chicago for his ten-year high school reunion, where he plans to confront his twin brother Sam, a writer.

In alternating chapters from each twin’s point of view—Joe writing as Joe, Sam as Sam—we learn of the slights that started, then prolonged, their confounding estrangement. There’s the fateful high school production of Rent. An illicit affair set to Death Cab for Cutie. A pathetic act of violence in a Florentine study-abroad apartment. All the while, a mysterious (if idiotic) childhood friend is pulling strings from behind the scenes, his motivations troublingly obscure . . .

As the reunion draws near, a tragicomic series of events conspire to bring the brothers’ artistic and romantic entanglements to the fore. In a Parent Trap-esque twist, Joe and Sam switch places, albeit to less-than-heartwarming results. When our protagonists finally collide at the reunion on the banks of Lake Michigan, they’re forced to answer an inevitable question: Can either of us truly live while the other is still alive?

Inspired as much by Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet as ’90s sex comedies, the Eichners’ novel is at once a moving portrait of brotherhood, an antic satire of the entertainment industry, and a profound exploration of what it means to be an original when your very existence threatens to make you redundant.

Sam Eichner’s stories have been published in Cleveland Review of Books, Joyland Magazine, and Blunderbuss Magazine. His essays and reportage have appeared in Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and the Daily Beast, among other outlets. He currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife and cat.

Joe Eichner’s stories have been published in Jewish Currents, the Barcelona Review, and the Brooklyn Review, among others. He earned his MFA in fiction at UMass Amherst and was a resident at Tent: a creative writing program for Jewish writers at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst. He currently lives in Manhattan with his wife and dog.

LEARNER de Trevor Ragan

You only need one skill to survive a rapidly changing world—the ability to learn new ones.

LEARNER:
How To Get Better at Getting Better
by Trevor Ragan
with Samantha Rose
W.W. Norton, Fall 2027
(via David Black Literary)

Trevor Ragan, Founder of The Learner Lab, has spent years extensively engaging with experts on a multitude of topics. Through his natural curiosity, he’s uncovered how we learn, what gets in our way, and how we can get better at it. The result? Three key takeaways.

— Learning itself is a skill—which means we can get better at it.
— Getting better at learning will benefit anyone in any environment.
— Learning is the answer to mostly everything.

Having hosted over a thousand workshops, from Fortune-500 companies to universities to prisons, his extensive research has turned complex conversations with psychologists and neuroscientists into simple, actionable steps. The tactics he teaches are broadly applicable.

Through LEARNER, Ragan shares his message with the wider world for the first time. Accessible in tone, vivid in anecdote, and exhilarating in its wisdom, LEARNER fits perfectly into an immensely popular space in the book market. Learner speaks to readers hungry to improve themselves with generous energy and a holistic approach to the art of learning.

Trevor Ragan is the founder of The Learner Lab—an educational website designed to unpack and share the science of learning and development. He spends his time with thought leaders and researchers from the worlds of psychology and developmental science, consumes their research, connects the dots, and shares it with anyone that will listen. He’s worked with professional, college, and olympic sports teams, Fortune 50 companies, prisons, and in hundreds of schools across the country. These workshops are designed to help people understand and apply important principles of development, in order to become better, more resilient learners.

THE INVISIBLE HAND OF MARIA EDGEWORTH de Jeanna Smialek

The untold story of the nineteenth-century novelist who outearned Jane Austen and wove provocative theories into her fiction—changing economics forever.

THE INVISIBLE HAND OF MARIA EDGEWORTH:
How a Nineteenth-Century Novelist Taught the World Economics
by Jeanna Smialek
Knopf, October2026
(via David Black Agency)

At the end of the eighteenth century, Europe faced revolutions, famine, and war. It was out of this chaos that the field of economics was born—and while that founding has for centuries been attributed almost entirely to men, they were only part of the story. 

Maria Edgeworth, known to her contemporaries as “the Great Maria,” was one of the most important authors of the Regency era, envied by Lord Byron, admired by Jane Austen, and read avidly by the British royalty. But she was more than just a novelist and a society fixture: She was also a covert economist, working just after Adam Smith and alongside her friends David Ricardo and Thomas Malthus. As the earliest economists established their philosophies on production and investment, Edgeworth published dozens of stories, many with lessons on finance, society, and trade tucked into their plots. Through her fiction, Edgeworth delivered new ideas to a broader public, stretching the boundaries of what a woman of her time could achieve and captivating an empire in the process.

Here, her tale is told alongside those of the men—and women—who invented a field that would reshape our world. Lively and original, The Invisible Hand of Maria Edgeworth brings this astonishing woman and her world vividly to life and rewrites the origin story of modern economics.

“Whoever thought economics could be such a joy to read? Maria Edgeworth may have written the novels, but Jeanna Smialek’s book brings them—and their world—to life. Take a fascinating voyage with Ricardo, Malthus, and Maria, from the age of the American, French, and Industrial revolutions to the Great Irish Famine, and learn some economics along the way.” —Claudia Goldin, Nobel Prize laureate in Economics and author of Career and Family: Women’s Century-Long Journey Toward Equity

“Revelatory and riveting—an original perspective on the history of economic thought that will change how you see today’s economy, and a pleasure to read from start to finish.” —Jason Furman, Professor of Economics at Harvard University and Former Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers

Jeanna Smialek is the Brussels bureau chief at The New York Times. She has covered economic policy in one way or another since 2013, and is the author of Limitless, a book on the history and future of the Federal Reserve. She has previously written for Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Businessweek. A native of Pittsburgh, Smialek has spent most of her career in New York City and Washington, D.C., and now lives in Belgium with her husband.

MAGGIE MAYBE de Stephanie Webb

A coming-of-middle-age novel about two women who get a second chance to rewrite their lives—only to discover that their real stories were never flawed, just unfinished. For readers of Emma Straub and Catherine Newman.

MAGGIE MAYBE
by Stephanie Webb
Gallery, Summer 2027
(via David Black Agency)

When thirty-nine-year-old Maggie Mabey reads the opening of a novel-in-progress by her favorite author Savannah Greenstem, she is stunned to find her own life playing out on the page. She passes out and wakes up in an alternate reality where all her professional aspirations have come true: she’s a bookstore owner and a successful author, just as she’d always dreamed of being. The only problem? Her kids don’t exist. And her husband? He’s never heard of her.

Even though sixty-two-year old Savannah Greenstem has written dozens of books, she’s barely typed a word since the death of her late husband five years ago. But her writers block isn’t due to a broken heart; instead, she’s wrecked by the realization that she was never really in love with him in the first place. Years ago, she’d given up the great love of her life—Wilder Sinclair—to become the successful writer she was destined to be. Although she doesn’t exactly regret her choices, she does long for the life she might have had. But now, in this alternate world she’s found herself in, she and Wilder are together and it’s so much better than she could have imagined.

Desperate to return to the life she had before, Maggie finds Savannah and tries to convince her to rewrite her story. But Savannah doesn’t want to leave her own fantasy, even if it means keeping Maggie here against her will. As Maggie’s and Savannah’s fictional lives unravel—and entangle—in unexpected and delightful ways, they each must confront what they’ve been running from, ultimately discovering that the stories we tell ourselves can either trap us or, if we pay attention, give us the insight we need to remake our lives.

Stephanie Webb is a graduate of The Book Incubator and works as the marketing director for the program alongside authors Mary Adkins and Rufi Thorpe (who will certainly blurb). She earned her BA in English Literature and her MS in Holistic Nutrition. She was a finalist for the Women’s Fiction Writers’ Association Rising Star Award and has a growing social media platform with almost 14,000 Instagram followers.

BURNOUT de Michael Cooper

A debut literary novel about a down-on-his-luck former detective in LA whose most famous case comes back to haunt him.

BURNOUT
by Michael Cooper
Range Literary Publishing, 2027
(via David Black Literary)

Former Detective James Rivers—JR to his friends—has long left behind his career. He has surfed off into the easy life: hiding out in an Airstream with an ocean view, downing one glittering-green Midori after another, caring for his bulldog and his old man, taking each L.A. day as it comes. But when he learns that convicted murderer Dylan Turner has been let out of prison, a lock unlatches in his brain. He has always known—hasn’t he?—that something wasn’t right with that case, but he never figured Dylan would go free. Was his most famous case his worst mistake? And if so, how will he protect the brother who betrayed Dylan? And how will JR save himself if Dylan comes for him? Pressed back into action by his old-partner-turned-chief-of-police, JR is teamed up with Brittany Charles, a young detective with an unflinching sense of justice and no patience for a has-been’s hesitation. As new victims of brutal murder surface, JR and Britt realize that the clock is ticking.

BURNOUT is the vivid and absorbing story of a man who must face his worst mistakes and discover what’s on the other side. A detective story for our moment, this tale centers on an unruly and vulnerable man, a tarnished knight with a heart that’s been chipped and cracked but not shattered, a man tiptoeing towards sobriety and a more honest life. Fueled by day-glo dialogue, brilliantly vivid humor, one-of-a-kind characters, and vast quantities of heart, BURNOUT is a raw and blistering ballad—about ancient mistakes and lingering regrets, about violence and what crawls beneath it, but also about the life-saving possibilities of empathy, hope, and love.