The Bookseller.com

2nd December 2008

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Little, Brown wins War Child battle

12.10.07 Katherine Rushton

Little, Brown has triumphed in the auction for the autobiography of child soldier turned hip-hop star Emmanuel Jal. The publisher paid "a strong five-figure sum" for UK rights to War Child: A Boy Soldier's Story, seeing off competition from Macmillan, John Murray and Transworld.

The book will be launched in spring 2009 under the Abacus imprint, and was acquired by commissioning editor Elise Dillsworth from agent Ivan Mulcahy at Mulcahy and Viney.

It will tell the traumatic story of Jal's early years as a child soldier fighting the civil war in Sudan, where he learnt to fire AK47s at the age of eight and contemplated cannibalism to avoid starving to death. He was later smuggled into Kenya, where he has since become a major music star.

Jal has signed a deal with Universal Records and will launch his first global album in February next year. The book has also attracted a pre-emptive offer in Holland, and has sold in Italy and the US, where it fetched $200,000 (£97,860) from St Martin's Press.

The Bookseller Daily at Frankfurt - Day Three

Katherine Rushton Rights deal Little Brown frankfurt War Child