The Bookseller.com

2nd December 2008

Transworld rushes new Sittenfeld

24.09.08

Transworld is rushing out Curtis Sittenfeld's politically topical novel American Wife following its enthusiastic reception in the US this autumn. Originally scheduled for UK publication in February 2009, the book will now be out on 9th October (Doubleday, tpb, £12.99).

American Wife is a fiction but incorporates events from the life of Laura Bush, wife of the outgoing US president George W Bush. In particular, it includes a tragic incident from Bush's youth, where she was involved in a fatal car accident in which the driver of the other vehicle—a childhood classmate—was killed.

In the US, where American Wife was published by Random House in the first week of September, a pre-publication buzz was created online by bloggers and the book debuted at number three on the New York Times bestseller list. It went on to attract a flurry of high-profile print reviews from the likes of Primary Colors author Joe Klein and Joyce Carol Oates.

Transworld senior commissioning editor Katie Espiner said widespread public fascination with the US election had led to publication date being brought forward. "The election has moved to the forefront of everyone's mind and is dominating the news, with Obama and Palin getting people who aren't normally interested in politics glued to the TV. That, combined with the book's success in America, made us think that we had to get it out there." There is already "massive" publicity interest from the nationals and BBC Radio 4, added Espiner.

She said: "American Wife is the chronicle of a life, and of an ordinary woman who ends up in an extraordinary position. She's involved in a car accident and the driver of the other car is killed, and this shapes her adolescence. Then she meets Charlie, the failing son of a very rich family, and there is no indication that he will go on to be president. It's fantastically well-written and makes you weirdly sympathetic to George Bush, which stuns everyone when they read it."

Kate Atkinson has called the novel "My favourite book of the year", while Linda Grant says it throws "a powerful light on small town America and its misunderstood values". 

American Wife is Curtis Sittenfeld's third book. Her first, Prep, was a big success in the US, but despite an Orange Prize shortlisting, UK sales were unspectacular. Her second novel was The Man of My Dreams.

Transworld Home News

Comments on this article