Jenne Casarotto, based in London, is one of the world’s top film and theater agents. Casarotto represents the cream of British writing and directing talent through her agency, Casarotto Ramsay  & Associates. Her clients include theatrical lions like Sir David Hare, Sir Alan Ayckbourn, Christopher Hampton and the estates of Tennessee Williams and Raold Dahl. Through her agency Casarotto Marsh, Jenne Casarotto supplies the film industry with top behind the scenes tech talent. Six degrees of separation. Casarotto’s affiliate agency in Los Angeles represents the academy award winning costumer designer, Yvonne Blake, who happens to be the sister of Juliet Blake, the talented producer who got my first novel, THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY, into active film production. Such a small world – when you are amongst The Luvvies, as the English call film and theater types.

This is all a very big wind up to say, Jenne Casarotto very rarely takes on books directly, so I am very lucky and privileged she has picked up BUDDHALAND BROOKLYN, my novel about a repressed Buddhist priest getting published by Scribner in the US on July 17. Jenne Casarotto will be representing my novel’s film rights, as co-agent with my primary agent, Richard Pine of InkWell Management.

The last time Casarotto Ramsay and InkWell joined forces like that on a book they produced something called THE DESCENDANTS, the academy award winning film written and directed by one of my all time favorite writer-directors, Alexander Payne, and starring, of course, the always watchable George Clooney.

As Reverend Oda might say, “I see. How interesting.”

Which is, of course, an absolute rave.

One of the finest publishers I came across when The Hundred-Foot Journey started its rollout across twenty-one territories around the globe, was Australia’s much-respected independent, Allen & Unwin. The firm was voted Australia’s Publisher of the Year in 2011.

I am not surprised Allen & Unwin got it’s 10th industry hat-tip. I found that right off the bat, everyone from Allen & Unwin’s managing director, Patrick Gallagher, to its charming publisher, Annette Barlow, put their weight behind my tale of the Haji family and powered my little book right through the bookshops of Australia.

It was seriously impressive to watch these publishing pros at work. What they accomplished with my novel in Australia and New Zealand speaks for itself, including the fact that Scribner in the US and Alma in the UK dropped their own The Hundred-Foot Journey covers to adopt Allen & Unwin’s stunning design. That’s the sincerest form of flattery.

So imagine my delight when I learned Allen & Unwin have signed up for round two of the Morais merry-go-round. My Australian publishers are publishing BUDDHALAND BROOKLYN in September of this year.

Woohooo! That means all my publishers in the US, UK, and Aus/NZ have come back for seconds – a huge vote of confidence, for which I am very grateful. Life can indeed be very good.

May they all be handsomely rewarded.

Anyone who has ever heard me read from The Hundred-Foot Journey knows how much fun I have acting out the voices of the Haji family. Particularly Big Abbas, Hassan’s father, with all his characteristic bluster.

So I am thrilled that my US publisher, Scribner, has done a deal with Blackstone Audio to come out with the audio versions of both Buddhaland Brooklyn and The Hundred-Foot Journey. Anyone who wants to pre-ordeer can do so by going directly to Blackstone Audio or through the usual suspects like Amazon, Powell’s, or Barnes & Noble.

It looks like the MP3 CD and the 7 CD audio set of Buddhaland Brooklyn will be first up, the emergence of Reverend Seido Oda’s voice and narrative timed to coincide with the book’s US and Canada release on July 17th. The Hundred-Foot Journey appears set for a later release. Still, better late than never and very sweet news.

Can’t wait to find out which actors Blackstone are hiring to read my little books.

I am delighted to announce that my UK publishers, the talented husband-and-wife team that built both Alma Books and Alma Classics, will be publishing BUDDHALAND BROOKLYN in late February or early March in 2013.

BUDDHALAND BROOKLYN, to be published in the US July 17 by Scribner, is about a repressed Buddhist priest sent to New York to open a temple.

Alessandro Gallenzi and Elisabetta Minervini have created an author’s publisher in Alma Books, their passion for literature defying the cynicism of the modern book industry. They did a wonderful job publishing The Hundred-Foot Journey in the UK, and I can honestly say that their tag line – “A publisher with a soul” – pretty neatly sums up Alma Books.

If you doubt my word just read their recently published Brilliance by Anthony McCarten, a riveting tale about an impoverished Thomas Edison getting sucked into the bear-like embrace of the famous American banker, J. P. Morgan.

McCarten sure can write. The first line of the novel – “The inventor poured himself a glass of milk and listened for the twentieth century” – had me hooked. Alma Books quietly and consistently produces such intelligent, well-written books for discerning readers who love literature. So I am thrilled my scribbles are included in Alma’s exquisite portfolio of contemporary novels.

Here’s my take on two family tales that I recently saw in New York.

The Hundred-Foot Journey shall soon be available in Israel. I am chuffed that Yediot Ahronot Books, a relatively new imprint of Israel’s largest media company, has purchased my book. Pretty sweet.

It is genuinely amazing to me that  the Haji family are speaking Hebrew, Russian, Portuguese, Chinese, Polish, Italian, Danish, Hungarian, French, Finish, Indonesian, German, Dutch, Spanish, Korean, Brazilian (Portuguese), and Norwegian – to name just a few of the 21 territories across the globe that have now purchased my novel.

As Abbas Haji would say, “What a ting!”

Cape Cod Times/Christine Hochkep

In East Sandwich, a town in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Titcomb’s Bookshop and Momo’s Food Emporium are cleverly teaming up to start a “Food & Book” series. As the Cape Cod Times reports:

The first gathering is Jan. 25. Momo’s Food Emporium on Route 6A in East Sandwich will cook recipes from Richard Morais’ debut novel, “The Hundred-Foot Journey” (Scribner Book Company, $15). The book, rich in detail and well-researched anecdotes, is about a boy from India with lowly beginnings who ends up taking on some of France’s greatest chefs.

“We’re going to mimic the opening night meal described in the book,” says Neila Neary, owner of Momo’s.

The evening will feature passed hors d’oeuvres. Neary says attendees will have a chance to socialize, collect recipes and learn a bit about how spices are used in Indian cooking. Momo’s four chefs will also prepare Indian dishes to sell in the specialty shop’s takeout case.

 

 

Happy New Year folks. May we all enjoy a quality vintage in 2012. I think we’re all overdue for a good year.

As to my 2012 calendar, besides a move to New York, I have the joy of overseeing the birth of my second novel. On July 17, 2012, Scribner publishes BUDDHALAND BROOKLYN.

Here’s a taste of what to expect:

Featuring rich descriptions and a cast of eccentric characters, this is a contemporary fable about a Japanese Buddhist priest who ends up finding himself in the unlikeliest of places. Growing up in a quaint mountainside village in Japan, Seido Oda’s boyhood is spent fishing in clear mountainside streams and helping his parents run their small inn. At the age of eleven, Oda is sent to study with the monks at a nearby Buddhist temple. This peaceful, quiet refuge in the remote mountains of Japan is the only home the introverted monk has ever known until he approaches his fortieth birthday and is ordered by his superior to cross the ocean and open a temple in Brooklyn. 

Ripped from the isolated, serene life of his homeland temple, Oda encounters a shock to the system in New York—a motley crew of American Buddhists whose misguided practices lead to a host of hilarious cultural misunderstandings. It is only when Oda comes to appreciate the Americans, flaws and all, that he sees his own shortcomings and finally finds that sense of belonging he has always sought.

A lively and vivid novel, this entertaining and edifying meditation on the meaning of true acceptance stirs from the very first page.