Simon & Schuster to Do at Least One Le Clezio

And it’s the one that sounds the most interesting:

Anne-Solange Noble, foreign rights director at Le Clezio’s French publisher Gallimard, has been working feverishly to get more of the author’s titles on American bookshelves. And, although there were seven Le Clezio titles which were published by Atheneum in the 1970’s, bringing those books back into print has proved complicated.

At Simon & Schuster, where Atheneum (no longer an active adult imprint) is housed, a deal has just been finalized to bring Le Clezio’s first book published in the U.S., the 1965-released The Interrogation, back into print. Simon & Schuster president David Rosenthal said that the house is aiming to release the book before the end of the year, in hardcover, with a 15,000 to 20,000 first printing. As for the other six titles Atheneum once published, Rosenthal said S&S is considering re-acquiring them as well, thought it may take some time. [From Rachel Deahl’s article in today’s PW Daily

Anne-Solange is still hoping to get a number of his other books back in print before the December 10th Nobel speech . . . I was doubtful S&S would reprint any Le Clezio books, so I’m going to withhold any predictions about the rest of the title. Good to see that Anne-Solange at least got part of what she was shooting for. And I’m personally looking forward to finally being about to read The Interrogation, since all library copies have been checked out, and I definitely can’t afford to buy a used one.