Simon & Schuster To Publish French Novelist Le Clezio After Surprise Nobel Win

With the exception of a few small presses, publishers in the United States were caught out cold when this year's Nobel Prize for literature went to the French novelist Jean-Marie Le Clezio. Back in the 1970s a handful of Le Clezio's books were published here by Atheneum, but they didn't stay in print long, and Atheneum—which is now owned by Simon & Schuster—essentially no longer exists, so reissuing them was not a simple matter of re-upping on the rights.

The rights director at Gallimard, which publishes Le Clezio's books in French—charged now with the task of finding an American publisher for her client's books—nevertheless liked the idea of staying with Simon & Schuster, and after a lot of negotiation has closed a deal with its president, David Rosenthal, for the 1965 novel The Interrogation.

According to Publishers Weekly, where news of the deal first appeared, Mr. Rosenthal is considering acquiring the rest of Le Clezio's Atheneum titles, but faces difficulties because, in his words, the books "are now over 40 years old and were published by an imprint that no longer exists within a company that no longer exists that was taken over by another company."

"No one is entirely sure who owns what, because these [books] are so old," Mr. Rosenthal is quoted as saying, by way of explanation for why the acquisition of The Interrogation forced Simon & Schuster to buy the original book rights and the translation rights separately.

According to PW, Simon & Schuster hopes to issue 15,000 to 20,000 copies of the Interrogation hardcover before the end of the year.