Tanya Egan Gibson's Debut Novel, Billed as Similar to Pessl's Calamity Physics, Sold to Dutton at Auction

Tanya Egan Gibson’s debut novel A Book for Carley, promoted to publishers by the author’s literary agent Susan Golomb as similar in style to Marisha Pessl’s bestselling Special Topics in Calamity Physics, has been sold at auction for six figures to Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Group USA.

Ms. Golomb, who represented Ms. Pessl in the sale of "Special Topics," said in an interview last week that Ms. Gibson’s book is set in a wealthy community on the North shore of Long Island, and centers around a 16-year-old girl who struggles with the “terribly materialistic world” in which she lives. Like her classmates, Ms. Golomb said, the girl does not like to read, and her parents, in an attempt to get her to embrace literature, hire someone to write a book fitted specifically to her taste and sensibility.

Ms. Golomb said A Book for Carley, which was acquired by Dutton editor-in-chief Trena Keating, was written with a sort of “heightened wit” and precocious dialogue reminiscent of “Special Topics” and the film Juno.

“The real message of the book is that literature is something that can really inform your life and your life choices and your feelings about yourself, and it’s kind of a rallying cry for children and teenagers and all of us to continue to read because it’s not just some dry thing that’s good for you,” Ms. Golomb said. “That’s the kind of thing that the publishing community can really get behind and it’s very popular with book clubs.”