In a massive deal arranged by formerly blacklisted agent Andrew “The Jackal” Wylie, Random House has acquired a new memoir by Salman Rushdie for publication in each of its global territories. The memoir, which touches on Rushdie’s years in hiding while under a fatwah issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini, will be published in 2012 by Knopf Canada, as well as by Random House imprints in more than a dozen territories in six continents.
According to a company press release, the deal, which includes print, audio, and e-book rights, is “one of the most far-reaching multi-national and multi-language book-publishing deals by one publisher.” The book will appear simultaneously in English in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Australia and New Zealand, India, and South Africa; in German in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland; and in Spanish in Spain, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, and Uruguay.