CONFESSIONS OF A WALL STREET SHOESHINE BOY
By Doug Stumpf (HarperCollins; July 3)
The Précis: Vanity Fair deputy editor’s novel about a Brazilian shoe-shiner to downtown businessmen who stumbles on an insider-trading scheme.
Pros: Film rights already picked up by Warner Bros. with Blood Diamond’s Charles Leavitt adapting it. And Graydon should come through with a kick-ass book party.
Cons: May be too colorful and serious to work as a best-selling thriller, and too clunky and contrived to live up to Tom Wolfe—or even Dana Vachon.
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THE HEADMASTER RITUAL
By Taylor Antrim (Houghton Mifflin; July 9)
The Précis: Hypereducated (Stanford, Oxford) freelancer’s novel about a tony boarding school with a sinister headmaster.
Pros: Antrim’s preppy good looks and big-time blurbs might just help him slip into the Sittenfeldian prep-school niche.
Cons: Was changed from hardcover to paperback original—booksellers said they’d sell more copies that way. But the print run is still low, and advance reviews are mixed.
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THE TENDERNESS OF WOLVES
By Stef Penney (Simon & Schuster; July 10)
The Précis: The 38-year-old’s Jack London–style tale is set in nineteenth-century northern Canada—a highbrow, atmospheric murder mystery.
Pros: The debut has already won the Costa Prize in England—not only the “debut” category but the general prize (an unusual feat).
Cons: Wolves? The northern territories? The Costa Prize? A 25,000 print run seems just about right; this is probably headed for the midlist.
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THE SAVIOR
By Eugene Drucker (Simon & Schuster; July 17)
The Précis: A lead violinist from the Emerson String Quartet writes about a young violinist forced to play for dying concentration-camp inmates.
Pros: Any music lover worth his Philharmonic season tickets would want to have it on the shelf, or buy it as an impressively thoughtful gift.
Cons: Probably too much of a downer to draw huge numbers, and how many non-season-ticket-holders know Drucker’s résumé?
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THE SEPTEMBERS OF SHIRAZ
By Dalia Sofer (Ecco; August 1)
The Précis: Jewish-Iranian immigrant’s fictionalization of the fate of Jews in the early days of the Iranian Revolution.
Pros: Interest in Iran isn’t going away, and Sofer’s angle is bound to entice readers. Heavily marketed and a natural for book clubs.
Cons: The soft-focus title and easy topical appeal might turn some critics off, along with its slightly stiff dialogue.
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LOTTERY
By Patricia Wood (Putnam; August 2)
The Précis: Ph.D. candidate who lives on a sailboat in Hawaii wrote Lottery on the advice of mentor Paul Theroux. A retarded man wins the Washington State lottery.
Pros: Wood has a backstory to sell, about her lottery-winner father and a brother-in-law with Down syndrome. Theroux’s blurb doesn’t hurt.
Cons: Comparisons to Forrest Gump and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, fair or not, are inevitable.
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LOVING FRANK
By Nancy Horan (Ballantine; August 7)
The Précis: Former resident of Frank Lloyd Wright territory (Oak Park, Illinois) fictionalizes the architect’s scandalous affair with the wife of a client.
Pros: Maybe the buzziest serious novel of the summer—including a coveted spot on BookExpo’s “Buzz Panel.”
Cons: The bar has been set high—a 75,000-copy printing is a lot for a debut. Critics will have one eye on the hype, the other on historical accuracy.
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THE CHICAGO WAY
By Michael Harvey (Knopf; August 21)
The Précis: The executive producer of A&E’s Cold Case Files tries his hand at a Chicago-based thriller about—what else?—a cold case that turns red-hot.
Pros: Harvey got six figures for a two-book deal, acquired by Knopf’s eagle-eyed Jordan Pavlin. The prestige house’s big shot at a summer best seller.
Cons: The marketing push could backfire when people find out Cold Case Files is a poor relation of a network show.
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GIFTED
By Nikita Lalwani (Random House; September 11)
The Précis: An Indian-Welsh former BBC director invents a genius child whose overbearing immigrant parents try to get her into Oxford at age 14.
Pros: Less showy than the immigrant-oddball-genius subject would suggest. Deserves (and will probably get) a slow but steady ascent.
Cons: Note the topical similarities to Kaavya Viswanathan’s (plagiaristic) novel. It’s one thing to be late to a trend, another to follow a class act like that.
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MAYNARD AND JENNICA
By Rudolph Delson (Houghton Mifflin; September 18)
The Précis: A former lawyer writes a sort of fictional oral history— with a huge cast of narrators—about a meet-cute love affair set in post-9/11 New York.
Pros: Scott Rudin has already optioned it—and with endearing, witty, chatty characters, it’s easy to see why.
Cons: That Rudin movie could look like a Zach Braff concoction—beloved by some, tedious for others, too strange for many. Ditto the book.
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