Trendsetting publisher nabs U.S. rights to Annabel Lyon's novel

ANNABEL LYON, author, The Golden Mean: “I am planning to get the shot, because my family doctor (who I've been seeing since I was a child) is recommending it. I definitely wash my hands a lot more and carry hand sanitizer in my purse. And buffet food makes me a little more nervous these days - I try to avoid it.”

Vancouver writer Annabel Lyon has already cashed in on the multiple award nominations for The Golden Mean, her debut novel, selling the U.S. rights this week to trendsetting literary publisher Sonny Mehta of Knopf Doubleday in New York. “I'm sure the fact that Sonny Mehta bought it means a lot more people are going to jump, very quickly too," Lyon's agent, Denise Bukowski, said in an interview. “Everybody knows him and respects him and that will make a big difference."

An entertaining historical fiction that depicts daily and court life in Ancient Greece through the voice of the philosopher Aristotle, The Golden Mean initially aroused little interest in the international market, according to Bukowksi. “I had editors at Frankfurt admit they heard the word Aristotle and turned off," she said.

That changed, she added, when news reached Germany that it had become the only novel nominated as a finalist for three major literary awards this season – the Giller Prize, the Governor-General's Award and the Rogers Writers' Trust Prize.