Hello, friends! It’s been a busy summer here at Gratz Industries. Since we last talked, I’ve been to the American Booksellers Association Children’s Institute, where I proved, once and for all, that Dogman and I are not the same person:
I survived the Columbus Children’s Book Festival in Georgia:
(That’s a lot of bad stuff happening all at once…)
At the annual American Library Association conference in Philadelphia, I got to celebrate the upcoming release of two new books:
And while I was in Philly, I paid visits to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall:
I also spent a day touring the excellent Museum of the American Revolution, where I took lots of notes and pictures. Because you never know when stuff like that is going to come in handy. (Or maybe I DO. Dun dun dun.)
Linda Lowen of Publishers Weekly recently wrote a very flattering article about me, my career, and the new books I have coming out. It was a thrill to be featured in PW! Perhaps the most profound thing I said was, “If I’d had my own books back in middle school, maybe I would have come around to knowing who I am earlier.” Woo. Deep, Alan! Here’s the whole thing, if you’d like to read it:
Read "Alan Gratz is Going for the Gold"
Publishers Weekly also gave War Games, my new book about the 1936 Berlin Olympics, a starred review! They call it “a smartly plotted page-turner,” and go on to say, “Well-researched historical facts add tooth to this cinematic novel’s shocking twists and turns.” Thanks, PW! You can read the whole review here:
Read the PW starred review of War Games
And hey, remember blogs? Fun fact: Newbery Award-winning author Avi still has one, and every summer he invites thirteen “admired authors” to write a brief article for his blog on a topic of his choice. This year’s question is “What’s your favorite strategy for encouraging young people to read?” and I was one of the authors he asked to write something. (Along with folks like Dan Gutman, Karen Cushman, Gary Schmidt, Padma Venkatraman, and Pam Muñoz Ryan. Sheesh! That’s good company.) You can read my essay answering Avi’s question here:
And how wild is this? Ban This Book has just been published in Persian in Iran! The publisher is Peydayesh, and the translator is Shouka Karimi. I don’t have physical copies of this one to giveaway, but it was too cool not to share.
Yeah, yeah. I know that’s why you’re really still reading this newsletter. But I wasn’t lying—I have a limited number of signed War Games galleys to mail out to lucky winners!
A galley, or an “advance reader copy,” is an uncorrected proof a publisher puts out so that people can read a new book ahead of time. Mostly these are printed so booksellers and librarians can decide if they want to add the book to their shelves when it comes out. They’re also sent to reviewers, in the hope that the reviewer will read it and write about it. (Which isn’t always a guarantee.) The galleys are printed on cheaper paper, have paperback and not hardback covers, and often don’t have all the bells and whistles the finished book will have, like maps, illustrations, or author notes. They’re given out for free, and even though you occasionally find them at used bookstores, they’re not supposed to be sold or resold. (And say so all over the cover.)
Want to win a free galley of War Games? Click here:
Enter the War Games galley giveaway!
Each entry will be assigned a number, and winners will be selected using a random number generator. So that everyone has an equal chance to win, please enter only once. Thanks! And sorry, due to the number of submissions I expect to get, only the giveaway winners will be notified of the results. But that means if you hear from me, it’ll be good news!
The last day to enter is Sunday, August 3rd, which is the same day that Jesse Owens won the 100 meter dash at the 1936 Berlin Olympics!
Two novels for adults this time!
Red Square by Martin Cruz Smith
Author Martin Cruz Smith died earlier this month at the age of 82. Smith’s long-running series of novels featuring Russian detective Arkady Renko began with 1981’s Gorky Park, which was a huge bestseller, and was made into a popular movie a couple of years later starring William Hurt. Incredibly, the latest Renko novel, Hotel Ukraine, came out this year (!), and takes place during the current Russian invasion of Ukraine.
I’d read two of these books already—Gorky Park and Polar Star—and had the third, Red Square, on my shelf to read. With Smith’s passing, I moved Red Square to the top of my To Be Read pile, and boy did it deliver. It takes place in 1991, after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The mystery, as always, is great, but the ground-up picture Smith paints of Russia in the brief era of glasnost and perestroika—and the moment when the Soviet Union finally collapses and dissolves—is striking.
If you haven’t read any Martin Cruz Smith, I highly recommend him. These books are so good. Fantastic mysteries full of twists and turns, real history, and complex, sympathetic characters.
Reading an obituary of Smith, I was struck by some of the things his daughter, Luisa Smith, had to say about him. "Before Gorky Park, there were westerns and pulp thrillers, written under various pseudonyms, a cloak of anonymity that let him hone his craft without the burden of expectation,” she wrote. “But once Renko entered the scene, everything changed. Gorky Park was both a commercial and critical success: a crime novel that slipped through the Iron Curtain and returned with secrets. A single book that changed our lives, moving us from New York to California, and allowing him to take greater chances with his writing."
I feel somewhat the same about my career, pre-Refugee and post-Refugee. Refugee was book number thirteen for me. Before it, I wasn’t exactly writing books in anonymity, like Smith. But I wasn’t a bestseller. In the twelve novels that came before Refugee, I was still trying out different genres, subjects, and themes, and developing my voice and style as a writer. And I was lucky enough to be paid to do it. Then, when I got the idea for Refugee, I was actually able to turn that vision into a reality. I know there’s no way I could have done that at the beginning of my career—or probably any time between books one through twelve. I needed all that previous practice and experience to make it happen.
The obituary for Martin Cruz Smith in Shelf Awareness is illuminating, and worth a read. His daughter Luisa Smith is now the editor-in-chief of Mysterious Press, but I got to meet her a few years ago when she was a book buyer at Book Passage in Corte Madera, California. I hope I get to run into her again soon to tell her how sad I was to hear that her father died, and to tell her how much I love his books.
The Wizard of Island Home by G.A. Bunch
And I’m very excited to tell you about the first book from my long-time friend Greg Bunch! Greg and I grew up right down the street from one another in Knoxville, Tennessee, and though my family moved away when I was young, our parents stayed in touch. Greg and I later reconnected when we both found ourselves working at the same movie theater in high school. (Cinemark Dollar Theater represent!) We ended up becoming roommates in college, and have been good friends ever since.
I got to read The Wizard of Island Home in the draft stage, and it’s awesome. Set in present-day Knoxville, Tennessee, it’s the story of Aubrey Cockcroft, a small-time P.I. and reluctant wizard who sets out to solve the murder of his wizard uncle. Helping him on his journey are Arbuckle, an inter-dimensional cat harboring his murdered uncle’s soul, and the ghost of Emily Dickinson, who may or may not have actually visited her real-life cousins in Knoxville at some point during her life. Together, the unlikely crew travel around the US in a magic VW van, trying to catch a murderer and save the remaining members of a once-proud magical order—and their cats.
Think of it like The Dresden Files with cats. Or Philip Marlowe with magic. Greg’s probably laughing as he reads this. Neither comparison is exactly right, of course, because his book is a true original, like Greg himself.
You can read about Greg’s path to publication on his Substack, buy the book directly from Greg here, or buy it online from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or IngramSpark. Give it a read, and if you like it, help spread the word!
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Thanks! You’re awesome. And remember—
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