Henry Rosenbloom at Scribe has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights for two new books by US political commentator Tom Frank.
This October Scribe will publish Rendezvous with Oblivion, a collection of interlocking essays examining how inequality has manifested itself in US cities, and describing the worlds of both the winners and the losers — the sprawling mansion districts as well as the lives of fast-food workers. Ultimately it is about how in 2016, millions of anxious, ordinary people rallied to the presidential campaign of a billionaire who meant them no good.
And in 2021 Scribe will publish Frank's next book, tentatively titled Creative Destruction. A devastating look at the cult of creativity, it promises to dismantle the myth of "innovation" with all the conviction and self-awareness that Frank critiqued middle-class elitism in his 2016 book Listen, Liberal.
Rosenbloom says 'I just love Tom’s approach, and he's a superb stylist. I have to admit I agree with everything he says, but even if I didn’t I’d still think he was a gem. The concluding essay in Rendezvous with Oblivion, about the possibility of Trump being re-elected, is terrifyingly spot-on.’
In August 2016 Scribe published Listen, Liberal, Frank's prescient analysis of the failure of the Democratic party to engage with the working class. Sales of the book skyrocketed after the election of Donald Trump, and Frank has been a regular in the UK media since then.
Rights were acquired from Caspian Dennis at Abner Stein. The books will be published in North America by Sara Bershtel at Metropolitan Books.
