sold: hotel on the corner of bitter and sweet

Jamie Ford writes in to tell me that he just sold his first novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, at auction to Ballantine Books. That's a pretty big deal. Here's the blurb from Publishers Weekly:

Agent Kristin Nelson just concluded an auction for a debut novel by Jamie Ford titled Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet; Jane von Mehren at Ballantine won North American rights in this six-figure deal. The story is set in Seattle and told in alternating time periods--when a Chinese boy falls in love with a Japanese girl during the Japanese internment in 1942, and later in 1986 when the belongings of Japanese families are discovered in the basement of a condemned hotel and he must confront the choices he made years ago.

Sounds like a pretty interesting story. Heck, it sounds like it would even make a great movie. But one thing at a time. I'm looking forward to checking this out, whenever it eventually gets published. Congratulations, Jamie.