Some book news... Publisher's Weekly has got the scoop on The Firm Outing, the debut novel by Helen Wan, to be published by Macmillan/St. Martin's Press: SMP Nabs Lawyer's First 'Outing' and a YA Debut.Congratulations, Helen. The Firm Outing tells the story of a young Asian American woman climbing the ladder in corporate America, hitting the Glass Ceiling, and what she decides to do about it. Here's the early buzz:
Brenda Copeland at St. Martin's Press pre-empted Helen Wan's debut, The Firm Outing in a deal brokered by Josh Getzler at Hannigan Salky Getzler. Wan is an in-house attorney at the Time Inc. division of Time Warner, and the novel follows a promising, young Chinese-American attorney about to make partner at her prestigious firm. Jockeying to fit in with the old boy network that runs the company, the heroine plays along until an offensive event at the firm's summer outing puts her in an uncomfortable and potentially disastrous position. As Getzler explained: "She must choose between the safety and prestige of partnership at a firm whose ethics she finds increasingly untenable, or risk throwing away the American dream that she -- and her immigrant parents -- have come so close to achieving." Wan lives in Brooklyn and went to Amherst and the University of Virginia Law School.Helen, who is herself an attorney in corporate America, tells me that the film rights are being shopped by United Talent Agency. Very exciting. I don't know when we'll actually see The Firm Outing on shelves [UPDATE: May 2013, tentatively], but I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot more about this one.