The Book Group

The Book Group Launched by four publishing industry veterans in 2015, The Book Group is a full-service literary age

Welcome to The Book Group, a full-service literary agency located in the heart of Manhattan. Launched in 2015 by publishing industry veterans Julie Barer, Faye Bender, Brettne Bloom, and Elisabeth W**d, The Book Group shares a singular passion: to seek out and cultivate writers, and to serve as their champions throughout their careers. We represent a wide range of distinguished authors, including

critically acclaimed and bestselling novelists, celebrated writers of children's literature, and award-winning historians, food writers, memoirists and journalists. With our hands-on approach at every stage of the publication process, our exceptional subsidiary rights team, and our commitment to helping each client reach his or her fullest potential, we provide the benefits of a larger agency alongside the personalized attention and collegial spirit offered by a boutique group.

✨Author Feature✨ Gareth Russell is a Northern Irish historian, author, and broadcaster. Educated at St Peter’s College, ...
12/10/2025

✨Author Feature✨

Gareth Russell is a Northern Irish historian, author, and broadcaster. Educated at St Peter’s College, Oxford, and Queen’s University, Belfast, he specialises in European and royal history.

Young and Damned and Fair, his biography of Queen Catherine Howard, was based on his postgraduate research and was published to critical acclaim in 2017. His account of the Titanic disaster, The Ship of Dreams, was a Daily Telegraph Best History Book (2019). Do Let’s Have Another Drink, his affectionate biography of the late Queen Mother, was named a Book of the Year (2022) by The Times. In 2023, his bestselling The Palace: From the Tudors to the Windsors, 500 Years of History at Hampton Court was named a BBC History Book of the Year.
 
His most recent book is a biography of James VI & I. Praised as “a stellar example of how to write historical biography,” it was published in February 2025 in the UK and Ireland as Queen James (a contemporary nickname for James). It will be published in Canada and the United States in time for Christmas as The Six Loves of James I. The audio book is narrated by Gareth. 
 
He frequently contributes to documentaries and news reports in Britain and America. He provided commentary on Elizabeth II’s funeral and Charles III’s coronation for BBC Northern Ireland.
 
Russell divides his time between Belfast and London.

🎭✨ Congratulations to Jordan Harrison on the Broadway premiere of MARJORIE PRIME! With a powerhouse cast including June ...
12/09/2025

🎭✨ Congratulations to Jordan Harrison on the Broadway premiere of MARJORIE PRIME! With a powerhouse cast including June Squibb, Cynthia Nixon, Danny Burstein, and Christopher Lowell, this heart-achingly beautiful production proves why Jordan is one of today’s most prescient playwrights. Can’t wait to see what’s next - the highly anticipated debut novel MISS ARCHER, coming from Morrow in 2027! 🌟📚

THE WORLD WITHOUT SUMMER, by Nicholas Day, is a finalist for the YALSA 2026 Award for Excellence in Non-Fiction. The awa...
12/08/2025

THE WORLD WITHOUT SUMMER, by Nicholas Day, is a finalist for the YALSA 2026 Award for Excellence in Non-Fiction. The award honors the best nonfiction book published for young adults (ages 12-18) in the past twelve months. Nicholas Day is no stranger to ALA awards: His first book for young readers, THE MONA LISA VANISHES, won the Sibert Medal in 2024. Nick’s next narrative nonfiction title is about a con-artist who took in a trusting populace and rose to dizzying heights. Look for it in 2027 from

THE WORLD WITHOUT SUMMER, by Nicholas Day, is a finalist for the YALSA 2026 Award for Excellence in Non-Fiction. The awa...
12/05/2025

THE WORLD WITHOUT SUMMER, by Nicholas Day, is a finalist for the YALSA 2026 Award for Excellence in Non-Fiction. The award honors the best nonfiction book published for young adults (ages 12-18) in the past twelve months. Nicholas Day is no stranger to ALA awards: His first book for young readers, THE MONA LISA VANISHES, won the Sibert Medal in 2024. Nick’s next narrative nonfiction title is about a con-artist who took in a trusting populace and rose to dizzying heights. Look for it in 2027 from 🎉

Love to see this profile of Allegra Goodman in the recent issue of Publisher’s Weekly! 🤩ISOLA is just out in paperback, ...
12/03/2025

Love to see this profile of Allegra Goodman in the recent issue of Publisher’s Weekly! 🤩

ISOLA is just out in paperback, and her new work of fiction, THIS IS NOT ABOUT US, hits stores in February.

Isola by Allegra Goodman is out in paperback!Named Best of 2025 by The New York Times, TIME Magazine, The Washington Pos...
12/02/2025

Isola by Allegra Goodman is out in paperback!

Named Best of 2025 by The New York Times, TIME Magazine, The Washington Post, NPR, and Vogue
A Kirkus Prize Finalist, and longlisted for the American Library in Paris Book Award Reese’s February Book Club Pick

“I was enthralled, first to last... It’s language and dialogue... cohere to swallow us whole.” – Joan Frank, The Washington Post

“Goodman is as resourceful as her heroine in developing Marguerite’s interior life; she conjures sublime expressions of nature that sustain Marguerite even when her faith abandons her.” – The New York Times

“A new generation of survival story . . . an extraordinary book that reads like a thriller, written with the care of the most delicate psychological and historical fiction.” – Vogue

The Six Loves of James I is out now! ✨ 📖 ✨ 📖 ✨✨A groundbreaking and insightful exploration of King James I, enigmatic su...
12/02/2025

The Six Loves of James I is out now!

✨ 📖 ✨ 📖 ✨

✨A groundbreaking and insightful exploration of King James I, enigmatic successor to Queen Elizabeth I, from the “meticulous researcher” (The Wall Street Journal) and author of the “enjoyable and readable” (Philippa Gregory, #1 New York Times bestselling author) The Palace.✨

From the assassination of his father to the explosive political and personal intrigues of his reign, this fresh biography reveals as never before the passions that drove King James I.

Gareth Russell’s “rollicking, gossipy” (Dan Jones, author of The Plantagenets), and scholarly voice invites us into James’s world, revealing a monarch whose reign was defined by both his public power and personal vulnerabilities. For too long, historians have shied away from or condemned the exploration of his sexuality. Now, Russell offers a candid narrative that not only reveals James’s relationships with five prominent men but also challenges the historical standards applied to the examination of royal intimacies.

This biography stands as a significant contribution to the understanding of royal history, illuminating the personal experiences that shaped James’s political decisions and his philosophical views on masculinity and sexuality.

🎉Very excited to see these wonderful titles included on NPR’s 2025 Books We Love list! 📚✨📖The Experiment - Rebecca Stead...
12/01/2025

🎉Very excited to see these wonderful titles included on NPR’s 2025 Books We Love list! 📚✨

📖The Experiment - Rebecca Stead
📖Courtroom Drama - Neely Tubati Alexander
📖A World Without Summer - Nicholas Day
📖Tilt - Emma Pattee
📖Heart the Lover - Lily King
📖Isola - Allegra Goodman
📖Kirby’s Lessons for Falling in Love - Laura Gao

✨AUTHOR FEATURE✨Carla Kaplan is an award-winning professor and writer who holds the Stanton W. and Elisabeth K. Davis Di...
11/26/2025

✨AUTHOR FEATURE✨

Carla Kaplan is an award-winning professor and writer who holds the Stanton W. and Elisabeth K. Davis Distinguished Professorship in American Literature at Northeastern University. She has published seven books, including Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters and Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance, both New York Times Notable Books. A recipient of Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Humanities “Public Scholar” fellowships, Kaplan has been a fellow in residence at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute; is a fellow of the Society of American Historians; and serves on the board of Biographers International. She divides her time between Boston and Cape Cod.

Carla Kaplan’s vivid, riveting biography of Jessica Mitford, TROUBLEMAKER, is out now!

Photo by Robin Hultgren

Georgia Hunter’s ONE GOOD THING is now available in paperback! “A stunning story of survival.” —People“Gripping . . . At...
11/25/2025

Georgia Hunter’s ONE GOOD THING is now available in paperback!

“A stunning story of survival.”
—People

“Gripping . . . At once a riveting wartime story and a tender tribute to friendship, One Good Thing considers the small acts of kindness and the undergirding love that can sustain people through difficult times.”
-Shelf Awareness

Hunter’s propulsive story of friendship, romance, and motherhood amid the chaos of WWII is at once a window into history and a timeless celebration of “hope and love and all the things that matter most” (Ariel Lawhon, author of The Frozen River). Get a copy at your favorite independent bookstore today!

Troublemaker is out today! ✨ 📖 ✨ 📖 ✨✨Troublemaker tells the wild and unlikely story of Jessica Mitford, fifth of the six...
11/25/2025

Troublemaker is out today!

✨ 📖 ✨ 📖 ✨

✨Troublemaker tells the wild and unlikely story of Jessica Mitford, fifth of the six famous Mitford Girls, a British aristocrat-turned-American Communist, famous for exposés like The American Way of Death; this biography brings her astonishing self-transformation to life with a riveting, often hilarious account of trading wealth and status for a life of radical activism.✨

Who could predict that a British aristocrat would so energize American antifascist and civil rights struggles that Time magazine would crown her “Queen of the Muckrakers”? Jessica Mitford, always known as Decca, was brought up by an eccentric English family to marry well and reproduce her wealth and privilege, not to advocate for the rights of others. Her beautiful sisters have been subjects of books and movies dedicated to their naughty, glamorous lives. Decca ran away to America to forge a rebel’s life. As this richly researched book details, Decca broke the Mitford mold.

Instead of settling for life as a professional Beauty, she fought fascism in the Spanish Civil War, became an American Communist and pioneered witty, hugely popular journalism, including her 1963 blockbuster The American Way of Death. Decca dedicated her life to social justice and proved herself an immensely effective ally, but she also injected laughter into all her political work, annoying some activists with her relentless antics but encouraging many others to find joy in the struggle.

From famed baby doctor Benjamin Spock to best friend Maya Angelou, her anti-authoritarian irreverence had a profound impact on American culture. Mining extensive, untapped sources, and with nearly fifty new interviews, Kaplan’s passionate biography beautifully illuminates how Decca’s hard-won and self-taught social empathy offers a powerful example of female freedom, the dramatic, novelistic story of an extraordinary woman of her time who is remarkably relevant and resonant today.

The Memory Gardener is out today! ✨ 📖 ✨ 📖 ✨✨An enchanting tale of the power of memory and the nourishing magic of garden...
11/25/2025

The Memory Gardener is out today!

✨ 📖 ✨ 📖 ✨

✨An enchanting tale of the power of memory and the nourishing magic of gardens from the USA TODAY bestselling author of the “sparkling, witty” (Katie Crouch, New York Times bestselling author) How to Eat a Cupcake. ✨

Lucy Barnes is a gardener with an uncanny ability to know exactly which scent among her flowers will illuminate to a person a key from their past that might change their future. Sadly, after a tragedy ten years ago, she no longer uses her gift and has fled her hometown.

But six months after her mother’s death, Lucy awakens to find her mother’s unmistakable scent drifting over her, and she knows that she is being called home. And when a mysterious note leads her to take a job as the gardener at the Oceanview Home, a senior-living residence, Lucy finds herself wondering if there is more to her gift—and her mother’s past—than she ever knew.

Her work among the lush gardens of Oceanview Home soon awakens the entire community, unearthing memories that will forever change all who cross Lucy’s path. But not everyone is happy to see how her presence has transformed the Oceanview Home, and when a secret comes to light that threatens to shatter the entire community, the future suddenly looks uncertain. Have the memories that Lucy has unearthed awakened something wonderful…or are some memories better left buried?

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