MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
June 7 – June 14, 2007 Edition

Penguin Authors Headline
BEA as Publisher Achieves
Three Simultaneous Bestsellers

NEW YORK, NY/6/04/07–Alan Greenspan, Khaled Hosseini and Russell Simmons led Penguin Group (USA)’s high-profile presence at this year’s Book Expo America (BEA), which took place this past weekend, June 1-3, at the Jacob Javits Center in New York. Penguin Group (USA) authors headlined BEA’s main events. Alan Greenspan, author of the highly anticipated, upcoming September title, The Age of Turbulence (The Penguin Press), was the BEA Keynote speaker on Friday, June 1, and was interviewed by his wife, Andrea Mitchell, author of Talking Back (Viking/Penguin). Khaled Hosseini, author of the current #1 New York Times bestseller, A Thousand Splendid Suns (Riverhead Books), wass featured at BEA’s Saturday Book & Author Breakfast. Russell Simmons, author of The New York Times bestseller, Do You!: 12 Laws to Access the Power in You to Achieve Happiness and Success (Gotham Books), was featured at BEA’s Saturday Book & Author Luncheon.

David Shanks, CEO, Penguin Group (USA), commented, “We’re very pleased that Penguin Group (USA) authors are in the spotlight at BEA’s top-tier events this year. We are publishing a powerful combination of award-winning, bestselling authors and celebrated literary voices. We feel privileged to be able to introduce their books at BEA, particularly to the booksellers and media that help us bring them to the reading public.”

Susan Petersen Kennedy, President, Penguin Group (USA), added, “The remarkable quality and range of titles we are publishing in 2007 is a testament to our gifted authors and the creative talents of our terrific team of publishers and editors.”

A prime example is Penguin Group (USA)’s three simultaneous #1 New York Times bestsellers for the week of June 10th: Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns (Riverhead Books) debuts atop The New York Times hardcover fiction list; Al Gore’s The Assault on Reason (The Penguin Press) enters at #1 on The New York Times nonfiction list; and Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin) returns to #1 on the paperback fiction list.

Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns, a breathtaking chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith, and salvation, went back to press five times before its on-sale date on Tuesday, May 22nd. Overwhelming market demand sent Riverhead back to press for another 100,000 copies that night. The very next day, another 100,000 copies were printed. An additional 100,000 were printed the following night. After the Memorial Day holiday weekend, 200,000 more copies were printed as the book continues to fly off shelves in the chains, the clubs and the independent bookstores. The in-print number of A Thousand Splendid Suns currently stands at 1,255,000. The title is also currently #1 on USA Today’s bestseller list and #1 on The Wall Street Journal’s fiction bestseller list.

Gore’s The Assault on Reason, drawing on a life’s work in politics and offering a farsighted and powerful manifesto for clear thinking, is performing extraordinarily well for The Penguin Press. In addition to being #1 on The New York Times hardcover nonfiction bestseller list, the book is also currently at #3 on Amazon.com (right behind Hosseini).

Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love has spent 18 weeks on The New York Times paperback fiction bestseller list, three of the last four weeks at #1. It has topped every regional list across the country and has been #1 on Booksense for the last two months. Sales of Eat, Pray, Love are still building, having just achieved its highest one-week sales yet.

Among the major authors and Fall 2007 titles that Penguin Group (USA) will be spotlighting at BEA are:

THE AGE OF TURBULENCE: Adventures In A New World by Alan Greenspan (The Penguin Press, September) Alan Greenspan’s incomparable reckoning with the nature of our post 9/11 world­how we got here, what we’re living through, and what lies over the horizon, for good and ill­channeled through his own experiences working in the command room of the global economy for longer and with greater effect than any other single living figure. BOOK OF THE DEAD by Patricia Cornwell (Putnam, October) From America’s # 1 bestselling crime writer comes the extraordinary new Dr. Kay Scarpetta thriller­always an event for her millions of fans. T IS FOR TRESPASS by Sue Grafton (Putnam, December) In what may be Sue Grafton’s most unsettling novel to date, T Is for Trespass marks Kinsey’s most direct confrontation with the forces of evil. HOME TO HOLLY SPRINGS: A Father Tim Novel by Jan Karon (Viking, October) With Home to Holly Springs, New York Times­bestselling author Jan Karon launches a new series, The Father Tim Novels. Featuring the retired Episcopal priest that her readers have come to love, Karon takes Father Tim on a journey to his hometown of Holly Springs, Mississippi. WORLD WITHOUT END by Ken Follett (Dutton, October) Ken Follett has 90 million readers worldwide. The Pillars of the Earth is his bestselling book of all time. Now, eighteen years after the publication of The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett has written one of the most-anticipated sequels of the year: World Without End. SLAM by Nick Hornby (Penguin Young Readers Group, October) New York Times-bestselling author Nick Hornby has made a career out of writing about men who act like boys; now, in his first book for young adults, he gives us a boy who has to act like a man. Additional details about these and other Penguin Group (USA) titles can be found in our Penguin Group (USA) 2007 Hot Titles booklet, which provides an at-a-glance overview of our exciting fall list and highlights selected summer titles as well.

Penguin Group (USA) is the U.S. member of the internationally renowned Penguin Group. Penguin Group (USA) is one of the leading U.S. adult and children’s trade book publishers, owning a wide range of imprints and trademarks, including Berkley Books, Dutton, Frederick Warne, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, Grosset & Dunlap, New American Library, Penguin Books, The Penguin Press, Philomel, Plume, Puffin, Riverhead Books and Viking, among others. The Penguin Group ( http://www.penguin.com) is part of Pearson plc, the international media company.