maxbarry.com
Thu 03
Jul
2003

British Jennifer

Jennifer Government At last! Jennifer Government hits bookstores across the UK today, in “ridiculously large paperback” format. It’s been a while coming, mainly for legal reasons associated with using real company names in a work of not-so-flattering fiction. Abacus, the British publisher, got several different lawyers to carefully study the book and devise a strategy for minimizing any potential legal exposure; they came up with: “Wait six months and see if anyone sues the American publisher.” (Nobody has.)

Since Syrup hasn’t been published in the UK yet, Jennifer Government is my debut novel there. It’s nice to be a first-time novelist again. I feel all clean and innocent.

Tue 01
Jul
2003

German Jennifer

Jennifer Government Sneaking in just ahead of the UK, the German edition of Jennifer Government comes out today. It’s called Logoland, because “Jennifer Regierung” doesn’t sound nearly so cool. Or so I’m told. Frankly, I’ve never understood this translation business. How do my characters know how to speak German? I don’t know.

The German publisher has gone with a different cover: to the best of my knowledge, they’re the only ones in the world do that. Genius? Insanity? You decide.