Dear Wags,

Yesterday's surprise firings of Alfred A. Knopf publisher Reagan Arthur and Pantheon Schocken publisher Lisa Lucas stunned the book world. Maya Mavjee, president and publisher of Penguin Random House's Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, described the shakeup as part of an overall “restructure.”

The turmoil at KPDG—one of the world’s most prestigious publishers—is another ulcer for the book business. Legendary Knopf editor-in-chief and KDPG chairman Sonny Mehta, who died in 2019, tapped Arthur for her role. Lucas, the former director of the National Book Foundation, was one of the industry’s few Black publishers. Both women had been in their positions for a handful of years, not long enough for deals to pay off in the fickle game of literary publishing.

Knopf editor-in-chief Jordan Pavlin, a veteran, will take on the role of the brand’s executive vice president and publisher. Meanwhile, Pantheon will be consolidated under editorial director Denise Oswald, who’ll report to Doubleday EVP Bill Thomas. KPDG is whittling down it senior team to focus on core objectives at a rocky moment in the book trade. Mavjee has already taken steps to spin Pantheon and Schocken off as independent imprints, and has made it clear that she see wants to “hone” the senior leadership team into a nimble force laser-focused on the bottom line.

This follows the Great Penguin Random House Exodus of 2023, when a number of big name editors took buyouts in the midst of layoffs. In a memo to employees, Mavjee wrote that the bloodletting will allow KPDG to “focus our imprints and allow us to do what we do best: publish great books.”

Maybe that will all pan out, but the future looks cloudy. There’s a strain on even the biggest publishers to achieve something like virality in world flooded with cheap content. Publishing is a ruthless business, not an arts collective, and high-end houses are under unprecedented pressure to deliver a return. Alas, great literature defies spreadsheets. It takes an enormous investment of time to develop the work Knopf is justifiably renowned for.

To toss two of publishing’s most respected figures without giving them a chance to nurture their lists seems shortsighted and ruthless. Arthur and Lucas will survive and thrive. Whether their former imprints will be so lucky remains to be seen.

Yours Ever,

BKP

Cecilia by K-Ming Chang

Chang’s 2020 novel Bestiary, about a Taiwanese immigrant family whose everyday life is enlivened by mythical creatures, turned me into a fan. I loved 2023’s Organ Meats, which captured female coming-of-age better than Judy Blume (there, I said it). In Cecilia, a young woman named Seven contends reconnects with a childhood friend who happens to be a patient at the chiropractic clinic where she works. The relationship sparks her rebellion against family obligations. Along the way, a budding sense of her own sensuality also challenges the traditional values she was brought up with.

In Tongues by Thomas Grattan

Grattan’s second novel stars Gordon, a most unreliable character who manages to finally grow up. In telling his story, our hero lets readers know he regrets slip-ups while working as a personal assistant to Philip and Nicola, an older gay couple (Gordon is also gay). In dubious service to his employers, Gordon observes the mores of the upper class, which are foreign to a blue collar Minnesotan. Misinterpretation of manners leads to his downfall, but not his ruin. In one of the book’s most moving scenes, Gordon with Philip form a genuine bond watching the 9/11 attacks.