Riverhead signs Yasmin Zaher's sophomore novel
- Riverhead signed Yasmin Zaher’s second novel, a literary thriller about a young Palestinian journalist at a left-wing Israeli newspaper in Jerusalem who begins investigating an arrest inside her own circle. - Publishers Weekly reported foreign rights have already sold in Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands, even though Riverhead has not yet announced a publication date for the novel. - The deal extends Zaher’s rise after The Coin won the 2025 Dylan Thomas Prize and landed on The New York Times’ 100 Notable Books list. (publishersweekly.com)
Riverhead has signed Yasmin Zaher’s second novel, about a Palestinian journalist who uncovers a story after a friend is arrested in Jerusalem. (publishersweekly.com) Publishers Weekly reported the book follows a young Palestinian reporter working at a left-wing Israeli newspaper in Jerusalem. The investigation begins when someone in the protagonist’s circle is taken into custody. (publishersweekly.com) Riverhead has not announced a publication date. Publishers Weekly said rights have already sold in Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. (publishersweekly.com) The acquisition lands after Zaher’s debut, *The Coin*, raised her profile across the English-language literary market. Catapult describes that 2024 novel as the story of a Palestinian woman in New York unraveling while teaching middle school and reselling Birkin bags. (catapult.co) (penguinrandomhouse.com) In May 2025, Zaher won the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize for *The Coin*. Swansea University said the judges made a unanimous decision and called the novel a vivid study of identity, class, and belonging. (swansea.ac.uk) Zaher is also a journalist, and that matters to the shape of the new book. Interviews around *The Coin* tied her fiction to reporting instincts and to her experience writing from a Palestinian perspective. (anothermag.com) (wmagazine.com) The deal also shows where major U.S. publishers think literary fiction can travel. A novel set between Palestinian and Israeli political worlds has already sold into five European markets plus Brazil before Riverhead has put a date on the U.S. edition. (publishersweekly.com) For now, the clearest signal is the combination of subject and speed: Riverhead bought Zaher’s follow-up, and overseas publishers moved before the book even had a pub date. (publishersweekly.com)
