In-country.

Some publishing news of limited interest:

Nick Tosches, author of bios of Dean Martin and Sonny Liston and Jerry Lee, has a new book coming in spring, King of the Jews, about Arnold Rothstein, aka A.R., Mr. Big, The Fixer, The Big Bankroll, The Man Uptown, Mr. Broadway, and The Brain, and the inspiration for Meyer Wolfsheim in The Great Gatsby and Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls. Rothstein would seem to be a good fit for Tosches, who's more than overdue for a solid outing.

And, in the get me rewrite department, it would be hard to come up with a more unfortunate lead title for the spring than one written by a celebrated Indian author, set amid an archipelago in the Bay of Bengal, and titled The Hungry Tide.