Book News
Publisher’s doubts lead to author’s goodbye.
Henry Holt and Co. is dropping publication of “The Last Train From Hiroshima” after author Charles Pellegrino failed adequately to answer questions about a source in the book and the revocation of his Ph.D. more than 25 years ago.
Pellegrino said Henry Holt insisted he provide the name of a priest mentioned in the book under a pseudonym. Pellegrino said he wanted to protect the pseudonymous priest, who is quite elderly.
Henry Holt also questioned the existence of the priest and was not satisfied with the author’s response.
Pellegrino said the publisher wanted him to explain why his 1981 Ph.D. from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, was revoked in 1984. He said his dissertation focused on measuring the technology used in the study of evolution, and he was caught in the middle of a battle between creationists and evolutionists.
The publisher said it will not pull the book off shelves but is ending its relationship with the author.
First Lines
The California Roll, by John Vorhaus
The first person I ever scammed was my grandmother, who had Alzheimer’s disease and could never remember from one minute to the next whether she’d just given me ice cream or not. I’d polish off a bowl, drop it in the sink, walk out, walk back in, ask for another, and get it. Boom. They say you can get sick of ice cream if you eat too much. I found that was not the case.
They also say you can’t cheat an honest man, but I say you can. The honest ones never see it coming.
In first grade, I cooked up the Golden Recess, which was a Ponzi scheme, though I didn’t know to call it that then. I got my classmates to pool their allowances for me to invest in something. Action figures? Baseball card futures? I really don’t remember. By the time the pyramid collapsed, I’d netted twenty bucks — huge money for first grade — and I didn’t even do time because, though of course I got caught, no one believed a little kid could have such larceny in his soul.
Honest people. Like I said, they never see it coming.
And snukes — scams or the people who perform them — may have a bad name, but it’s not always the case that someone gets burned. In fact, when you think about it, the best cons are the ones that leave people feeling like they got something for their money. And you know what? Sometimes they even do.
Indie bookseller recommendations
Impatient With Desire, by Gabrielle Burton
After the Workshop, by John McNally
The Crimson Rooms, by Katharine McMahon
The Hole We’re In, by Gabrielle Zevin
Brooklyn, by Colm Toibin
Angelology, by Danielle Trussoni
Postcards From a Dead Girl, by Kirk Farber
The House of Tomorrow, by Peter Bognanni
Bone Fire, by Mark Spragg
One Amazing Thing, by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
