LITTLE ROCK — SPOKANE, Wash. - A historical novel about the prophet Muhammad and his child bride that was pulled by Random House over concerns that it would anger Muslims has been sold to another publisher, the author said Wednesday.
"We do have a U.S. publisher," Sherry Jones of Spokane, Wash., told The Associated Press in an e-mail Wednesday. "We can announce that, but not the name until they announce it."
Jones said her debut novel, The Jewel of Medina, will be published in October, two months after it was to have been published by Random House Publishing Group.
"Now we can all move the conversation forward to address the themes in my debut novel and its sequel, of women's empowerment, reconciliation and peace," Jones said.
The book will also be published in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil and Hungary, Jones said.
In August, Serbian publisher BeoBook released The Jewel of Medina but then quickly withdrew it from stores after protests from Islamic leaders who said it insulted Muhammad and his family.
Random House, which paid Jones $100,000 for The Jewel of Medina and a second book, pulled the novel about Muhammad and his third wife, Aisha, after concerns were raised by non-Muslims that the contents might spark violence.
Random House said at the time that "credible and unrelated sources" had warned that the book "could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment."
After the Random House decision, Salman Rushdie, whose The Satanic Verses led to a death decree in 1989 from Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that forced the author to live under police protection for years, said the publisher had allowed itself to be intimidated.
"I am very disappointed to hear that my publishers, Random House, have canceled another author's novel, apparently because of their concerns about possible Islamic reprisals," Rushdie said in an e-mail sent last month to The Associated Press. "This is censorship by fear, and it sets a very bad precedent indeed."
Front Section, Pages 3 on 09/04/2008