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http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6710197.html

By Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 12/7/2009 7:51:00 AM

It's not often that you can count both the New York Times and the Mennonite Weekly Review among your press hits, but that's exactly the case with Henry Holt on its unexpected success, Mennonite In a Little Black Dress. Rhoda Janzen's memoir, about her middle age return to her family and Mennonite upbringing--a journey which coincides with her discovery of her husband's infidelity and a sudden car crash--started out as a small title for Holt. But, after a series of strong reviews--the first of which ran in PW--and an important blurb from Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert, the Macmillan imprint has gone back to press five times on the book and now has 40,000 copies in print.

Nicole Dewey at Henry Holt credited the book's rise to the strong early reviews and said this is one of those rare cases "where there hasn't been a bad piece of press." The success of Mennonite has also led Holt to close on a new book with Janzen called Backslide. Holt senior editor Helen Atsma bought North American rights to the title, also a memoir, from Michael Bourret at Dytsel & Goderich and Holt is looking at a March 2012 publication. Backslider, per Dewey, picks up where Mennonite ends and follows Janzen's journey back into the Pentecostal church--which is markedly different from the Mennonites--and a tumultuous year which brings a new marriage, step motherhood and a bout of cancer. Dewey said the book is "about what happens when a backslider decides to slide back into religion."