Deputy Managing Director Claire Bord has acquired World All Language rights for The Librarian’s Guide to Espionage and second novel by Lea Geller from Jill Marsal of Marsal Lyon Literary Agency. The Librarian’s Guide to Espionage, inspired by the true story of Florence Mendheim, follows thirty-one-year-old librarian Betty Mannheim, who secretly infiltrates Nazi rallies in 1930s New York under the alias Gertrude Mueller while battling her mother’s matchmaking schemes, family expectations and an increasingly
dangerous double life.

Claire commented,

“When I read the first line of Lea’s novel – if you asked Betty’s mother if she’d rather her daughter save America from Nazis or marry the podiatrist on the third floor, Mrs. Mannheim would no doubt have chosen the latter” – I howled with laughter and was immediately invested in Betty’s story.” Claire Bord commented. “Lea brings her distinctive comic voice to historical WW2 fiction in a way that I’ve never seen before and weaves it together with the extraordinary real story of librarian-turned Nazi spy Florence Mendheim. Fans of The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel and The Alice Network are going to fall in love with this story as I did.”

Lea said,

“I’m thrilled to be working with Claire and the Storm team and can’t wait introduce people to the world of Betty Mannheim, whether she’s fighting Fascism, her mother’s unyielding expectations, or the belief that women should never step out of line.”

Lea Geller is the recipient of the 2019 Kathryn Gurfein Writing Fellowship at Sarah Lawrence College and a graduate of Columbia University and Stanford Law School.

The Librarian’s Guide to Espionage will be published in ebook, audio and paperback in March 2027. The second novel follows Betty into wartime Europe where librarians, archivists and academics are recruited into intelligence networks operating across occupied Europe and will publish in September 2027.

To find out more about Lea, visit her website, connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X.