Looks like it’s time to crack open the Picador catalog again: Michael Chabon emailed late last night to say that he’s very flattered by our speculation that Oprah Winfrey might have chosen Kavalier & Clay, but, he assures us, “It’s not me! Really.”
So that takes us back to the $15 Picador paperbacks, among which we’ve got Trance (strong possibilities), I Am Charlotte Simmons (heaven help us), Middlesex (left-field, but these days that’d be par for Oprah’s course), The Red Tent (actually $14.95, but perfect for the original book club), and The Corrections (I’m just saying!). There’s also four Walker Percy novels to choose from, some of which would seem like solid candidates, but Oprah does seem to have gravitated back to the living authors for good. This is also how we can rule out Cities of the Red Night by William S. Burroughs… UPDATE: Sorrentino says it’s not him, either.