The Bookseller.com

3rd December 2008

Jones speaks out about fire-bomb

29.09.08

The Jewel of Medina author Sherry Jones has reacted to the news of a fire-bomb at the offices of her UK publisher Gibson Square. Speaking to the US blog site GalleyCat, Jones blamed the extreme reaction on misinformation about the book, with one US academic describing it as "soft porn".

Jones said: "The planting of that bomb in Martin Rynja's letterbox was not about my book. It's not about the content of my book. It's not about the ideas in my book. It must be about the rumors and innuendos... [This is] obviously a response to the misinformation."

She added that she had heard nothing to indicate that Gibson Square—or Beaufort Books, her new American publisher—would not continue as planned to bring the novel to the public.

But GalleyCat also reports that the US publisher Beaufort's Manhattan offices will be closed on Monday "for precautionary measures".

Meanwhile, the academic who described a novel about the Prophet Mohammed as "softcore pornography" has faced calls to apologise after the home of the publisher was targeted in a suspected petrol bomb attack.

Galley Cat

International US Martin Rynja Gibson Square Home Sherry Jones The Jewel of Medina

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