HarperCollins rushing Benazir-written book

NEW YORK: HarperCollins is rushing into print a manuscript it recently received from slain former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the New York Post reported on Friday.

The publisher, a unit of News Corp, hopes to have Bhutto’s Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West in bookstores by February, Post business columnist Keith J Kelly reported.

HarperCollins had given Benazir Bhutto an estimated $75,000 advance just before she returned to Pakistan in October, the Washington Post said. Mark Siegel worked with Bhutto as a collaborating writer, the Post reported. HarperCollins representatives were not available for comment.

“Pakistan is an increasingly volatile place, and Bhutto’s book is an eye-opening look at the mistakes we’ve made in the region and what we can do to correct them as well as what the consequences will be if we don’t,” said then HarperCollins executive editor Tim Duggan when he revealed in the fall that his company had a deal with Benazir Bhutto.