NEW YORK, Dec 28: Immediately after receiving the manuscript of Benazir Bhutto’s new book, leading publisher HarperCollins decided to move quickly to get it on the shelves by February, following Thursday’s assassination of the former prime minister.

The book, entitled “Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West,” was part political treatise and part memoir of the first woman elected prime minister of a Muslim nation.

HarperCollins had signed up the book for an advance estimated to be around $75,000 shortly before she returned to Pakistan in October after years of living in exile.

“We have a finished manuscript,” said HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman, who learned about Ms Bhutto’s murder from an email alert.

When HarperCollins Executive Editor Tim Duggan sealed the deal with Ms Bhutto, he said: “Pakistan is an increasingly volatile place, and Ms 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.”—PPI