A star is reborn as 96-year-old Herman Wouk sells new novel

Ably proving that age is no boundary to literary success, the 96-year-old Pulitzer prize-winning novelist Herman Wouk has just sold his new novel to Simon & Schuster.

Wouk's The Lawgiver, which is likely to be one of the hits of next week's London Book Fair, was sent exclusively to Simon & Schuster after his agent, Amy Rennert, learned that publisher Jonathan Karp wrote his master's thesis on Wouk's novels while at New York University. Karp said that he was "captivated" by the book within a few pages, "once again in the thrall of Wouk's sharply conceived characters, amusing narration, irresistible command of story, and the wisdom of a lifetime".

Wouk said that he had known Dick Simon and Max Schuster, who founded the publishing house in 1924, well. "Few of my contemporaries can make that statement," said the author. "They brought out my first novel, Aurora Dawn, in 1947, and returning to their imprint after 64 years is an uncommon pleasure." Wouk had previously been published by Little, Brown.

An epistolary novel in which the story emerges from letters, emails, tweets, Skype transcripts, text messages, memos, news articles and recorded talk, The Lawgiver is an account of a group of people making a film about Moses in the present day. "The insights into Moses have remarkable vitality and depth. His heroine, Margo ("Mashie") is a 21st-century incarnation of one of my favourite literary characters of all time, Marjorie Morningstar," said Karp. "I found myself marvelling at the verve and wit of this great American storyteller, now 96."

Wouk, who is 97 next month, took the Pulitzer for his 1951 novel of life on a navy warship in the Pacific during the second world war, The Caine Mutiny. The novel was later filmed starring Humphrey Bogart. A legendary name in American letters, Wouk is also known for his novels Marjorie Morningstar, The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, with his most recent work of fiction, A Hole in Texas, published in 2004. He won America's first Library of Congress fiction award, later renamed the Herman Wouk award for lifetime achievement in the writing of fiction, and last year his name accurately featured in the title of a short story by Stephen King, Herman Wouk Is Still Alive.

The Lawgiver is due out this autumn, and will be featured by Simon & Schuster at next week's London Book Fair, the publisher said.