 However, after his manuscript was accepted by Tyrant's founder Giancarlo DiTrapano, Gordon Lish helped persuade his own literary agent, Amanda “Binky” Urban, to take his son on as a client.Urban has helped to sell British and French rights to "Preparation for the Next Life", and is negotiating the sale of film rights.A fluent Mandarin speaker, Lish was working as a technical translator at the time of his novel's publication.