Enlarge Nine years after Oprah picked Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections for her book club and then disinviting him after he expressed ambivalence over her endorsement, Winfrey has chosen his new novel, Freedom, according to three booksellers.

Nine years after Franzen dissed Oprah Winfrey, the literary writer and talk-show queen have made up.

Winfrey made it official this morning: The next selection in her book club will be Franzen's acclaimed new 562-page novel, Freedom.

On her show, Winfrey called it a "masterpiece" and said she read it over the summer after "the author sent me a galley with a note."

She said she called Franzen to ask him if he would like to be her next book club pick, adding, with a smile, "as you all know we have a little history.

"After careful consideration, he said, yes."

Franzen, 51, who's on a book tour, couldn't be immediately reached. He's scheduled to appear tonight at Book People in Austin, Texas., and on Winfrey's TV show at a date to be scheduled in November.

A 2001 feud with Winfrey highlighted what some saw as a divide between serious literature and popular entertainment.

After Winfrey selected Franzen's last novel, The Corrections, for her book club — a coup for any author — he questioned having the Oprah Book Club sticker, a "logo of corporate ownership," on its cover, fearing it could turn off male readers.

She, in turn, kicked him out of the club and rescinded an invitation to appear on her show. He went on to win the National Book Award for The Corrections and write Winfrey an apology.

Freedom (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $28) is a multi-generational saga about a Midwestern family that's outwardly successful but inwardly unhappy. It also deals with corporate greed and corruption and dubious goings-on in the Bush administration.

Franzen's publisher said it has printed 600,000 copies with the Oprah Book Club sticker, in addition to the 355,000 copies already released.

Freedom already is a bestseller: No 7 on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list. Winfrey's endorsement is likely to propel it to No. 1 next week.

Franzen was on the cover of Time last month, crowned "Great American Novelist," the first novelist to make the cover since Stephen King a decade ago.

He also prompted an online backlash from popular novelists Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner, who complained that Franzen's new novel is getting too much attention from The New York Timesat the expense of female writers.

Reviews of Freedom have been generally good:

The New York Times proclaimed it a "masterpiece of American fiction."

USA TODAY says it marries "rich, absorbing storytelling with incisive social commentary."

The Chicago Tribune calls it "somewhat baggy" and "a bit arid. But it is hard not to admire the ambition."

In 2001, Franzen's literary ambitions collided with Winfrey's popularity. After initially participating in the selection and sitting down for a taped interview, Franzen began to question Winfrey's endorsement.

Noting that "women read while men are off golfing or watching football on TV or playing with their flight simulator or whatever," he told National Public Radio, "I had some hope of actually reaching a male audience and I've heard more than one reader in signing lines now at bookstores say, 'If I hadn't heard you, I would have been put off by the fact that it is an Oprah pick. I figure those books are for women. I would never touch it.' Those are male readers speaking. I see this as my book, my creation."

Those and other comments by Franzen prompted Winfrey to drop Franzen: "He is seemingly uncomfortable and conflicted about being chosen as a book club selection," she said. "It is never my intention to make anyone uncomfortable or cause anyone conflict."

Franzen then told USA TODAY he felt "awful" about the feud: "To find myself being in the position of giving offense to someone who's a hero — not a hero of mine per se, but a hero in general — I feel bad in a public-spirited way."

Later that year, when The Corrections won the National Book Award for fiction, Franzen, in his acceptance speech, said, "I'd also like to thank Oprah Winfrey for her enthusiasm and advocacy on behalf of The Corrections."

Lorin Stein, editor of the Paris Review and a former editor at Franzen's publisher, isn't surprised by the reconciliation and Winfrey's embrace of Freedom: "Oprah has always shown great faith in the American reader."

Carol Fitzgerald, founder of BookReporter.com, a website for book discussions, says, "From the moment I heard the possibility of the pick being Franzen I was thinking it's fitting for the last season to go for some closure since clearly Oprah is a huge fan of his. This would be a moment to go down that road again and have it be a better journey."

But book blogger and publisher Dennis Johnson (MobyLives.com), the first to report speculation about the selection, writes: "The lesson here? Never underestimate the cynicism of people in show biz."