Débutante Salam looks to blossom with Fig Tree

Fig Tree has snapped up UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, to literary début Central by Anbara Salam after a three-way auction.

The book follows two missionaries who visit a remote Melanesian island and find it has been radicalised by an exorcism cult.

Their relationship becomes increasingly strained and the duo are eventually driven to violent extremes.

Blake Friedmann’s Hattie Grunewald struck the “mid five-figure” deal.