Film4 options film rights to Pushkin's Maresi

Film4, the production company behind "12 Years a Slave" and "Slumdog Millionaire", has optioned the film rights for Maria Turtschaninoff’s Maresi, published in the UK by Pushkin Press.

The deal was brokered by Turtschaninoff’s agent Elina Ahlbäck of the Elina Ahlback Literary Agency, in collaboration with Gudrun Giddings.

Maresi is the first book in the Red Abbey Chronicles fantasty series, set in refuge for women and girls. The book was first published in Schildts & Söderströms in 2014 and has since been released in 17 territories.

Adam Fredenheim, publisher at Pushkin Press, said:  “From the first time we read it my colleagues and I were swept away by Maresi and the world Maria has created.  It's one of those special fantasy novels which resonates on so many levels and is both a page-turner and an accomplished work of literature that speaks to our times.”

Pushkin will publish Naondel, a new tale from the Red Abbey Chronicles, in April 2017.