Fitzcarraldo signs 'angry novel for our angry times'

Fitzcarraldo Editions is to publish Moving Kings, a "propulsive, incendiary" novel about faith, race, class, and what it means to have a home, by American novelist Joshua Cohen.

Publisher Jacques Testard acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to the title from Caspian Dennis at Abner Stein, acting on behalf of Edward Orloff at McCormick & Williams.

The blub reads: The year is 2015, and 21-year-old Yoav and Uri have just completed their compulsory military service in the Israel Defense Forces. In keeping with national tradition, they take a year off for rest, recovery, and travel. They come to New York City and begin working for Yoav's distant cousin, David King – a proud American patriot, Republican, and Jew, and the recently divorced proprietor of King's Moving Inc., a heavyweight in the Tri-State area's moving and storage industries.

"Yoav and Uri now must struggle to become reacquainted with civilian life, but it's not easy to move beyond their traumatic pasts when their days are spent kicking down doors, working as eviction-movers in the ungentrified corners of the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens, throwing out delinquent tenants and seizing their possessions. And what starts off as a profitable if eerily familiar job – an "Occupation" – quickly turns violent, when they encounter one homeowner seeking revenge."

Testard said: "I am delighted to have acquired Moving Kings, an angry novel for our angry times. I am not alone in thinking that Joshua Cohen is one of the most exciting novelists around, and not just in English. Moving Kings is a superb addition to our catalogue."

Cohen was born in 1980 in Atlantic City. He has written novels including Book of Numbers (Harvill Secker). He is a critic for Harper’s Magazine and lives in New York City.

Publication date for the title is 20th July 2017.