Usborne acquires YA grief tale

Usborne has acquired YA novel The Last Summer of Us by debut writer Maggie Harcourt, a coming-of-age story about what happens to 16-year-old girl Limpet after her mother dies.
 
Rebecca Hill, editorial director at Usborne, acquired the UK and Commonwealth rights in a pre-empt deal from Juliet Mushens at the Agency Group.
 
Hill said: “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this extraordinarily honest coming-of-age novel. It has the perfect ingredients of bestselling literary fiction - achingly good characters, a great story, beautifully written. A guide to dealing with grief and growing up, it doesn’t get better than this.”
 
Usborne will publish The Last Summer of Us in May 2015.