Fourth Estate lands Franzen trilogy with new novel released October 2021

Fourth Estate will publish Jonathan Franzen’s new novel Crossroads, the first in a trilogy, in the UK in October 2021.

Nicholas Pearson, editorial director, acquired British Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, to the A Key to All Mythologies trilogy, from Caspian Dennis at Abner Stein on behalf of Susan Golomb at Writers House.

A Key to All Mythologies concerns the lives of three generations of a Midwest family struggling to navigate the many “mythologies” — religious, political, intellectual, and social — that have animated and troubled American life from the Vietnam War to the present day.  

Crossroads, the first in the trilogy, will be published  in October 2021. Set in the early 1970s, it tells the story of the Hildebrandt family – Russ, Marion and their four children. The synopsis explains: “Each of them seek a freedom for themselves that the others threaten to complicate. Personal crises, sibling rivalry and intergenerational conflict bring the family to a moment of terrible upheaval.”  

Pearson said: “As we know from The Corrections and Freedom, Jonathan Franzen is unparalleled as a chronicler of the modern American family. Crossroads is a tour-de-force, a unique and totally immersive reading experience like no other. The fracturing of the Hildebrandt family, their various struggles explored with such intimacy, compassion and humour, encapsulates a moment of severe crisis. Crossroads alone offers satisfactions that seem complete. But it is thrilling that we have the ongoing stories of this family and the currents that underpin American life to look forward to in the future.”