Cape pre-empts on Kennedy debut

Jonathan Cape has bought a debut comedy on sexual politics by US writer Eliza Kennedy.

Beth Coates acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to I Take You from Cathryn Summerhayes, selling on behalf of Suzanne Gluck at WME, in a "significant" pre-empt.

The book was earlier snapped up by Crown in the US in a deal also described as "significant".

Set for publication in early 2015, I Take You tells of a woman lawyer preparing for her wedding but finding herself unable to stop sleeping with other men. Coates described the book as a "brilliantly executed" literary commercial page-turner with echoes both of Bridget Jones and Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette?

She said: "The joy of this book is in the voice – fresh, confrontational, unlike anything I've ever read before. Lily is the perfect anti-heroine: sassy, profane, fond of a drink an unapologetic about her appetite for sex. Definitely not your average blushing bride."

Kennedy has a law degree from Harvard and is married to author Joshua Ferris.

Further rights have been sold to France (Laffont), Holland (Sander), Brazil (Rocco) and to Germany (Fischer), with more offers in Europe.