Everything with Words signs Eve McDonnell debut

Independent publisher Everything with Words has acquired world English rights to Elsetime, a middle-grade debut by Irish author Eve McDonnell.

The book is about two 11-year-olds from the same town but different time periods: Glory, a jeweller’s apprentice in 1928, and Needle, a mudlark from 64 years earlier. They meet when Needle slips through a hagstone - a stone with a naturally occurring hole through it through which you can see other worlds - and the pair work together to save the local townsfolk from perishing in a flood. 

Publisher Mikka Haugaard, who acquired the book from Josephine Hayes of The Blair Partnership, said: “I was immediately struck by the poetic tone and engaging plot of Elsetime, a beguiling middle-grade story. [The novel is] a lyrical piece of magical realism involving time travel with a plot whose twists and turns inject a page-turning sense of urgency.”

Elsetime will be published in 2020.