Faber wins Tate's 'virtuoso' debut in five-way auction

Faber has bagged Brutes, the "fierce" debut novel by Dizz Tate, after triumphing in a five-way auction.

Set in Florida, the coming-of-age novel revolves around the disappearance of a TV preacher’s daughter and the gang of 13-year-old girls who have obsessively orbited her. "An exploration of the collective horrors and manic joys – and the incantatory ferocity – of girlhood, the novel follows them as they splinter off into adulthood and reckon with their shared knowledge of violence," the synopsis states.

Brutes is scheduled for publication in February 2023. Faber & Faber acquired UK and Commonwealth and exclusive Europe rights plus audio from Harriet Moore at David Higham Associates. North American rights were acquired by Kendall Storey at Catapult.

Commissioning editor Emmie Francis said: "Brutes is a classic, virtuoso coming-of-age story – one that depicts the crucible of young female invincibility and vulnerability. It’s a work of fiction that boasts an extraordinary commitment to craft; to sentences, images, sensations and their possibilities. Tate is a British talent working in a deeply compelling and fresh way – and Faber is a lucky publisher to help launch that into the world."

Tate said: "I have been working on Brutes in various forms for seven years and I am so excited to see it evolve from my scattered secret pages into a solid form, a whole book. I’m thrilled to be working with Faber and Catapult, who foster such original and brilliant work, and want to thank my agent, Harriet Moore, who has been such an advocate of this story since its inception. I am so grateful that the exuberant, envious, desperate, loving, proudly brutish girls in my book have been treated with such care. I now can’t wait to see them out in the world making their small, bright marks."

Tate grew up in Orlando, Florida, and currently lives in the UK, in Birmingham. Her short stories have appeared in the Stinging Fly, Dazed, Five Dials and No Tokens Journal, among others. She won the Bristol Short Story Prize in 2018. For her story "Harpies", she won Best Original Fiction in the Stack magazine awards in 2019, and in 2020, she was longlisted for the Sunday Times Short Story Award.

Moore said: "I’m thrilled Dizz’s Brutes will be published by Faber and Catapult, who are ideal artistic collaborators for this unforgettable swarm of fierce attachments and hatching hearts, this work of unusual originality, texture and energy where pink bougainvillea flowers burn and cherry pies shimmer with roaches."