Granta launches Best of Granta backlist paperback series

In August this year, Granta will launch the Best of Granta series, highlighting some of the publisher’s bestselling backlist titles over the past four decades. 

The series will spotlight fiction and non-fiction titles that "best conjure the purpose and spirit of what Granta Books stands for". The aim is "to present them in a ‘collectable’ new paperback livery that persuades readers that the whole company’s belief and conviction has been poured into the object they hold before them".

The new editions will not replace the current paperback editions of the titles already in print, but will sit alongside them.

The series will launch with eight titles in August 2023, and Granta will publish a further six titles a year. It will kick off with publication of The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick, Straw Dogs by John Gray and May We Be Forgiven by A M Homes. Han Kang’s The Vegetarian will also be among the first titles published as part of Best of Granta, as will Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner, Dept of Speculation by Jenny Offill and Rebecca Solnit’s Men Explain Things to Me.

Jason Arthur, Granta’s associate publishing director, said: "For a while now, we have been looking at creating a vehicle for those titles that have been consistent backlist bestsellers for us. Working closely with designer Tom Etherington, we have come up with a series design that is simple and confident, with a pleasing balance between imagery and typographical elements. It’s a livery that nevertheless allows individual titles to really shine."

Etherington added: "Granta’s bestselling backlist titles are a brilliant and eclectic list of books. I wanted to match these books with similarly brilliant and eclectic artworks. The design is decidedly spare, allowing the art to be the focus of the cover. An exciting part of the project was pairing authors with artists, such as Jenny Offill with John Wesley, Han King with Petra Börner."

Granta managing director Bella Lacey commented: "In 2023 we are putting a lot of resource, time and energy into our paperback publishing, and that includes looking at ways to refresh some of our backlist titles and bringing them to a new audience. With Best of Granta, we have a series that sits somewhere between a modern classics list and a celebration of the individual titles Granta is proudest of publishing since its inception."