'Gripping modern fable' by creative writing lecturer to Dead Ink

Dead Ink has acquired Sealed, the debut novel from Naomi Booth, in its first agented acquisition.

The publisher bought UK and Commonwealth rights to the title from Lucia Walker at Curtis Brown.

The publisher said: "Timely and suspenseful, Sealed is a gripping modern fable on motherhood and a terrifying portrait of ordinary people under threat from their own bodies and from the world around them. It has elements of speculative fiction and the macabre, whilst also being an unforgettable story about a mother’s fight to survive."

Nathan Connolly, director of Dead Ink, added: “We are thrilled to take on this book and we think it has significant potential. In Sealed, Naomi has managed to capture the fear and paranoia of our time in an immensely readable book that is as haunting as it is beautiful. This is a book that strakly reminds us of our simultaneous frailty and strength.”

Booth was born and raised in West Yorkshire and is now based in York, where she lectures in Creative Writing and Literature at York St John University. Her debut work of fiction, The Lost Art of Sinking, was published by Penned in the Margins in 2016 and tells the story of a girl living in the Pennines who compulsively passes out. The work won the Saboteur Award for Best Novella 2016 and is included in the New Writing North Read Regional selection for 2017.