S&S lands novel from David Higham Associates' Vialleron

Simon & Schuster UK is to publish The Yellow Kitchen by Margaux Vialleron, a novel exploring love, friendship, identity and cooking. 

Clare Hey, publishing director, bought UK and Commonwealth rights in a deal brokered by Kirsty McLachlan at Morgan Green Creatives. 

Margaux Vialleron, who is translation rights agent for David Higham Associates, writes and cooks for book club and culinary community the Salmon Pink Kitchen in her spare time. Described as "Expectation meets Julie & Julia" The Yellow Kitchen is said to be a story of female friendship and love, food and identity.

The synopsis states: "London, 2019, a yellow kitchen stands as a metaphor for the lifelong friendship between three women: Claude, the earnest baker, fragile and goal-orientated Sophie and stubborn and political Giulia. They have the best kind of friendship, chasing life and careers; dating, dreaming and consuming but always returning to be reunited in the yellow kitchen.

"That is, until a trip to Lisbon unravels unexplored desires and they suddenly find themselves in a ménage-à-trois. Having sex with your best friend is one thing, waking up the day after is the beginning of something new.

"The Yellow Kitchen is a celebration of all things international, the culture, the food and the rhythms we live by. Exploring the complexities of female friendship and body experiences, it is a love letter to womanhood as well as being a novel that portrays sisterhood and motherhood in the plural shapes they form."

Margaux was born in Paris in 1993, studied for her degree in comparative literature in Montreal, Canada, and moved to London in 2015. Since then she’s lived and cooked in five kitchens, including one with salmon pink walls, which gave her the name for the book and supper club she co-hosts.

She said: "Writing Claude, Giulia and Sophie’s story has been my fuel as I missed cooking shared meals for friends. Kirsty has been the most wonderful champion one could ask for and I’m very excited to work with Clare and the team at S&S to invite readers into the yellow kitchen. I’m already working on the menu."

Hey said: "I completely fell for this hymn to a London that feels at the same time a distant memory and a pressing reminder of all that is out there waiting for us to rediscover it. Margaux writes with her multilingual tongue about a multicultural place, one where everyone is welcome to find their own yellow kitchen. It’s perfect for anyone who loves to cook while listening to Jacques Brel, and whose bookshelves have novels about friendship stacked alongside well-thumbed cookbooks."

McLachlan added: "Margaux is a truly talented writer and she has an innate sense of those moments that build – and break relationships. A book of joy, I read The Yellow Kitchen in one sitting when Margaux first submitted and I’m delighted that it has found a home with Clare whose passion for the book and Margaux’s writing was completely infectious."

S&S will be publishing in hardback, e-book and audio in 2022.