Hodder signs King's 'magnificent' Fairy Tale for September release

Stephen King has written a “a magnificent and terrifying tale” about a teenage boy with keys to a parallel world. The book is due to be published in September by Hodder. 

The deal for British Commonwealth rights was made by Hodder & Stoughton c.e.o. Jamie Hodder-Williams and the Darhansoff & Verrill agency in New York. Hodder will publish Fairy Tale in hardback, e-book and audiobook on 6th September 2022, backed by a major campaign. 

Hodder said: “Legendary storyteller Stephen King goes into the deepest well of his imagination in this spellbinding novel about a 17-year-old boy who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war, and the stakes could not be higher for their world or ours. Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was 10, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself and his dad.  

“Then, when Charlie is 17, he meets a dog named Radar and his aging master, Howard Bowditch, a recluse in a big house at the top of a big hill, with a locked shed in the backyard. Sometimes strange sounds emerge from it. Charlie starts doing jobs for Mr Bowditch and loses his heart to Radar. Then, when Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie a cassette tape telling a story no one would believe. What Bowditch knows, and has kept secret all his long life, is that inside the shed is a portal to another world. King’s storytelling in Fairy Tale soars.”  

Hodder described it as “a magnificent and terrifying tale about another world than ours, in which good is pitted against overwhelming evil, and a heroic boy and his dog must lead the battle”.  

Early in the pandemic, King asked himself: ‘What could you write that would make you happy?’  He explained: “As if my imagination had been waiting for the question to be asked, I saw a vast deserted city – deserted but alive. I saw the empty streets, the haunted buildings, a gargoyle head lying overturned in the street. I saw smashed statues, of what I didn’t know, but I eventually found out. I saw a huge, sprawling palace with glass towers so high their tips pierced the clouds. Those images released the story I wanted to tell.”  

Philippa Pride, Stephen King’s UK editor at Hodder, said: “Following the number one bestselling thriller Billy Summers, master storyteller Stephen King now turns his amazing imagination to the world of the fairytale. If you grew up reading the Brothers Grimm and came of age watching ‘Stranger Things’, you will relish this fabulous new novel which reminds us of both the richness of fairytales and the darker side of the ‘happily ever after’. Charlie’s quest to save his dog by entering a magical yet decaying land will certainly pull at your heartstrings, and we can’t wait to share this very special book with King’s legions of fans this summer.”