Transworld Wakes up with Anna Hope buy

Transworld has acquired a "powerful wartime novel", Wake by Anna Hope, with plans to publish in early 2014 to coincide with the centenary year of the First World War.

Doubleday editorial director Jane Lawson bought two books in a seven-way auction from Caroline Wood at Felicity Bryan Associates.

The book is set over the course of five days in 1920, weaving the stories of three women around the journey of the Unknown Soldier, from the excavation from a field in Northern France to Armistice Day at Westminster Abbey.

Lawson said: "I was deeply moved by Wake—it is heartrending and unexpectedly wise. The emotional subtlety and power of Anna Hope's writing, her gift for exquisite storytelling and characterisation and the originality of structure made Wake impossible to resist. Anna Hope is a writer with an exciting career ahead and we are exceedingly proud to be publishing her."