Abacus signs Everett’s debut short story collection in a two-book deal 

Abacus has signed Rupert Everett’s The American No, his debut collection of short stories. 

Claire Smith, publisher, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Sarah Chalfant at the Wylie Agency as part of a two-book deal. The “witty” and “tender” collection will be published by Abacus in October 2024. 

Everett shot to fame with his work in film as both a writer and actor. The publisher says that The American No “draws on the wealth of film and TV ideas Rupert Everett has created over the course of his career, [and] will delight and surprise his many fans”. 

Abacus writes that the collection “takes us on an exhilarating journey with a cast of extraordinary characters". The synopsis described it as: "A blackly humorous story of a chaotic and emotional funeral in Paris. Oscar Wilde’s last night in Paris, vividly evocative, unflinching and elegiac. A middle-aged Russian countess who confronts sex and age in a Cotswold teashop. The ferociously unforgiving life of an LA talent agency and the unexpected twist that launches a completely different kind of career. The deathbed confession of a woman who left home for 1850s India, never to return. A story of emigration, love and grief. And a beautifully evocative and touching portrayal of Proust’s creative life and his childhood.” 

Everett’s previous work includes his first memoir Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins (2004, Little, Brown) and its sequel, Vanished Years (2012, Little, Brown), which won the Sheridan Morley Prize for Biography. His third memoir, To the End of the World: Travels with Oscar Wilde, was published by Little, Brown in 2020.