Ad Lib snaps up 'extraordinary' investigation into cults from Richter

Ad Lib has snapped up Cult Trip: Inside the World of Coercion & Control by reporter Anke Richter. 

Editorial director Duncan Proudfoot acquired world English rights, excluding the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, from Nicolette Houben at HarperCollins New Zealand. The book will be published on 6th April 2023. 

Since meeting a survivor of the Centrepoint cult, Richter has been investigating how cults "attract, entrap and destroy otherwise ordinary people, asking what the line is between tribe and cult, participant and perpetrator, seduction and sexual abuse". The publisher added: "From the emotional and criminal carnage of Centrepoint in Auckland, New Zealand, to an anti-cult conference in Manchester, the infamous Osho’s ashram in India, the tantric Agama Yoga school in remote Thailand and culminating in a visit to Gloriavale on the west coast of New Zealand’s South Island, Anke uncovers a disturbing pattern of violence and suffering." 

Proudfoot commented: "This is an extraordinary book – courageous, fair-minded, compassionate, but also unflinching. It successfully reveals the whole story of what goes on in the organisations we brand as cults." 

Richter said: "This investigative work, where the lines between victims and perpetrators were often blurred, took a toll on me – I came too close to the survivors’ trauma. I also reveal my own endeavours in the conscious sexuality scene. My book raises big questions around manipulation, guilt, denial and forgiveness – an eye opener and a tour de force."