Alastair Chisholm’s Reek goes to Barrington Stoke

Sci-fi author Alastair Chisholm’s Reek will be published by Barrington Stoke. 

World rights were bought by publisher Ailsa Bathgate from Caroline Montgomery at Rupert Crew Limited. Reek will be published on 18th July 2024 as part of Barrington Stoke’s super-readable format for readers aged nine and above. 

The blurb reads: “Barrington Stoke invites you to enter the world of the Reek, where, in a post-climate-disaster Edinburgh, fresh air has become a commodity controlled by a large and powerful tech corporation. Reek is an edge-of-your-seat adventure that will have you gripped from the first page until the last with its terrifying vision of the future.  

Chisholm said: “I’m so excited to be part of Barrington Stoke’s mission to bring the joy of reading and storytelling to everyone. Reek is an adventure story set in a future poisoned by pollution, where people have to pay even for the air they breathe, and a tiny group of billionaires controls the whole world – an idea that may sound worryingly plausible.  

“I wanted to write about how that would feel, but I also wanted an exciting story, with a kick-ass hero, Sparrow – a young hover-booted courier written off by society but ready to change the world. And as a comics lover, I’m very lucky to be working with artist George Caltsoudas on this project. His illustrations are electrifying and really leap off the page – I can’t wait to show them off.” 

Bathgate says of the acquisition: “Reek is the brilliant dystopian novel I’ve been longing to bring to our readers, masterfully crafted by Alastair Chisholm.

“He has managed to pack so much into our short word count, combining a gripping, action-packed story in which the pace never falters, with important messages about greed, fairness and the looming climate disaster. Like the best dystopian fiction, what makes it so terrifying is that it’s all too easy to imagine it coming true.”