Allen & Unwin scoops Carrière’s literary coming-of-age memoir

Allen & Unwin has scooped Alice Carrière’s literary coming-of-age memoir Everything/Nothing/Someone.

Editor Erika Koljonen acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Stephen Morrison at Susanna Lea Associates. Originally published in the US in August 2023 by Spiegel & Grau, Allen & Unwin UK will publish in trade paperback, e-book and audio on 29th February 2024.

Everything/Nothing/Someone is described as "a literary coming-of-age tale". The synopsis says: "In it, Alice Carrière tells the story of her ostentatious, lavish, bohemian but ultimately neglectful childhood in Greenwich Village as the daughter of a remote mother, the renowned artist Jennifer Bartlett, and a charismatic father, European actor Mathieu Carrière. Her days are a mixture of privilege, neglect, loneliness, and danger – a child living in an adult’s world, with little-to-no enforcement of boundaries or supervision.

"In adolescence, Alice begins to lose her grasp on reality as a dissociative disorder erases her identity and overzealous doctors medicate her further away from herself... She finds purpose in caring for her mother as she descends into dementia, in a love affair with a recovering addict who steadies her, in confronting her father whose words and actions splintered her, and in finding her voice as a writer."

Carrière said: "I am thrilled that my memoir, Everything/Nothing/Someone, will be published by Atlantic Books. I am so moved by their enthusiasm for it and I’m eager to get it in the hands of readers in the UK."

Koljonen added: "I was blown away by the strength of Alice’s writing – it sucks the reader in and stays with you long after you’ve finished reading. She’s a phenomenal talent, balancing an evocative darkness with heart-wrenching humanity. This already feels like a classic of the genre – I see it finding new readers for years to come. I’m so excited to be publishing this incredible memoir in the UK."