Bloomsbury acquires Lauren J Joseph’s 'disquieting and fantastical' second novel

Bloomsbury has signed Lean Cat, Savage Cat, Lauren J Joseph’s second novel. Joseph was selected as an Observer debut novelist of 2022 for their debut, At Certain Points We Touch (Bloomsbury).

Editorial director Allegra Le Fanu and editor-in-chief Paul Baggaley acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, including audio, from Zoe Ross at United Agents. The book is slated for publication in spring 2026.

"Charli, a young trans woman, has left art school and is struggling to work out what to do with her life," the synopsis says. "One night at a bar in Soho, however, her life changes when she first encounters the mysterious Alexander Geist. Androgynously, glamorously handsome, mysterious and just a little sinister, he feels something like a soul mate; and so when he heads off to Berlin, Charli follows."

The synopsis adds: "There, at the centre of the city’s febrile party scene, Charli and Alexander embark on their great project: to turn Alexander into the biggest and most important star since David Bowie. But Alexander is elusive, mercurial; and Charli is in over her head before she realises just how self-destructive her life has become under his spell."

Joseph said: "It’s a great pleasure to be working with Paul and Allegra at Bloomsbury again. With Lean Cat, Savage Cat they’ve encouraged me to be bolder, shrewder, more precise and more perverse than ever."

Le Fanu added: "Lean Cat, Savage Cat is a triumph: daring, sexy, disquieting and fantastical, and Hitchcockian in its tension, it reconfirms Lauren as one of the most exciting and inventive writers at work today."