Bloomsbury nabs Myers' book on soul music

Bloomsbury has acquired Rare Singles, a "full-throated hymn to the sorrows and triumphs of soul music" from author Benjamin Myers.

Editorial director Allegra Le Fanu bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Jessica Woollard at David Higham Associates. Publication for Rare Singles is scheduled for August 2024 and will be backed by a "major" international marketing and publicity campaign.

The book is described as "a love letter to Northern Soul" and the synopsis says: "Dinah has an especial hero: Bucky Bronco, who recorded a string of soul gems in the late Sixties and then vanished off the face of the earth. When she manages to contact Bucky she can’t believe her luck.

"Over in Chicago, Bucky Bronco is down on his luck – and has been since the loss of his beloved wife. The best he can hope for is to make ends meet, and try and stay high. But then an unexpected invitation arrives, from someone he’s never met, to come to somewhere he’s never heard of."

Myers is the author of 12 books, including The Gallows Pole (Bluemoose Books/ Bloomsbury), which won the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction and was adapted into a BBC series by Shane Meadows. He is also the author of Beastings (Bluemoose Books/ Bloomsbury), which was awarded the Portico Prize for Literature, and Pig Iron (Bluemoose Books/ Bloomsbury), which won the inaugural Gordon Burn Prize. His latest novel Cuddy (Bloomsbury Circus) has been named a book of the year by The Times, the Observer and others, and has been shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize.

Fanu said: "It has been my immense pleasure and honour to work with Benjamin Myers over the past couple of years at Bloomsbury: a rare and gifted writer whose work has captivated readers and booksellers everywhere. Rare Singles is a full-throated hymn to the sorrows and triumphs of soul music, and all the ways it can save us."

Myers added: "Working with Allegra and Bloomsbury continues to be nothing but a privilege. Their openness to new ideas and unexpected creative directions is everything a writer could hope and wish for. Miraculously, they keep saying yes to my absurd suggestions."