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Eley Williams’ debut novel, a flurry of auctions for literary agent newbie Sam Hodder and an Australian kidnapping thriller from an Irish author are some of the projects causing furore ahead of the London Book Fair, which launches on Tuesday (10th April).
In non-fiction, an exploration of the origins of Western civilisation is Felicity Bryan Agency’s “Book of the Fair”, attracting three six figure deals so far. How the World Made the West by Josephine Quinn, associate professor of ancient history at the University of Oxford, spans thousands of years of history and has been attracting various major auctions across the world over the past fortnight, led by agent Catherine Clarke. The UK rights went to Michael Fishwick, publishing director at Bloomsbury, for six figures following an 11-bidder auction, while North American rights were snapped up by Metropolitan in a “major” six figure deal co-agented by Zoë Pagnamenta, also resulting from an 11-publisher auction. A China auction also ended in a six-figure deal with eight bidders, there was a pre-empt in the Netherlands, and rights have also been sold in France. The book, Quinn’s first trade title, is under offer in Spain, Italy and Germany and Clarke will sell other rights at the fair, with publication scheduled for 2020.
A fellow university professor’s sweeping new history of the Ottoman Empire attracted a pre-empt from John Murray within 48 hours of submission last week. Senior commissioning editor Joseph Zigmond acquired world rights in The Ottomans by LSE professor Marc David Baer, from Adam Gauntlett at Peters, Fraser and Dunlop (PFD). "A grand, galloping history of Eurasia’s greatest dynasty”, it will span 600 years of history and is the author's first trade book, publishing in the UK in late 2020 or early 2021. Basic Books will publish in North America.
Another historical title sent out before the fair comes from bestselling author, journalist and historian Ben Macintyre. Curtis Brown's Jonny Geller is submitted The Spy and the Traitor, described as a non-fiction exploration of the Cold War with shades of John le Carré, and expecting a high volume of interest.
In fiction, there has been a flurry of activity, including an Irish author’s debut about a mysterious Australian kidnapping securing a six-figure pre-empt from Simon & Schuster UK. Anne Perry, editorial director at S&S, snapped up UK and Commonwealth rights to the thriller, titled 55, and a second novel by Irish author James Delargy (right). The deal was brokered by Marilia Savvides at Peters Fraser and Dunlop and pre-empts were accepted in Germany, Sweden and Norway within 48 hours of submissions. Auctions in Italy, Spain, France, Poland and the Czech Republic followed. It will be published by S&S as a super-lead title in autumn 2019.
The novel follows a wounded man, Gabriel, who walks into a police station in remote Western Australia and tells a remarkable story of being kidnapped. He’d woken up in chains as a man named Heath, explains Gabriel will become ‘number 55’ –his 55th victim. Gabriel manages to escape and runs into the wilderness, eventually stumbling into town. The next day, a man calling himself Heath walks into the same police station and tells the exact same story. Except in his version, he is the victim and Gabriel is the killer. "I was hooked from the moment Marilia pitched 55 to me, and finished reading the manuscript in a breathless overnight race against the rising sun," Perry said.
Meanwhile debut novel Swimming in the Dark by a Warsaw-based Cambridge graduate has proved a “crash course in agenting” for Sam Hodder, less than two months after he became a full-time agent at Blake Friedmann, with auctions in the UK and across the pond. Formerly the agency’s finance manager, Hodder submitted the manuscript - by Tomasz Jedrowski (below left) - in late February, leading to a six-publisher auction. Bloomsbury senior commissioning editor Alexa von Hirschberg snapped up UK and Commonwealth rights excluding Canada and praised the “seductive and heartbreaking novel, which as well as being a passionate coming-of-age story, also raises profound moral questions”. Set against the decline of Polish communism in the early 1980s, Swimming in the Dark follows a love story between two men “as they seek moral integrity and survival under a repressive system”.
William Morrow bought the US rights as part of a six-figure deal and there are auctions underway in Italy and Germany with the audio rights also sold. William Morrow's senior editor Jessica Williams told The Bookseller it was a “breath-taking debut”. “I started Swimming in the Dark on a cold Saturday afternoon in New York, and immediately disappeared into its sensuous language and the lives of its characters,” she said. “I fell so utterly in love with Tomasz’s storytelling that I finished the book in one sitting, immediately sent a note to my publisher, and offered a pre-empt first thing Monday morning.”
Short story writer Eley Williams’ first novel has also caused a splash with Heinemann acquiring world rights from Lucy Luck at the C&W Agency last month, to be published in hardback in 2019. Already known for her short stories, and co-editor of fiction at 3:AM magazine, Williams' work has been shortlisted twice for The White Review’s Short Story Prize and her short story collection Attrib. (Influx Press) was shortlisted this week for the James Tait Black Prize. Her debut novel’s narrative is split between two main characters in different eras: Peter Winceworth, a disaffected Victorian lexicographer, who inserts false entries into a dictionary to assert some sense of individual purpose, and, in the present day, Mallory, a young overworked and underpaid intern employed by the dictionary’s publishing house, tasked with uncovering these entries before the work is digitised.
Luck is also submitting a manuscript from a mentee of Penguin Random House's Write Now scheme, with one firm offer already expected. My Name is Monster by Katie Hale is an "informal retelling of Robinson Crusoe set in an empty world".
Meanwhile What Red Was by fellow debut author Rosie Price is currently mid-auction - the literary novel is being “very well received” according to Jane Finigan from Lutyens & Rubinstein. She told The Bookseller the UK auction could spill over into LBF and possibly beyond. She described it as an “exciting literary debut from a fierce new talent”. Finigan said: “It was submitted to me by Rosie as part of a targeted approach to a few agents and I just fell in love with it”.
A manuscript sent out on submission, which "scouts are raving about", comes from Faber Academy graduate Stephanie Scott, who already has various short story awards under her belt. The Sentence is set in contemporary Japan and is a love story focused between a woman and the man who was hired to break up her marriage, which literary agent Antony Harwood has high hopes for during the fair.
Meanwhile, Trapeze’s commissioning editor Katie Brown acquired a second novel at auction, The Girl He Used to Know by New York Times bestselling author Tracey Garvis-Graves. With at least three publishers vying for the manuscript, the deal for UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) was struck by Kerry Nordling at St Martin’s Press in the US. German rights have meanwhile been sold at auction to Droemer and a deal was struck with Kinneret in Israel. Garvis-Graves latest novel, following her debut On the Island, is a story about second chances and "being the hero of your own narrative". According to Trapeze, which has plans to publish in April 2019, it has echoes of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (Borough Press) and follows a young college student struggling to fit in.
Bonnier Zaffre has acquired world rights including audio, film and TV for a “gripping and atmospheric” mystery from W C Ryan. Pitched as a cross between And Then There Were None and The Woman in Black, A House of Ghosts is set in an abbey on an island off the Devon coast in the winter of 1917. As the First World War enters its most brutal phase, back home in England everyone is seeking answers to "the darkness that has seeped into their lives”; a spiritual gathering is disrupted by a storm that descends on the island and guests find themselves trapped.
4th Estate has also reported a high number of deals over the last month including a literary debut, Doggerland by Ben Smith announced on Tuesday (3rd April), which was submitted exclusively to publishing director Helen Garnons-Williams after she worked on the manuscript.
Read about some of the other agents' top picks for the fair here.