Bluebird clinches Gagne's Sociopath memoir in six-figure pre-empt
Bluebird has signed the debut book, Sociopath: A Memoir, by Patric Gagne following a six-figure pre-empt.
UK and Commonwealth rights were acquired by Carole Tonkinson, former publisher at Bluebird, in a six-figure pre-empt from Hellie Ogden while at Janklow & Nesbit. It will be published on 11th April 2024.
The blurb reads: “Patric Gagne realised she made others feel uncomfortable before she even started kindergarten. Something caused people to react to her in a strange way she didn’t understand. She suspected it was because she didn’t seem to feel things the same way everyone else did. She had feelings, of course, but could never seem to connect with them. For the most part she felt nothing, and she knew that wasn’t what anyone wanted to hear.
“She did her best to pretend she was like everyone else, but the constant pressure to conform to a society that she knew rejected anyone like her was unbearable. So Patric stole. She lied. She trespassed onto private property. She was occasionally, viciously, violent. All with the goal of replacing the nothingness with something.”
Bluebird added: “Shortly after college Patric finally confirmed what she’d long suspected: she was a sociopath. But even though it was the first personality disorder identified — well over 200 years ago — sociopathy was abandoned as an officially-recognised term in the 1960s.
"She was told there was no treatment available, no hope for a normal life. She found herself haunted by sociopaths in pop culture, madmen and evil villains who are considered monsters.”
Following on from a ’Modern Love’ essay Gagne wrote for the New York Times about her relationship with the man who is now her husband and the father of her children, and her own research, Sociopath is described by Blurbird as “the unflinching, unputdownable, often funny and ultimately deeply redemptive story of how Patric forged a future beyond her diagnosis”.
It features her first meeting with her husband “and proving to herself that she was capable of love” to pursuing a doctorate in psychology, for which she researched the full spectrum of sociopathic personality disorder.
Blurbird added: “As a therapist, she has made it her mission to help others like her and bring the lived experience of sociopathy out of the darkness, where it is still shrouded in harmful misconceptions.
“It is a story that hasn’t been told before – one that will change the narrative and challenge everything you thought you knew about sociopaths.”
Gagne said: “I wrote my ’Modern Love’ article because I wanted to give people like me the opportunity to see themselves in a normal, healthy relationship. The response was overwhelming. I heard from readers – all over the world – saying things like, ‘I thought I was alone’ and ‘I thought I was crazy’.
"Many admitted to sharing the essay with friends and family in an effort to help them understand. After that, I knew I wanted to share my story. I decided to wrap my research in a memoir about living with sociopathy in an effort to help educate, raise awareness, and ultimately give hope to the millions of others out there who struggle with this disorder.”
Jodie Lancet-Grant, associate publisher at Bluebird, said: “Sociopath is a truly extraordinary memoir, combining Patric’s brutal honesty and exceptional openness about her life with the perspective of her work as a therapist.
"From the very first page, Sociopath is almost impossible to put down, not only for its unflinching descriptions of the author’s darkest impulses and actions, but also for its examination of what drives them. It is utterly compelling.”
