Canongate bags Kerri ní Dochartaigh's 'remarkable' second nature book

Canongate has acquired Cacophony of Bone, the second book from nature writer Kerri ní Dochartaigh.

Editorial director Simon Thorogood bought world rights, excluding North America, from Kirsty McLachlan at Morgan Green Creatives. It will be published in April 2023.

"Cacophony of Bone maps the circle of a year – a journey from one place to another, field notes of a life – from one winter, to the next," the synopsis explains. "This is a time like no other, but it is also exactly like any other, too. The longest day came, as always it does – and the shortest came, too – in turn. This book is about time, that oddly boned creature; how it shapeshifts, right before our eyes. The pandemic has altered the way many of us view or experience time, and yet we watch as the natural world continues its unfurling, just as it always has, right outside our doors. It is also a book about home, and what that can mean. Home can be a place, a person, or perhaps even nature.

"Cacophony of Bone is a telling of a changed life, in a changed world – but it is, too, about all that which does not change. All that which simply keeps on – living and breathing, nesting and dying – in spite of it all. Fragmentary in subject and form, fluid of language; this is an ode to a year, a place, and a love, that changed a life. Told month by month, in three parts, through diary extracts, poetry, essay and hybrid prose, its form reflects the time, and the place, that helped to mould it."

Ní Dochartaigh is the author of Thin Places which was highly commended by the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing 2021. She has written for the Guardian, Irish Times, the BBC, Winter Papers and others. 

"Canongate are the best publishing house around and I am so grateful for their incredible work on Thin Places," she said. "I’m so excited to work with Simon on Cacophony of Bone, a book that takes my writing in a new direction. I hope Cacophony might deliver a little light to any reader that encounters it along the way. I am proud to continue my journey with Canongate and so grateful to everyone that continues to make this possible; it’s a deep joy."

Thorogood said: "Kerri’s first book Thin Places has touched and inspired readers (and wowed critics), Cacophony of Bone takes her writing journey to a new level and I can’t wait for readers to see where she takes us in this remarkable book."