Canongate scoops Cary Groner's 'mesmerising' post-apocalyptic novel

Canongate has scooped The Way, a post-apocalyptic novel from Cary Groner.

Publisher and c.e.o Jamie Byng acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Susanna Lea at Susanna Lea Associates who is handling all rights excluding North America on behalf of Spiegel and Grau. Cindy Spiegel is the primary editor and Spiegel & Grau will publish in December 2024. Canongate will publish The Way in March 2025. 

Pitched as a "highly original contribution to the canon of dystopian literature", The Way is a "thrilling and imaginative novel" set in a world that has been ravaged by a lethal virus where only the young have survived. 

The publisher continued: "Against this perilous backdrop, Will Collins, the de facto caretaker of a Buddhist monastery in Colorado, receives an urgent and mysterious request: to deliver a potential cure to a scientist in what was once California. So Will sets out, chased by a menacing thug, haunted by dreams of the woman he once loved and accompanied by a clever raven, an opinionated cat, and a tough teenage girl who has learned to survive on her own."

Groner said: "I’m thrilled to be published by such a prestigious house as Canongate, many of whose authors I admire tremendously. My novel, The Way, explores some of the universal themes woven through the work of such writers. It asks the age-old question, ‘How to live?’ in new and unexpected ways and may offer surprising answers. I hope readers everywhere will enjoy it."

Byng added: "I read Cary Groner’s novel in two sittings, such was its vice-like grip, and I am confident that readers all over the world are going to fall as I did for this book’s mesmerising charm and barn-sized heart. The fact that The Way  manages to be delightful and funny, despite its bleak, brutal setting, is a testament to Cary’s prodigious skills as a writer. Not only does he make you believe entirely in this future he paints but I found myself entranced by the book’s many brilliantly drawn characters, not least our hero Will and his travelling sidekicks, Peau and Cassie, who made me think anew about our relationship with the animal world."