Canongate scoops Tallack’s 'soulful' second novel

Canongate has scooped Malachy Tallack’s "soulful" second novel, That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz.

Editor-at-large Leah Woodburn acquired world rights from Jenny Brown at Jenny Brown Associates and Canongate is set to publish in October 2024.

In a flurry of pre-empts and offers around the Frankfurt Book Fair, Italian rights were sold to Bompiani, French rights to Buchet-Chastel, German rights to Luchterhand Literaturverlag (PRH) and Dutch rights to Arbeiderspers. Translation rights are being handled by rights director Jessica Neale.

The book is described as one about friendship, passion and music. "Sonny and Kathleen are long gone, and Jack is an old man, still living in the family cottage that stands alone on the side of a hill," the synopsis says. "And it is here, one evening, that something appears on his doorstep to throw off the rhythms of his solitary existence in the most profound way."

Tallack was shortlisted for the Saltire First Book Award for 60 Degrees North (Polygon), while The Un-Discovered Islands (Polygon) was named Illustrated Book of the Year at the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards. His book The Valley at the Centre of the World (Canongate) was shortlisted for the Highland Book Prize and longlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize.

Tallack said: "I couldn’t be more delighted that this novel has found such welcoming homes, at Canongate and beyond. Working with Leah has been a tremendous pleasure. She understood exactly what makes this story tick. I hope that readers will find Jack – stuck in his ways though he is – as good company as I have done in writing him."

Woodburn added: "For me, Malachy’s great skill is in finding the beauty in the everyday. In That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz, he paints a portrait of a life that could so easily be overlooked, peeling it back to reveal something quietly extraordinary."