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Cape editorial director Željka Marošević has triumphed in a six-publisher auction for the "part-Black suburban Millennial comedy of manners, part-domestic noir" début novel by The Borough Press commissioning editor Ore Agbaje-Williams.
Marošević bought UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, and audio rights to The Three of Us and another title from Nicola Chang at David Higham in a "significant" two-book deal. It will be a lead fiction title which Cape aims to publish in spring 2023.
The Three of Us is described as a "taut, compulsive and subversively funny novel in the vein of 'I May Destroy You', My Sister the Serial Killer and Exciting Times". The story takes place over one day and centres around a husband, wife and the wife's best friend, Temi, "who just won't leave....it's the story of a marriage and a best friendship–and what happens when the two most important people in your life not only don’t get on, but hate each other with a passion".
Marošević said: "[Agbaje-Williams'] writing is whip-smart, razor-sharp, stylish, and laced with an addictive dark humour. The Three of Us is tapping into such a universal theme – haven’t we all, at some point, hated our best friend’s partner? – that I couldn’t believe no one had explored it in fiction before."
Agbaje-Williams is a London-based British-Nigerian writer who has written for gal-dem, Glamour and Wasafiri. She wrote this novel, originally submitted to publishers under a pseudonym, in lockdown during National Novel Writing Month. She was recently promoted to commissioning editor at The Borough Press and was named a Bookseller Rising Star in 2020. Marošević (class of 2014) and Chang (2020) have also been Rising Stars.
Agbaje-Williams said she was grateful to Cape "for the time taken to read and talk to each other about The Three of Us and their passion and commitment to bring it to a wide audience. I'm very, very excited for the world to meet the wife, the husband and, of course, Temi".