Cox's second 'pitch-perfect' novel to Coronet

Coronet has signed the second novel, Way Back, by the broadcaster and author Sara Cox.

Hannah Black, publisher, bought world rights from Melanie Rockcliffe at YMU. It will be published on 26th March 2024 with the audio read by Cox.

The blurb reads: “Way Back is the perfectly imperfect story of Josie, and what happens when life turns out just the way you want, but not the way you need. Josie’s life is fine. Completely fine. Nice husband, brilliant best friend, a gorgeous kid at university. The big house of her dreams on its leafy London street is a lifetime away from the Lancashire farm of her childhood.

“But there is this feeling, nagging away at the edges of Josie’s thoughts. The sense that this is not where she is meant to be, that she has somehow lost sight of things. If Josie is to truly live, she must take back the reins and confront her future. And in order to that, she needs to go back – way back. To the farm of her childhood where mysteries and sadness still lurk, and where she just might find a new path ahead.”  

Coronet said it delivers “pitch-perfect storytelling, compassionate insight and the knowing humour and warmth that we have come to expect from Sara”.

Cox said: “I’m excited to introduce Josie to the world. I hope readers enjoy hanging out with her and see a bit of themselves in her and her quest to make peace with her past to change her future. I wanted to explore what can happen when a person has everything they want but starts to crave something they need.

"Josie wants to make sense of her story and I think that’s a common thread that connects us all, the desire to understand ourselves and our past.”

Black said: “Sara’s gift for characterisation, observation and humour make her books not only a joy to read but they speak to readers in a way that is both compassionate and inclusive.

"Way Back is warm and funny without ever ducking away from the harder aspects of what it means to change your mind, your life and to find your sense of self. It will having you googling ‘Farms for sale’ within minutes.”

Cox hosts the weekly BBC Two’s book programme “Between the Covers”, and became a debut novelist last year with Thrown (Coronet) which was a Sunday Times bestseller in both hardback and paperback.