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Jonathan Cape has signed The Women Behind the Door, the 13th novel from former Booker Prize-winner Roddy Doyle.
Nick Skidmore, publishing director at Vintage, acquired UK rights from Lucy Luck at C&W. Viking will publish the novel in the US simultaneously with Knopf Canada. Jonathan Cape will release the novel in September 2024.
The Women Behind the Door sees Doyle revisit his iconic character Paula Spencer who first appeared in his 1996 novel, The Woman Who Walked Into Doors. The novel will be published in the 30th anniversary year of "Family", Doyle’s television series which introduced Paula to Ireland.
In The Women Behind the Door Paula is in her sixties and has "forged a life that allows her to escape the past". Then her eldest daughter Nicola turns up on her doorstep and is determined to leave her nominally successful life behind. Over the following days the mother and daughter unravel memories and anecdotes to "confront the bruised but beautiful symmetry of what each means to the other".
Doyle said: "Of all the characters I’ve created over the years, Paula Spencer is the one I think about most. Actually, she’s the only one I think about at all. I’ve never fooled myself into thinking that the other characters have an existence outside the books, but I often wonder how Paula is getting on, or what she’s thinking. And that’s exactly what I was doing on my way home after my first Covid-19 vaccine, in May 2021; I was wondering how Paula would be feeling, and what she’d be thinking. That was the beginning of this novel, although it was months before I started writing it. I’m really looking forward to its publication."
Skidmore added: "Paula Spencer is without a doubt Roddy’s most endearing, yet tragically afflicted creation […] Her return in The Women Behind the Door, coming on nearly two decades since we last saw her, offers up a searingly powerful, ever-playful and often laugh-out-loud reckoning with Paula’s past and her duties of care. It is a masterful novel, bound to delight Paula Spencer fans and newcomers alike, and one that we’re incredibly proud to be publishing next year."