Faber scoops Banville's Snow follow-up

Faber has acquired April in Spain by John Banville, the follow-up novel to Snow (Faber).

Publishing director Angus Cargill acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Alba Ziegler-Bailey at the Wylie Agency. It will publish on 7th October 2021.

This is the second book in Banville's new Detective Strafford crime series, which features Detective Inspector St John Strafford alongside Irish pathologist Quirke, a character from Banville's Quirke series (Picador), which was published under his pen name Benjamin Black. The synopsis explains: "In the idyllic city of San Sebastián on the northern coast of Spain, Dublin pathologist Quirke is struggling to relax – despite the beaches, the cafes and his disarmingly lovely wife. So when he glimpses a familiar face in the twilight at the bar Las Arcadas, it’s hard, at first, to tell whether his imagination is just running away with him. Could she really be who he thinks she is, and be connected to the crime which nearly brought ruin to an Irish political dynasty?

"Unable to ignore his instincts, Quirke makes a call back home and Detective St John Strafford is soon dispatched to Spain. But he’s not the only one en route: as a terrifying hitman hunts down his prey, they are all set for a brutal showdown."

Banville was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945. He is the author of 18 novels, including Snow, The Book of Evidence, The Sea, which won the 2005 Booker Prize, and the Quirke series of crime novels under the pen name Benjamin Black. Other major prizes he has won include the Franz Kafka Prize, the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Achievement in Irish Literature and the Prince of Asturias Award.

Cargill said: "After the bestselling Snow, it's so exciting to see John continue his new crime series with Detective Strafford, as he and Quirke find themselves caught between a mysterious woman and a memorably nasty hitman, all played out against the gorgeously evoked backdrop of the Bay of Biscay."