Faber Children’s acquires Akwaeke Emezi’s debut YA

Faber Children’s has acquired a YA novel by Akwaeke Emezi, whose adult book Freshwater (Faber) was longlisted for the 2019 Women’s Prize.

Pet asks the question ‘how do you save the world from monsters if no-one will admit they exist?’. It tells the story of Jam is taught that in her utopian world, all the monsters have been defeated, and evil has been eradicated by people now known as Angels. But when a creature called Pet claws its way out of her mother's painting looking for a monster, Jam has to face the reality that something terrible lurks at her friend's house.

Annie Eaton, who is covering for publisher Leah Thaxton (on maternity leave), acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Alba Ziegler-Bailey and Ekin Oklap at The Wylie Agency.

Eaton said: “It's hugely exciting to welcome Akwaeke Emezi to the Faber YA list. Pet is a beautifully-written, powerful novel, which raises fascinating questions around human behaviour and whether we could ever live in a world free from evil. This book is really going to wake readers up and get them talking.”

Pet will be published as a paperback original on 7 November 2019.

Emezi hit the headlines last month as the first non-binary trans person to be nominated for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. The prize said it was working on a policy around gender fluid, transgender and transgender non-binary writers following their longlisting.