Faber falls for Emezi's debut romance

Faber has scooped Akwaeke Emezi’s "sizzling, glamorous" romance debut, You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty.

It will be published as a superlead title on 2nd June 2022, including an exclusive edition for Waterstones. Atria will publish in the US. Associate publisher Louisa Joyner bought UK, Commonwealth and EU plus audio rights from Alba Ziegler-Bailey at the Wylie Agency.

Amazon Studios has already bought screen rights to You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty in a seven-figure deal. Michael B Jordan’s Outlier Society will develop the film and it is the "Black Panther" star’s first major film property acquisition. Emezi will be executive producer.

The book follows Feyi, who is about to embark on the opportunity of a lifetime and escape blistering heat for a dream island holiday: poolside cocktails, beach sunsets and elaborate meals. "As the sun goes down on her old life, our heroine also might just be ready to open her heart to someone new," the synopsis stats. "The only problem is, she’s falling for the one man she absolutely can’t have."

Joyner said: "I’m with Time magazine – Akwaeke is a Next Generation Leader and they will blow your mind with the beauty and brilliance of this sizzling, glamorous love story, which I would basically like to live in."

Emezi is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Death of Vivek Oji, which was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize; Pet, a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature; and Freshwater, which was named a New York Times Notable Book and longlisted for both the Wellcome Book Prize and the Women’s Prize for Fiction. All are published by Faber.