Faber scoops 'thrilling' new novel by Light Perpetual author Spufford

Faber has scooped a new novel by Francis Spufford, author of Golden Hill and Light Perpetual (both Faber).

Publisher Alex Bowler acquired UK Commonwealth and EU rights (excluding Canada) to Cahokia Jazz from Clare Alexander at Aitken Alexander, to publish on 5th October 2023.

The book is described as a "lovingly-created tale of murder and mystery set in a city where history has run a little differently". The synopsis said: "It’s 1922, and Americans are drinking in speakeasies, dancing to jazz, stepping quickly to the tempo of modern times. Beside the Mississippi, the ancient city of Cahokia lives on – a teeming industrial metropolis, containing every race and creed.

"Among them, peace holds. Just about. But when two detectives find a body on the roof of a skyscraper one snowy night at the end of winter, the discovery sparks off a week of mayhem that will spill the city’s secrets, and bring it, against a soundtrack of wailing clarinets and gunfire, either to destruction or rebirth."

Spufford is the author of five works of non-fiction and two novels. His debut novel, Golden Hill, won the Costa First Novel Award, the RSL Ondaatje Prize, the Desmond Elliott Prize, and was shortlisted for various awards, including the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and the British Book Awards Debut Novel of the Year. His second novel, Light Perpetual, was awarded the 2022 Encore Award and longlisted for the Booker Prize.

In 2007, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He teaches writing at Goldsmiths College, University of London.