Faber to publish Leïla Slimani’s Watch Us Dance

Faber has bought Leïla Slimani’s Watch Us Dance, which will publish on 1st June 2023. Associate publisher Louisa Joyner acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Anne-Solange Noble at Editions Gallimard.

Watch Us Dance is the second volume in Slimani’s new trilogy, set in 1970s Morocco. According to the publisher, “It combines the youth, vibrancy and allure of André Aciman with the historical-fiction force of Maggie Shipstead and the exquisite sense of place and time of The Lost Daughter”.

Joyner said: “Watch Us Dance demonstrates Leïla’s exquisite ability to blend deep personal intimacy with profound political engagement to create something that fizzes with the possibilities of the 1970s and pulsates with the danger those striving for change in the Years of Lead faced.”

Slimani is the first Moroccan woman to win the French literary prize Prix Goncourt, which she won for Lullaby (Faber & Faber). A journalist and commentator on women’s and human rights, she is French president Emmanuel Macron’s personal representative for the promotion of the French language and culture, as well as being the Chair of the International Booker Prize 2023.