Fig Tree scoops Barker's 'propulsive' literary horror in eight-publisher auction

Fig Tree has scooped Old Soul, a "propulsive, beautifully written literary horror novel" from The Incarnations (Black Swan) author Susan Barker.

In an eight-publisher auction, publishing director Helen Garnons-Williams acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Emma Paterson at Aitken Alexander Associates. North American rights have been acquired by Sally Kim, publisher of Putnam.

The novel was also recently the subject of a heated international eight-way auction for TV rights, handled by Lesley Thorne at Aitken Alexander Associates, the result of which will be announced soon. Rights have been sold in Germany to Suhrkamp at auction and was pre-empted by Psichogios in Greece. Fig Tree will publish it in hardback in early spring 2025.

The synopsis says: "In New Mexico, a woman and a teenager set out together across the desolate Badlands. But what does the sophisticated Therese want from 17-year-old Rosa, a hotel cleaner she has only just met? In Osaka, two strangers, Jake and Mariko miss their flight, and over dinner discover they have both lost loved ones whose paths crossed with a beguiling woman no one has laid eyes on since.

"Following the traces this woman left behind as she moved from country to country, Jake gathers testimonies from other troubled souls who encountered her across the years, until finally the trail leads him to a sculptor in Taos County, New Mexico who knows the woman better than anyone – and might just hold the key to who, or what, she is."

Garnons-Williams said: "We are excited to welcome Susan Barker to Fig Tree. Old Soul is a novel about vulnerability and predation, loss and impermanence, freedom and transgression. It moved us all deeply, transporting us through decades and continents as it dances across genres with blazing originality."

Barker added: "I love horror and wanted to write a literary horror with a compelling anti-hero who moves across time and place. Old Soul was eight years in the making, and I am delighted to have found an ideal editor in Helen Garnons-Williams."

Barker is the author of three books and third novel, The Incarnations, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and Notable Book and a Waterstones Book of the Month. An excerpt from Old Soul won a Northern Writers’ Award for Fiction in 2020, as well as funding from Arts Council England and The Society of Authors. The author is also a senior lecturer in creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.