Fitzcarraldo snaps up 'enthralling' book of diaries from Heti

Fitzcarraldo has snapped up Alphabetical Diaries, a composition of diaries, from Sheila Heti. 

Publisher Jacques Testard acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Anna Webber at United Agents. The book will be published in 2024. 

Alphabetical Diaries is made up of 10 years of Heti’s diaries. From an original word count of 500,000 words, 50,000 remain after the diaries were organised in alphabetical order and the characters were "recombined and renamed". An excerpt ran in n+1 in 2014 and it has been recently serialised in the New York Times. 

Heti is the author of 10 books including Pure Colour which has been shortlisted for the 2023 Rathbones Folio Prize. 

Testard said: "Alphabetical Diaries is a brilliant and enthralling book, with which Sheila Heti has hit on something new formally, like Joe Brainard’s I Remember and Edouard Levé’s Autoportrait. I am especially delighted to be publishing this book with Fitzcarraldo Editions because I have long been a fan of her work, and also because Sheila and I first talked about the possibility of publishing this book together back in 2015. It is very exciting to be bringing this book out in the UK – I am sure it will be read for years to come."

Heti commented: "I am so happy to be publishing this book with Fitzcarraldo, one of the world’s most discerning and important English-language presses. Jacques’ early enthusiasm for the book is the reason it exists today, and his editorial comments over the years were invaluable in shaping the text."