Fourth Estate acquires ‘exquisitely crafted’ new novel by Pulitzer-winner Cunningham 

Fourth Estate has acquired a new novel by Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Cunningham, his first in almost 10 years.

Publishing director Michelle Kane bought UK and Commonwealth rights to Day from Caspian Dennis at Abner Stein on behalf of Frances Coady at Aragi. Publication is scheduled for January 2024.

Day is described as a novel about a family who weather the storms of growing up, growing older, falling in and out of love, losing the things that are most precious and learning to go on, and follows the family on the 5th April across three years.

Cunningham, a professor at Yale, is the author of six novels. The Hours (Fourth Estate), won the PEN Faulkner Award and the Pulitzer Prize in 1999. It was made into a film starring Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, and Nicole Kidman, who won an Academy Award for her performance as Virginia Woolf.

He said: “It’s been 10 years since I wrote my last novel. I’ll spare you the personal reasons for that long delay. I can tell you, though, that the events of the last decade have made it harder than usual to write fiction that has anything to do with life as we now find it, from corrupt, megalomaniacal world leaders to a pandemic that’s killed seven million people and profoundly altered the lives of everyone—every person on the planet—who’s survived. Day is, fundamentally, about survival. It’s about loss but it’s more centrally about love. It’s about the search for lasting connections, and families that range from the traditional to the unorthodox. It’s about the battle to remain sane in a world gone mad. It’s about that which endures. It’s about human life, which continues to exist, and sometimes even to flourish, in spite of all the odds.”

Kane said: “Day is truly sublime and utterly exquisite. We are all so lucky to have this new work from Michael Cunningham, one of the most incredible storytellers we have in modern literature. We know that existing fans of his writing will be thrilled by the announcement of this novel, and with its publication, we also look forward to introducing a new generation of readers to their new favourite writer.”