Fourth Estate triumphs in nine-way auction for Harman's 'unputdownable' debut

Sarah Harman’s début is one of the hottest books at this Frankfurt, with Fourth Estate winning a nine-way British auction for the title. It has also been sold into seven further markets.

Fourth Estate editorial director Katie Bowden secured UK and Commonwealth rights, including audio, for All the Other Mothers Hate Me in a “significant deal” from Hellie Ogden at WME. It is the agent’s first deal for WME since moving from Janklow & Nesbit in the summer.   

North American rights sold to Putnam senior editor Kate Dresser in a “very competitive auction" conducted by Alyssa Reuben at WME, for what The Bookseller understands to have been a seven-figure sum. 

WME’s international rights agent Florence Dodd has accepted pre-empts in Brazil and Italy, as well as deals in Czech, Dutch and Hebrew; a German auction is set to close imminently. Meanwhile, a “significant” TV deal has been brokered by WME’s Hilary Zaitz Michael. The novel’s English-language publications are scheduled for spring 2025. 

All the Other Mothers Hate Me won the 2023 Lucy Cavendish Prize and is described by the publisher as “a stylish, satirical thriller about an American woman who suspects her beloved son might have murdered a wealthy pupil at his West London private school”. 

Bowden said the book is "a wildly funny, utterly unputdownable novel with a fresh, original voice and a killer plot". She added: "Sarah Harman is the most exciting new talent in fiction for 2025 and we are thrilled to welcome her to Fourth Estate.” 

Harman said: “I wanted to write about failure and what it means to start over when life falls short of the dream. I am completely thrilled to be joining the Fourth Estate family. Katie immediately embraced all of Florence’s rough edges and is the perfect person to shepherd this story into the world. I’ll be forever grateful to Hellie and her team at WME for making my own dream come true.” 

Harman is a journalist living in London. She has more than a decade of experience reporting on major breaking news stories around the globe, most recently as a foreign correspondent for NBC News, as well as reporting for "Today", "Nightly News" and MSNBC. Prior to that, she anchored a rolling news broadcast for Deutsche Welle TV in Berlin. She is an alumni of the Faber Academy.