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Fourth Estate wins six-way auction for Booker-shortlisted Mengiste’s historical novel
Fourth Estate has triumphed in a six-publisher auction for the new novel by Maaza Mengiste, the Booker-shortlisted author of The Shadow King and Beneath the Lion’s Gaze.
Kishani Widyaratna, editorial director, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) to A Brief Portrait of Small Deaths from Claire Paterson Conrad at Janklow & Nesbit UK on behalf of Lynn Nesbit of Janklow US. North American rights went to Thomas Gebremedhin at Doubleday at auction. It will publish in 2025, supported by a major campaign.
Set in Berlin, A Brief Portrait of Small Deaths follows Milli, a Black German woman who is an artist’s model, dancer and supposed sex worker, from the artistic and sensual decadence of the Weimar republic through the rising horrors of Hitler’s reign. Milli is made to shoot a racist propaganda film against her will and finds herself entangled with the search for a missing painting of her, which the Nazis decree as degenerate art. "As the days unfold and suspicions draw ever closer around her, Milli realises her fate will depend on her and her alone," says the synopsis.
Widyaratna said: “A Brief Portrait of Small Deaths’ electric and innovative storytelling, and staggering exploration of power, fascism and art, blew all of us at 4th Estate away. Maaza is a remarkable and visionary writer, one who illuminates our past in such a manner that it radically recasts our understanding of both the present and what our future might hold.”
Mengiste was born in Addis Ababa but moved to the US at the age of four when her family fled the Ethiopian revolution. Her second novel, 2020’s The Shadow King (Canongate), was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and has shifted over 30,000 units through Nielsen BookScan UK.
Mengiste said: “Kish is a dynamic, sensitive and brilliant editor. To say that I am excited about working with her and the rest of the 4th Estate team would be an understatement. I am absolutely thrilled and deeply honoured by this opportunity.”
