Gollancz lands multi-book deal with debut novelist Andrew

Gollancz has landed The Whispering Dark, the “dark, academic” debut novel from Kelly Andrew, which tells the story of a Deaf university student with a peculiar link to the afterlife.  

Rachel Winterbottom, senior commissioning editor, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, in a two-book deal from Caroline Walsh at David Higham Associates on behalf of Josh Adams at Adams Literary. The Whispering Dark will be published in hardback on 3rd November 2022.  

The synopsis reads: “Delaney Meyers-Petrov can talk to the dark—and the dark talks back. After a lifetime of being treated as fragile just because she is Deaf, when she enrols at a university that trains students to slip between parallel worlds, Delaney is excited for the chance to prove herself. If only it wasn’t for a certain pretentious upper-class man… Colton Price has been ordered to keep far away from the new girl and her shadows. But when a student turns up dead, Delaney and Colton are forced to form a forbidden partnership, discovering the cost of opening doors between worlds when they find themselves up against something old and nameless that wants to tear them apart.”   

Adams said: “From the moment I began reading, I knew this was a special novel, written from a unique perspective and with a poise well beyond a typical debut. They say the devil is in the details, and I think readers, like me, will be drawn deeply into the world Kelly has created and held there by her deft ability to distil complex characters, scenes and emotions with pitch-perfect precision.”  

Winterbottom commented: “I was immediately hooked by her exquisite prose and deeply atmospheric world. Readers should light a candle to ward off the dark, and prepare for their biggest book hangover yet.”  

Andrew added: “The Whispering Dark was born out of a desire to centre a Deaf protagonist in the kinds of stories I’ve always loved the most. Dark and twisting, Delaney’s story has grown into exactly the kind of adventure I once longed for as a reader.”