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Gollancz has acquired the novel adaptation of Netflix’s upcoming fantasy action film, “Damsel”, by Evelyn Skye.
Editorial director Bethan Morgan acquired UK and Commonwealth print, digital and audio rights, excluding Canada, from Rachel Kind at Penguin Random House.
Skye’s novel will be published ahead of the film in hardback, e-book, and audiobook on 18th April 2023, followed by a film tie-in paperback in the autumn.
The film version stars and is executive produced by Millie Bobby Brown. Joining her on screen will be Angela Bassett, Robin Wright, Ray Winstone, Nick Robinson, Brooke Carter, and Shohreh Aghdashloo with Academy Award-nominated director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo at the helm.
"Damsel" tells the story of Elodie, who grows up in the famine-stricken medieval Europe-inspired realm of Inophe. When a representative from a notoriously reclusive kingdom offers her family enough wealth to save Inophe in exchange for her hand in marriage, she accepts. But soon after arriving in the kingdom of Aurea in the midst of the ritual to become its new princess, Elodie learns the dark secrets lurking beneath its remarkable beauty and discovers the steep cost of such immense wealth…
Skye, the author of six novels including The Hundred Loves of Juliet (out with Headline in August 2023), said: “The world is not black and white, even when you’ve been thrown into a dragon’s lair. Elodie is my favourite kind of hero – clever, determined, and most of all, unfailingly kind despite every excuse to cast that aside. I am excited for readers to meet her.”
Morgan said: “The books we read when we are young not only craft every pillar of our personality but also show us the first glimpses of what we might be capable of – who we could become – which is why stories featuring young protagonists who reshape the status quo have dominated the 21st century’s literary landscape, each a time capsule storing the self we wore when we first walked its pages.
“With this book, Evelyn Skye has masterfully tapped into that peerless ardour through so many of the most beloved tropes of the genre. The fact the dragon language was created by her daughter, Reese Skye, weaves yet another magical motif into this so thoroughly charming tapestry – through which daughterhood, motherhood, and the power of self-expression gleam brightest. That is the innately timeless sorcery of Damsel, trapping in amber a covenant that will continue to shine on down the generations in perpetuity: to thine own self be true.”