Gollancz swoons for Lapinska's 'extraordinarily timely' novel

Gollancz has signed Autumn and Abigail, a "breathtaking" speculative romance from Lucy Lapinska. 

Brendan Durkin, editor, acquired world English language rights from Claire Wilson at Rogers, Coleridge & White. The book will be published in hardback in April 2025. 

The synopsis for Autumn and Abigail reads: "Abigail is a Personal Companion Computer, built to be indistinguishable from any other human. Her owner David has had her made in the image of his deceased wife. Abigail lives by a set of rules – David’s Rules – the most important of which is that she must not search the global network for anything related to the woman she was made to replace. But in only a few weeks, the Emancipation will arrive. When it does, Abigail will be recognised as human. She will be able to do whatever she wants, no matter what David says. That very day, Abigail will make the search." 

Durkin said: “Autumn and Abigail is a rare thing: powerful yet gentle, ambitious in scope yet deeply personal – I was swept away by the quiet intensity of Lucy’s storytelling. This book has such important things to say about what makes us human, about our sexual identity, about our relationship with the natural world. At its heart, though, is the most life-affirming love story. This is an incredible work of speculative fiction and I feel privileged to be publishing it.” 

Lapinska said: “I am thrilled that my first novel for adults has found a home with Gollancz, and am delighted to be continuing to work with Hachette across all my writing. Abigail’s story has been in my head for a long time, as an ode to late-blooming queerness and identity in a world beyond saving. I cannot wait to share her story.”