Granta acquires Lynsey Hanley's book on poverty and social mobility

Granta has snapped up Outside: Before and After the End of History by Lynsey Hanley.

Bella Lacey, m.d. and publishing director, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Nicola Barr at the Bent Agency.

"Part memoir, part social history, and part tribute to her friend, the late writer and activist Dawn Foster, Outside unpacks the experience of living through the ’80s, ’90s and early 2000s, a period billed as the end of history, and discovering the consequences and difficulty of what came after; a world which looks completely different to the one that was promised," the synopsis says. "This hinge moment—brought to a head by the financial crash of 2008—is represented by the different life trajectories experienced by two working-class women: Lynsey and Dawn."

Lacey said: "Lynsey Hanley is one of the most important political writers of her generation. She has an extraordinary skill at making sense of history through lived experience, and her writing is astonishingly sensitive, nuanced and insightful. In Outside, she acutely captures working-class perspectives, demonstrating how poverty and social mobility are political choices, and revealing the political currents that shape us."

Hanley added: "I am thrilled to be working with Bella and Granta again for this book. They believe in it and understand why I need to write it. Dawn’s voice was essential to political debate and those of us who valued it miss her every day."