Granta pre-empts 'kaleidoscopic page-turner' from Mills

Granta has pre-empted The Watermark, a love story that flits between time and genre, by Sam Mills.

Editorial director Anne Meadows acquired UK and Commonwealth rights for the novel from Cathryn Summerhayes at Curtis Brown. The Watermark will be published in 2024.

Described by the publisher as a "fizzing, spiralling, ambitious novel of love and books", The Watermark follows Jaime and Rachel, star-crossed lovers who find themselves trapped by a Booker Prize winner inside the pages of his latest novel. "Tumbling between genres and alternate versions of their own lives—from Victorian Oxford to an alternative Russian state and a futuristic London—they must try and figure out if this relationship of multiple plots can have any future at all," the synopsis explains.

"I have long admired Sam’s ambition and her daredevil willingness to play with form," Meadows said. "The Watermark is a love story and a kaleidoscopic page-turner that made me laugh and gasp with surprise and will delight bibliophiles everywhere."

Mills is the author of The Quiddity of Will Self (Corsair) and The Fragments of My Father (4th Estate) She is m.d. of indie press Dodo Ink.

"I am very excited about working with Anne Meadows, a dream editor, and proud to be published by Granta, a brilliant press prepared to take risks and push boundaries," he said.