Granta wins Dr Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi's book on snow leopards as 'storm brews' for international deals

Granta has triumphed in a five-way auction for Dr Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi’s The Ghost of the Mountains: Unravelling the Secrets of the World’s Most Elusive Big Cat. 

Publishing director Bella Lacey acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Patrick Walsh at PEW Literary Agency. US rights have also been sold at auction to Courtney Young at Riverhead. German Rights have been pre-empted by Bettina Feldweg at Piper Verlag, and there is a “storm” of international translation interest.

The Ghost of the Mountains is the story of the snow leopard. Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi (Kullu for short) developed new research that shows how entangled the lives of the snow leopard are with those inhabiting the high places, and began to work out just how many snow leopards survive. The publisher said it is a story “charged with romance and adventure” as well as a “riveting story of field science". 

Lacey said: “It’s rare to come across a writer who combines expert authority in their field and ground-breaking science with writing and storytelling of the highest order. Kullu has all these skills. He’s an exceptional talent and this is a unique and stand-out book. Everyone at Granta was swept up by the storytelling, Kullu’s narrative voice, and the drama and passion that fuel the science. Kullu writes in the footsteps of the great naturalists and adventurers in his search for and encounters with the snow leopard, and his writing about place and nature firmly places him in that same constellation.”