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Grove Press UK has acquired All the World Beside, the debut novel by Garrard Conley – the author of the gay conversion therapy memoir Boy Erased (Riverhead Books).
Peter Blackstock, publisher of Grove Press UK and deputy publisher of Grove Atlantic, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Rachel Clements at Abner Stein, on behalf of Julie Barer at The Book Group. Grove Press UK will publish the novel in hardback, trade paperback and e-book on 4th July 2024.
"In an 18th-century Puritan New England small utopian town called Cana, two men embrace in secret beneath the moonlight in a dark meadow," the synopsis says. "A young woman watches from a distance knowing she was never meant to witness this and that it will forever change the course of her life, of all the lives in Cana and beyond. What ensues is an electrifying story of two men in love caught between the demands of their families and societal pressures, tangled in a web of secrets, lies, religion and judgements."
Blackstock added: "Never before have I read a novel that so vividly puts the lives of gay and gender-nonconforming characters at the heart of history – All the World Beside takes us back to the early America of witch trials and Christian fervor, and the surprising and beautiful partnership between a priest and a doctor who are working to build a new kind of utopian community.
"These men’s wives are brilliant and insightful but trapped in their situations, while their children are blessed with talents that will make them prominent figures in a place that is filled with gossip."
Conley commented: "This is a dream collaboration I could not have begun to imagine when I first began writing this book eight years ago."