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HarperCollins signs two titles from Babel and Yellowface star Kuang
HarperCollins has landed an historical novel and a fantasy from Rebecca F Kuang, author of Babel and forthcoming Yellowface.
May Chen, executive editor at HarperCollins US division William Morrow, negotiated the deal for world English rights with Hannah Bowman at Liza Dawson Associates. Chen will be the editor of the historical novel with executive editor David Pomerico editing the fantasy novel for HarperVoyager. Natasha Bardon acquired UK and Commonwealth rights at HarperCollins UK where the books will be published by HarperFiction and HarperVoyager respectively.
The first novel in the new deal is described by the publisher as an epic, multigenerational saga centred around a Chinese-American family that spans the decades from the Cultural Revolution to the Bush years. "[It explores] the tensions between carving out an individual destiny and being buffeted by the tides of history,” said the publisher.
The fantasy novel is “a story of dusty archives, unreliable sources, and an unstable sense of history that looks at what happens if, in the process of uncovering archives and piecing together the truth, we might reach backwards, grasp the ghosts, and help them push history off its course”.
After her The Poppy Wars series, Kuang broke out with 2022’s Babel, which shifted £1.1m through Nielsen BookScan UK and was named Blackwell’s Book of the Year. Yellowface, her first non-speculative literary fiction title and a satire on the publishing industry, is out this May.
Chen said: “Rebecca Kuang is a once-in-a-generation writer. Her talent knows no bounds, taking readers across genres, time periods and topics. Her novels strike the unusual and rare balance of being both extraordinarily thought-provoking and compulsively entertaining.”
Bardon added: “Rebecca is an incredible author and rare talent. I feel extremely lucky to be the publisher of such a dynamic and exciting writer and the prospect of two further books across genres is truly exciting.”
