HarperFiction nets 'immersive book club novel' from Gaynor

HarperFiction has netted an “immersive book club novel” set during the Second World War from Hazel Gaynor in a two-book deal.

Lynne Drew, publisher, bought British Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, to The Last Lifeboat from Anna Carmichael at Abner Stein on behalf of Michelle Brower at Trellis Literary Management while at Aevitas Creative Management, in a deal for this book and one further novel. US rights went to Amanda Bergeron at Berkley at auction. 

The Last Lifeboat will publish in summer 2023 in hardback in the UK, and in trade paperback in Ireland and Australia. It is inspired by remarkable true events surrounding the sinking of the SS City of Benares, carrying British evacuees to Canada. Tomorrow (17th September) marks 82 years since the tragedy.

The publisher said: “The novel, set in 1940, opens in the immediate aftermath of a U-boat attack on an evacuee ship, with terrified survivors adrift in the Atlantic in a terrible storm. Three months earlier, two very different women – Alice King, a teacher, and Lily Nicholls, a young widow, face life-changing choices as Britain prepares for invasion and the devastating Blitz bombing raids begin. Alice sees a chance to play a part in the war and volunteers as an escort on the ‘seavac’ ships; Lily faces the agonizing decision of whether to keep her children with her in London or send them to safety in Canada.

“The two women meet only once, but the dramatic events of one fateful night in the mid-Atlantic, and the eight unimaginable days that follow, bind them together in the most devastating way...” 

Gaynor said: “I am so thrilled to publish two more books with the brilliant team at HarperFiction, and couldn’t wish for my words to be in better hands. A decade into my writing career, I am more excited than ever to keep discovering and writing these incredible stories from our past, and to share them with passionate booksellers and readers.” 

Drew added: “Hazel has a unique talent for spotting untold stories, and shining a light on to forgotten corners of the war. With this poignant, gripping and stirring novel, her biggest yet, of fortitude and women’s courage in the face of unthinkable tragedy, she cements her place as one of the most exciting historical writers today."