Jonathan Cape pre-empts debut novel by Danish writer Linea Maja Ernst

Jonathan Cape has pre-empted the debut novel by Danish writer Linea Maja Ernst. Hannah Westland, publishing director at Jonathan Cape, an imprint at Vintage, Penguin Random House UK acquired British Commonwealth rights to Waist Deep from Laurence Laluyaux at RCW. International rights have been sold to Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway.

The book follows a group of old university friends in their thirties as they gather at a lake house in midsummer to catch up, lounge in the sun and prepare for the wedding of two of their number. As the days pass in a blur of dinners, conversations, dips in the lake and steamy sex scenes, tensions flare and attractions rekindle. Waist Deep was published in Denmark in May this year and was a bestseller. The novel will be translated into English by Sherilyn Nicolette Hellberg. Westland said: "Waist Deep is an irresistible novel. Who wouldn’t want to spend midsummer week with this group of beautiful people in their dreamy summer cabin, eating their lovingly prepared foraged meals, skinny dipping in the lake, flirting, debating and partying in the enchanted woods? Who wouldn’t be delighted to discover that nothing is ever truly perfect, and that beneath the surface each of these characters are beset with longing, envy, unmet desires and hopes and anxieties for the future? For all its sun-drenched pleasures and lush sensuality, this is a sharply intelligent and piercing book about a particular generation and the moment in their lives that their future might turn on. It’s funny, observant and moving and I am absolutely certain that it will be the book of next summer."