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Jonathan Cape has snapped up a debut graphic memoir by London Library emerging writer Miriam Gold.
Publishing director Hannah Westland acquired world English rights to Elena: A Hand Made Life from Rosemary Scoular at United Agents, and the book will be published in August 2024.
In the book, Gold uses collage, archive photography, drawing and writing to tell the story of her maternal grandmother, Elena Zadik. The synopsis says: "Elena started her life in Ukraine during the Russian civil war in a tiny Jewish family, and spent most of her childhood in Germany, before coming to the UK as a lone teenage refugee in 1937.
"She broke glass ceilings in England to become a doctor, eventually giving over 40 years’ service to the NHS as a GP in Leigh, Lancashire. Elena’s parents died in Auschwitz, and she spent decades fighting for restitution, sharing the money among her nine grandchildren when it finally arrived. In this remarkable book, Miriam, her eldest granddaughter, tells Elena’s story reflecting on their unconventional relationship and how trauma travels down through the generations."
Gold is an artist and teacher from London, who has been commissioned by the V&A, the Barbican and just completed the Emerging Writer’s Programme at the London Library for this book. She holds an MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins.
Westland said: "I quite simply fell in love with this book. Miriam’s unusual and distinctive artwork and Elena’s extraordinary life story combined create something truly magical. This is a beautiful book which in the current political climate carries an important message about what we value and should fight to protect, and we are determined to find it the wide readership it deserves."
Gold added: "I could not have wished for a better home for Elena’s story than Jonathan Cape and can’t wait for readers to meet her next summer. The graphic novel list is a roll call of my heroes: Posy Simmonds, Marjane Satrapi, Raymond Briggs and Alison Bechdel.
"My grandmother was one of the immigrants who helped build modern Britain. She was unintentionally hilarious, often difficult, and like many of her generation, deeply resourceful. Her hands (minus her left index finger which came off when she slammed it in a garage door) were always busy making something and form the heart of this timely tale of statehood, the NHS, and the extraordinary resilience of ordinary women."