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Viper Books has signed two novels by New York Times bestselling author Jean Kwok.
Miranda Jewess, publishing director at the Serpent’s Tail crime imprint, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights plus audio to The Leftover Woman and a second book from Fiona Baird at WME.
The Leftover Woman will be published in hardback on 2nd November with the e-book released on 10th October. A television series based on the novel is in development by production company Fifth Season with the rights were sold by Anna DeRoy at WME.
Jessica Williams, editor at William Morrow, acquired US rights from Suzanne Gluck. James Munro of WME is handling translation rights, with Dutch rights sold to Hajnalka Bata, publisher at Meulenhoff Boekerij, and interest coming in from around the world.
“The Leftover Woman is an evocative family drama and a riveting mystery about the ferocious pull of motherhood for two very different women,” Viper said.
The publisher added: “Jasmine Yang thought her daughter was dead at birth. But five years after she was taken from her arms, she learns that her controlling husband sent the baby to America to be adopted, a casualty of China’s One Child Policy. Fleeing her rural Chinese village, Jasmine arrives in New York City with nothing except a desperate need to find her daughter. But with her husband on her trail, the clock is ticking, and she’s forced to make increasingly risky decisions if she ever hopes to be reunited with her child.
“Meanwhile, Rebecca Whitney seems to have it all: a high-powered career, a handsome husband, and an adopted Chinese daughter she adores. But when an industry scandal threatens to jeopardise not only Rebecca’s job but her marriage, this perfect world begins to crumble. These two women are separated by wealth and culture, yet bound together by their love for the same child. And when they finally meet, their lives will never be the same again.”
Jewess commented: “Jean has crafted both a wonderful mystery and a heartbreaking exploration of how motherhood can bind women together across continents. Jasmine’s experiences in the novel expose how the failure to understand the immigrant experience and its cultural context can have devastating results, and yet it is also an uplifting and inspiring read.”
Kwok’s previous books include Searching for Sylvie Lee (John Murray), an instant New York Times bestseller and Girl in Translation (Penguin), among others.
She moved from Hong Kong to Brooklyn when she was five and worked in a Chinatown clothing factory for much of her childhood. In between her undergraduate degree at Harvard and MFA in fiction at Columbia, she worked for three years as a professional ballroom dancer.
The author, who divides her time between the Netherlands and New York, added: “I knew about Viper’s excellent reputation, of course, and Miranda’s a living legend. Miranda and her team are everything an author could hope for: creative, enthusiastic and insightful. My work couldn’t be in better hands.”