Little, Brown to publish 'powerful' debut from Daniel Loedel

Little, Brown UK has acquired Daniel Loedel's literary debut, Hades, Argentina, billed as "gripping" and "ingeniously narrated".  

Ailah Ahmed, publishing director, secured UK and Commonwealth rights for Hades, Argentina from Hal Fessenden at Riverhead, Penguin Random House US. Riverhead will publish on15th January 2021 and Blackfriars, an imprint of Little, Brown, will publish in e-book on 15th January and hardback in April 2021. Becky Saletan is the editor at Riverhead and Marya Spence of Janklow & Nesbit is the agent.

In the novel, a decade after fleeing for his life, a man is pulled back to Argentina by an undying love.

The synopsis reads: "In 1976, Tomás Orilla is a medical student in Buenos Aires, where he has moved in hopes of reuniting with Isabel, a childhood crush. But the reckless passion that has long drawn him is leading Isabel ever deeper into the ranks of the insurgency fighting an increasingly oppressive regime. Tomás has always been willing to follow her anywhere, to do anything to prove himself. Yet what exactly is he proving, and at what cost to them both? It will be years before a summons back arrives for Tomás, now living as Thomas Shore in New York. It isn’t a homecoming that awaits him, however, so much as an odyssey into the past, an encounter with the ghosts that lurk there, and a reckoning with the fatal gap between who he has become and who he once aspired to be."

Hades, Argentina has already garnered rave reviews from the likes of authors including Kamila Shamsie and Colm Tóibín. Ahmed said "it deserves every inch of the glowing praise received", commenting further: "Hades, Argentina features the most exquisite writing and mesmerising voice – it is hypnotic. It grapples with love, betrayal and guilt, it transports us to a stunningly evoked Buenos Aires."

Loedel is a book editor who for years lived in Buenos Aires where he worked as a translator. He said: "I am completely thrilled that Ailah Ahmed and the terrific Blackfriars team will be bringing Hades, Argentina to UK readers. I hugely admire their list and their ability to publish international writers especially, and I feel very honoured to be in their company."