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Macdonald joins forces with Blaché for 'daringly original' debut novel at Cape
Jonathan Cape has landed Helen Macdonald’s and Sin Blaché’s "daring, surprising and superbly plotted" debut novel Prophet.
Michal Shavit, publishing director, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Bill Clegg at The Bill Clegg Agency. The novel will be published in August 2023.
The book sees prize-winning H is for Hawk (Vintage) author Macdonald join forces with debut novelist Blaché, a California-born musician and author living in the north west of Ireland.
"It’s with huge excitement that we acquired this daringly original and gripping fiction debut from Helen Macdonald and Sin Blaché," said Shavit. "The weaponisation of nostalgia is something we experience every day, whether we know it or not. With this novel we live it and breathe it through Prophet, an irresistible and deadly force with a twist all of its own."
The book’s synopsis reads: "Your happiest memory is their deadliest weapon. This is Prophet. It knows when you were happiest. It gives life to your fondest memories and uses them to destroy you. But who has created it? And what do they want? An all-American diner appears overnight in a remote British field. It’s brightly lit, warm and inviting but it has no power, no water, no connection to the real world. It’s like a memory made flesh – a nostalgic flight of fancy. More and more objects materialise: toys, fairground rides, pets and other treasured mementos of the past.
"And the deaths quickly follow. Something is bringing these memories to life, then stifling innocent people with their own joy. This is a weapon like no other. But nobody knows who created it, or why. Sunil Rao seems a surprising choice of investigator. Chaotic and unpredictable, the former agent is the antithesis of his partner Colonel Adam Rubenstein, the model of a military man. But Sunil has the unique ability to distinguish truth from lies: in objects, words and people, in the past and in real time. And Adam is the only one who truly knows him, after a troubled past together. Now, as they battle this strange new reality, they are drawn closer than ever to defend what they both hold most dear. For Prophet can weaponise the past. But only love will protect the future."
Macdonald commented: "We’re beyond delighted that Prophet has found a home with Jonathan Cape, and are incredibly excited to reveal it to the world. It’s very different from my previous books, but shares many of their deepest themes: love, loss, hope, nationhood, and the ways we recruit the past for our own ends. We can’t wait to see it out in the world, and I hope readers find in it all the subversive joy we felt while writing it. "
Blaché added: "Working together on Prophet saw us both through the darkest days of the pandemic. Writing it was so much fun it felt illegal. It’s unapologetically itself, born of everything from video games, radio plays, movies, fanfiction to contemporary queer literature. It’s not only a thriller with a big goddamn romance at its centre. It’s a meditation on truth, trauma, popular historical consciousness and the military-industrial entertainment complex. We love it and we can’t wait for everyone to read it."
