'Gripping' new YA from William Sutcliffe to Bloomsbury Children’s

Bloomsbury Children’s Books has acquired two Young Adult titles from William Sutcliffe.

The first, We See Everything, publishes in September 2017 and is described by Bloomsbury as a "gripping and powerfully relevant" thriller set in a closed-off, bombed-out London where constant surveillance is the norm. It is also a love story, according to its author.

This will be followed by a second, as yet untitled, humorous novel for autumn 2018 exploring "the highs and lows of adolescence".

The two book deal for world rights, all languages (excluding Europe) was brokered between Rebecca McNally, publishing director for Bloomsbury Children’s Books, and Felicity Rubinstein at Lutyens & Rubinstein.

Sutcliffe's editor at Bloomsbury, Hannah Sandford, said: “I’m delighted to be working with William Sutcliffe. Will writes with an acuity and a sensitivity that make his books unputdownable, and his next two YA titles showcase that talent in contrasting but equally compelling ways – one a timely thriller exploring drone warfare, and the other a hugely warm and funny look at the highs and lows of adolescence.”

Sutcliffe added: “We See Everything is a novel about the blossoming of first love, set in London, but not as we know it. The world of the book is the London Strip: a thin rectangle of land that is fenced, blockaded and periodically bombed. Why would I do this to my own city? Because tragic events in distant places – Gaza, Aleppo, Baghdad – stretch our empathy to the limit. We simply cannot imagine modern warfare afflicting Western civilians in First World cities. This novel asks a simple but important question: what if that were to happen here?”

Sutcliffe's work has been translated into 26 langauages. His first novel for YA readers, The Wall, was shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal in 2014, while his second, Concentr8, was shortlisted for the YA Book Prize in 2016.