Oneworld wins 'gorgeous' debut novel by Gunty in four-way auction

Oneworld has triumphed in a four-publisher auction for the "gorgeous and provocative" debut novel by Tess Gunty in a two-book deal.

Juliet Mabey, publisher at Oneworld, acquired British and Commonwealth, excluding Canada, serial and audio rights, from Caspian Dennis on behalf of Duvall Osteen at Aragi Inc. Oneworld will publish Gunty’s first novel The Rabbit Hutch as a superlead hardback in August, while second novel Honeydew will follow in 2023. Knopf will publish both novels in North America.

"Savage, beautiful and wickedly funny, The Rabbit Hutch offers a searing exploration of contemporary loneliness and poverty in America’s Midwest where Gunty was born and raised," the synopsis explains. "An online obituary writer. A young mother with a secret. A woman waging a solo campaign against rodents. Separated by the thin walls of The Rabbit Hutch, a low-cost housing complex in the rundown Indiana town of Vacca Vale, these individual lives unfold.

"But Blandine isn’t like the other residents of her building. Ethereally beautiful and formidably bright, she shares a dingy apartment with three boys she neither likes nor understands, all four products of the state foster care system. Plagued by her past, she spends her hours reading Dante and dreaming of freedom. Until, that is, three sweltering days in July culminate in an act of violence that will change everything."

Mabey said: "We are so excited to be introducing Tess Gunty to British readers, and even more thrilled that she is planning to visit the UK for festival appearances and media interviews in August ahead of publication. The Rabbit Hutch is a darkly funny novel with sudden changes in register akin to Rachel Kushner’s The Mars Room (Jonathan Cape) and there is absolutely no doubt that Gunty’s writing is utterly fearless, crisp and sharp, and fizzing with energy."

Gunty’s fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Joyland, the Iowa Review, Freeman’s, Los Angeles Review of Books and other publications.

"I have long admired Oneworld’s trailblazing, empathetic, and courageous vision, and they have championed some of my favorite books in recent years," she said. "I’m therefore indescribably honored to call Oneworld my literary home. I look forward to meeting and learning from readers across the UK."