Oneworld wins Strang's 'daring' debut novel 

Oneworld has signed Quinn, the "daring" debut novel by Scottish poet Em Strang. 

Publisher Juliet Mabey acquired world rights, including audio, at auction from Irene Baldoni at Georgina Capel Associates. Oneworld will publish Quinn as a superlead hardback in March 2023, with specially commissioned linocuts from Yorkshire-based artist Izzy Williamson.

"Quinn is serving a life sentence for a crime he’s convinced he hasn’t committed," the synopsis reads. "Surely the authorities have got it wrong, and when they find his childhood sweetheart, Andrea, his name will be cleared? As his parole date nears, he receives a letter from Andrea’s mother, who invites Quinn to share her home. What appears a genuine act of radical forgiveness is nonetheless influenced by more complex motivations.

"As they navigate the thorny terrain of guilt, justice and the mutual need that underpins their relationship, the story of Quinn’s past – and his mind – gradually unravels, setting in motion a final reckoning."

Mabey commented: "I have always been attracted to unreliable narrators and novels that interrogate the complexities and inconsistencies of the human mind, and Em brings a very sharp and original eye to both her story and her eponymous hero. This is a daring and inventive first novel with a rare musicality to the prose befitting a poet whose work has received multiple prizes and award nominations."

Strang has a PhD in creative writing from the University of Glasgow and her work as tutor in Scottish prisons since 2013 has informed the writing of this novel. Her work has been shortlisted for many prizes, including the Fitzcarraldo Novel Prize and the Seamus Heaney Best First Collection Prize. She is the recipient of the Saltire Poetry Book of the Year 2017 and of a Scottish Book Trust New Writer Award.

She said: "I’ve spent a decade working with long-term prisoners in Scotland, trying to understand and come to terms with notions of justice and responsibility: does guilt begin and end with the perpetrator of a violent act or are we all in some way culpable? It’s been a difficult book to write, not least because it focuses on male violence towards women – such a pressing issue of our times – and tries to treat Quinn as a whole person, rather than neatly labelling him. Sitting with that broader perspective has been profoundly unsettling, but necessary: how else can we arrive at a place where restorative justice might be possible?"

Baldoni added: "Like a contemporary Raskolnikov, Quinn is a character that will stay with me for the rest of my life. Visionary and poetic, this novel navigates the endless potential for violence and care, revenge and forgiveness, grief and healing. Em Strang tackles toxic masculinity head on but her writing is far from a box-ticking exercise — I am in awe of her ability to lend a voice to her characters, to truly listen to them and let them speak whatever they have to say."