The Girl With All the Gifts follow-up to Orbit

Orbit is publishing a new novel by bestselling author M R Carey, The Boy on the Bridge. It will be set in the same world as "word-of-mouth phenomenon" The Girl With All the Gifts that has since been turned into a film by Warner Bros starring Gemma Arterton.

The novel, scheduled for a summer 2017 release, will be "emotionally charged and powerful", according to the publisher, and receive a "major" worldwide launch. It publishes simultaneously in the UK and US, in hardback, e-book and audio.

Orbit struck the deal for world rights through Meg Davis at Ki Agency LTD.

Carey, who as Mike Carey also writes X-Men comic books for Marvel, said: "Returning to the world of The Girl With All the Gifts felt like coming home in a weird way. And every time I visit I find something I didn’t know was there. The Boy on the Bridge is very much its own thing, not a continuation of Melanie’s story but a new journey with a new cast of characters. But it answers a lot of questions that The Girl With All the Gifts implicitly asked."

Tim Holman, Orbit publisher in the UK and US, said: "The Girl With All the Gifts has been a genuine word-of-mouth phenomenon and it’s getting bigger every month. We’ve already sold 600,000 copies worldwide and sold rights in twenty-nine languages – and of course we’re hugely looking forward to the movie coming later this year. It’s a wonderful novel that has redefined a genre and been embraced by an extraordinary range of readers. The Boy on the Bridge is equally brilliant – and we can’t wait to publish it."

Warner Bros' film adaptation of The Girl With All the Gifts, starring Glenn Close, Gemma Arterton and Paddy Considine, will be released in the UK on 23rd September. Saban Films will be releasing the film in the US in 2017.