Orion Fiction signs ‘searing’ new novel from Capes

Orion Fiction has acquired Girls, the “searing, dazzling and unforgettable” new novel from Women’s Prize-longlisted author Kirsty Capes.

Charlotte Mursell, publishing director, acquired world all-language rights in a two-book deal from Anwen Hooson at Bird Literary Agency. Orion will publish Girls in hardback, trade paperback, e-book and audiobook in May 2024.

Girls follows two sisters, Mattie and Nora, and the thorny relationship with their famous late mother, the brilliant yet deeply troubled artist Ingrid Olssen. The synopsis reads: “As they embark on an all-or-nothing road trip across the US to preserve Ingrid’s legacy, they start to unpick the scars of the past – and realise that the ties that bound them, might also break them.

“Told partly in interview form, Girls is as devastating as it is hilarious, and as tender and moving as it is shocking – this is a book that will stay with you long after you have turned the final pages.”

Capes works in marketing and is an advocate for care-experienced representation in media. She holds a PhD from Brunel University London, and her thesis investigates representations of the care experience in contemporary British fiction, and was completed under the supervision of 2019 Booker prize-winner, Bernardine Evaristo.

Mursell said: “Kirsty Capes is back bigger, and better, than ever with her astonishing new novel, Girls. Think ‘Thelma & Louise’ meets Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason [W&N], this truly is the most extraordinary gut-punch of a read, exploring grief, sisterhood and mental illness. Kirsty is an incredible talent and Girls is her most ambitious novel yet, I can’t wait for readers to discover this exquisite story."

Capes, whose Orion-published novel Careless was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2022, said: “I’m delighted that my writing continues to call Orion its home. Working with Charlotte Mursell and her incomparable publishing team is the dream.”

Hooson added: “What Kirsty delivered knocked me for six. I have no doubt the publication of Girls will cement Kirsty’s reputation as one of the most exciting writers of her generation.”