Phoenix triumphs in 13-way auction for Knapp's 'life-affirming' The Names

Orion imprint Phoenix has won a 13-way auction for quilt maker turned novelist Florence Knapp’s début, The Names.

Publisher Francesca Main acquired UK and Commonwealth rights in the novel, and another book, from Karolina Sutton at CAA. Orion said The Names "will a major event publication" for the Phoenix imprint, to be released in spring 2025. The publisher hailed it "as this Frankfurt’s book of the fair, generating unprecedented fervour throughout the international publishing community, and selling in multiple auctions around the world”.

US rights were acquired from Anna Stein at CAA in a 10-way auction by Pam Dorman, senior vice-president and publisher of her eponymous imprint at Penguin Random House US; Dorman will partner on the publication with Nicole Winstanley at Penguin Canada. Translation rights have been pre-empted or sold at auction in 14 territories with three more in negotiation. The translation agents are Jake Smith-Bosanquet and Zoe Willis at CAA. 

The Names is described as “brilliant, moving and inventive … a sliding-doors family story with echoes of Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life [Black Swan], following one boy and the women around him over three decades and three alternate and alternating narratives”. 

The synopsis says: “In the wake of the 1987 storm, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter Maia to register her son’s birth. Her husband Gordon, a local doctor respected in the community but a fearful presence at home, intends for her to follow a long-standing family tradition and name the child after him. But when faced with the decision, Cora hesitates, wondering whether it is right to impose the burden of this legacy onto her newborn son. Her choice will shape the course of his life. 

“In the first of three possible outcomes, he is named Gordon and raised as the apple of his father’s eye. In the second, he is Julian – the name his mother set her heart on, though she will not see him grow into it. And in the third, he is Bear, a name chosen by his sister, where a very different future awaits them all.” 

Knapp is a quilter and dressmaker. For over a decade she wrote a popular blog, Flossie Teacakes, and has more recently moved over to Substack. She is also an award-winning short story writer and the author of a non-fiction book about English Paper Piecing.  

Main said: “I read The Names compulsively, with tears in my eyes and my heart in my mouth, and haven’t stopped thinking about it since. The reaction from the team here and our colleagues around the world has been unlike anything I’ve seen in my 20-year publishing career. Richly imagined, deeply moving and life-affirming, with exceptional characterisation that brings to mind writers such as Maggie O’Farrell and Ann Patchett, The Names explores family, fate and free will, and the formative experiences that determine who we become. Above all, it’s a novel about the enduring and redemptive power of love. I am over the moon that Florence has chosen to build her career at Phoenix and can’t wait to get started. The Names is already an international sensation and all of us at Orion are determined to make it a major bestseller.” 

Knapp said: “We carry our names with us through life, frequently oblivious to how they might shape us as people and how our path might be influenced by the weight of an inherited name, or the associations that come with what we’re called. In The Names, I was keen to unravel some of these things by tracing their impact on one woman and her family.”