Picador acquires Olivia Laing's debut novel

Picador has acquired two books from writer Olivia Laing, including a first novel called Crudo "about finding love amidst the global chaos of the summer of 2017".

Paul Baggaley at Picador has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to Crudo and a work of non-fiction, Everybody, from Rebecca Carter at Janklow & Nesbit (UK) Ltd.

According to Picador, Everybody will be an examination of the body in the modern era that will "cement her position as one of the most brilliant and original writers of contemporary non-fiction", while her first novel centres on a woman spending the first summer of her forties "trying to adjust to making a lifelong commitment as Trump is tweeting the world into nuclear war". 

The books follow Laing’s most recent work, The Lonely City, an investigation into loneliness, art and the modern city published by Canongate. It won the 2014 Eccles British Library Writer’s Award and has been translated into 14 languages.

Paul Baggaley, publisher at Picador, said: “I have been an admirer of Olivia Laing’s writing for many years and have been very excited by the way she has developed her unique form of personal and cultural non-fiction. I am so excited she has come to Picador with two very different books which highlight her remarkable talent, both addressing the way we live now whilst challenging form and genre in the most imaginative ways.

"Crudo is witty and original, an exhilarating and daring novel about finding love amidst the global chaos of the summer of 2017. Everybody will be a major work of non-fiction that will examine the body in the modern era, combining themes of sexuality, gender, protest, art and personal experience."

Laing commented: "I’m thrilled to be joining Picador, a publisher that has an amazing track record for exciting literature of all genres. I had no intention of writing a novel before this summer, but it felt like a way of responding with speed and flexibility and passion to this violent and frightening year. I wrote it in a fury: two months of exploring in real time how it felt to live in a world where love and truth were becoming increasingly endangered."