PMJ snaps up 'addictive' Daverley debut after multiple pre-empt attempts

Penguin Michael Joseph has snapped up an “addictive, tender and surprising” debut novel from Claire Daverley in a two-book deal. 

Clio Cornish, editorial director, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to Talking at Night from Ariella Feiner at United Agents, who received multiple attempts to pre-empt within 24 hours of submitting the love story. It will publish in hardback, e-book and audio in summer 2023 as a lead title for the imprint, backed by a major campaign. 

US rights were sold to Pam Dorman at Viking in a pre-empt. The novel has also sold after auctions in Germany (Hanserblau), France (Robert Laffont), Italy (Rizzoli), the Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), with pre-empts accepted in Brazil (Companhia Das Letras), Romania (Bookzone) and Hungary (General Press). It is currently under offer in Spain and Lithuania. Amy Mitchell at United Agents is handling the foreign rights and Yasmin McDonald at United Agents is representing for book to film. 

Talking at Night follows Will and Rosie, who meet as teenagers. They are opposites in every way but, quite without warning, they fall for one another—and over secret walks home and late-night phone calls, they become closer, destined to be one another’s great love story. Until, one day, tragedy strikes, and any possibility of them being together shatters. 

Daverley said: “All I have ever wanted to do is write about real people and real things, hoping that something I had to say might move someone in some way, so the response across the world to Talking at Night has been nothing short of astonishing. I’m overjoyed to be working with my agent Ariella Feiner, and now my editor Clio Cornish, who really understood the heart of this book.” 

Cornish said: “Addictive, tender and surprising, Talking at Night is alive at every turn—and the love story I’ve been waiting for. Claire’s voice is all I look for in fiction: distinctive, inviting and evocative, without ever losing pace. I can’t wait to introduce the world to Rosie and Will, and to an extraordinary new writer.” 

Feiner added: “Claire sent me the first draft of Talking at Night late last year and I have been thinking about Will and Rosie pretty much non-stop since then. They are two of the most real and fully realised characters I have ever read. This is a sweeping love story with true emotional heft, and I am overjoyed for Claire that so many people have now read it and adore it as much as I do.”