Profile to publish two new titles by FT journalist Kuper

Profile Books has nabbed two new books by Financial Times journalist Simon Kuper, comprising Impossible City and the follow-up to his book Chums (Profile), called Good Chaps.

Profile founding director Andrew Franklin bought UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, in both books from Gordon Wise at Curtis Brown. Impossible City will be published on 11th April 2024 and Good Chaps is currently scheduled for release on 29th August 2024, ahead of the Paris Olympic Games in July.

Impossible City is described as a "memoir of the Paris of today, without the clichés". The synopsis adds: "There are few croissants and little Parisian chic. Kuper has experienced the city both as a human being and as a journalist.

"He has grown middle-aged there, taken his children to countless football matches in the city’s infamous banlieues, and lived through two terrorist attacks on his neighbourhood. And over two decades of becoming something of a cantankerous Parisian himself, Kuper has watched the city change."

Moreover, Good Chaps is the follow-up to Chums, in which Kuper told the origin story of the "university clique-turned-Commons majority" running the country. The synopsis explains: "Now, with a general election looming and a second unelected Prime Minister in office, Kuper recounts how corruption ate into British politics with his signature deep research, verve and wit."

Kuper said: "I’m sure I began thinking about this book the day I moved here, more than 20 years ago. The transformation of Paris is a fascinating story that I’ve been longing to tell. There’s no other city on earth that’s more enveloped in clichés. I wanted to take readers with me into the real, changing, everyday Paris that I have got to know and – most of the time, anyway – love."

Franklin added: "Simon has French children and after living in Paris for more than 20 years has become un citoyen francais himself. Paris has greatly benefited from Brexit just as things have become so much harder in the UK. Here, without a written constitution, we have to rely on the ‘good chap theory’ of government. How well is that working for us? No-one could tell these two stories better than Simon Kuper."