Sandstone Press scoops genre-bending, existential drama from Smith

Sandstone Press has scooped Seaweed Rising by Rob Magnuson Smith. 

Moira Forsyth, publishing director, acquired English-language and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Christopher Combemale at Sterling Lord Literistic. The novel will be published in August.

The publisher wrote: "Beneath the sea, over millennia, sentient beings await our final mistakes: soon they will make their move. From a Cornish fishing village to the Spanish coast up to the blinding glacial landscape of the Arctic, human society falls under the microscope in this genre-bending existential drama. Eventually, the hunter becomes the hunted." 

Forsyth commented: "When I wrote up my notes for colleagues on Seaweed Rising they began: brilliant—like nothing else I’ve read. I love fiction that challenges my thinking, brims with new ideas and whose premise, however unusual, utterly convinces. I’m thrilled that Sandstone Press will be publishing this timely and imaginative novel in 2023."

"It’s a rare experience, that tingle of excitement when the right publisher finds your work," said Smith. "I can say with certainty that it’s happened to me, and like an abducted alien I feel somewhat startled."