Sceptre scoops ‘powerful’ new novel by When All Is Said author Griffin

Sceptre has signed a “powerful and emotional” new novel about grief, hope and community from Anne Griffin, author of Listening Still and When All Is Said (Sceptre).

Carole Welch, publishing director of Sceptre, and Lily Cooper, commissioning editor, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, to The Island of Longing from Susan Armstrong at C&W, for publication in April 2023.

The book tells the story of Rosie, whose daughter Saoirse cycled into Dublin one unremarkable afternoon eight years ago and never came back.

The synopsis continues: “After an extensive investigation into Saoirse’s disappearance, Rosie is the only person who still believes that she might be alive. With her marriage foundering and the campaign to find her child going nowhere, Rosie is persuaded to return home to the Irish West Coast island of Roaring Bay for the summer, to help her father captain the ferry.

“Life there revives old rivalries, but also brings new friendships and unexpected solace. Until suddenly, there is a glimmer of hope – but is there? Or has the time come for Rosie to face the fact that the hope she will one day be reunited with her daughter comes at the cost of everything she has left?”

Cooper said: “With her trademark sensitivity to the complex workings of the human heart, Anne takes an impossible question – if your child disappeared, would you ever accept that they weren’t going to come back? – and delivers an answer that can leave no reader unmoved. The Island of Longing is Anne’s most powerful, emotional novel to date, and we can’t wait to share it with readers.”

Griffin, whose debut novel When All is Said won the Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards and was shortlisted for the John McGahern Book Prize and the RSL Christopher Bland Prize, said: “Having my third novel published with Sceptre is a great honour. 

“The origin of this story began one morning as I caught the last glimpse of my son walking up our road to school. I wondered what it is to have a child disappear almost before your eyes. The answer, that horrific reality, is what haunts Rosie Driscoll who seeks refuge from her broken world on Roaring Bay Island. There, as she skippers the ferry, she waits, hopes, beseeches the universe to finally allow her daughter to return.”

Armstrong also commented: “This is a truly stunning new novel from Anne. Lyrical and captivating, emotive and masterful, The Island of Longing embodies all that readers already love about Anne’s writing and so much more. What a thrill it will be to see it launch into the world.”