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The debut novel by award-winning poet Phoebe Stuckes will be published by Sceptre in April 2024.
Jo Dingley, editorial director, signed the "brilliantly dark, eerie novel", shortlisted for the PFD Queer Fiction Prize 2022, about a woman whose precarious existence is threatened by the spectre that seems to be haunting her.
Dingley acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Daisy Chandley at PFD. Sceptre will publish the book on 11th April 2024.
Dead Animals centres on a young waitress who wakes after a house party with scratches and bruises, but only a gap where her memories ought to be. As the violent truth comes back to her and her anger grows, so too does the feeling that she’s being followed. Solace comes in the form of her relationship with the enigmatic and captivating Helene, who knows what the man at the party did and wants justice.
Ansa Khan Khattak, Sceptre editorial director, who is overseeing the publication while Dingley is on parental leave, said: “What a privilege to get to work with Phoebe on her perfectly formed, dark debut novel. In carefully calibrated prose, Phoebe takes the world we know but renders it strange: train platforms at night, poorly lit alleyways and dark basements become sites for haunting.
“Phoebe combines an unflinching examination of the effects precarious employment, urban poverty and sexual violence with a gothic plot that will have you wondering where it will end.”
Stuckes said: “This novel is the culmination of so much work and I’m glad it’s being looked after and championed by such a talented team.”
She is a writer from West Somerset living in London. She has been awarded an Eric Gregory Award and The Geoffrey Dearmer Prize. Her first full-length collection, Platinum Blonde, was published by Bloodaxe Books in 2020 and was highly commended by the Forward Prizes. She was commended by the UEA New Forms Award. Dead Animals is her first novel.