Serpent's Tail signs Sarai Walker's 'haunting' second novel

Serpent's Tail has snapped up The Cherry Robbers, the "propulsive" second novel by Sarai Walker, author of Dietland (Atlantic).

The novel centres on an artist, whose past is being probed by a journalist.

Editor Leonora Craig Cohen acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, with audio from Laura Williams at Greene & Heaton. Serpent’s Tail will publish in the UK and Ireland in June 2022. The novel will published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in the US.

Cohen said of the novel: "When reclusive artist Sylvia Wren discovers a journalist is digging into the true story of her origins as Iris Chapel, she is forced to recall her past as one of the cursed heiresses to the Chapel Munitions fortune. Iris’ mother prophesied that she and her sisters would each die on their wedding day and was proven strangely, horribly correct about their fates—all except for Iris’. I was immediately obsessed by the haunting, delicate and claustrophobic world Sarai Walker has created. The Cherry Robbers is a wonderfully atmospheric, propulsive novel about sisterhood, mortality and forging one's own path, and I’m so thrilled to have acquired it."

Walker's first novel Dietland was adapted for screen by AMC/Hulu. Commenting on the acquisition of her latest novel, she said: "With The Cherry Robbers, I wanted to put my own spin on the gothic ghost story, and for me that meant writing about traditional gender roles in a subversive, even shocking way. I’m thrilled the novel has found a home with Leonora Craig Cohen and the team at Serpent’s Tail. I lived in London for several years as a postgraduate student, which is when I became familiar with Serpent’s Tail and the brilliant work they do. I’m honored to have The Cherry Robbers on their list."