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Simon & Schuster snaps up Shaheen's 'urgent' book on the myth of social mobility
Simon & Schuster has snapped up Know Your Place: How Society Sets Us Up To Fail – and What We Can Do About It by statistician and economist Dr Faiza Shaheen.
Publishing director of adult non-fiction Holly Harris acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Karolina Sutton, previously at Curtis Brown. The book will be published on 8th June 2023.
Shaheen is currently a visiting professor at the London School of Economics. Her most recent policy report was launched by former Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and six other leaders at the United Nations. She was inspired to write Know Your Place after losing to incumbent MP Iain Duncan Smith in the Chingford and Woodford Green constituency she grew up in.
Know Your Place is a "galvanising and eye-opening" book about the myth of social mobility. While telling her story, Shaheen incorporates statistics to show how "society sets up individuals from certain backgrounds to fail and others to succeed". It has been pitched as Caroline Criado-Perez’s Invisible Women (Vintage) for race and class.
Shaheen commented: "I hope that this book speaks to all those that wonder why, despite their hard work, life feels so difficult and that it galvanises us all to demand that everyone – regardless of what job they do or their class – can have a decent life."
Harris said: "Faiza Shaheen is extraordinarily impressive and in this brilliant book she elegantly deconstructs the myth that politicians tell us that “anyone can make it” (without being honest about the odds if you’re not born rich), with a blend of statistics and memoir in a persuasive and readable way. This is an urgent and important book and we are very proud to be publishing it.”
