Sphere scoops 'breathtaking' Fry novel on witchcraft in two-book deal

Sphere has scooped a “breathtaking” novel about witchcraft from screenwriter Lizzie Fry in a two-book deal.

Deputy publisher Maddie West at Sphere has acquired world rights for The Coven from Hattie Grunewald at The Blair Partnership, for publication in October 2020.

Little Brown is expecting the book, already pre-empted in Spain and Germany, to be one of its biggest rights sales titles at Frankfurt. West described it as a “breathtaking, pacy global race against the clock to defeat a shadowy organisation decided to destroying women’s potential”.

Its synopsis explains: “For fans of Vox, The Power and The Handmaid’s Tale, The Coven imagines a world in which witchcraft is real – and in which a right-wing, populist demagogue decides that witches are the enemy, creating an all-too possible world in which to be female is to be one step away from criminal.”

Fry said: “Like most nineties kids I loved ‘Charmed’, ‘Buffy’ and ‘The Craft’ so I've dreamt about writing about witchcraft for years. In this post-Trump/Gilead-style era, witches and feminist resistance are naturally linked, and The Coven is the result of all these things. Sphere is the perfect publisher for it, I am delighted to be working with them and can't wait to release the book in 2020.”

West added: “This is the book I have been longing to read – it’s fresh, edgy and thrilling, powered by strong women with the ability to change the world.”