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The Borough Press wins three-way auction for Reeves' 'exquisite' second novel
Mamele, the new novel from Victoria Park author Gemma Reeves, will be published by Borough Press following a three-way auction.
Editor Sophia Schoepfer acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Seren Adams at United Agents. The novel will be published in summer 2024. Foreign rights are being handled by United Agents.
Mamele is dubbed by the publisher as “a bold and stylish literary novel about one woman’s life in the wake of a brutal estrangement from her mother”.
The Borough Press said: “Edie’s adulthood has passed in a hedonistic blur as the third member of a polyamorous relationship with a wealthy couple. But when memories of her childhood resurface, Edie must confront her ghosts and piece together the various parts of herself, as a queer woman and the daughter of a Jewish émigré.”
She said: “Mamele has found its perfect home at The Borough Press and with Sophia, whose beautiful response to this novel and vision for its publication bowled me over. Mamele marks a new direction for my writing and I’m so excited to be working with such a passionate and thoughtful team.”
Schoepfer said: “In Mamele, we encounter complex and captivating characters, and prose that is so intricately wrought and seductive. I fell very deeply in love with Edie, the protagonist, a woman who must reckon with old, deep wounds in her pursuit of fulfilment and freedom. I’m so thrilled to be publishing this sophisticated drama from a very exciting up-and-coming literary talent.”
Adams commented: “Mamele is a startling and exquisite novel – sad and sexy in equal measure. Gemma is a thrilling literary writer, and I can’t wait for fans of her work to discover this very original and very beautiful book.”
Reeves is a writer and teacher who lives and works in London. Her debut novel, Victoria Park, was published by Allen & Unwin in 2021. She has co-written award-winning non-fiction books and her fiction has been shortlisted for the 2017 V S Pritchett Short Story Prize and the 2023 Bath Short Story Award, Highly Commended in the 2019 Bridport Prize, and longlisted for the Brick Lane Bookshop Short Story Prize and BBC National Short Story Award in 2020.
