Tinder Press wins Viola van de Sandt's 'blistering' début in two-way auction

Tinder Press has won the "intimate and darkly propulsive" début novel from Viola van de Sandt following a two-way auction. 

Ellie Freedman, assistant editor, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights through a world rights deal with Millie Hoskins at United Agents and Sally Kim at Little, Brown US. The Dinner Party will be published simultaneously in the UK and US in September 2025. 

The Dinner Party follows Franca who has left the Netherlands to begin her new life with Andrew, an "old-fashioned British gentleman". He suggests hosting a dinner party with his colleagues to celebrate a recent success.

The synopsis continues: "A dinner party that Franca must plan and shop and cook and clean for. A dinner party during a heatwave, when the fridge breaks, alcohol replaces water and an unexpected guest joins their ranks. A dinner party where everything she once was and everything she now is comes together and she feels like she might implode." 

Van de Sandt said: "I am absolutely thrilled to work with Ellie at Tinder Press. Her contagious enthusiasm and her eloquent and intelligent distillation of the themes and questions I explore in The Dinner Party make me confident I could not have found a better advocate for my début."

Freedman added: "The Dinner Party is a blistering début that immediately got under my skin. On the one hand, it’s a tightly-coiled well-plotted mystery, on the other, it’s a deeply resonant and nuanced exploration of sexual trauma and consent. Viola articulates what is not always possible to articulate with so much sensitivity, truth and bracing intelligence, and I can’t wait to see the conversations her novel will spark. We are thrilled to welcome her to the list."