Transworld wins 10-way auction for His Name is George Floyd

Transworld has triumphed in a 10-way auction for His Name is George Floyd by two Washington Post reporters, Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa. 

Andrea Henry, editorial director, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Caspian Dennis at Abner Stein on behalf of Karen Brailsford and Todd Schuster at Aevitas Creative Management. His Name is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice will be published by Bantam Press in hardback on 19th May 2022, simultaneously with Viking in the US, where it was acquired by editor Ibrahim Ahmad. 

Transworld said: “The murder of George Floyd sparked a fiery summer of activism and unrest all over the world in 2020, with peaceful protests sometimes erupting into violent clashes. In all corners of the globe, people marched under the Black Lives Matter banner, decrying Floyd’s death and demanding an end to racial inequality, along with intense public debate. The movement has led corporations to redouble their efforts, universities to refocus on inclusion, and government officials to examine the causes of systemic inequality.”  

Drawing on the Washington Post’s archives, in-depth reporting and award-winning series on Floyd which ran in October 2020, His Name is George Floyd is billed as “a definitive biography that reveals the myriad ways that structural racism shaped Floyd’s life and death”.  

The synopsis reads: “Telling his personal story within the context of America’s troubled race history, and placed firmly within a global context, it features fresh and timely reporting as well as unparalleled access to Floyd’s family and the people who were closest to the man whose name has become one of the most recognised on the planet. 

“By zooming in on this one, emblematic life that touched the world, while also pulling back to profile the institutions that shaped it, this is a groundbreaking exploration of what life is like for someone like George Floyd, of institutional racism and of a public reckoning of unprecedented breadth and intensity.” 

Alex Christofi, editorial director, said: "The whole Transworld team was deeply moved by the authors’ powerful proposal. By detailing Floyd’s life—with unrivalled access to the people who knew him—the authors succeed rather brilliantly in showing how systemic racism operates in the US and beyond, and how it makes a decent, successful and stable life almost impossible for Black men (and women) like Floyd.

"Crucially, this is a book which helps to explain some of the racially driven socioeconomic problems in our own Black communities too. It will be an exceptional reading experience which, alongside the authors and the Washington Post, we will be working hard to ensure becomes required reading.” Christofi will edit the book following Henry's departure later this month to Picador.

Samuels, national political enterprise reporter for the Washington Post, said: “When I set out more than a year ago to learn about George Floyd, I told his friends and family that my mission was to understand George Floyd’s soul. And in this reporting journey to understand his life, I learned about a man who was complicated, loving, ambitious—a guy who never gave up on a dream to make a difference in this world, despite the seen and unseen barriers that stood in his way.  

“I am thrilled to work with Transworld to introduce readers to the person I got to know. Big Floyd’s life and legacy can teach us so much about race, racism and the pursuit of self-fulfilment in a world saddled by injustice.”  

Olorunnipa added: “George Floyd’s gruesome, videotaped death changed the world, as millions were moved by the raw humanity of a dying man pleading for air. As we have examined his life over the past year, we have learned how his struggle to exhale as a Black man in America began decades before a police officer’s knee landed on his neck. We are excited to work with Alex and the team at Transworld to tell that story, revealing both a life that mattered and the systems that so tragically denied its worth.”