Trapeze triumphs in three-way auction for two novels by Lucy Cavendish longlistee McDonagh 

Trapeze Books editor Serena Arthur has acquired Rose McDonagh’s “brilliant and tension-filled” debut novel One Came Back and another, as-yet untitled novel from Kate Evans at Peters, Fraser + Dunlop in Arthur’s first acquisition for Trapeze and Orion.

Arthur negotiated the deal for UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, after winning a three-way auction that took place during Frankfurt Book Fair week.

McDonagh’s “haunting” debut novel, which was titled Mountain on submission, was longlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize and the Caledonia Novel Award. It will be published by Trapeze in hardback in spring 2024 as One Came Back, with McDonagh’s next novel to be published in 2025.

One Came Back follows Emily, who sees Nicky during New Year’s Eve in Edinburgh  Or, at least, a man she thinks is Nicky. The publisher’s synopsis continues: “He looks like Nicky, he laughs like Nicky, he moves just like Nicky. But Nicky died when they were teenagers in the Highlands.

"A week later, when Emily properly meets Nicholas, the man she saw, she finds that he knows some things that only Nicky should know. We, as readers, follow Emily’s encounters with Nicholas as they become more frequent, and as her fixation, rooted in her past, intensifies, we are left to ask what is really going on. Is this a ghost story? Is Emily simply going mad, or is it something darker?”

McDonagh said: “I’m delighted that Serena and the team at Trapeze have chosen my novel. I loved Serena’s passion and thoughtful approach to the characters and I am so excited to work with her as an editor.

“I’m also hugely appreciative of my agent Kate, who has championed the book from the start. The novel connects to the long tradition in Scottish literature of exploring the uncanny and the supernatural, while revolving around a modern female narrator in a contemporary setting. I am thrilled to be working with Trapeze."

Arthur said: “One Came Back is beautifully written, gorgeously tense and delves into loss, memory, mental health, grief and obsession in a brilliant way. The cinematic first chapter will pull you in immediately and haunt you for a while, just as the rest of the book does. It is both intensely accessible and stunningly ominous. I’m honoured to have this unique and well-crafted debut novel be my first acquisition for Trapeze.”

Kate Evans described McDonagh as “a unique talent”. She said: “I read the unforgettable opening chapter of One Came Back in a sea of Lucy Cavendish [prize] entries and it stayed with me until Rose delivered this beautiful, suspenseful, unsettling and surprisingly tender novel almost a year later. Serena and the team at Trapeze had a vision for the book immediately and I cannot wait for them to introduce Rose to readers everywhere.”