John Murray snaps up US presidential hopeful Buttigieg's memoir

John Murray has landed the memoir of Democratic mayor and US presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg.

Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is currently being hailed as one of the most promising presidential candidates for 2020. His book Shortest Way Home is an account of his experiences from childhood in the rust-belt all the way up to his post-2016 bid to become DNC chair in 2017. Along the way are a tour of Afghanistan as a lieutenant in the US Navy Reserve, the renaissance of his town and a moving account of coming out and finding love and acceptance, said the publisher.

Joe Zigmond, senior commissioning editor, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Caspian Dennis at Abner Stein on behalf of Chris Parris-Lamb at The Gernert Company. The book, currently number five on the New York Times bestseller list, will be published in the UK in June 2019.

Zigmond said: “At a time when global politics have become so chaotic and negative, this book genuinely appeals to our shared wisdom and humanity. It is rapidly becoming apparent that Pete, and his book, can access a massive constituency of readers inspired by his message.”

He added: “It is a rare thing to find a public figure with so unusual a back story and rarer still one with the ability to tell it: what we have here is a real reader’s politician. Pete is a highly gifted stylist and storyteller and we feel Shortest Way Home is likely to be the most interesting and skilfully written memoir from among today’s US political class.”