US publisher signs Miriam Halahmy

Holiday House, an independent publisher based in New York, has bought the US rights to Hidden by Miriam Halahmy in a two-book deal.

Hidden is about what happens when a teenager called Alix saves a drowning asylum seeker. Together with her friend Samir, Alix must decide whether to report Mohammed, who is originally from Iraq, to the police.

Holiday House editor-in-chief Mary Cash acquired the North American rights to Hidden, as well as an unpublished novel, Behind Closed Doors, which is about two teenagers facing homelessness, in a deal with Margot Edwards, acting on behalf of Anne Clark of the Anne Clark Literary Agency.

Cash said: “Miriam Halahmy's writing speaks directly and urgently to young people about subjects which matter to them and the world. We are delighted to welcome her to Holiday House.”

She will publish Hidden in autumn 2016 and Behind Closed Doors in spring 2017.

Hidden was first published in the UK in 2011 by Meadowside, which is now part of the DC Thomson Book Group. A second edition was released by Albury in 2014.