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VERVE Books has nabbed Blue Hour, an "urgent and profound" debut by Tiffany Clarke Harrison, which was selected by Barack Obama for his annual summer reading list.
Editorial director Jenna Gordon acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, plus audio, but excluding Canada, from Sharon Pelletier at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. The book was published by Soft Skull Press in the US in 2023, and VERVE Books will publish it as a paperback original and e-book in August.
"Blue Hour is narrated by an unnamed, gifted photographer, uncertain wife, infertile mother and biracial woman, in an unravelling America," the synopsis says. "As she grapples with a lifetime of buried trauma and ambivalence about motherhood, yet another act of police brutality makes headlines, and this time the victim is Noah, a boy in her photography class. Unmoored by the grief of a recent, devastating miscarriage and Noah’s fight for his life, she worries she can no longer chase the hope of having a child, no longer wants to bring a Black body into the world."
The synopsis adds: "Throwing herself into a new documentary on motherhood and making secret visits to Noah in the hospital, this is when she learns she is, impossibly, pregnant. As life shifts once more, she must decide what she dares hope the shape of her future to be."
Gordon said: "I and the rest of the VERVE Books team are over the moon to be bringing Tiffany Clarke Harrison’s breathtaking debut to UK readers. Blue Hour is unflinching and vital, and its lyrical, fragmented narrative packs a great emotional punch. It’s completely unforgettable."
Harrison added: "The journey to and through motherhood is unique; however, there are similar feelings that can show up along the way that many feel they shouldn’t speak about. Feelings of ambivalence, shame as some bodies struggle to conceive, doubts about abilities as a parent, feelings of separation from partners and the self as an individual with interests long before mothering took the spotlight. The feelings are valid and deserve to be expressed."