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Viking lands de Monterey's 'beautiful' memoir in exclusive submission
Viking has landed debut author Emmett de Monterey’s “beautiful, powerful” memoir Go the Way Your Blood Beats following an exclusive submission.
Isabel Wall, editorial director, acquired world rights from Sophie Lambert at C&W. Wall had worked with the author directly for several months before he became a client of Lambert’s. It will be published in hardback, e-book and audio in June 2023.
Go the Way Your Blood Beats is a memoir about being born with cerebral palsy and the “strange and heartbreaking experience of becoming a charity poster boy as a young child”.
The publisher explained: “When Emmett de Monterey is 18 months old, a doctor diagnoses him with cerebral palsy. Growing up in south-east London in the 1980s, Emmett is shouted at on the street and prayed over at church. At his school for disabled children, he is told he will be expelled if the rumours are true—if he's gay. At mainstream school, teachers refuse to schedule his classes on the ground floor, and he loses a stone from the effort of getting up the stairs. At 12 years old, Emmett is chosen for a first-of-its-kind surgery in America that will 'cure' him. BBC cameras follow him to a hospital in Connecticut and newspapers talk of miracles. Despite himself, Emmett hopes for a miracle too: to walk, to dance, to not be nervous in wet weather. To have a body that's everyday beautiful, to hold hands in the street. To not be gay, which he believes is another word for loneliness. When the 'miracle' doesn't occur, Emmett must reckon with a world which views disabled people as invisible, unworthy of desire. He must fight to be seen.”
Wall said: “This is an extraordinarily moving and original British memoir that reminded me of books by Jeanette Winterson, Cathy Rentzenbrink and Sathnam Sanghera. I can’t wait to introduce Emmett’s unforgettable voice to readers—he is a stunning writer and a rare talent.”
De Monterey, who is a trained psychotherapist, commented: “Writing this book has been a wonderful, rewarding experience. I’ve so enjoyed working with Isabel, who is a remarkable and sensitive editor. I’m thrilled it’s being published by Viking.”
Lambert added: “This is memoir at its best: exquisite prose coupled with a story that is profound, often heartbreaking but also funny, wise and wonderfully well observed. I can’t wait to press it into many hands.”
