Viking overnight raids grab debut author Morgan Dick's Daughter 

Viking has scooped Favourite Daughter, the debut novel by Canadian writer Morgan Dick, in an overnight pre-empt. 

Rosa Schierenberg, editorial director, bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Jemima Forrester at David Higham. North American rights went to Viking US with Laura Tisdale acquiring; Bhavna Chauhan at Doubleday will publish in Canada. Further rights have been sold in Germany, France, Poland, the Netherlands, Brazil and in Hebrew. Publication is scheduled for May 2025. 

Favourite Daughter is described as “the brilliantly funny and heartbreaking story of two estranged sisters who are unknowingly reunited by their problematic father’s dying wish". It follows half-sisters Mickey and Arlo, who have never spoken and never met. Mickey’s father abandoned her years ago and she’s hated him ever since, a dependence on alcohol their only commonality. When he leaves her his sizeable fortune, she’s shocked. Arlo, meanwhile, nursed their father on his sickbed, but is cut off from the will with no explanation.

Schierenberg said: “I devoured this, transfixed by Morgan’s sparky prose and keen observations. Combining the razor-sharp wit and delightfully dysfunctional family drama of novels such as All Adults Here and Sorrow and Bliss with the irreverence of Where’d You Go Bernadette, this is a unique, surprising and achingly moving story of sisterhood, family, grief and addiction.” 

Dick is from Calgary and has had her short fiction published in a number of outlets. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee and won an honourable mention for The New Quarterly’s Peter Hinchcliffe Short Fiction Award.