Virago hooks Nettie Jones’ ‘lost classic’ Fish Tales, first acquired by Toni Morrison

Virago Modern Classics has won a three-way auction to publish Nettie Jones’ "dazzling, provocative" debut Fish Tales.

Written in 1977 and championed by Toni Morrison as her last acquisition for Random House, the novel fell out of print for 40 years and has never been published in the UK.

Olivia Barber, editorial director, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Devon Mazzone at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Fish Tales will be published in hardback and e-book on 15th April 2025, with a new afterword from the author.

Hailed by Raven Leilani as "candid, fast and alive", Fish Tales is described by the publisher as "a kaleidoscopic swirl of sex and exploitation, selfhood and self-destruction, and an unnervingly contemporary depiction of the anxious collision between identity, freedom and female desire."

It goes on: "Told in snapshots and fragments, the novel follows Lewis Jones as she bounces between the demi-monde of New York and the affluent Black community of Detroit in the 1970s in pursuit of pleasure. But her world of orgies, queens, cocaine parties and champagne baths is upended when she meets handsome, erudite, cruel Brook—the only man who won’t let her take control."

Jones said: "I am pleased that Fish Tales will be available to readers in the UK for the very first time; I always intended for it to travel far. I am grateful to the folks at Virago for seeing its truth."

Barber said: "Fish Tales pulses with energy, desire, and flashes of violence—I was blown away by the raw vibrancy and transgressive power of Nettie Jones’ voice. It’s hard to believe that this novel sank from view for 40 years, despite its original championing by Toni Morrison and Gayl Jones, author of Corregidora—I couldn’t be more excited for Virago Modern Classics to propel it back into the spotlight."