Virago wins Spindler's debut

Virago has won an auction for journalist and documentary filmmaker Susan Spindler's first novel, Surrogate.

Billed as one for fans of Apple Tree Yard, Surrogate tells the story of a restless 55-year-old TV executive who makes the decision to be a surrogate for her eldest daughter when she finds out she cannot have children.

Clare Smith, Little, Brown’s executive publisher for Literary, did the deal to acquire UK and Commonwealth rightson behalf of Virago publisher Sarah Savitt (currently on parental leave) from Kerry Glencorse at Susanna Lea Associates. Surrogate will be Virago's lead fiction debut for spring 2021.

Smith called it "a brilliant read" for its "clever, empathetic, sharp and with a page-turning plot that doesn’t let the reader go". She added: "I am absolutely delighted that it will publish on the brilliant Virago list." 

Spindler said: "I couldn’t have hoped for a better home for Surrogate. Virago has been part of my life since its launch and has shaped my reading and my writing – I am thrilled that my novel will sit alongside some of the authors I most admire. I am really delighted to be working with Clare Smith in the run up to publication and I’m more grateful than I can say to my agent Kerry Glencorse, who has believed in this novel from the beginning and steered it to this point."