Wildfire pre-empts Christine Murphy's 'bold and abrasive' novel

Wildfire Books has pre-empted UK and Commonwealth rights to the debut novel by Christine Murphy, Notes on Surviving the Fire, billed as “a bold and abrasive takedown of campus rape culture, and a critique of our capacity to tolerate such violence against women”. 

Editorial director Ella Gordon bought rights from Catherine Cho at Paper Literary. US rights were sold at auction to Vanessa Haughton and Jennifer Barth at Knopf. Wildfire and Knopf will publish simultaneously in February 2025. 

The book follows Sarah, a final-year PhD student in southern California, caught in a landscape of extreme wealth and raging wildfires – a far cry from her childhood spent hunting wild animals in the forests of Maine. “These days she spends her time worrying about how she will be able to get a permanent academic position, and also doing ketamine and watching ’80s movies with her best friend, Nathan,” the synopsis says. 

“Nathan was the only person to believe Sarah when she was assaulted by a fellow student. Sarah reported it to the university and to the police, but nothing happened. When Nathan is found dead of an alleged overdose, Sarah is convinced it is a murder; but, once again, the police don’t believe her. As she digs into the case, she stumbles upon a disturbing pattern in the deaths of other young men on campus and begins to piece together a possible link between the victims.” 

Gordon said: “There are so many layers to Christine’s arresting debut. On the surface it’s a gripping literary page-turner about rape culture and revenge, but interwoven through that are deeper questions about attitudes to violence; in what circumstances – if any – one can justify killing; and there’s even some Buddhist philosophy in there for good measure. We can’t wait for readers to get their hands on this incendiary debut next year.” 

Murphy added: “Notes on Surviving the Fire is my namesake – dark, rude and wildly inappropriate. I am thrilled that Ella and the team at Wildfire love my enfant terrible as I do. I am grateful to them, and to my brilliant, ballsy agent, Catherine Cho of Paper Literary.”