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W&N has snared Hannah Deitch’s novel Killer Potential and one other title in a “hotly fought” 10-publisher auction.
Lettice Franklin, publishing director, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Emma Finn at C&W, on behalf of Stephanie Delman at Trellis Literary Management. North American rights went to Jessica Williams at William Morrow after a 16-publisher auction.
Translation rights have already sold in 12 territories (Brazil, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Israel/Hebrew, Italy, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Spain and Sweden) and an auction for TV rights is ongoing. Killer Potential will be published by W&N in February 2025.
Killer Potential is told by Evie Duarte. Having done well at school, Evie thought that she would be something, someone, that she had potential. But after graduating, she finds herself working as a private tutor to the children of the super-rich, drowning in debt and cursing her idiot faith in the romance of social mobility.
The synopsis goes on: “Everything changes when she arrives for a weekly lesson at the Victors’ LA mansion to discover pure carnage: the bloody remains of Mr and Mrs Victor sullying their beautiful back garden, and a woman crying for help from within the walls of the family’s estate. Within moments, Evie and the woman go from bystanders to suspects to fugitives. Anointed the new Charles Manson by the press, a bloodthirsty 99 percenter hoping to spark a class war, Evie is finally someone.”
Franklin, editor, said: “Killer Potential is, at once, an unputdownable thriller, a deeply moving queer romance, a furious consideration of inequality and late-stage capitalism, a road trip story and a breathtakingly well-written literary novel. The novel gives us a Thelma and Louise for the 21st century, and a twisted, irresistible mash up of Patricia Highsmith’s Carol and Bong Joon-ho’s ’Parasite’. It made me think anew about wealth and poverty, about our potential for love and our potential for violence. It kept me up reading very late into the night, and it has sparked massive passion within the W&N and Orion team.”
Deitch said: “To stay afloat, I worked as a college prep tutor for almost eight years: my job was to help wealthy kids get into good schools and uphold that rich-get-richer closed loop. Years after leaving tutoring, I was working in a demanding full-time job, I had multiple degrees – and I could still barely make rent. It was pure nihilism that gave me the idea for this novel: suddenly, a life on the road, a life of crime, a life outside those traditionally accepted benchmarks of success – which seemed further and further away every year – seemed pretty seductive. I wanted to write something that redirected our sympathies and recasts who we think of as criminals and villains.”