Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

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Black Inc. signs Deborah Cass prize winner Giovannoni; acquires new books by Hunt, De Kretser

Black Inc. has acquired 2015 Deborah Cass award winner Moreno Giovannoni’s book of linked tales about a Tuscan village and the lives of its occupants, Tales of San Ginese.

World rights to the title was acquired by Black Inc. publisher Chris Feik, who described the book as a ‘series of linked stories, on the border of fiction and nonfiction, about an Italian village through the course of the twentieth century’. The stories follow the lives of the village people, many of whom migrated to America and Australia to work.

‘When I read [Tales of San Ginese], I responded to it immediately,’ said Feik.Moreno is an original. His writing is distilled, so that it can appear simple, but has great complexity and power.’

Giovannoni, who was awarded the inaugural Deborah Cass Prize for emerging writers from migrant backgrounds in 2016, said winning the prize was ‘only the beginning of what has been an emotional rollercoaster ride’.

‘My emotional investment in the book had been enormous but it wasn’t until [Feik] told me he wanted to publish it that it hit home,’ said Giovannoni. ‘It was better than the Bombers winning an AFL Grand Final. Working with him as my editor then turned my book into an entirely different creature.’

The book is due for publication in July 2018.

Black Inc. has also acquired world rights to David Hunt’s follow-up to Girt and True Girt, Girt Nation: The Unauthorised History of Australia Volume 3, which will cover the founding of the nation and Gallipoli.

The publisher also announced that Michelle de Kretser will write a volume for its newly launched six-book ‘Writers on Writers’ series on Shirley Hazzard. Other books in the series include Alice Pung on John Marsden, Erik Jensen on Kate Jennings and Christos Tsiolkas on Patrick White. De Kretser’s book will be released in 2019.

 

Category: Local news Rights and acquisitions