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A&U UK to publish Hardcastle’s ‘Below Deck’ in UK

Allen & Unwin’s UK arm (A&U UK) has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding ANZ and Canada) to Below Deck, the third book by 25-year-old author Sophie Hardcastle, reports the Bookseller.

The novel follows a woman called Oli and her experiences of life at sea during her 20s, exploring ‘the vagaries of consent, about who has space to speak, and who is believed’, according to A&U.

Senior editor Kate Ballard acquired rights from Sharon Galant at Zeitgeist Media Group. The UK acquisition comes after ANZ rights to the novel were acquired by A&U Australia for a six-figure sum earlier this year.

Ballard said: ‘I was captivated by Sophie’s voice in Below Deck and inhaled the novel in a single sitting. Her style is both poetic and unvarnished in equal measure, these qualities working together to startling effect and bringing to life Oli’s experience in a truly compelling way. This novel feels to me incredibly timely—not only in its brutally honest depiction of female ill-treatment at the hands of men, but also in its sensitive and astute observations of the ways in which we interact with the natural world.’

Below Deck will be published in Australia in early 2020, and in the UK in May 2020.

 

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Category: Local news Rights and acquisitions