Affirm Press acquires Byrt’s “Dying Days”
Simon & Schuster imprint Affirm Press has acquired world rights to spy novel Dying Days by Aotearoa New Zealand author Anthony Byrt, via Nadine Rubin Nathan at High Spot Literary.
Dying Days is set at the close of World War II in Trieste where, “after fighting to liberate Europe from the Nazis, Tito’s Yugoslav army and Allied forces have come to a tense stand-off”. As locals with fascist and Nazi ties disappear daily, arrested by Yugoslav soldiers, the Allies watch on, reluctant to become mired in yet another conflict. “But when rumours circulate that New Zealand soldiers are among the missing, the stakes begin to rise. A British MI6 agent and a New Zealand intelligence officer must uncover the truth behind the rumours.”
Byrt is an art critic, and the author of two books of nonfiction. Dying Days is his first novel, written while he was Kaipukahu writer-in-residence at the University of Waikato in New Zealand. He currently lives in Naarm/Melbourne and Te Tai Tokerau/Northland.
Byrt said, “I’ve been fascinated with the stand-off in Trieste at the end of World War II for years. Dying Days is, first and foremost, a thriller set amidst those real events. I hope readers will fall for its wild cast of characters, its strange and beautiful setting, and all the intrigues and twists that lurk between truth, rumour and fiction. But I also hope it’s a story that resonates with our very alarming present moment.”
Simon & Schuster publisher Ruby Ashby-Orr said, “When I first started to read Dying Days, I found myself so quickly enveloped by this beautiful city and the dark stories it held that I completely forgot I was working. Anthony’s language is clean and simple but layered with such beautiful imagery and driven by such urgency that I knew within a few pages that this was a writer who knew what he was doing. In our politically complex and volatile times, this story of extreme ideology, violence, and whether truth is more important than peace feels more important than ever.”
Affirm Press plans to publish Dying Days in August 2026.
Category: Local news Rights and acquisitions
