Graeme Macrae Burnet’s CASE STUDY shortlisted for Ned Kelly Award

CASE STUDY by Graeme Macrae Burnet has been shortlisted for the 2022 Ned Kelly Award for Best International Crime Fiction.

The Ned Kelly Awards were established in 1996 by the Crime Writers Association of Australia to reward excellence in the field of crime writing, making them one of Australia’s oldest and most prestigious prizes to honour the genre.

The other titles on this year’s ‘Best International Crime Fiction’ shortlist are: THE HERON’S CRY by Ann Cleeves, THE MAID by Nita Prose and CRY WOLF by Hans Rosenfeldt.

CASE STUDY was published in paperback in the UK by Saraband Books on 14 April 2022 and has already been the recipient of numerous accolades, including being chosen as a ‘Book of the year’ in 2021 by The Spectator, The Scotsman and Waterstones. It has also been longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize 2022. It was published by Text in Australia in October 2021 and a deal for North American rights is being concluded, with translation rights sold in nine territories.

The winners of the Ned Kelly Awards will be announced in August.

CASE STUDY by Graeme Macrae Burnet

‘A novel of mind-bending brilliance.’ – Hannah Kent

‘A thrilling investigation into sanity and identity.’ – Alice O’Keeffe, The Bookseller

‘Fun and funny, sly and serious, a beguiling literary game that manages to say more about the nature of the self than any number of more self-consciously solemn works.’ – David Szalay

*

I have decided to write down everything that happens, because I feel, I suppose, I may be putting myself in danger.

London, 1965. An unworldly young woman suspects charismatic psychotherapist Collins Braithwaite of involvement in a death in her family. Determined to find out more, she becomes a client of his under a false identity. But she soon finds herself drawn into a world in which she can no longer be certain of anything.

In CASE STUDY, Graeme Macrae Burnet presents both sides: the woman’s notes and the life of Collins Braithwaite. The result is a dazzling, page-turning and wickedly humorous meditation on the nature of sanity, identity and truth itself, by one of the most inventive novelists writing today.

About Graeme Macrae Burnet

Graeme Macrae Burnet was brought up Kilmarnock, Ayrshire and now lives in Glasgow. He has also lived in the Czech Republic, France, Portugal and London. He has appeared at festivals and events in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Russia, Estonia, Macau, Ireland, Germany and France, as well as in the UK.

His first novel, THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ADÈLE BEDEAU (Contraband, 2014), received a New Writer’s Award from the Scottish Book Trust and was longlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award. A second Inspector Gorski novel, THE ACCIDENT ON THE A35, was published in 2017.

HIS BLOODY PROJECT (Contraband, 2015) won the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year Award, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the LA Times Book Awards. It has been published to great acclaim around the world and film rights have been optioned by Synchronicity.

Follow Graeme on Twitter

Joseph O’Connor returns with the Rome Escape Line trilogy

We’re thrilled that Harvill Secker will be publishing an extraordinary trilogy of literary thrillers set in Rome during the final, tumultuous years of World War II, by the bestselling author of SHADOWPLAY and STAR OF THE SEA, Joseph O’Connor. Liz Foley, Publishing Director at Harvill Secker, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) in all three novels and has been joined by Europa’s Editor-in-Chief Michael Reynolds, who has also acquired the three titles for publication in the US and Canada.

My FATHER’S HOUSE, the first title in the Rome Escape Line trilogy, is inspired by the true story of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, an Irish priest assigned to the Vatican who, together with a group of unlikely accomplices, risked his life to smuggle Jews and escaped Allied prisoners out of Italy right under the nose of his Nazi nemesis, Gestapo officer Paul Hauptmann. The further titles will take two other characters in the Escape Line group as their focus, as they face their own challenges in the fight to save others in dangerous times.

MY FATHER’S HOUSE will be published by Harvill Secker and Europa in January 2023. Rights are also already sold in France, Italy and Sweden.

Based on an extraordinary true story, MY FATHER'S HOUSE is a powerful literary thriller from a master of historical fiction. Joseph O'Connor has created an unforgettable novel of love, faith and sacrifice, and what it means to be truly human in the most extreme circumstances.

Joseph O’Connor said: ‘I am absolutely thrilled and excited that MY FATHER’S HOUSE will be published by Harvill Secker and Europa. Working on the book with editor Liz Foley has been a joy, and I deeply admire the skill and professionalism of the whole Harvill / PRH team. It is also such a great pleasure to be published by Michael Reynolds at Europa, where the passion for excellence is so strong. This novel means a lot to me and I couldn't imagine it in better hands as it sets out to meet its readers on both sides of the Atlantic.’ 

Liz Foley, Harvill Secker said:  'MY FATHER'S HOUSE is a moving and masterful literary thriller – quite extraordinary in being a beautiful read and also intensely gripping. We can’t wait to bring readers to the wartime Rome Joe so brilliantly conjures and introduce them to the Escape Line.’

Michael Reynolds, Europa, said: ‘Joe’s ability to render character and atmosphere, to create a fully realized world in his novels is unparalleled. He writes each member of his cast of characters with remarkable vividness and conveys just what is at stake in their actions—not only the lives of the people they help but the future political and moral bearings of a world riven by war. MY FATHER’S HOUSE is epic in scope, gripping, beautifully written, and it is an important book because of the questions it raises about how one ought to act. The publication of MY FATHER’S HOUSE will be a big event at Europa, and the excitement in-house is already palpable.’

Isobel Dixon said: ‘MY FATHER’S HOUSE is an extraordinary true story, conjured into an unforgettable novel, one that delivers nail-biting tension along with scenes of great beauty and heartbreaking tenderness. There is such excitement around this very special book, and I know that excitement will spread from Joe’s publishers to many more readers – and we are all thrilled that there is more to come from Joe’s magnificent characters as well.’

 About Joseph O’Connor

Joseph O'Connor was born in Dublin. His most recent novel, SHADOWPLAY, won Eason Novel of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards 2019 and in 2020 was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award, Novel of the Year at the Dalkey Literary Awards, the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award, the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and the Jean Monnet Prize. In 2022, he was awarded the AWB Vincent American Ireland Fund Award for his contribution to Irish literature.

Joseph is the author of eight other novels: COWBOYS AND INDIANS (Whitbread Prize shortlist), DESPERADOES, THE SALESMAN, INISHOWEN, STAR OF THE SEA (American Library Association Award, Irish Post Award for Fiction, France's Prix Millepages, Italy's Premio Acerbi, Prix Madeleine Zepter for European novel of the year), REDEMPTION FALLS, GHOST LIGHT (Dublin One City One Book Novel 2011) and THE THRILL OF IT ALL. His fiction has been translated into forty languages. He received the 2012 Irish PEN Award for outstanding achievement in literature and in 2014 he was appointed Frank McCourt Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick.

Praise for Joseph O’Connor and SHADOWPLAY

‘A masterful storyteller.’ — Neel Mukherjee, The Times

‘Joseph O’Connor’s magnificent novel does even more than fly, it soars.’ — Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

‘A great writer performing Olympian literary storytelling.’ — Sir Bob Geldof

‘Breathtaking … SHADOWPLAY is a book undaunted. … As much as this is a hugely entertaining book about the grand scope of friendship and love, it is also, movingly – at times, agonisingly – a story of transience, loss and true loyalty.’ Sadie Jones, The Guardian

‘A vibrantly imaginative narrative of passion, intrigue and literary ambition’ — Miranda Seymour, New York Times

'Like Joyce, O'Connor combines his panoramic range with a close eye to the grain and texture of the phrase... An astonishingly accomplished writer.'  — Terry Eagleton, The Guardian

‘Ireland’s greatest storyteller.’ — The Sunday Independent

‘Subtly drawn and intensely affecting… Mr. O’Connor’s main characters—Stoker, Irving and the beloved actress Ellen Terry—are so forcefully brought to life that when, close to tears, you reach this drama’s final page, you will return to the beginning just to remain in their company.’ — Anna Mundow, Wall Street Journal

‘One of the best writers working today.’ – Alice Walker

New edition of THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH by Monique Roffey published as part of Vintage Earth series

We’re delighted that a new limited edition of Monique Roffey’s Costa-winning THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH has been published as part of Vintage Books’ new Vintage Earth series. Its striking new cover was designed by Rosie Palmer, with an illustration by Jesús Sotés.

Vintage Earth, released under the Vintage Classics imprint, is a series of novels exploring our relationship with the natural world, featuring stories old and new, ranging different genres, by authors from around the world. Other titles in the series are THE MAN WHO PLANTED TREES by Jean Giono, THE WALL by Marlen Haushofer, THE TUSK THAT DID THE DAMAGE by Tania James, SOLAR by Ian McEwan, THE MAN WITH THE COMPOUND EYES by Wu Ming-Yi, THE OVERSTORY by Richard Powers and THE LAST QUARTER OF THE MOON by Chi Zijian.

Vintage Classics describes the Vintage Earth list as ‘a series of books that reveals our ever-changing relationship with the environment. These are stories old and young, set in worlds real or imagined, that allow us to explore our connection to the natural world. Transformative, wild, surprising and essential, these novels take on the most urgent story of our times.’

Charlotte Knight, Vintage Classics Senior Editor, said ‘I am excited to see the range of books in this series brought together by the most important issue of our day. Old and new, from around the world and across genre, each of these novels has something powerful to say about the natural world. My hope is that every reader finds a story here that speaks to them.’

Natasha Collie, Brand Director, Vintage, said: ‘Great storytelling can be a uniquely powerful tool in changing the ways that we think and live. Each of the novels in this beautifully designed collection encourages us to reflect on our interactions with nature, through the medium of gripping fiction.’

THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH was published to wide acclaim in the UK by Peepal Tree Press in 2020 and by Vintage Books in 2021. It won the Costa Novel Award 2020 and the overall Costa Book of the Year Prize 2020. It was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2020, the Folio Prize and the Republic of Consciousness Prize 2021 and longlisted for the Orwell Prize and the Ondaatje Prize. Rights have been sold in the US, Estonia, France, Germany, Holland, Croatia, Serbia, Italy, Hungary, Japan, Poland, Turkey and Russia, and film rights are under option. It will be published by Knopf in the US and Canada on 12 July, and has already received much praise in North America too.

THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH by Monique Roffey

His stomach trembled with desire and fear and wonder because he knew what he'd seen. A woman. Right there, in the water

 On a quiet day, near the Caribbean island of Black Conch, a mermaid raises her barnacled head from the flat grey sea. She is attracted by David, a fisherman waiting for a catch, singing to himself with his guitar. Aycayia the mermaid has been living in the vast ocean all alone for centuries.

 When Aycayia is caught and dragged ashore by American tourists, David rescues her with the aim of putting her back in the ocean. But it is soon clear that the mermaid is already transforming into a woman.

 This is the story of their love affair, of a complex island community and of the great wide sea.

 *

‘Not your standard mermaid. No comb and glass, no Lorelei hair. No catch and release…’ – Margaret Atwood

 ‘A daring, mesmerising novel that continually unseats expectation.’ – Maggie O’Farrell

 ‘A novel packed with layers of meaning around womanhood, alienation, masculinity, toxic attitudes towards women, and inter-female rivalry, as well as love, compassion and the search for home.’ – Bernardine Evaristo

‘A reading experience as captivating as a tropical storm. Full-throated and mesmerizing’ – C. Pam Zhang

‘Quite unlike anything I’d ever read.’ – Clare Chambers

Photo: Marcus Bastel

About Monique Roffey

Monique Roffey is an award-winning novelist who divides her time between Trinidad and London. HOUSE OF ASHES (Scribner UK) was shortlisted for the Costa and the BOCAS Prize. ARCHIPELAGO, winner of the OCM BOCAS prize for Caribbean Literature, was published by Scribner in the UK, Viking in the US, and translated into five languages. Her second novel THE WHITE WOMAN ON THE GREEN BICYCLE was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the Encore Prize, among other accolades, and film/TV rights have been optioned. THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH won the Costa Prize as well as receiving many other prize nominations.

Visit Monique’s website and follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Stuart Urban’s ‘spellbinding and uniquely watchable’ THE SECRET hits the Netflix Top 10

THE SECRET – the BAFTA-nominated crime drama from writer/director Stuart Urban – has entered the weekly Netflix Top 10 for most-watched series in the UK.

Starring James Nesbitt (whose performance was nominated for Best Actor at the 2017 Royal Television Society awards) and Genevieve O’Reilly, THE SECRET is a chilling four-part series based on the events that occurred between 1991 and 2011, and the extreme actions taken by dentist Colin Howell and Sunday school teacher Hazel Buchanan to enable their illicit affair.

Originally broadcast on ITV in 2016 to critical acclaim, viewers on Netflix are re-discovering Stuart’s gripping series, and the dark true story behind it. The series won Best Drama at the 2016 Royal Television Society’s Northern Ireland awards, as well as garnering nominations for Best Miniseries at the BAFTAs and Best Drama Series at the Broadcast Awards in 2017.

About Stuart Urban

Stuart is an award-winning writer, director and executive producer who has worked across both film and TV for more than thirty years.

After honing his craft working on long-running series ‘The Bill’ and ‘Bergerac’, Stuart won the BAFTA Award for Best Single Drama in 1993 for his Falklands War drama AN UNGENTLEMANLY ACT. He would follow this up in 1996 with a second BAFTA Award for Best Drama Serial, for his directorial work on the BBC’s seminal series OUR FRIENDS IN THE NORTH.

His theatrical writer/director credits include PREACHING TO THE PERVERTED, REVELATION and MAY I KILL U? He is also a celebrated documentary maker, with the BIFA-nominated TOVARISCH, I AM NOT DEAD – telling the story of his own father’s escape from both the Russian Gulags and his family’s fate in the Holocaust – and the recent Sky crime documentary THE MYSTERY OF SUZY LAMPLUGH.

Praise for THE SECRET:

‘The real achievement of Stuart Urban’s superb script was in capturing the weird balance of religious devotion and sexual obsession that seemed to normalize the relationship in Howell and Buchanan’s minds… THE SECRET was masterly, an excellent reason to stay in on Friday nights to come’ – Gerard O’Donovan, The Daily Telegraph

‘Startling…. resembles a darkly comic Ulster version of ‘The Affair’, should give…ITV a hit for viewers who find ‘The Durrells’ too twee. Compelling …confirms (N Ireland) as a powerhouse of TV drama.’ – Mark Lawson, The Guardian

‘I can’t remember a better portrayal of suburban charm hiding suburban evil…it’s hard to create suspense when you already know the ending. But in this case...it was still a nailbiter.’ – Matt Rudd, The Sunday Times

‘A kind of Shakespearean drama of passion and repentance, really powerful and deep.’ – Rev. Richard Coles, Saturday Live on BBC Radio 4

‘A terrific dramatization…I have watched ahead and it only gets better…truly chilling…there being nothing quite so terrifying as a man convinced of his own righteousness.’ – Euan Ferguson, The Observer

‘Told with passion and power…the sort of tale we’ve seen many times before, yet what made THE SECRET so interesting was the way Stuart Urban’s smart script dealt with it… Urban sensitively depicted a close-knit community where religion was central.’ – Sarah Hughes, The i

‘Does a smooth job of making grueling events believable….that’s one of the best things in Stuart Urban’s script – a sense of how important religion, being part of “a flock” is….a calm morality tale.’ – Radio Times, Pick of the Day.

The Secret is astounding. Urban, Murphy, Nesbitt, O'Reilly are just absurdly good.

— Hugh Laurie (@hughlaurie) May 22, 2016

OXBLOOD by Tom Benn and CASE STUDY by Graeme Macrae Burnet longlisted for Gordon Burn Prize

We are delighted that OXBLOOD by Tom Benn and CASE STUDY by Graeme Macrae Burnet have been longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize, selected by judges Jonathan Liew, Denise Mina, Stuart Maconie, Heather Phillipson and Chitra Ramaswamy.

Also longlisted are Free by Lea Ypi, Companion Piece by Ali Smith, Your Show by Ashley Hickson-Lovence, Scary Monsters by Michelle de Kretser, About A Son by David Whitehouse, Aftermath by Preti Taneja, Constructing a Nervous System by Margo Jefferson, Keeping the House by Tice Cin, The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers and Wayward by Vashti Bunyan.

Founded in 2012, the Gordon Burn Prize covers both fiction and non-fiction, and seeks to award works that push boundaries, cross genres or otherwise challenge readers’ expectations. It remembers the Newcastle-born writer Gordon Burn, a journalist and author of 10 books including Alma Cogan and Somebody’s Husband, Somebody’s Son. Past winners include A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib, This Is Not Propaganda by Peter Pomerantsey, For The Good Times by David Keenan, The Long Drop by Denise Mina and In Plain Sight: The Life and Lies of Jimmy Savile by Dan Davies.

The 2022 shortlist will be announced in August. The winner will be announced at Durham Book Festival on Thursday 13 October 2022. The winner will receive a £5,000 award and a three-month retreat at Gordon Burn’s cottage in the Scottish borders.

OXBLOOD by Tom Benn

‘One of the most powerful and urgent writers of our times.’ — David Peace      

‘Powerful and so beautifully written – like David Peace wrote Alan Warner’s The Sopranos and so lyrical, too.’ – Harriet Tyce     

‘Reading OXBLOOD is a compelling and deeply unsettling experience; this is a novel that glitters with the dark energy and lifeblood of its characters’ – Naomi Booth

*

Wythenshawe, South Manchester. 1985.

The Dodds family once ruled Manchester’s underworld; now the men are dead, leaving three generations of women trapped in a house haunted by violence, harbouring an unregistered baby.

Matriarch Nedra presides over the household, which bustles with activity as she prepares the welcome feast for her grandson Kelly’s return from prison.

Her grieving daughter-in-law Carol is visited by both the welcome intimate ghost of her murdered lover, and by Mac, an ageing criminal enforcer, a man who may just offer her a real and possible future.

And then there is Jan—the teenage tearaway running as fast as she can from her mother, her grandmother and her own unnamed baby.

Over the course of a few days, the Dodds women must each confront the true legacy of the men who have defined their lives, and seize the opportunity to break the cycle for good.

A blistering portrait of a family on fire, Oxblood lays bare the horror of violence, the exile of grief and the extraordinary power of love.

About Tom Benn

Tom Benn is an author, screenwriter and lecturer from Stockport, England. His first novel, THE DOLL PRINCESS (Cape), was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Portico Prize, longlisted for the CWA’s John Creasey Dagger, and a The Daily Mirror Book of the Week. His other novels are CHAMBER MUSIC (Cape) and TROUBLE MAN (Cape). He won runner-up prize in the 2019 International Desperate Literature Prize for Short Fiction, and his creative nonfiction has appeared in The Paris Review Daily. He won the BFI’s iWrite scheme for emerging screenwriters. His first film, ‘Real Gods Require Blood’, premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Short Film at the BFI London Film Festival.

Follow Tom Benn on Twitter

CASE STUDY by Graeme Macrae Burnet

‘A novel of mind-bending brilliance.’ – Hannah Kent

‘A thrilling investigation into sanity and identity.’ – Alice O’Keeffe, The Bookseller

‘Fun and funny, sly and serious, a beguiling literary game that manages to say more about the nature of the self than any number of more self-consciously solemn works.’ – David Szalay

*

I have decided to write down everything that happens, because I feel, I suppose, I may be putting myself in danger.

London, 1965. An unworldly young woman suspects charismatic psychotherapist Collins Braithwaite of involvement in a death in her family. Determined to find out more, she becomes a client of his under a false identity. But she soon finds herself drawn into a world in which she can no longer be certain of anything.

In CASE STUDY, Graeme Macrae Burnet presents both sides: the woman’s notes and the life of Collins Braithwaite. The result is a dazzling, page-turning and wickedly humorous meditation on the nature of sanity, identity and truth itself, by one of the most inventive novelists writing today.

About Graeme Macrae Burnet

Graeme Macrae Burnet was brought up Kilmarnock, Ayrshire and now lives in Glasgow. He has also lived in the Czech Republic, France, Portugal and London. He has appeared at festivals and events in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Russia, Estonia, Macau, Ireland, Germany and France, as well as in the UK.

His first novel, THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ADÈLE BEDEAU (Contraband, 2014), received a New Writer’s Award from the Scottish Book Trust and was longlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award. A second Inspector Gorski novel, THE ACCIDENT ON THE A35, was published in 2017.

HIS BLOODY PROJECT (Contraband, 2015) won the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year Award, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the LA Times Book Awards. It has been published to great acclaim around the world and film rights have been optioned by Synchronicity.

Follow Graeme on Twitter