JOSEPH O’CONNOR’S SHADOWPLAY SHORTLISTED FOR KERRY GROUP IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR AWARD 2020

Joseph O’Connor adds yet more award recognition to his growing collection of accolades, with the news today that his novel SHADOWPLAY is shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award 2020. The winner of the award will be announced by Listowel Writers’ Week on Wednesday 27th May 2020.

Harvill Secker published SHADOWPLAY to rapturous reviews in the UK and Canada in June 2019, with the paperback to be published in October 2020. It was described as a ‘literary highlight of 2019’ by The Sunday Times. Europa will publish in June 2020 in the US, where the novel has received starred previews in Publishers Weekly and Library Journal, which described it as ‘an authentic and deeply moving literary experience’. In the UK, W.F. Howes published the audio edition, read by Barry McGovern and Anna Chancellor, and Dreamscape will publish the US audio edition. Rights have been sold in eight translation markets so far: China (Shanghai Elegant People), Croatia (Fraktura), France (Editions Rivages), Hungary (Helikon), Italy (Guanda), Serbia (Carobna Knjiga), Sweden (Natur Och Kultur) and Turkey (Sia Kitap). A film deal is under negotiation.

1878: The Lyceum Theatre, London. Three extraordinary people begin their life together, a life that will be full of drama, transformation, passionate and painful devotion to art and to one another. Henry Irving, the Chief, is the volcanic leading man and impresario; Ellen Terry is the most lauded and desired actress of her generation, outspoken and generous of heart; and ever following along behind them in the shadows is the unremarkable theatre manager, Bram Stoker.

Fresh from life in Dublin as a clerk, Bram may seem the least colourful of the trio, but he is wrestling with dark demons in a new city, in a new marriage, and with his own literary aspirations. As he walks the London streets at night, streets haunted by the Ripper and the gossip which swirls around his friend Oscar Wilde, he finds new inspiration. But the Chief is determined that nothing will get in the way of his manager’s devotion to the Lyceum and to himself. And both men are enchanted by the beauty and boldness of the elusive Ellen.

SHADOWPLAY explores the complexities of love that stands dangerously outside social convention, the restlessness of creativity, and the experiences that led to Dracula, the most iconic supernatural tale of all time.

Praise for Joseph O’Connor and SHADOWPLAY:

‘There are few living writers who can take us back in time so assuredly, with such sensual density, through such gorgeous sentences. Joseph O’Connor is a wonder, and SHADOWPLAY is a triumph.’ – Peter Carey

‘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

‘Joseph O’Connor is a very great artist and storyteller. The quotient of enjoyment in his extraordinary new novel is stupendous.’ – Sebastian Barry

‘Wonderful. The writing is beautiful.’ – Derek Jacobi

‘A hugely entertaining and atmospheric novel, one can almost smell the greasepaint.’ – Deborah Moggach

‘Seriously fascinating’ – Colm Tóibín, The Observer

‘A virtuoso act of literary ventriloquism. SHADOWPLAY is funny, smart, tender, wise and written with inch-perfect precision.’ – Colum McCann

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

About the Author

Joseph O’Connor was born in Dublin. His books include nine 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), THE THRILL OF IT ALL and SHADOWPLAY. His work has been published in 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.

Visit Joseph O’Connor’s website.

DOUBLE CRIME AWARD LONGLISTING FOR BLAKE FRIEDMANN AUTHORS WILL CARVER AND WILL DEAN

We are thrilled to announce that two Blake Friedmann authors have been longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2020: NOTHING IMPORTANT HAPPENED TODAY by Will Carver (Orenda Books, 2019) and RED SNOW by Will Dean (Point Blank, 2019). The award celebrates the best in crime fiction from UK and Irish crime authors.

You can cast your vote here.

About NOTHING IMPORTANT HAPPENED TODAY
Nine people arrive one night on Chelsea Bridge. They’ve never met. But at the same time, they run, and leap to their deaths. Each of them received a letter in the post that morning, a pre-written suicide note, and a page containing only four words: Nothing important happened today.

That is how they knew they had been chosen to become a part of the People Of Choice: A mysterious suicide cult whose members have no knowledge of one another.

Thirty-two people on that train witness the event. Two of them will be next. By the morning, People Of Choice are appearing around the globe; it becomes a movement. A social media page that has lain dormant for four years suddenly has thousands of followers. The police are under pressure to find a link between the cult members, to locate a leader that does not seem to exist.

How do you stop a cult when nobody knows they are a member?

'Heavy gusts of bedsit nihilism usher in this strange mystery... Weirdly page-turning.' — The Times, November Pick

'Unlike anything else you'll read this year.' Heat, 4 Starred Review

'Readers will be shocked and gripped by its sheer originality and ingenious plot... Carver has penned a pitch-black thriller. Cements him as one of the most exciting authors in Britain. ' — The Express, Starred Review

Will Carver lives in Reading, though his younger years were spent in various parts of West Germany. He is the author of five other thrillers, published by Penguin Random House and Orenda Books, and his new novel is out this summer. Will likes to work his body as much as his mind and runs his own fitness and nutrition company, though he prefers to talk about his writing more than how he consumes adequate protein as a vegan.

Follow Will Carver on Twitter

About RED SNOW
RED SNOW is the eagerly awaited follow-up to DARK PINES, selected for ITV's Zoe Ball Book Club and Winner of the Best Independent Voice Award at the Amazon Publishing Readers’ Awards 2019.

TWO BODIES. One suicide. One cold-blooded murder. Are they connected? And who’s really pulling the strings in the small Swedish town of Gavrik?

TWO COINS. Black Grimberg liquorice coins cover the murdered man's eyes. The hashtag #Ferryman starts to trend as local people stock up on ammunition.

TWO WEEKS. Tuva Moodyson, deaf reporter at the local paper, has a fortnight to investigate the deaths before she starts her new job in the south. A blizzard moves in. Residents, already terrified, feel increasingly cut-off. Tuva must go deep inside the Grimberg factory to stop the killer before she leaves town for good. But who’s to say the Ferryman will let her go?

'A complex plot, suffused with the nightmarish quality of Twin Peaks, and a tough-minded, resourceful protagonist add up to a stand-out read.' — The Guardian

‘Dean masterfully ramps up the tension and claustrophobia throughout the story’s sinister series of events before delivering an unexpected and satisfying finale. Tuva is a wonderful creation and Dean’s series is not to be missed.’ — Daily Express

‘It's great. You get snow, ice, Swedishness, murder and liquorice!’ – Marian Keyes

Will Dean grew up in the East Midlands, living in nine different villages before the age of eighteen. After studying law at the LSE, and working many varied jobs in London, he settled in rural Sweden with his wife. He built a wooden house in a boggy forest clearing and it's from this base that he compulsively reads and writes. The fourth book in the Tuva Moodyson series will be published in 2021 alongside his first standalone thriller.

Follow Will Dean on Twitter.

Avon Books acquires three more books by Sue Moorcroft

Avon Books, a division of HarperCollins, has re-signed author Sue Moorcroft in a new three-book deal.

Publishing director Helen Huthwaite acquired world English language rights from Juliet Pickering at Blake Friedmann Agency.

Moorcroft is a Sunday Times bestselling author of contemporary fiction and reached the number one spot on Amazon Kindle UK with THE CHRISTMAS PROMISE. She also wrote A SUMMER TO REMEMBER, which won the Goldsboro Books Contemporary Romantic Novel Award 2020.

Phoebe Morgan, editorial director at Avon, said: “Sue has gone from strength to strength at Avon, becoming a Kindle #1 bestseller, a Sunday Times bestseller and a much-loved author with a rapidly growing readership. We couldn’t be prouder and I can’t wait to see what she does next!”

Moorcroft said: “I'm delighted to have signed this, my fourth contract with the fabulous Avon team, and can't wait to bring readers three new books.”

Sue’s first book under this new deal, A CHRISTMAS WISH, will be published in October. Her latest summer novel, SUMMER ON A SUNNY ISLAND, has just been published.

ANNE DE COURCY’S NEW NANCY CUNARD BIOGRAPHY TO W&N and ST MARTIN’S PRESS

Isobel Dixon of Blake Friedmann has clinched two deals for acclaimed biographer Anne de Courcy’s latest work, FIVE LOVE AFFAIRS AND A FRIENDSHIP: Scenes from the Turbulent Life of Nancy Cunard. UK and BC rights excluding Canada have been sold to Alan Samson at Weidenfeld & Nicolson, and Charles Spicer has acquired US and Canadian rights for St Martin’s Press. The deals were finalised on the basis of a proposal and the biography will be published in 2022.

Nancy Cunard was the half-American daughter of Maud Burke of San Francisco, who married Sir Bache Cunard, grandson of the founder of the Cunard shipping line. Nancy was brought up in a world of extreme luxury but also emotional neglect. A high society heiress of great beauty and intelligence, she was also a poet and political activist who founded the Hours Press in France in 1928 and was the first to publish writers like Samuel Beckett and Laura Riding, in beautiful hand-printed editions. Anne de Courcy will look at this complex woman through the lens of five key relationships in her life – her love affairs with writers and artists like Ezra Pound, Aldous Huxley and jazz pianist Henry Crowder, and also the enduring friendship with her mother’s one-time lover George Moore.

Anne de Courcy is a celebrated biographer, with long experience as a journalist and book reviewer. She has won a wide readership through her closely researched and vividly evoked lives of women throughout history, from Margot Asquith, wife of the Prime Minister during WW1 in MARGOT AT WAR, to the Cote d'Azur elite in the 1930s and 1940s in her latest book, CHANEL’S RIVIERA. THE VICEROY’S DAUGHTERS, THE FISHING FLEET and THE HUSBAND HUNTERS are among her bestselling and acclaimed books, among several others.

De Courcy’s writing is consistently described as ‘riveting’, ‘irresistible’, ‘intoxicating’, ‘vivid’ and ‘moving’, while her meticulous eye for detail and skill at research from original sources has also won praise.

Visit Anne de Courcy’s website.

Praise for Anne de Courcy and CHANEL’S RIVIERA:
‘Anne de Courcy combines the perseverance of a social historian with the panache of the novelist’ — The Times

'Dishy and well-researched...this fluidly written history succeeds in capturing the era’s intoxicating mix of glitz and grit.' — Publishers Weekly

'Intoxicating descriptions… meticulous detail' — New York Times

'Tales of glamour, decadence and survival... De Courcy's book is entertaining... a peek, at once envious and satisfyingly censorious, at the lifestyles of the rich and famous.' — Washington Post

‘Cleverly researched, sparkling with diamonds and wickedly funny.’ — Jane Ridley, The Spectator

'Sparkling, anecdote-rich narrative' – The Times

JOSEPH O’CONNOR’S SHADOWPLAY SHORTLISTED FOR WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION AND THE JEAN MONNET PRIZE

Joseph O’Connor’s wonderful novel SHADOWPLAY has been shortlisted for two awards in recent weeks: The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction in the UK and the Jean Monnet Prize in France. The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction rewards writing of exceptional quality set in the past, whilst the Jean Monnet Prize celebrates work translated or written in French in the past year. The Jean Monnet Prize will be announced at the LEC festival on 21 November 2020; the date of the prize ceremony for The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction is still to be confirmed.

Harvill Secker published SHADOWPLAY in the UK and Canada in June 2019, with a paperback to be published in May 2020, and Editions Rivages published in France. It was described as a ‘literary highlight of 2019’ by The Sunday Times and has received rapturous reviews. Le Monde called it ‘mesmerising’ and Le Figaro described it as ‘an ensemble masterpiece with glorious resonances.’ Europa will publish in June 2020 in the US, where the novel has received starred previews in Publishers Weekly and Library Journal, which described it as ‘an authentic and deeply moving literary experience’. In the UK, W.F. Howes published the audio edition, read by Barry McGovern and Anna Chancellor, and Dreamscape will publish the US audio edition. Rights have been sold in eight translation markets so far: China (Shanghai Elegant People), Croatia (Fraktura), France (Editions Rivages), Hungary (Helikon), Italy (Guanda), Serbia (Carobna Knjiga), Sweden (Natur Och Kultur) and Turkey (Sia Kitap). A film deal is under negotiation.

1878: The Lyceum Theatre, London. Three extraordinary people begin their life together, a life that will be full of drama, transformation, passionate and painful devotion to art and to one another. Henry Irving, the Chief, is the volcanic leading man and impresario; Ellen Terry is the most lauded and desired actress of her generation, outspoken and generous of heart; and ever following along behind them in the shadows is the unremarkable theatre manager, Bram Stoker.

Fresh from life in Dublin as a clerk, Bram may seem the least colourful of the trio, but he is wrestling with dark demons in a new city, in a new marriage, and with his own literary aspirations. As he walks the London streets at night, streets haunted by the Ripper and the gossip which swirls around his friend Oscar Wilde, he finds new inspiration. But the Chief is determined that nothing will get in the way of his manager’s devotion to the Lyceum and to himself. And both men are enchanted by the beauty and boldness of the elusive Ellen.

SHADOWPLAY explores the complexities of love that stands dangerously outside social convention, the restlessness of creativity, and the experiences that led to Dracula, the most iconic supernatural tale of all time.

Praise for Joseph O’Connor and SHADOWPLAY:
‘There are few living writers who can take us back in time so assuredly, with such sensual density, through such gorgeous sentences. Joseph O’Connor is a wonder, and SHADOWPLAY is a triumph.’ – Peter Carey

‘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

‘Joseph O’Connor is a very great artist and storyteller. The quotient of enjoyment in his extraordinary new novel is stupendous.’ – Sebastian Barry

‘Wonderful. The writing is beautiful.’ – Derek Jacobi

‘A hugely entertaining and atmospheric novel, one can almost smell the greasepaint.’ – Deborah Moggach

‘Seriously fascinating’ – Colm Tóibín, The Observer

‘A virtuoso act of literary ventriloquism. SHADOWPLAY is funny, smart, tender, wise and written with inch-perfect precision.’ – Colum McCann

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

About the Author
Joseph O’Connor was born in Dublin. His books include nine 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), THE THRILL OF IT ALL and SHADOWPLAY. His work has been published in 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.

Visit Joseph O’Connor’s website