The Bookseller.com

6th July 2009

Faber's Page signs new Lorrie Moore

22.10.08 Catherine Neilan

Faber c.e.o and publisher Stephen Page has signed up UK rights to the third novel by US award-winning writer Lorrie Moore in a deal conducted via agent Deborah Rogers.

Due in the UK in autumn 2009, A Gate at the Stairs is Moore's first novel in 14 years.

Page claimed the book, set in contemporary America and tracing a year in the life of 20-year-old Tassie Keltjin, "repay[ed]] the waiting many times over". He said: "It is a masterpiece for our times and only re-enforces her as one of the great writers of our age."

Page added Faber was "looking to introduce a whole new readership to all her work", and as a result would be publishing the book with "enormous ambition". Faber said it would be "a major title", and although a print run has not yet been set, it is expected the book will first be released as a hardback.

Meanwhile Vicky Wilson from Random House-owned Knopf has secured US rights. She described the book as "a stunner" and Moore's "break-through novel". She said: "Under its languid, easy-going surface of a young girl making her way, coming of age, the book goes to the heart of racism, the shock of war and the carelessness perpetrated against others in the name of love."

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