The Bookseller.com

4th July 2009

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Granta buys New Zealand début

02.12.08

Granta has bought the rights for two novels by 23-year old début author, Eleanor Catton for a "very good five0figure sum", and has sold rights in America for a six-figure sum. Sarah Holloway at Granta bought world English rights, excluding New Zealand, from Caroline Dawnay at United Agents. US rights went to Reagan Arthur at Little, Brown.

Catton's début novel The Rehearsal was published in her native country of New Zealand this year by Victoria University Press. The novel describes the aftermath of a sex scandal in a sixth form and a drama college, where the scandal is used as a plot for a performance. Granta will be publishing the title in July 2009 in hardback.

Philip Gwyn Jones, publisher at Granta, said that Catton was a "very exciting new talent—this young woman is one of the most gifted young novelists". Catton is writing her second novel and is studying at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, to which she won a scholarship.

Book Rights Granta