• RELATED STORIES

• New thriller to Corvus

  Atlantic imprint Corvus has...

• Ebury signs Piers Morgan

  Ebury Press has acquired a ...

• Aurum signs history of British beer

  Aurum Press has bought a na...

• Orion signs more from Webb

  Orion has signed three new ...

• Six-figure Barrowman series for HoZ

  Head of Zeus has paid a six...

Spoof kids' book to Canongate

13.05.11 | Graeme Neill

Canongate has bought a foul-mouthed gift book for exhausted parents, which has been the subject of intense hype in the United States.

M.d. Jamie Byng and senior editor Francis Bickmore bought UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, for the book, Go the F**k to Sleep by Adam Mansbach. Rights were bought from Richard Abate who is handling on behalf of Akashic Books in Brooklyn, New York.

The 32-page book is illustrated in a children's book style by New York Times contributor Ricardo Cortés.

Canongate said: "Profane, affectionate and refreshingly honest, this book perfectly captures the familiar and unspoken tribulations of putting your child down for the night. In the process, it opens up a conversation about parenting, charming and enraging as it can be, and chimes a note of solidarity with tired parents everywhere."

Canongate has already licensed the book to Text in Australia, further rights have been sold in Germany and Brazil and the publisher is expecting additional deals to be signed "imminently". Canongate will publish as a £9.99 hardback on 14th June, simultaneously with the US and in time for Father's Day.

Bickmore, a father of two, said: "For me and many parents the Gina Ford sleep routine never quite worked. Bedtimes are precious but occasionally precarious times and I wish someone had given me this hilarious book sooner. It's an essential gift for any parent you know who lives in the real world."

The book is subject to intense hype in the United States, attracting fans such as Motherless Brooklyn author Jonathan Lethem and former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne and featuring on the "Today Show" and in the New York Times.

• Adam Mansbach
• Canongate
• Graeme Neill
• Rights deal