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Independent publisher And Other Stories will publish Rachel Genn's second novel, What You Could Have Won.
Publisher Stefan Tobler and senior editor Tara Tobler acquired world English rights direct from the author. The title will be published simultaneously in the UK and US in November 2020.
Set between New York, Paris and Greece, What You Could Have Won is a dissection of a mutually toxic relationship between singer Astrid and drug-pushing psychiatrist Henry.
Tobler and Tobler commented: "We were excited to read a novel of such ambition, reach, energy. The language sizzles, the landscapes are vivid, and the characters scorch your retinas like a bad night at Burning Man. As a study of co-dependence and control its dynamics are savagely realised; as a piece of writing it is wildly inventive. Genn's is a prodigious talent, and her novel will both entertain and set you on fire."
Genn added: "I quipped to Tara early on that I wrote What You Could Have Won because I didn't want Amy Winehouse to be dead. This book is a warning, do not mistake your surplus talent for love. It's about genius and jealousy, bullying and revenge. It's also about surrender. I guess I also wrote it to discover what kind of woman I was turning out to be. In timely fashion, it's also about the dangers of taking and using what is not yours; colonialism can be personal."
Genn published her first book, The Cure, with Constable in 2011.