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The Borough Press has pre-empted The Measure by Nikki Erlick, a "riveting" novel set in a world where people can find out how much time they have left to live.
Senior commissioning editor Carla Josephson acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada. The deal was done in conjunction with Liz Stein, executive editor at William Morrow, who pre-empted world English language rights from Cindy Uh at CAA. The book will be published in spring 2022.
It has already been pre-empted in Italy, France, Germany, Denmark and Greece, and sold at auction in Sweden. A TV adaptation is also in development.
Josephson said: “From the very first page, I was riveted by the world Nikki has envisaged. Faced with the question, ‘would you want to know how long left you had to live?’, her characters must adjust to a world which suddenly measures the value of a life in a horribly reductive way. This is a novel about love, heartbreak, hope and fate, and I can’t wait to press it into the hands of everyone I know."
Erlick added: “During this past year of tremendous pain and upheaval, I found myself reflecting on the ways in which we measure our own lives and success and happiness, the way we measure the value of others, and the way we measure a society as a whole. All of these thoughts poured into this story of a world that so closely resembles ours—but with one powerful, poignant twist. As someone who has always turned to literature for comfort and guidance, I am in awe of so many authors whose works have inspired such deep empathy within me, and my greatest wish is that this story might accomplish the same.”