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Canongate editorial director Francis Bickmore has acquired a début novel from Luke Brown, senior editor at UK independent publisher Tindal St Press. Bickmore bought world rights to My Biggest Lie from Peter Straus at Rogers, Coleridge & White.
A comic novel about “father figures, second chances and knowing when it’s time to quit pretending”, My Biggest Lie follows a youngish London publisher who, after one calamitous night, loses his job, his girlfriend and nearly his life. He then heads to Buenos Aires hoping to regain control, but finds that difficult in one of the world’s most sensual cities.
Bickmore said: “This marks the arrival of a funny, humane and utterly winning new voice. The book is basically an extended love letter and is deeply affecting about affairs of the heart. It also deftly satirises the excesses of youth, the fickleness of publishing, and human beings’ inbuilt tendency to self-sabotage.”
Brown said he is looking forward to working with Bickmore: “I think it will be fascinating, because all editors work differently. Hopefully, because I know how the process works from the other side, I’ll be an ideal author.”
Canongate will publish in spring 2014.