Daunt Books scoops Scanlan's 'stunning' novel

Daunt Books Publishing has acquired Kick the Latch, a "truly thrilling" novel by Kathryn Scanlan for the Daunt Originals list.

Publisher Marigold Atkey acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Harriet Moore at David Higham Associates. Kick the Latch will be published as a lead title in January 2023. New Directions Publishing in the US will publish in autumn 2022.

The novel tells the life story of a former racehorse trainer from Iowa. "Based on transcribed interviews with a former racehorse trainer, Kick the Latch is a stunning work of fiction that investigates form, authenticity and idiosyncratic speech," the synopsis explains. "This is a patient and attentive exercise in radical listening, whittled, shaped and reimagined to tell the story of one woman’s life at the racetrack in 100 tough, side-of-the-mouth nuggets."

"This is a remarkable achievement, a truly thrilling piece of writing," Atkey said. "Reading it, I felt something close to exhilaration: with such clean, hard prose, such economy, an integrity and freedom is created. I wasn’t being told how to feel, I wasn’t being asked for sympathy. And yet there is such deep humanity here. It’s a powerful, unforgettable portrait of a woman, and – as Lydia Davis commented about Kathryn’s debut novel – a reminder of “the beauty that can be discovered in the ordinary and in ordinary speech”. Kathryn is one of the most original, talented writers working today and we feel extremely lucky to be publishing her."

Scanlan’s short-story collection The Dominant Animal was published by Daunt Books and FSG in 2020, while her debut novel, Aug 9—Fog, was published by FSG in 2019. Her work has appeared in Granta and the Paris Review, among other places. She lives in Los Angeles.

"I love the work published by Daunt — books by Natalia Ginzburg, Barbara Comyns, Jamaica Kincaid, Amina Cain, M F K Fisher and so many others," she said. "I’m happy and grateful to be working with them again and excited to publish Kick the Latch in the UK."