You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Fourth Estate has picked up the "fast-paced and suspenseful" second novel, Lucky, by Rachel Edwards.
The publisher acquired world English rights including film and TV from Joanna Swainson at Hardman & Swainson. The title will be published in May 2021.
Lucky follows Etta, who is in her mid-thirties and keen to nudge her loving but commitment-phobic partner Ola towards marriage and children. Ola is worried about money and reluctant to get engaged before they have enough saved for a house deposit, so Etta quietly begins to make money on an online gambling site — until she starts losing. Soon she has secretly lost all of their savings, but meets a friend on the site who can offer her a loan. Etta doesn't realise what could go wrong with her plan.
Editorial director Anna Kelly said: "Lucky explores issues of race, money, immigration, power and privilege through a fast-paced, suspenseful story that will keep readers as hooked as Darling did. Rachel is a master of the killer plot twist and creates characters who are as compelling and intriguing as they are messy, flawed and human."
Edwards added: "Lucky is a book that is incredibly important to me, dealing with societal factors that can turn lives upside down: from the increasingly popular online gambling to migration and the movement of people. It is a book that examines the risks we all take to survive. I am delighted that my hugely supportive publisher, 4th Estate, is bringing Lucky out into the world in May 2021 and am thrilled to be able to share my second novel with readers."
Edwards' debut, Darling, was published by Fourth Estate in 2018.