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Head of Zeus will publish Georgie Hall's "funny and frank" debut novel, Woman of a Certain Rage.
Commissioning editor Rosie de Courcy acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Sheila Crowley of Curtis Brown. Woman of a Certain Rage will be published in hardback, export trade paperback, e-book and audio in July 2021.
The acquisition follows the German language deal with Ullstein, where Marion Wichmann publishing director, fiction, pre-empted translation rights from Curtis Brown's co-agent Anoukh Foerg.
Woman of a Certain Rage is a novel which focuses on menopause. Fifty-year-old Eliza, who won't be told it's too late to shake things up, is a heroine many will recognise. says the publisher: she may find herself sweating a lot and lying awake at five a.m., but she still has something to prove. The novel will be about love, life and a second shot at freedom for rebellious women of a certain age.
De Courcy said: “Georgie undoubtedly has trademarks as a writer; sexiness and humour. Here she turns those gifts to an altogether more serious purpose—dramatising what it is like as a 50-something woman to hit the menopause. Without losing her humour or the knack of poking fun at herself and her characters, she unerringly puts a wise and empathetic finger on what it is like to experience sudden, inexplicable weight gain, loss of interest in sex (especially in one’s husband), feelings of violent irritability and those bywords for the menopause, the hot flush—a phrase that hardly begins to describe the pouring sweats and wild overheating of one’s entire body, usually without any warning at all. All the while feeling completely invisible as a woman."
Hall commented: "It’s wonderful to have a publisher like Head of Zeus, where clever thinking is always focussed forwards. Being part of such a dynamic, independent team is heaven for an author. And I couldn’t wish for a better UK editor to work with on this project than Rosie de Courcy, whose experience—both professionally as one of the all-time greats in commercial women’s fiction, and personally as an indefatigable and rebellious woman of a certain age—made for the perfect match. Rosie gets Eliza totally, shares her sense of humour, and has added enormously to bringing her to life."
Georgie Hall is the pen name for a best-selling author of over three decades, says Head of Zeus.