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Harvill Secker has acquired a “bewitching” debut novel in a pre-empt.
Publishing director Liz Foley bought UK, Commonwealth and exclusive Europe rights to Kirsty Logan’s The Gracekeepers from Cathryn Summerhayes at WME in what Harvill Secker described as a “major acquisition”.
Scottish writer Logan is a former bookseller and literary editor of The List magazine. Last year she was named as one of Canongate’s Future 40 in The Skinny magazine.
In The Gracekeepers, North and her bear live on a circus boat, floating between the scattered archipelagoes that are all that remains of the land. To survive, the circus must perform for the few fortunate islanders in return for food and supplies. Meanwhile, in the middle of the ocean, Callanish tends the watery graves along the equator, as penance for a long-ago mistake.
Harvill Secker said: “A storm brings a change in both their lives that they may not have been expecting, but could bring them the peace and happiness they have yearned for.”
Foley said: “I was completely bewitched by The Gracekeepers from the first page. Kirsty has created an astonishingly vivid and enchanting world that it’s very hard to wrench yourself away from when you put the book down.”
Logan’s short story collection The Rental Heart and Other Fairytales (Salt) is out on March 15th. The Gracekeepers, to be published in spring 2015, is her first novel.