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Harvill Secker has acquired rights to a thriller imagining a world where the Berlin Wall had never fallen.
Plan D by Simon Urban will be published in spring 2013 after Alison Hennessey, senior crime editor at Harvill Secker, acquired World English Language rights to the book in a deal with Kathrin Scheel, rights director at Schöffling & Co in Frankfurt.
The book imagines that while modern day West Berlin enjoys all the trappings of capitalism, the Eastern side of the city is facing bankruptcy, with the government’s only hope resting in economic talks with the West, before then an ally of the GDR’s chairman is found murdered.
Hennessey said: “From the moment I first heard about Plan D, I knew I wanted to publish it at Harvill Secker. It’s one of those extraordinary thrillers that has it all—a fantastic premise, a wonderful setting, great writing and brilliant characterisation.”