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William Heinemann has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights excluding Canada in The Sentimentalists by debut novelist Johanna Skibsrud.
Publishing director Jason Arthur bought the rights through Tracy Bohan at the Wylie Agency. The novel connects the flooding of an Ontario town, the Vietnam War, a trailer in North Dakota and an unfinished boat in Maine. Napoleon Haskell is a Vietnam veteran who is nearing the end of his life as his health declines. His daughters move him to live with Henry, the father of a friend who was killed in action in Vietnam, and soon Napoleon's daughter retreats to live there too, as her own life falls apart.
Author Skibsrud, who is also a poet, draws on her own experiences as a war veteran's daughter. The novel has been shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, with the winner to be announced on 9th November.
It will be published in hardback by William Heinemann on 31st March 2011 at £12.99.