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Hodder & Stoughton has acquired Canadian novel The Best Kind of People by Zoe Whittall, a book that made the 2016 shortlist for Canada's biggest fiction prize, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and explores consent and rape culture.
Editor Francine Toon acquired British Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada but with exclusive Europe) from Gillian Fizet at House of Anansi Press. US rights have been acquired by Ballantine, Random House.
The Best Kind of People centres on "an all-American family on the brink of collapse". It comprises George Woodbury, an affable teacher and beloved husband and father who is arrested for allegations of sexual misconduct at a prestigious school; his wife, Joan, who vaults between denial and rage as the community she loved turns on her; their daughter, Sadie, a popular over-achieving high school senior, becomes a social pariah; and their son, Andrew, who assists in his father’s defence, while wrestling with his own unhappy memories of his teen years.
Toon said: "I am thrilled to be publishing a novel that so expertly and eloquently explores the topics of consent and rape. Zoe has an impressive understanding of key issues that affect women and teenage girls, and her depiction of a seemingly perfect family and its subsequent unravelling is utterly gripping."
Hodder & Stoughton will publish in summer 2017.