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Silvertail is to publish Undone, a novel from New Yorker staff writer John Colapinto, which was rejected by 41 US publishers for its controversial content.
Humfrey Hunter, publisher at Silvertail, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Felicity Blunt at Curtis Brown on behalf of ICM New York.
The book follows Jasper Ulrickson, a crime novelist, and a "good and decent" man who is devoted husband to his paralysed wife and loving father to their four-year-old child. When Jasper learns of the existence of the daughter he fathered 18 years earlier, a beautiful young woman named Chloe, whose mother recently passed away, he welcomes her into his family and their home.
Celibacy, sexual denial and marital fidelity are the traits for which Jasper has been celebrated by fans the world over. But he now learns—to his horror—that these traits have never been truly tested.
The book struggled to find a US publisher when it was put out for submission in 2013 due to its content which includes "faux-incest", sexual assault and "borderline" paedophilia, according to US press reports. It was eventually published by Soft Skull Press, an imprint of Counterpoint, in 2015.
Silvertail will publish Undone on 4th May in e-book and trade paperback.
Hunter said: “I loved John Colapinto’s first novel, About the Author (Fourth Estate), and I am thrilled to be publishing his second. Undone is many things – provocative, discomfiting, brave, controversial, highly entertaining – but most of all it is an outstanding work of fiction which raises questions about the dark sides of men and fame in a way I’ve never seen before. I can’t wait for people to read it. I am expecting strong reactions.’
Colapinto is a staff writer at the New Yorker, and is the author of the New York Times bestselling nonfiction book As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who was Raised as a Girl (Harper Perennial) and the novel About the Author (Fourth Estate).