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Piatkus has acquired two books from a debut author for a six-figure sum.
Emma Beswetherick, editorial director of Piatkus Fiction, bought world English language rights to Burnt Paper Sky and one other book by Gilly MacMillan from Nelle Andrew at PFD.
Burnt Paper Sky is a “highly current and compulsive psychological suspense about a missing child, with the story evolving around how the internet and social media can turn in on an innocent but emotionally unhinged mother”.
The book will be Piatkus’ “superlead” title for 2015, which the publisher said “was the deciding factor in the author not proceeding to auction for the book despite receiving other offers”.
Beswetherick said: “The writing itself is flawless, and the sense of anxiety and anticipation around the devastating first days after the son’s disappearance is spot on. I also haven’t read a novel presented in this way before, with its clever use of websites and media, blogs and transcripts, interspersing the view of the public with the personal torment of the family and the wide chasm in between. It’s the kind of book you want to press into the hands of everyone you know, because it is so completely unputdownable.”