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Virago will publish Hush by Kate Maxwell, a "compulsive and powerful" debut novel about the dark side of motherhood and the first in a two-book deal.
Publisher Sarah Savitt acquired UK and Commonwealth rights for two books from Anna Power at Johnson & Alcock. The first title will be published in spring 2022.
Hush follows Stevie, who has lived in New York for eight years and has a successful career and social life — but what she really wants is a baby. Stevie thinks her dream is impossible but, determined to become a mother, she decides to return to London and use a sperm donor. When she gives birth to Ash, she finds that motherhood is painfully at odds with her former life and her expectations. She begins to wonder if the thing she most wanted is now the thing she most regrets.
Savitt said: "Kate Maxwell is an exceptional new talent and Hush is going to start many conversations. Looking at the success of books such as Fleishman is in Trouble, Expectation and Such a Fun Age, I believe readers are hungry for novels that explore the complex, even contradictory, truths about women’s lives and motherhood in particular. I was blown away by Maxwell’s precise and beautiful descriptions of Stevie’s emotional life, and I also simply couldn’t put this novel down."
Maxwell commented: "Hush was inspired by the six years I spent living in New York in my thirties and by all the things mothers don’t talk about when they have children – including what they lose by becoming parents."