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W H Allen has signed two more books in a “Freedom series” from Jack Fairweather, whose The Volunteer (W H Allen) scooped the Costa Book of the Year award in January.
Jamie Joseph, editorial director and head of W H Allen, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Clare Alexander at Aitken Alexander, on behalf of Larry Weissman in New York.
Fairweather's prize-winning book has now been translated into more than 20 languages and sold 79,216 copies in paperback and 7,130 in hardback up to 21st March through Nielsen BookScan.
Building on from The Volunteer, Fairweather's next two books “will form a Freedom series of thrilling narratives of untold individuals who risked their lives to fight totalitarianism and define who we are today”.
The first book in the new deal, The Prosecutor, tells the story of a gay Jewish lawyer determined to track down Nazi war criminals working for the Americans after the war to expose the greatest crime in history.
The Dissident will be a Cold War spy story about breaking the horrific Gulag prison network, told through the eyes of “one of the most remarkable prisoners of conscience of the 20th century”.
Joseph said: “The Volunteer has been a joy to publish and is that rare thing – a brilliantly researched, landmark history of one of greatest heroes of the Second World War that also reads like a gripping thriller. These two future books are just as compelling. Jack is major non-fiction talent and I am incredibly excited about his future books and how we can build his publishing career long term.”
Fairweather commented: “Jamie has been a brilliant editor for The Volunteer, whose deft edits brought my protagonist to life and who then published the book with such verve and ambition. I’m thrilled to be working with Jamie and the W H Allen team to tell the stories of two of the great unsung heroes.”