Hutchinson Heinemann pre-empts Julia Coursey’s ‘kaleidoscopic’ debut novel
Hutchinson Heinemann has pre-empted Julia Coursey’s “kaleidoscopic” debut novel. Dredhëza Maloku acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to Orcinus from Clare Alexander at Aitken Alexander. Orcinus is an unconventional love story, “a digressive journey through the lives of four people as they consider longing and life after death through one madcap theory: that whales hold the key to summoning the dead.”
The synopsis continues: “As scientist Remington forensically pursues this research with the help of a recently heartbroken yet hopeful student, his wife, Constance, sets in motion a love affair with a Hungarian translator, Magda. First meeting at a Georgia O’Keefe exhibition in New York, the two women grow close and embark on a classic American road trip from east to west, where these characters come together on the shores of Lime Kiln National Park: the best place in the world for watching wild orcas.”
Maloku said: “I was instantly charmed by this startlingly original story of love, death and whales: it added new dimensions to my views on both love and death and moved me deeply, such is the dazzling lucidity of Coursey’s prose. Orcinus is a tender study in the painful human search for connection, a feat of imagination and radical curiosity, a novel that dares to meander and surprise, gifting us with a rare grace and earnestness that is hard to come by in an increasingly fractured world. I cannot wait to publish at Hutchinson Heinemann and am thrilled to be Julia’s UK editor.”
Coursey said: “I’m delighted to be working with Dredhëza Maloku at Hutchinson Heinemann on my debut! Dredhëza is a deep reader with an incisive editorial style who is game for following a story wherever it leads. She’s the perfect fit for this book! I’m so pleased she connected with the manuscript and am honoured by her passion for it. I hope readers will be just as enthusiastic about this queer whale tale. Eternal gratitude to my agent Clare Alexander at Aitken Alexander Associates, who has been an invaluable superstar throughout this process.”
