Jodie Chapman signs two-book deal with Penguin Michael Joseph worth six figures
Penguin Michael Joseph (PMJ) has acquired the novel House of Tomorrow, the third book by Jodie Chapman.
Publisher Jillian Taylor acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Liv Maidment at Madeleine Milburn Literary, TV & Film Agency as part of a major deal worth six figures.
PMJ will publish House of Tomorrow in April 2026 and pitched it as “a literary family saga with book club appeal set against the backdrop of a 1970s California dream, it unravels one family in an attempt to answer a universal question: what does it mean to belong?”
The synopsis reads: “Frank and Chrissy meet a few days into 1970. Frank has been travelling around California for a while with friends, when someone tells him about a house in the desert two hours east of LA where the walls are steel and the glass shimmers. Frank tells himself: I have to see this house. When Chrissy picks him up on the side of the road, all blond hair and oversized sunglasses, it’s love at first sight.
“Years later, as their shared dream of recreating a mid-century masterpiece of a home in Britain threatens to overwhelm them, Frank will often think about how this was where it started. What if he had carried on walking, kicking at the dust? What if she had driven to Palm Springs the next day or even the next hour? Every moment of tomorrow would have completely changed. So begins House of Tomorrow, a portrait of a marriage, a family and the thin line between a dream and an obsession.”
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Chapman said: “The idea for House of Tomorrow came to me in a flash on a train journey to London, and I pitched the story to my editor over lunch an hour later. Ever since, my mind has been transfixed by Frank and Chrissy and all that befalls them.
“House of Tomorrow is the story of a house inspired by the real House of Tomorrow, a mid-century marvel in Palm Springs where Elvis and Priscilla honeymooned, but it’s also a story of love and family – the metaphorical House of Tomorrow that we build for ourselves. It’s about love, desire, dysfunctional families and the importance of living in the present and not the past. It’s taken years to write, and I hope readers love these characters and their story as much as I do.”
Taylor said: “A new novel from Jodie Chapman is always a thrilling moment, and House of Tomorrow is an absolute sucker-punch of a tale – a multi-generational story of great loves, messy families, beautiful people and broken hearts, as well as the many, many things that make us human and the tiny cuts of life that somehow, we survive. I first fell in love with Jodie’s writing with her Between the Covers debut, Another Life, before I marvelled at her talent for writing the inner lives of women in Oh, Sister. House of Tomorrow is This Book Will Save Your Life meets The Dutch House, and I cannot wait for readers to discover the emotional rollercoaster they have in store.”
