Penguin Michael Joseph signs Costanza Casati’s Mythmaker
Penguin Michael Joseph has acquired a dark-academia duology by Costanza Casati. Publisher Jillian Taylor acquired world rights from Victoria Hobbs at AM Heath.
Mythmaker, the first in the series, will be published in April 2027, with the sequel following in 2028. US and Canadian Rights were bought by MJ Johnston for Sourcebooks Landmark, who will publish simultaneously.
Mythmaker is set in a reimagined Florence and follows a young woman who can bring books to life, a mythic academy – based on a real-life institution – harbouring her secrets and the tyrannical zealot bent on burning every trace of magic in their paths.
In the novel, Beatrice Donati, orphaned after a terrible accident, finds herself taken to the Neoplatonic Academy in 15th-century Florence. “Founded by the powerful Medici family, at the academy Bea’s secret is known only to a few: she is a mythmaker, able to make magic with her words,” the synopsis reads.
“Throughout Italy, magic-bearers – people whose talents make magic come alive – are being hunted and killed. Led by the tyrant Savonarola, who began by burning books and knowledge, it is now the students themselves who find their very lives under threat. As an epic fight between magic and zealotry, enlightenment and ignorance looms, Bea and her fellow students will have to hone their skills – and choose a side – to survive.”
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Casati said: “This book came to me like a dream that keeps haunting you in your sleep – bit by bit, scene by scene – until the story was fully formed in my head and I couldn’t remember a time when its characters didn’t exist, when I didn’t know this world so intimately. I don’t think I have ever put so much of myself into a book; Mythmaker feels like a love letter to my childhood dreams, my teenage hopes and my adult love for Renaissance history and literature, ancient philosophy and the dark-academia genre. It has been a joy to see the excitement, love and ambition my editors have for this project. I can’t wait for readers to meet my Bea and the other magic-bearers.”
Publisher Taylor said: “From giving Clytemnestra a long-overdue voice to reminding the world of one its fiercest queens, Semiramis, nothing is as thrilling as a new novel from Costanza. I am beyond excited that she is moving fully into the fantasy genre, embracing a world as beguiling as it is deadly. Here, in Mythmaker, is an idea that marries Costanza’s love for history with a magic system stemming from the wondrous feats of art and science of Italy’s Golden Age.
“In doing so, Costanza has put a wholly original spin on some of the most alluring tropes of dark academia: morally grey characters, found family and the seductive nature of books, to create something as imaginative as Babel, as spellbinding as The Familiar. At its core, Mythmaker is about how stories themselves are magic – a dangerous, exciting, life-changing magic. Prepare to be obsessed!”
