Picador wins ‘heated’ five-way auction for CJ Green’s ‘spellbinding’ debut
Picador has acquired Record Lows by debut author CJ Green in a “heated” five-way auction.
Publisher Mary Mount acquired UK and Commonwealth excluding Canada rights from Caspian Dennis at Abner Stein, while North American rights were sold in a pre-empt to Reagan Arthur at Cardinal by Julie Barer at the Book Group.
Record Lows will be Picador’s “biggest American debut of 2027”, publishing in hardback, e-book and audiobook on 18th February 2027.
The novel’s blurb reads: “It’s 1977 and in a backwater town in upstate New York, a blizzard is gathering force. Harmon Pond, editor of the local paper, is drowning in debt and courting scandal. So when the creditor who kept him afloat vanishes without a trace, Harmon thinks it’s his lucky break. Meanwhile, his eldest daughter, Teresa, the paper’s junior reporter, sees a story that could make her name.
“But for Pauline, Harmon’s devout Italian American wife, the news drags up memories she’s spent a lifetime trying to bury, and secrets she wants to keep hidden. With their parents tangled in their own concerns, no one notices that middle-child Fran has begun sneaking out at night, or that Lonnie, the youngest, is taking dangerous risks of his own. As the town searches for answers, the blizzard builds into one of the worst in history. Can the Pond family accept the truth, and each other, before it’s too late?”
Mount said: “Very occasionally a debut novel comes along that seems to have everything – riveting plot, beautifully drawn characters, tragedy and comedy. Record Lows is one of those debuts and CJ Green is a spell-binding writer. This is a novel I would recommend to everyone and I can’t believe our luck that we get to publish it.”
CJ Green, a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop who lives in Virginia with his family, said: “If my characters could offer comment, they would be very confused and thrilled to find themselves so far from home. It never once occurred to me that Record Lows would find its way out of America (if somehow it ever found its way there). I started writing this book just to make myself laugh but by the end I had put my whole heart into it. I hope readers will enjoy the ride.”
