Simon & Schuster bags Amy Barry's quartet with rights sold in 22 languages
Simon & Schuster (S&S) has scooped Amy Barry’s four-book series, beginning with a dual timeline novel set on Nantucket, with rights selling into 22 territories.
Anthea Bariamis, publisher at S&S Australia, acquired world rights to Northshine, and its three follow-ups, from Sarah Younger at Nancy Yost Literary; S&S UK’s executive publisher Phoebe Morgan pre-empted UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Australia and New Zealand).
S&S adult rights director said the international response "has been astonishing", with auctions and pre-empts in 22 languages within three weeks of initial submission including Spain (Planeta), Germany (Rowohlt), France (Leduc), Italy (Newton Compton) and the Netherlands (LS).
The series follows the lives and loves of the four Harkness sisters, in the years that follow their youngest sister’s disappearance. The first book follows eldest sister Mira, who has moved to their family home on the beautiful, windswept coast on Nantucket to care for their dying mother. The story is threaded through with the dual narrative of Brigid, an ancestor accused of witchcraft on the island centuries before.
Barry is associate professor in creative writing at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia and also writes under the name Amy Matthews.
She said: "It’s so exciting to be able to share the magic of Northshine with the world. I’m so in love with this story of sisterhood, love lost and found, family, mystery and magic and I’m thrilled it has found a home with such incredible publishers."
Bariamis said: "I am beyond delighted by the extraordinary response to this stunning new series – it is at once heart-wrenching, mystical and all-consuming, and I can’t wait for readers to meet these characters, who will stay with them forever."
Morgan added that Barry had created "a bewitching world" that was "for fans of Lucina Riley, this has everything – I love the witchcraft elements and the bond between the four sisters shines through the pages. Northshine marks the arrival of a major new talent."
