You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Verve Books has acquired The Rest of You, Maame Blue’s “tender and thought-provoking” novel about “womanhood, friendship and the Black British experience”.
Editorial director Jenna Gordon acquired UK and Commonwealth rights excluding Canada plus audio, which has been sold to W F Howes, from Maria Cardona at Aevitas Creative Management UK.
Set between present-day London and mid-90s Ghana, The Rest of You explores what it means to “survive between the gaps of knowledge around familial migrant journeys”. The book will be published in October 2024 as a paperback original simultaneously with HarperCollins’ Amistad Press hardback edition in the US.
The publisher describes the novel as the perfect next read for fans of Candice Carty-Williams’ Queenie (Trapeze), Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half (Dialogue Books) and Anna Hope’s Expectation (Transworld).
Maame Blue is a Ghanaian-Londoner and part-time Melbourne resident and the author of Bad Love (Jacaranda Books). She said: “I am incredibly happy that The Rest of You has found a home with Verve in the UK. This story was born in Melbourne, just before the pandemic hit. It took me back to London, to Copenhagen, to Accra and Kumasi, and to the past.
“It’s the thing that kept me moving creatively when all we could do was stand still. And ultimately, it’s about the unseen ties that bind us all, the difficult things that pull us from the present to the past, and the ways in which we move forward despite those pulls. I’m beyond excited for readers to connect with the story in their own way.”
Gordon added: “With nuance and emotional intelligence, The Rest of You unravels its protagonist’s complicated past through her journey of self-discovery and healing. While unflinching from its heavier themes, it’s a story full of friendship, love, joy and, ultimately, hope. Fans of ‘I May Destroy You’ will love it.”