W&N pre-empts ‘extraordinary’ debut inspired by 1897 Arctic expedition
W&N has acquired The World Is Ours by debut author Claire O’Connor, an excerpt of which was longlisted for the Discoveries Prize and won the Missouri Review‘s Miller Audio Prize for Prose.
Inspired by the true story of three Swedish explorers who in 1897 tried to fly to the North Pole in a hot air balloon and never returned, the novel is billed as “a story about adventure and survival, examining competing notions of ambition, love, purpose and belonging”.
Publishing director Juliet Annan pre-empted UK and Commonwealth rights from Hellie Ogden at WME. This was followed by a pre-empt for North American rights from Pam Dorman at Pamela Dorman Books, Penguin Random House USA, by Margaret Riley King at WME on behalf of Hellie Ogden.
In a series of pre-empts and auctions, rights also sold in Danish to Gyldendal, Finnish to Otava, French to JC Lattès, Italian to Mondadori and Hungarian to Open Books by Florence Dodd at WME. The World Is Ours will be published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 2028.
Its blurb reads: “In 1896, explorers Knut and Nils prepare for the adventure of a lifetime, joining the Swedish Andrée Expedition in a hydrogen balloon race to the North Pole. Nils leaves behind a beloved fiancée, music teacher Anna, who waits patiently for his return. After several days, the three explorers are not heard from again.
“Thirty years later, Carl and Syver, two seal hunters who join a scientific research voyage, begin a dangerous love affair before discovering a dead body in the Arctic ice. As these two stories collide over several decades, across ice and air, it’s clear that nothing is ever certain, except that love will endure.”
O’Connor is a teacher who has worked with students of many ages in the US, Morocco, Malaysia, Greece, South Africa and Scotland. Originally from Southern California, she now lives with her wife on the west coast of Scotland.
She said: “This novel is for anyone who has big dreams, or has been in love, or struggles to know what you really want in life. I’m grateful for everyone who has helped me along the way, especially my agent Hellie, who encouraged me to dream big for this book, and I’m thrilled to be at Weidenfeld & Nicolson and work with Juliet to hone our vision.”
Annan said: “This is an extraordinary debut novel. Told with empathy, humour and wisdom, it encompasses two epic and gripping love stories, but it is also but about the changing world of the 20th century – both geopolitically and socially. It manages to be both intimate and about a much wider world, and it’s told in stunning writing that takes you into the icy world of the Arctic.”
