HarperCollins acquires McTiernan, Ringland debuts

HarperCollins has acquired the rights to two novels by first-time Australian authors.

Perth-based writer Dervla McTiernan’s crime novel The Rúin was acquired by publisher Anna Valdinger in a two-book deal negotiated by Tara Wynne at Curtis Brown Australia.

The Ruin is the first in a planned series about Cormac Reilly, a high-flying Dublin detective who relocates to Galway, where he faces resentful colleagues and an unsolved case from 20 years prior.

In a statement, publisher Valdinger said, ‘it’s very rare that I read a first novel and get so excited. From the powerful opening scenes right through to the heart-in-mouth ending, I devoured The Rúin in one sitting.’

McTiernan, a former lawyer who was born in Ireland, said the book was inspired by a single image: ‘a brother and sister sitting together, holding hands, on the stairs of this crumbling Georgian house’. ‘I wanted to tell their story,’ said McTiernan, ‘I can’t wait to work with the amazing team at HarperColllins on doing just that.’

Rights have also been sold in the UK, Ireland and Germany, with publication in Australia scheduled for March 2018.

HarperCollins has also acquired rights to debut author Holly Ringland’s The Centre is Red at auction via Benython Oldfield at Zeitgeist Media Group.

Ringland’s novel is described by the publisher as a ‘powerful and compelling’ coming-of-age story of a young girl whose ‘violent childhood casts a dark shadow over her adult life’. The book spans 20 years and multiple settings, ‘evoking a strong sense of the Australian landscape’. The first chapter of the novel won Ringland a 2015 Griffith Review Contributor Circle Award, resulting in a fellowship at Varuna House.

Publisher Catherine Milne said she is ‘absolutely overjoyed’ to be publishing The Centre is Red, calling it ‘deeply romantic, beautifully written, utterly appealing and completely original’.

Ringland’s agent Oldfield said ‘the publishing, editorial, sales, media and marketing teams [at HarperCollins] are the perfect match [for the book]’. ‘The whole company is behind the book and the energy and ideas put forward for the publication campaign are extraordinary.’

The Centre is Red is scheduled for publication in Australia in April 2018. Rights have been acquired in Italy, with further deals to be settled this week in the UK, Germany and France.

Category: Local news Rights and acquisitions