Australian YA debut acquired by PRH

Penguin Random House (PRH) has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to Australian-born, US-based author Emily Suvada’s debut YA novel This Mortal Coil in a two-book deal.

The novel centres around the teenage daughter of a world-leading geneticist, who must decode her father’s vaccine in the middle of a global pandemic.

Suvada, who was raised in New South Wales and attended university in Sydney before moving to Portland, Oregon, told Books+Publishing she has ‘always been fascinated by genetic engineering, and wanted to explore what it means to be human when DNA itself can be altered’. ‘Of course, it’s more fun to explore these issues through characters who are running for their lives in a plague-ridden hellscape.’

‘My main character, Catarina, is a super-smart hacker, and even I’m a little awed by what she’s capable of. I hope readers are, too,’ said Suvada.

PRH Australia head of product, children’s books, Kristin Gill, said the book will appeal to fans of ‘epic YA like The 5th Wave’, ‘fantasy thrillers’ and ‘compulsively page-turning action [with] a dash of sci-fi’.

This Mortal Coil will be published in North America by Simon & Schuster imprint Simon Pulse, following a deal brokered by Suvada’s agent DongWon Song of the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency. German rights have been sold to Planet.

PRH Australia will release the book in the third quarter of 2017.

Category: Junior Local news Rights and acquisitions