‘Their Brilliant Careers’ to publish in the UK in 2018

UK independent publisher Eye Books will publish Ryan O’Neill’s novel Their Brilliant Careers (Black Inc.) in the UK in April 2018.

Editor-at-large Scott Pack‏ said he will present the first UK edition ‘as if it were a serious nonfiction book’.

‘When we publish the hardback in the UK, we will not mention that it is fiction anywhere on it,’ he said. ‘Obviously most people will be in on the joke, at least that is the idea. We just love the notion that people who buy the first edition will have a copy that plays along with the main conceit.’

O’Neill’s novel, which has been shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, is made up of 16 biographies of fictional Australian writers.

Pack has described the novel as a ‘masterpiece’. ‘O’Neill has created an entire world of Australian literary history that didn’t exist. It is utterly convincing, hugely clever and very, very funny,’ he said.

Category: Local news Rights and acquisitions