Forthcoming Wood novel sold to US, UK

Charlotte Wood’s forthcoming novel The Weekend (A&U, October) has been sold to Riverhead in the US and Weidenfeld & Nicolson (W&N) in the UK, reports the Bookseller.

The novel, Wood’s first since her Stella Prize-winning book The Natural Way of Things, follows three elderly friends who gather at a house by the ocean to farewell a friend who has passed away. However, ‘when disaster strikes and secrets are revealed, their friendship will turn out to be the only thing keeping them alive’.

On behalf of Jenny Darling & Associates, Veronique Baxter at David Higham Associates sold UK and Commonwealth (ex ANZ) rights to W&N commissioning editor Federico Andornino. North American rights were sold in a pre-empt to Riverhead vice president and editor-in-chief Sarah McGrath.

Andornino said of the acquisition: ‘The Weekend is literary fiction with huge appeal, Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies as written by Alice Munro, and Charlotte Wood is a complete genius. She explores the lives of older women in a way that’s rarely seen in contemporary fiction: these are people who have been discarded by society, by their colleagues, even by their loved ones, betrayed by their failing bodies, treated with contempt, constantly patronized. And yet they are fierce and full of life, and readers will find it impossible to look away.’

The Weekend will be published in Australia by Wood’s long-time publisher Allen & Unwin in October 2019, with a UK release scheduled for mid-2020.

Category: Local news Rights and acquisitions