1 CONTACT DETAILS HARDMAN & SWAINSON S86, New Wing, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA Tel: +44 (0)20 3701 7449 www.hardmanswainson.com Thérèse Coen: [email protected] +44 7960 576 980 CO-AGENTS JAPAN RUSSIA Japan Uni Agency: Miko Yamanouchi Van Lear Agency: Julia Demchenko [email protected] [email protected] KOREA HUNGARY Eric Yang Agency: Jackie Yang Katai I Bolza: Mészáros Orsolya [email protected] [email protected] TURKEY INDONESIA Anatolialit Agency: Cansu Canseven Maxima Creative Agency: Santo Manurung [email protected] [email protected] CHINA, VIETNAM, TAIWAN & THAILAND Grayhawk Agency: Gray Tan [email protected] 2 Fiction Titles 3 DEBUT FICTION LOUISE FEIN People Like Us Set against a backdrop of suspicion and betrayal in 1930s Germany, as the Nazi regime strengthens its grip on a vulnerable nation, People Like Us is a story of impossible love. Hetty Heinrich is the dutiful daughter of a Liepzig newspaperman turned high ranking Nazi, keen to play her part in the glory of the new Thousand Year Reich. But when she encounters Walter, a friend from the past, dangerous feelings are stirred. Confused and confl icted, Hetty doesn’t know where to turn; someone is watching, and no one can be trusted. As the rising tide of anti-semitism threatens to engulf them, Hetty and Walter must take extreme action. Will the steady march of dark forces destroy Hetty’s world, or can love ultimately triumph? People Like Us is inspired by the author’s family history, and by the alarming parallels she sees between the early 30s and today. We hope it will appeal to fans of All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, The Reader by Bernhard Schlink and The Cut Out Girl by Bart van Es. UK Publisher: Head of Zeus US Publisher: William Morrow Publication: January 2020 UK Editor: Hannah Smith US Editor: Liz Stein Agent: Caroline Hardman Material: Unedited manuscript (pp. 305) Rights Sold Dutch - Xander Italian - Sonzogno/Marsilio Romanian - Nemira Louise Fein holds an MA in Creative Writing from St Mary’s University. Prior to studying for her master’s, she ran a commodity consultancy business following a career in banking and law. She lives in Surrey with her family. 4 DEBUT FICTION JAMES GOULD Keeping Mum A sometimes funny sometimes sad, and ultimately uplifting story of a father and son overcoming their grief in the most unlikely of circumstances. Danny Malooley’s life is falling apart: he is a single parent with an eleven-year-old son, Will, who hasn’t spoken since the death of his mother in a car crash fourteen months ago. He is being pursued by a mafi a-like landlord who is threatening to set his henchman on him if he doesn’t pay his arrears and, to make matters worse, he gets fi red from his job on a building site. Danny needs to fi nd money, and fast. After seeing street performers in his local park apparently raking it in, he spends his last fi ver on a smelly costume and becomes a dancing panda. The only problem is, Danny can’t dance. And the only person who can teach him is foul-mouthed pole-dancer, Krystal. One day, Danny spots his son being bullied in the park and rescues him. Will talks to him for the fi rst time since his mother’s death, unaware that the panda is in fact his father. Nervous of revealing his true identity in case Will stops talking to him, Danny befriends UK Publisher: Trapeze Books his son in the panda disguise. But will Danny lose his son’s newly- US Publisher: Scribner found friendship and respect once he reveals who he is? And will Publication: Spring 2020 Danny be able to dance his way out of debt, or be beaten to a UK Editor: Katie Brown pulp before he’s had the chance to reconnect with his son? US Editor: Kara Watson Agent: Joanna Swainson Material: Unedited manuscript (pp. 258) For fans of About a Boy and The Silver Linings Playbook. Rights Sold Chinese - Ruyi Xinxin Czech - Host French - Préludes/ Livre de Poche German - Kiepenheuer & Witsch Italian - Mondadori Japan - Shogakukan Serbian - Evro Giunti James Gould is 36 years old and was born and raised in Stockport, Manchester. He graduated from the Faber academy’s six-month Write A Novel course in 2014, under the guidance of Richard Skinner. James recently quit his job as a copywriter to focus full-time on writing. Previously, he worked for various landmine-clearance NGOs in Africa and the Middle East. 5 DEBUT FICTION CAROLINE HULSE The Adults Brilliantly original book group fiction about a blended family’s holiday gone wrong. TV Rights optioned by Tiger Aspect Claire and Matt are divorced but decide what’s best for their daughter Scarlett is to have a ‘normal’ family Christmas. They can’t agree on whose idea it was, or who said they should bring their new partners. But someone did - and it’s too late to pull the plug. Claire brings her new boyfriend Patrick, a seemingly eligible Iron- Man-in-Waiting. Matt brings the new love of his life Alex, funny, smart, and extremely patient. Scarlett, their daughter, brings her imaginary friend Posey. He’s a rabbit. Together the five (or six?) of them grit their teeth over Organized Fun activities, drinking a little too much after bed-time, oversharing classified secrets about their pasts and, before you know it, their holiday is a powder keg that ends - where this story starts - with a tearful, frightened, call to the police... UK Publisher: Orion Books But what happened? They said they’d all be adults about this... US Publisher: Random House Books Publication Date: August 2018 UK Editor: Emad Akhtar US Editor: Andrea Walker Agent: Caroline Hardman Material: Paperback Copies (pp.416) Rights Sold Czech - Euromedia Dutch - AW Bruna French - Fleuve Editions German - Aufbau Hungarian - General Press Israel - Aryeh Nir Italian - Mondadori Polish - Znak Romanian - Corint Serbian - Evro Books Slovak - Ikar Sweden - Printz Publishing 6 READING GROUP FICTION CAROLINE HULSE Like a House on Fire The witty and poignant second novel from Caroline Hulse about a family murder mystery party gone wrong. George and Stella’s marriage is over. They can’t decide exactly when that happened (Was it the coke can? Or that comment about Jurassic Park?), but they both agree that it has. A couple of months after the separation, Stella’s mother, Margaret “The Force of Nature” Foy sends out invites for her murder mystery anniversary party - with George on the invite list. Stella hasn’t told her parents about the divorce, she couldn’t bring herself to. And with her father’s business shutting down, Margaret’s recent cancer diagnosis, and some very odd behaviour from her older sister Helen, now is clearly not a good time. All they have to do is make it through the day without their secret being discovered. And in doing so, they may fi nd each other again - or see their past and future both go up in fl ames... UK Publisher: Orion Books US Publisher: Random House Books Publication Date: November 2019 UK Editor: Emad Akhtar US Editor: Andrea Walker Agent: Caroline Hardman Material: Early 2020 Option Publishers Czech - Euromedia Dutch - AW Bruna French - Fleuve Editions German - Aufbau Hungarian - General Press Israel - Aryeh Nir Italian - Mondadori Caroline Hulse spends most of her days writing, having fulfi lled her dream Polish - Znak of having a job she could do in pyjamas. She also works in Human Resources Romanian - Corint sometimes. She is openly competitive and loves playing board and card games. She can often be found in casino poker rooms, and wishes other people would Serbian - Evro Books want to play Cluedo for money. She lives with her husband in Manchester, Slovak - Ikar where the two are captive to the whims of a small, controlling dog. Sweden - Printz Publishing 7 DEBUT LITERARY FICTION ELIZABETH BROOKS The Orphan of Salt Winds For fans of Eowyn Ivey, Rose Tremaine, and Kate Atkinson, The Orphan of Salt Winds is a bewitching debut about the secrets that haunt us. England, 1939. Ten-year-old Virginia Wrathmell arrives at Salt Winds, a secluded house on the edge of a marsh, to meet her adoptive parents―practical, dependable Clem and glamorous, mercurial Lorna. The marsh, with its deceptive tides, is a beautiful but threatening place. Virginia’s new parents’ marriage is full of secrets and tensions she doesn’t quite understand, and their wealthy neighbor, Max Deering, drops by too often, taking an unwholesome interest in the family’s aff airs. Only Clem off ers a true sense of home. War feels far away among the birds and shifting sands―until the day a German fi ghter plane crashes into the marsh, and Clem ventures out to rescue the airman. What happens next sets into motion a crime so devastating it will haunt Virginia for the rest of her life. Seventy-fi ve years later, she fi nds herself drawn back to the marsh, and to a teenage girl who appears there, nearly frozen and burdened by her own secrets. In her, Virginia might have a chance at retribution and a way to right a grave mistake she made as a child. UK Publisher: Transworld Elizabeth Brooks’s gripping debut mirrors its marshy landscape― US Publisher: Tin House full of twists and turns and moored in a tangle of family secrets. Publication date: June 2018 A gothic, psychological mystery and atmospheric coming-of-age UK Editor: Suzanne Bridson story, The Orphan of Salt Winds is the portrait of a woman haunted US Editor: Masie Cochran by the place she calls home.