We at HarperVoyager UK are very excited to announce a new acquisition, which went out live in The Bookseller today as one of the Big Deals of the London Book Fair (recently held at Earl’s Court Exhibition centre on April 16-18).
The full press release details follow:
News Release
From the London Book Fair 2012
HarperFiction acquires three books by debut author Tom Isbell
London, 18 April 2012:
HarperFiction Publisher Kate Elton, along with HarperVoyager commissioning editor Amy McCulloch, has acquired, at auction, UK and Commonwealth rights to three books by debut novelist Tom Isbell, beginning with The Hatchery, from Chandler Crawford at Chandler Crawford Agency and Victoria Sanders at Victoria Sanders & Associates.
Set in a post-apocalyptic dystopian future, The Hatchery follows a group of physically-impaired boys, known as LTs, who organize a daring escape from their camp after realizing they’re being raised as prey for a sadistic group of human hunters.
Amy McCulloch says: “The Hatchery is YA dystopian fiction at its raw, emotional, gritty best: brilliant writing, a terrifying world, and absolutely compelling characters you can’t help but root for. It is both an emotional rollercoaster and an action-packed read. It’s unusual to find a book that balances both elements so successfully and, as a result, I feel like The Hatchery is truly one of those rare books that will crossover into an adult market that is as hungry for these stories as YA.”
Victoria Sanders says: “We are all thrilled about HarperFiction’s passion for The Hatchery, and look forward to much success in both the YA and adult markets.”
Tom Isbell says: “I am so honoured to be working with both Kate and Amy on The Hatchery, and their belief in the LTs and their journey to a better place means so much to me. I feel like the luckiest guy alive.”
About the author: Tom Isbell is an actor and has starred opposite stars such as Robert DeNiro, Ed Harris, Sarah Jessica Parker, John Turturro, Anne Bancroft, and many others. Credits range from the movies True Lies and The Abyss to such TV shows as Designing Women, Golden Girls, Columbo and Murder, She Wrote. His play, Teddy Roosevelt and the Treasure of Ursa Major opened at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the fall of 2006 and went on a national tour in 2008. It was made into a book, with Ronald Kidd writing the adaptation and then-First Lady Laura Bush penning the Foreword. A sequel, Teddy Roosevelt and the Ghostly Mistletoe, was produced in 2009. He is currently working on an adaptation of Rodman Philbrick’s Newberry Honor-winning book, The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg, to be produced by Theatre for Young Audiences at the Kennedy Center in the fall of 2012. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, he is a professor of theatre at the University of Minnesota Duluth. He received the Kennedy Center Gold Medallion of Excellence in January, 2007.
Issued by: Elizabeth Dawson
PR Director, HarperFiction
