Six-figure deal for 900-page first novel

Garth Risk Hallberg's City on Fire described by publisher as 'best American novel I've ever read'Fresh from selling film rights to Scott Rudin and signing a $2m publishing deal in the US, the novelist Garth Risk Hallberg has struck a "substantial" six-figure deal with Jonathan Cape in the UK for his 900-page debut novel, City on Fire.As the scramble for rights continues around the world, publishers are lining up to salute a book which his lucky UK editor described as "the best American novel I've ever read". But the 34-year-old Hallberg is no literary ingenue. A regular reviewer for the New York Times Book Review and a contributing editor to the online literary magazine The Millions, Hallberg has been steadily publishing short fiction for almost a decade – his illustrated novella, A Field Guide to the North American Family, appeared in 2007.Now he has produced a novel which reaches its climax with a backdrop of vandalism, looting and arson in the 1977 New York City blackout – a story of such scale, ambition and readability that it has become this year's publishing sensation.According to Hallberg's UK editor, Alex Bowler, who acquired UK rights after a week-long seven-way battle, the novel is "the only thing people are talking about in the industry"."It's a distillation of great American writing," he said. "You can feel people like Don DeLillo, James Baldwin, Tom Wolfe and Patti Smith animating the writing – it's got that fizz, that energy and ambition. But I wouldn't use... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2013-11-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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