It’s love at first Glancy for Kiwi
A NEW Zealand author has scored a literary coup, landing a rare sixfigure deal for his debut novel.
UK publisher Bloomsbury, whose titles include the seven Harry Potter books, has acquired worldwide rights to Auckland author Robert Glancy’s first book Terms & Conditions in a two-book deal.
Glancy, 38, has been writing fiction ‘‘forever’’ and now his first book is due to be published in 2014.
‘‘I’m still in a state of delighted shock. I’ve always hoped I would one day walk into Unity Books and see my own book on the shelf snuggled up with all my favourite writers,’’ Glancy said.
Terms & Conditions follows the story of Frank Shaw, a lawyer specialising in small print who loses his memory after a car crash. When his wife Alice seems unlike the woman he remembers, and his brother Oscar takes the family company in a new direction, Frank’s life begins to unspool. Referencing Frank’s profession, the novel itself is full of footnotes.
‘‘It is both eye-wateringly funny and heartbreakingly quirky and it has already been responsible for an outbreak of small print across Bloomsbury’s offices worldwide,’’ said Helen Garnons-Williams from Bloomsbury UK.
The deal is unusually large for a New Zealand writer and a significant achievement, said the head of the New Zealand Book Council.
‘‘I think it is quite extraordinary, in New Zealand particularly, getting a six-figure deal. It’s pretty impressive. People would feel very comfortable and pleased about that,’’ said Catriona Ferguson.
Glancy’s news came on top of the announcement last month that Kiwi Eleanor Catton’s novel had been long-listed for the Man Booker prize, and showed that despite tough times for local publishers, the industry still had reason to celebrate.
‘‘It really shows that New Zealand writing is in good health. New Zealand writers, it is a really big thing for them to be able get an international publisher because that just opens up the market,’’ said Ferguson.
Glancy was born in Zambia and raised in Malawi, before moving to the UK and studying history at Cambridge. He moved to New Zealand in 2003 and works in PR.