The trade announcement below originally appeared in The Bookseller.
Weidenfeld & Nicolson has acquired a gothic literary novel by Irish writer Paraic O’Donnell.
Deputy publishing director Arzu Tahsin bought UK and Commonwealth rights to The Maker of Swans, O’Donnell’s debut, from Lucy Luck at Aitken Alexander Associates.
Described as “both a dark, lyrical thriller and an allegory of the power and limits of art”, The Maker of Swans follows Eustace, the faithful but disillusioned servant to the gifted Mr Crowe, a man who was once the toast of the finest salons.
Now, the pair live amid the fading splendor of the Estate, where Mr Crowe’s great library gathers dust and his magnificent gardens grow wild.
With them lives Clara, a young girl who doesn’t speak, but who possesses gifts of her own, the extent of which are hidden even from herself.
Tahsin described The Maker of Swans as “an absolutely enchanting and magical novel and so beautifully written”.
“Paraic O’Donnell’s extraordinary imagination inhabits every page. I was mesmerised from the first to the last page,” she added.
The Maker of Swans will be published in April 2016.
Paraic O’Donnell 