Alfred A. Knopf Canada to Publish a New Novel by John Irving
TORONTO, Jan. 25, 2019 /CNW/ - Alfred A. Knopf Canada is pleased to announce the acquisition of Canadian rights to publish the new novel from internationally acclaimed author John Irving. Darkness as a Bride, Irving's fifteenth novel, will be published in 2020 and is the twelfth novel and fourteenth book published by Knopf in Canada.
Since the publication of The World According to Garp in 1978, which recently celebrated its 40th anniversary, and for which he won a National Book Award, Irving has been one of the most acclaimed and widely read novelists in the world. His books have been translated into more than 35 languages, and several have been adapted for film, including The Cider House Rules, for which Irving won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
John Irving says: "Darkness as a Bride is a ghost story. The title comes from Shakespeare's Measure for Measure – from these lines:
If I must die,
I will encounter darkness as a bride,
And hug it in mine arms.
It is a mother-and-son story—by my count, my seventh novel on this subject, which started with The World According to Garp but includes A Prayer for Owen Meany and Until I Find You. It is also a novel about sexual politics—my eighth novel on this theme, including The Cider House Rules and In One Person. The character who makes everything happen is a competitive Alpine skier—she's a slalom racer, then an unwed mother, always a mystery. Her son will be a writer—my ninth novel about a writer, which would include A Widow for One Year and Last Night in Twisted River. The novel is partly set in Aspen, Colorado—not only in Aspen as a ski town, because some of the ghosts are from the days when Aspen was a mining town."
Kristin Cochrane, CEO of Penguin Random House Canada, bought Darkness as a Bride as the first in a three-book deal, arranged with Dean Cooke of CookeMcDermid. Cochrane says: "I've loved the work of John Irving since I first read A Prayer for Owen Meany in high school. Long before working with John, I was among his countless fans eagerly anticipating each novel. One of my career "pinch me" moments was having read some early pages of Darkness as a Bride. It's every bit as entertaining, funny, dark and poignant as any Irving novel I've ever read, and I look forward to when we get to share it with the world."
ABOUT PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE CANADA
Penguin Random House Canada, the country's largest book publisher, aims to nourish a universal passion for reading by connecting authors and their writing with readers everywhere. Its imprints include Appetite by Random House, Bond Street Books, Doubleday Canada, Hamish Hamilton Canada, Knopf Canada, McClelland & Stewart, Penguin Canada, Penguin Teen, Puffin Canada, Random House Canada, Signal, Strange Light, Tundra Books, Viking Canada and Vintage Canada. Penguin Random House Canada is a division of Penguin Random House, the world's largest trade book publisher, whose publishing lists include more than 60 Nobel Prize laureates and hundreds of the world's most widely read authors. Visit penguinrandomhouse.ca for more information.
SOURCE Penguin Random House Canada Limited
Scott Sellers, Vice President and Associate Publisher, [email protected], (416) 957-1564
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