DAVE EGGERS TO PUBLISH MIDDLE-GRADE NOVEL WITH RANDOM HOUSE CHILDREN’S BOOKS
THE LIFTERS to be released by Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers on March 27, 2018
New York, NY, July 13, 2017—Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, has acquired two novels from New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed author Dave Eggers, it was announced today by Jenny Brown, Vice President, Publisher, Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers. Andrew Wylie at The Wylie Agency brokered the two-book deal for World English rights. The first book, a middle-grade novel titled THE LIFTERS, will release on March 27, 2018. Katherine Harrison will edit for Knopf. Art by award-winning illustrators Eric and Terry Fan (The Night Gardener) will be featured throughout the book. The Fan brothers were represented by Kirsten Hall at Catbird Agency.
With THE LIFTERS, Eggers has penned a middle-grade novel about a boy named Granite (“Gran”), beset by problems at home, and Catalina Catalan, an enigmatic girl from school who surprises Gran one day by placing a door handle against a hillside and swinging it open to reveal an underground world filled with terrors and wonders such as he’s never seen. Together they face oddities, obstacles, and an opportunity to save the town and emerge as heroes.
Details of the second book acquired will be shared at a later date.
From Dave Eggers: “The Lifters has been on my mind for almost ten years. That’s when I had the idea that a simple cupboard handle could open a hillside to a warren of kid-sized tunnels under a town—and that it would be up these kids to keep everyone living aboveground upright and safe. My goal was to write the book I would have wanted to read when I was a middle-grader, with enough adventure and jokes and mystery to keep even an antsy reader engaged. The Fan brothers added fantastic illustrations that give the book the timeless feel I was hoping for.”
From Katherine Harrison at Knopf: “Dave Eggers is a masterful storyteller, and in THE LIFTERS, he establishes himself as a literary voice who can captivate readers of any age. This novel has all the makings of a children’s classic, and we at Knopf are thrilled to bring Eggers’s work to a young audience.”
January will also see the publication of a new adult work of nonfiction by Eggers, The Monk of Mokha. Monk is the true story of a young Yemeni American who dreams of resurrecting the ancient art of Yemeni coffee, only to find himself trapped in a civil war. It is Eggers at his nonfiction best, reporting on the courageous journey of a young man—a Muslim and a US citizen—following the most American of dreams.
Dave Eggers is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Heroes of the Frontier, The Circle, and A Hologram for the King. He was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and has received countless awards for his works, including Time Best Book of the Year, the American Book Award, and the New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, as well as nominations for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He is the founder of McSweeney’s, an independent publishing company based in San Francisco. McSweeney’s publishes Voice of Witness, a nonprofit book series that uses oral history to illuminate human rights crises around the world. Eggers is the co-founder of 826 National, a network of seven youth tutoring centers around the country, and ScholarMatch, a nonprofit organization designed to connect students with resources, schools, and donors to make college possible. He lives in Northern California with his family.
Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers is an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, the world’s largest English-language children’s trade book publisher. Random House Children’s Books is a division of Penguin Random House LLC.
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