HarperCollins Publishers Acquires Two-Book Deal By Award-Winning Author Patrick Ness
New York, NY — HarperCollins Publishers announced today the acquisition of a two-book deal by critically acclaimed author Patrick Ness, author of the award winning A Monster Calls, More Than This, and the Chaos Walking trilogy. David McMillan sold North American rights on behalf of Walker Books Limited to Rosemary Brosnan, Editorial Director at HarperCollins Children’s Books. The Rest of Us Just Live Here, the first of two young adult novels, will publish in Fall 2015, followed by another stand-alone novel.
“I am tremendously excited to be bringing Patrick Ness to HarperCollins,” said Brosnan. “He is one of the premier writers for young adults today, and his latest novel, The Rest of Us Just Live Here, is a gripping, humorous, and heartfelt tour de force. I can’t wait to share it with readers!” Ness commented, “What a fantastic and warm welcome I’ve been given at Harper Teen. Rosemary Brosnan is a legend, and it’s a ridiculous thrill to be on her amazing list. I can’t wait, let’s get publishing!”
Denise Johnstone-Burt, Ness’s publisher at Walker Books Limited, said, “Patrick Ness is the outstanding YA author of his generation. He is genre exceptional, defying classification, breaking new ground with each novel he writes. In The Rest of Us Just Live Here he makes the ordinary extraordinary and the extraordinary ordinary and has created an outstanding work that will appeal to everybody, everywhere.”
In The Rest of Us Just Live Here, Patrick Ness explores—with humor and poignancy—what it would be like to live in a world that’s a lot like a YA novel, where some kids in school are battling forces of evil, and some kids just want to go to prom and graduate before someone goes and blows up the high school again.
ABOUT PATRICK NESS:
Bestselling and award-winning novelist Patrick Ness was born in Virginia, USA, and spent his upbringing in Hawaii, Washington and California. He has lived in London since 1999 and is the author of eight books, including two novels for adults and a short story collection.
His YA trilogy Chaos Walking (The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the Answer and Monsters of Men) has won the GuardianChildren’s Fiction Prize, the Costa Children’s Book of the Year Prize, and the Booktrust Teenage Prize, among others. In 2011 Monsters of Men won the prestigious Carnegie Medal, after all three books in the trilogy were shortlisted, the first time this has ever happened.
Patrick’s sixth book, A Monster Calls, received high critical acclaim and was the winner of the Children’s Book of the Year Award at the Galaxy National Book Awards, the Red House Children’s Book Award and the UKLA Book Award. In June 2012, A Monster Calls became the first book ever to win both the prestigious Carnegie Medal and the Kate Greenaway Medal.
More Than This, his latest book for young adults, was released to critical acclaim in 2013. Patrick’s books have been translated into 27 languages.
Following a major rights deal with US studio Lionsgate (makers of blockbuster The Hunger Games) the first film in the Chaos Walking trilogy is currently being written by Oscar-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), while a film adaption of A Monster Calls started filming in September –with J. A. Bayona directing (The Impossible, The Orphanage) and Liam Neeson, Sigourney Weaver, and Felicity Jones starring.
About HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers is the second largest consumer book publisher in the world, with operations in 18 countries. With nearly two hundred years of history and more than 65 unique imprints around the world, HarperCollins publishes approximately 10,000 new books every year, in over 30 languages, and has a print and digital catalog of more than 200,000 titles. Writing across dozens of genres, HarperCollins authors include winners of the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Newbery and Caldecott Medals and the Man Booker Prize. HarperCollins, headquartered in New York, is a subsidiary of News Corp and can be visited online at corporate.HC.com.
Walker Books
Walker is the world’s leading, employee-owned independent publisher of children’s books. Working with the best authors and illustrators, Walker Books is renowned for its truly original publishing and outstanding quality. Home to books for all ages, Walker Books publishes many award-winning authors, illustrators and brands including Anthony Horowitz, Cassandra Clare, Lucy Cousins, Anthony Browne, Polly Dunbar, Mal Peet, Patrick Ness and Where’s Wally? Walker’s licensing division manages licensing activity across several Walker brands including Maisy and all other Lucy Cousins properties, Guess How Much I Love You and new property Tilly and Friends. Walker Productions develops Walker content for other media platforms with a range of media partners, with current projects including Hank Zipzer: The World’s Greatest Underachiever and Tilly and Friends for BBC and Fleabag Monkeyface for ITV. Walker Books UK is part of the vibrant, international Walker Books Group that includes Candlewick Press in America and Walker Books Australia. Further information can be found at www.walker.co.uk.
