Oneworld, publishers of the 2015 and 2016 winners of the Booker Prize—Marlon James’s A Brief History of Seven Killings and Paul Beatty’s The Sellout, respectively—have picked up the UK rights to Jennifer Makumbi’s “Great Ugandan Novel” Kintu.

According to The Bookseller, “Oneworld publisher Juliet Mabey bought UK and Commonwealth rights from James McDonald-Lockhart at Antony Harwood.” Kintu, which won the Kwani? Manuscript Project in 2013, was first published in Kenya in 2014, and in the US this year, and Oneworld will be publishing it in hardback in January 2018.

Described by Marlon James as “a soaring and sublime epic…one of those great stories that was just waiting to be told,” Kintu is proving to be the most discussed novel of the year, sparking great praise and rebooting an important conversation.

Following the acquisition, Mabey stated:

Kintu is a modern classic already earning high praise and comparisons to Yaa Gyasi’s epic Homegoing. With a rich, multi-layered narrative and strong characterization, it brilliantly interlaces history, politics, and myth to map the history of the Buganda kingdom and the birth of modern Uganda. Oneworld has always been committed to publishing the best fiction from around the world and Kintu epitomises this policy.

Read last week’s feature on Makumbi’s applaudable interview with the Los Angeles Review of Books.

Congratulations to Makumbi.

 

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