Europa Editions UK is to publish a novel from American writer Alexander Maksik entitled Shelter in Place.
Michael Reynolds, editor-in-chief of Europa Editions US, acquired world English rights from Eric Simonoff at William Morris Endeavour. The acquisition was made initially for North American rights, and recently was extended to world English rights.
Set in the Pacific Northwest in the "jittery, jacked-up" early 90s, Shelter in Place is a "stylish" literary novel about the hereditary nature of mental illness, the fleeting intensity of youth, the obligations of family, and the consequences of all-consuming love.
The book tells the story of Joseph March, a 21-year-old working class kid from Seattle, who is on top of the world. He has just graduated college and his future beckons, unencumbered. However, Joe’s life implodes when he starts to suffer the symptoms of severe bipolar disorder, and, shortly after, his mother kills a man she’s never met with a hammer. Joe moves to White Pine, Oregon, where his mother is in jail and his father has set up house to be near her. He is joined by Tess Wolff, a fiercely independent woman with whom he has fallen passionately in love. The lives of Joe, Tess, and Joe’s father fall into the slow rhythm of daily prison visits and beer and pizza at a local bar.
Reynolds said: “Alexander is a prose stylist of the first order, he believes in the power of fiction, and his curiosity about the human animal is limitless. He’s a heck of a writer and Shelter in Place is his most heartfelt novel yet. It is a solidly American story about mental illness, youth, gender, family, the power of love, and the ideals we live by and are willing to kill for. I am very excited to welcome him back to the Europa list with this new novel—readers of fiction about ideas will find it provocative and engaging.”
Maksik is also the author of You Deserve Nothing (John Murray, Europa in the US) and A Marker to Measure Drift (John Murray).
