Anne-Marie MacDonald’s coming-of-age queer novel set on the Scottish Borders in the Victorian era has been secured by Tramp Press.
Co-founder Sarah Davis-Goff acquired UK and Ireland rights from Tracy Bohan at agency Wylie for Fayne, whose publication is planned for August. The novel was first published in Canada in the fall of 2022.
The synopsis reads: “In the late 19th century, Charlotte Bell grows up in Fayne, a vast and lonely estate straddling the border between England and Scotland, where she has been kept from the world by her adoring father, Lord Henry Bell, due to a mysterious ‘condition’ .
“Charlotte, strong and insatiably curious, enjoys the moors and has learned the treacherous and healing ways of the moors from an old tenant, Byrne, whose own origins are shrouded in mystery. Her idyllic existence is overshadowed by a magnificent portrait on the landing at Fayne House showing her mother, a beautiful Irish-American heiress, holding Charlotte’s brother, Charles Bell. Charlotte grew up with the knowledge that her mother had died giving birth to her and that Charles, the long-awaited heir, had died at the age of two.
“When Charlotte’s appetite for learning threatens to exceed the boundaries of the estate, her father breaks with tradition and hires a tutor to tutor his daughter. But when Charlotte and her teacher discover an unexpected artifact exploring the swamp, her father announces that he has arranged for her treatment, and her world is turned upside down. Charlotte’s passion for knowledge and adventure will lead her to the bottom of family secrets and to the heart of her own identity.”
MacDonald said: “I knew from a young age that I was wrong in the world. And the idea of looking through the eyes of someone who was born with an intersex trait was quite compelling to me for a long time. It is not an exotic quality. So I decided not to treat it as a spoiler. That’s exactly how Charlotte is, that’s how her body is. It’s normal. It is the world that has a problem and will make a problem for her.”
Davis-Goff said, “For a publisher, Fayne is an absolute dream: you’re always looking for something to keep you up at night, for characters you want to hold close, for a story you’ve never heard before. Ann-Marie MacDonald brings us all that and more Fayne.”
In 1996, MacDonald’s first novel, Drop to your knees (Vintage), won the Commonwealth Award for Best First Fiction, the People’s Choice Award and the Libris Award. In 2002, it became the title of Oprah’s Book Club. She is also an author Onset in adulthood (Scepter) i Belle Moral (Harvest).