Sunday Times arts correspondent, Eithne Shorthall, has had her second novel, Grace After Henry, snapped up for a six-figure sum by Putnam, a Penguin imprint who are publishing it Stateside in early 2019.
Due here on May 5 courtesy, it’s described as “a poignant, funny and moving exploration of love and loss.”
Continues the blurb: “Grace sees her boyfriend Henry everywhere. At her counselling group, on the street, at the graveyard. She doesn't really, of course, because Henry is dead. He died six months earlier, leaving a huge hole in Grace's life and in her heart. But then Henry turns up to fix the boiler one evening, and Grace can't decide if she's hallucinating or has suddenly developed psychic powers. Grace isn't going mad - the man in front of her is not Henry at all, but someone else who looks uncannily like him. The hole in Grace's heart grows ever larger.
“Grace becomes captivated by this stranger, Andy - to her, he is Henry, and yet he is not. Reminded of everything she once had, can Grace recreate that lost love with Andy, resurrecting Henry in the process, or does loving Andy mean letting go of Henry?”
The good news doesn’t end there with Shorthall’s debut, Love In Row 27, being optioned by NBC Universal Studios who’s previously enjoyed global success with the likes of Friends, Law & Order and Seinfeld.