Canongate Books has bought the world rights to Ten Days, the new thriller by novelist, playwright and memoirist Gillian Slovo.
Slovo is the daughter of Joe Slovo and Ruth First, both major figures in the anti-apartheid struggle, whose story she told in a memoir, Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country, published in 1997.
Her other work includes crime novels, courtroom drama, historical fiction and two very successful plays, Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom and The Riots.
Ten Days will be published in hardback in March 2016, and in 10 digital ebook instalments in the 10 days running up to publication.
“I still remember my first reading of Ten Days, I was utterly compelled by this powerful and unputdownable novel. It’s rare for something to be so brilliantly paced but also to be so important,” Canongate’s editorial director of fiction Louisa Joyner said, as reported by The Bookseller.
“We all want books that make us think while simultaneously managing to be consistently entertaining and I’m incredibly proud to be publishing this novel – Ten Days makes that rare accomplishment feel absolutely natural.”
Television rights to the book have been acquired by New Pictures.
About the book
Ten Days in which the compromises of power are exposed.
Ten Days when social cohesion is threatened.
Ten Days in 10 chapters.
The politician. The police chief. The heart and soul of a community – a single mother. Worlds apart, but one event will soon connect them all.
Politicians, the police and a community are all about to collide when the murder of an innocent man at the hands of the police rocks a community to its core. Years of anger explode in rioting that spreads through the country and threatens the very stability of society …
About the author
Gillian Slovo has published 13 novels, a family memoir and has co-written a book with Ahmed Errachidi. Gillian’s first five novels were crime novels featuring detective Kate Baeier. Other novels include the courtroom drama Red Dust (made into a film starring Hilary Swank and Chiwetel Ejiofor) and the Orange Prize-shortlisted Ice Road. She has also written two plays, Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom, with Victoria Brittain, and, more recently, The Riots, both of which played to sold out houses at The Tricycle Theatre, and moved on to other theatres in the UK and overseas. Slovo was president of English PEN from 2010 to 2013 and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She lives in London.