Bloomsbury has signed the debut novel from Debra Curtis in a six-figure pre-empt, slated for publication in 2026.
Publisher Alexis Kirschbaum acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, including audio, to Laws of Love and Logic, from Felicity Blunt at Curtis Brown. Further rights were snapped up by Ullstein in Germany in a strong six-figure pre-empt, with Italian rights acquired by Einaudi in a strong five-figure deal and deals being negotiated in other translation markets by Sophie Baker at Curtis Brown.
“Opening in the late 1970s, Laws of Love and Logic is the story of Lily, a senior in high school whose best friend is her younger sister: the funny, brilliant but wounded Jane, with whom she grieves the loss of their mother,” the synopsis says. “Lily’s true love is ‘the boy’, a quarterback and college scout-favourite with a path to success unfolding before him… Interwoven with memory and addiction, faith and physics, this is an unforgettable tale of how an imagined future might be undone in an instant – but how what might seem to be the end of one story is only the start of another.”
Curtis is a professor in cultural anthropology, specialising in gender and sexuality, at Salve Regina University.
Kirschbaum said: “From the moment I started reading this novel, I knew that I needed to set everything aside until I had reached the very last page. It is deeply felt and thoroughly moving on the damage that too often comes with love and loss, painting the complex relationships between its characters with a remarkable tenderness and humanity.”
Curtis added: “I’m thrilled to be joining the Bloomsbury team. I hope that Laws of Love and Logic will resonate with readers in its reflection of a range of experiences about what it means to be human.”
