We’re over the moon to announce that And Other Stories will be publishing Lark, the new novel by Manya Wilkinson on 16 March 2027. This follows the success of the Newcastle-based New Yorker’s last novel Lublin in 2024, which was awarded the Wingate Prize, the Hawthornden Prize and the Royal Society of Literature’s Encore Award. Senior Fiction Editor Tara Tobler has acquired World English rights from Polly Halladay-Jones at Georgina Capel Associates.
Tara Tobler on the acquisition:
For anyone who still believes that fiction can’t be hilarious and ambitious and formally daring all at once, Lark is the novel to prove them wrong. I’ve read it five times now and even so I still can’t wriggle free of the snare that is Lark’s voice; if I pick her up I can’t put her down; I don’t even want to, though it’s years after our first meeting. All I can do is shake my head in wonder at her energy, timing, theatre, scope. I adore this character and the sheer technical aplomb it takes to pull her off. And through Lark’s Chekhovian antics Wilkinson gives us a madcap ode to reading itself: reading not merely as the key to intellectual sovereignty in an increasingly totalitarian era, but as the second-greatest pleasure in all the world (after coffee). A pleasure this novel fulfils with every sentence. How could I say no?!
Manya Wilkinson on the acquisition:
I’m delighted to be published by And Other Stories. They’re an independent that really push the boundaries. From a writer’s point of view, their commitment to fiction that takes risks with style, pace, form and voice is empowering, particularly in the largely risk-averse world of mainstream publishing. I am what I’d describe as a ‘voicey’ writer, alert to the nuances of rhythm and tone and have particularly appreciated And Other Stories’ perceptive understanding of my voice-driven syntax and grammatical quirks. So much so that even whilst writing I think about their extraordinary editor Tara Tobler as my perfect reader, the reader of my dreams. Her sensitive editing process indicates a publisher with respect for both the writer and the written word. It is therefore no surprise that they are at the very forefront of publishing the most adventurous writing.
About Lark:
Locked in a secret annex, deprived of her treasured Russian writers, her dignity under siege by lumpy mattresses and day-old baked ziti, Lark is starting to feel like the Underground Man. As she sneaks her way around so-called sympathisers and attempts to recruit an accomplice (oh, for a literate one), Lark plots her escape, thinks fondly about life before it was illegal to grow old, and neurotically searches for lost objects and connections. Acidly amusing, immeasurably eccentric, oddball, sidelong, and undeniably smart, Lark is a novel besotted with coffee, with Chekhov, and the New York of Wilkinson’s own childhood: the city where a sharp mind—and a good coat from Bergdorf’s—are still all you really need to survive.