Idol: Louise O'Neill's next book is on the way — after a five-way bidding war for her next two novels
Idol by Louise O'Neill
Fans of award-winning writer Louise O'Neill will be thrilled to hear there's a new novel on the way.
Idol will be available on May 12, 2022.
Louise, who writes a weekly column for the Irish Examiner's Weekend and also has a regular 'Dear Louise' column, says: "I’m very excited to finally be able to talk about . It’s a new direction for me — not least of all because it will be my first book with my new publisher, Transworld — but it also feels like a natural progression for me and my career. I can’t wait for people to read it and to meet the inimitable Samantha Miller.”
Who gets to tell the story?
— Louise O' Neill (@oneilllo) September 9, 2021
Who do we choose to believe?
Whose 'truth' is really a lie? pic.twitter.com/ubx53YdgzP
The new novel comes with the tagline 'Not everyone we put on a pedestal deserves to be there'.
It focuses on Samantha Miller whose career is booming: she's just hit one million followers, her new book Chaste has gone straight to the top of the bestseller lists and she's appearing at sell-out events. Determined to speak her truth and bare all to her adoring fans, she's written an essay about her sexual awakening as a teenager, with her female best friend, Lisa. She's never told a soul but now she's telling the world. The essay goes viral.
But then — years since they last spoke — Lisa gets in touch to say that she doesn't remember it that way at all. Her memory of that night is far darker. It's Sam's word against Lisa's — so who gets to tell the story? Whose 'truth' is really a lie?
Transworld publishing director, Frankie Gray, has bought English language 'UK and Commonwealth' rights to Idol and a second book in a six-figure deal.
Gray said: ‘I have loved Louise’s writing for a very long time and it is a huge honour to welcome her to the Bantam Press list. Louise never shies away from challenging topics, shining a light on the darkness that can exist within us, and our society, and blazing a trail with every book she writes.
Idol comes with significant praise from acclaimed author Marian Keyes who describes it as "fresh, glamorous, and surprising".
Keyes says it "dazzles us before revealing the darkness at its heart. Louise O'Neill is not afraid to take on a taboo but somehow always makes it utterly compelling. This is such an exciting book".
Idol can be preordered at Eason and Waterstones
