Celebrated poet and playwright Naomi Foyle‘s audacious and extraordinary debut novel SEOUL SURVIVORS has just been published by Jo Fletcher Books.
A meteor known as Lucifer’s Hammer is about to wreak destruction on the earth, and with the end of the world imminent, there is only one safe place to be.
In the mountains above Seoul, American-Korean bio-engineer Dr Kim Da Mi thinks she has found the perfect solution to save the human race. But her methods are strange and her business partner, Johnny Sandman, is not exactly the type of person anyone would want to mix with.
Drawn in by their smiles and pretty promises, Sydney – a Canadian model trying to escape an unhappy past – is an integral part of their scheme, until she realises that the quest for perfection comes at an impossible price.
The book is already starting to provoke some fantastic comments and we expect more to come as word gets out. Over on the Jo Fletcher Books web site, fellow novelist Alan Kelly (author of the pulp fiction novel Let Me Die a Woman) called the novel ‘...an unapologetic, hauntingly poetic and politically-fuelled vision of an entirely plausible and very dark future.’ – Read the full article here.
Kelly has also interview Naomi Foyle over at Rue Morge for the Hell’s Shelves column. In this fascinating in-depth interview, the author offers up a little background on the journey this novel has had on the road to publication…
‘Writing the book took so long partly because I got distracted by poetry, partly because it was a real learner-wheels novel. I revised it many times, with the help of some excellent writers including hidden SF gem David Swann (The Last Days of Johnny North) and literary crime novelist Bethan Roberts (The Pools; My Policeman). In 2008 a round of agents rejected it, most not giving reasons, though one wrote, “I just didn’t love it enough,” which I begrudgingly acknowledged was an acceptable reason. Finally, in 2010, Zeno Agency took it on. We had a range of reasons for initial passes from publishers: “too sci-fi,” too literary” and, my favourite, “I can’t sell this in America.” I don’t know if that was because of the sex, the violence or both, but considering the country runs on porn and war, I am hopeful that America will in fact take Seoul Survivors to her hardboiled bosom. It was disappointing to get more rejections of course, but I took heart from the fact that the reasons were all so different, and before I got too discouraged, the phenomenal Jo Fletcher came up trumps’. Read the full interview here.
Translation rights for SEOUL SURVIVORS are represented by Jo Fletcher Books.